RJC Drives the News Cycle on Dems' Defense of Platner

This week, the RJC went all-out against the Democratic nominee for the US Senate from Maine, Graham Platner, and the Democratic leaders who are defending his indefensible behavior.

In fact, RJC drove the news cycle and had the story shared by Scott Jennings, Trump senior adviser Chris LaCivita, Fox News' Guy Benson, Shabbos Kestenbaum, Eyal Yakoby, US Holocaust Museum Memorial Council Chairman and RJC Board Member Jeff Miller, Katie Pavlich, Ruthless Podcast host Josh Holmes, former RNC spokeswoman Elizabeth Pipko, former Ambassador David Friedman and many others.

Here are examples of the extensive coverage of the story.

JNS: Former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain accused of 'whitewashing' Graham Platner's Nazi tattoo

Ron Klain, former White House chief of staff under President Joe Biden, is facing backlash after he defended Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who has covered up a tattoo that he said he didn't know was Nazi imagery.

On Tuesday, the Republican Jewish Coalition called for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to withdraw support for Platner, whom it condemned in the "strongest possible terms."

"A Nazi tattoo is disqualifying. Full stop," the RJC said. "Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in America, and every Senate Democrat propping up Platner's campaign should be ashamed."

Klain, chief legal officer for Airbnb who is Jewish, responded on social media to the RJC statement, which he called "just a partisan attack."

"The tattoo was a skull and crossbones to remember his fallen comrades from his service in Afghanistan," wrote Klain, who hosted a fundraiser for Platner in Washington last week.

…Sam Markstein, national spokesman for the RJC, told JNS that "Ron Klain is not some random political operative who stumbled into this."

"He is President Biden's former White House chief of staff, Airbnb's chief legal officer and a former member of the US Holocaust Memorial Council," Markstein said. "He knows exactly what the insignia of the Nazi SS represents."

"Klain chose to host a fundraiser for Graham Platner anyway and is now whitewashing the Totenkopf skull and crossbones itself. It's a total disgrace," he told JNS. "One after another, prominent Jewish Democrats are lining up behind Graham Platner, a candidate caught wearing the insignia of the unit that ran the Holocaust death camps."

Fox News: Biden confidant under fire for Nazi tattoo defense in latest Graham Platner fallout: 'Disgusting'

[Ron] Klain sparked a fight with the Republican Jewish Coalition Wednesday when he defended Platner on the group's Instagram post condemning the candidate and calling on Democrats to withdraw their support.

...The exchange ignited a firestorm on social media, where critics argued Klain's defense reflected a broader unwillingness among Democrats to distance themselves from Platner amid the growing controversy.

JTA: Graham Platner, anti-Israel progressive, sews up Democratic Senate nomination in Maine

"Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in America, and every Senate Democrat propping up Platner's campaign, should be ashamed," the Republican Jewish Coalition said in a statement after the polls closed. "Their continued support of Graham Platner, who wore the symbol of Hitler's SS on his chest for 18 years is an outrage. Schumer must withdraw his support immediately."

Jewish Insider: Ex-Biden chief Ron Klain defends Graham Platner's Nazi tattoo

The RJC said on X that "Klain's pathetic rationalization of a clear Nazi symbol is a total disgrace," and that, as a former US Holocaust Memorial Museum board member, "Klain absolutely knows better."

"Every Jewish family in America knows what the insignia of the Nazi SS - the unit that ran the death camps - looks like and Klain knows exactly what it is too," the group said.

JNS: Gottheimer slams Platner supporter's claim that Israeli flag tattoo is worse than Nazi symbol

The Republican Jewish Coalition pointed to a recent endorsement of Platner by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).​

"In Graham Platner support world, an Israeli flag is more offensive than a Nazi SS concentration camp guard tattoo," the RJC stated. "This is what Chuck Schumer continues to defend. Outrageous."

JNS: Jewish Dems face choice of voting for anti-Israel candidates or helping GOP, experts say

"For decades, Jewish Democrats told themselves that their party still had room for them," [Sam] Markstein told JNS. "That story is collapsing in real time, as the Democrats nominate candidates with a Nazi SS tattoo and campaign with apologists for the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust."

"These aren't fringe missteps," he said. "This is who the Democratic Party is choosing to elevate in some of the most critical battleground races in the country."

..."Our message to Jewish Democrats is simple: If your party won't stand with the Jewish community, you don't owe them your vote," Sam Markstein, the group's political director, told JNS. "There is only one party today where American Jews can be proudly Jewish and loudly pro-Israel, and it is the Republican Party."