Sen. John Fetterman sounded the alarm Friday about the leftward drift of his own party, warning that a “small Communist takeover” is underway in Maine as Graham Platner closes in on the Democratic Senate nomination.
Appearing on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime,” the Pennsylvania Democrat said the rise of Mr. Platner — an oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran who wrote in a 2021 Reddit post, “I got older and became a communist” — exemplified the Democratic Party’s inability to resist its worst impulses.
“There is kind of a small Communist takeover in Maine,” Mr. Fetterman said. “Platner, he’s already announced that he’s an avowed Communist. He’s made that statement, and he put that online. Now, he’s going to be the Democratic nominee.”
Mr. Platner has since disavowed the post, telling CNN it was “internet s—-posting” from a darker period of his life. “I’m not a communist. I’m not a socialist. I own a small business. I’m a Marine Corps veteran,” he told the network.
Mr. Fetterman also took aim at the broader protest movement that coalesced around May Day demonstrations, arguing that far-left groups including Code Pink are aligned with and financed by foreign interests, including the Chinese Communist Party — an assertion he did not substantiate.
“A lot of these terrible groups like Code Pink and a lot of the other ones that are strongly aligned to the CCP, without a doubt, they’re being financed,” he said. “It’s ironic — these kinds of protests are being funded by billionaires against billionaires.”
The Pennsylvania senator, who has increasingly broken with the progressive wing of his party, described what he sees as a dangerous ideological convergence on the left. “It’s like a marriage of the Palestinian, the anti-ICE, the abolish ICE, and now turning it into like an orgy of socialism,” he said. “That is the worst impulses that our party continues — we just can’t seem to resist those things.”
Mr. Fetterman was careful to distinguish his criticism from opposition to organized labor, calling himself “absolutely a proud pro-union Democrat” and arguing that the modern protest movement has strayed far from its working-class roots.
Mr. Platner became the presumptive Democratic nominee for Maine’s U.S. Senate seat after two-term Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign Thursday, citing a lack of financial resources. Ms. Mills had been recruited by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York to challenge Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, but trailed Mr. Platner by as much as 30 points in some primary polls before exiting the race. Ms. Mills did not endorse Mr. Platner in her departure statement.
Mr. Schumer and DSCC Chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York issued a joint statement the same day pledging to work with Mr. Platner against Ms. Collins, though the statement notably did not mention him by name. Progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders, Vermont independent, and Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, who had backed Mr. Platner throughout the primary, also reiterated their support.
Mr. Platner, 41, is a Sullivan, Maine, native who served three combat tours in Iraq with the Marine Corps before later deploying to Afghanistan with the Army National Guard. He entered the oyster farming business in 2020 and announced his Senate bid in August 2025, positioning himself as a populist outsider opposed to what he calls the “billionaire class.”
His candidacy has attracted sustained controversy, including the 2021 Reddit posts in which he agreed that “all cops are bastards,” called rural white Americans “racist and stupid,” and wrote that he had become a communist. He has also faced scrutiny over a tattoo that critics linked to Nazi imagery; Mr. Platner has said he was unaware of the association and has since covered it. Republicans have labeled him “a Nazi sympathizing self-proclaimed communist with a record of hate-mongering and dishonesty.”
Despite the controversies, Mr. Platner has consolidated Democratic support ahead of the June 9 primary. Polling averages compiled by RealClearPolling show him leading Ms. Collins by roughly 7 points in hypothetical general election matchups — though Republicans have expressed confidence that Ms. Collins, who is seeking a sixth term, can outperform her polls as she has in past cycles.
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