Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader who has long called himself a “Shomer Yisroel,” is standing fully behind a Democratic Senate candidate who spent years sporting a Nazi-linked tattoo, posted comments online praising a deadly Hamas raid on Israelis, and appeared on a podcast hosted by antisemitic conspiracy theorists. And he doesn’t want to talk about it.

During a press gaggle this week, Schumer repeatedly dodged questions about Graham Platner, insisting over and over that Democrats are “gonna beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.” When asked directly, “Are you satisfied with the explanations he’s given for the controversies his campaign has faced right now? Are you concerned about what you’ve heard?” Schumer replied: “I met with Graham Platner today. We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.”

The man Schumer is determined to elect to the Senate is an oyster farmer from Maine with a history that has alarmed Jewish groups across the spectrum.

Platner carried for years a chest tattoo depicting a Totenkopf — a skull symbol associated with Nazi SS units — which he only covered up with a new tattoo after announcing his Senate run. He claimed he didn’t know about the symbol’s Nazi associations.

The tattoo was only the beginning. In a since-deleted Reddit post commenting on a deadly 2014 Hamas raid on Israeli soldiers, Platner wrote, “Looks like an all around well executed and successful small unit raid to me.” When another user criticized the Hamas “execution” of the Israeli soldiers, Platner replied: “Pragmatically I have little problem with killing an enemy combatant who you attempt to capture but for whatever reason cannot. From a strictly professional standpoint, this was a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent.”

Platner has also repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and called for blocking all U.S. aid to the Jewish state. Separately, he admitted to posting a string of hateful slurs on Reddit, calling the comments “indefensible.”

The Jewish Democratic Council of America said it will not support Platner, with CEO Halie Soifer stating: “We won’t support a Democrat who doesn’t represent the views and values of the vast majority of American Jews.” The Anti-Defamation League and Maine’s sole Jewish federation have also raised concerns about Platner’s tattoo and past comments.

At a recent Jewish Democratic Council of America summit, Schumer spoke but did not mention the Maine race during his remarks, and declined to talk to the press afterward. The JDCA’s Soifer left open the possibility of the organization simply sitting out the race entirely. “It could be that at the end of the day, we just stay out of Maine, don’t get involved, even if the party has decided to fully embrace Platner,” she said.

Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican incumbent Platner hopes to unseat, drew an explicit comparison between Schumer’s posture and Platner’s tattoo cover-up. “Chuck is trying to cover up their bad ideas by attacking others,” Collins said. “But many people see through that. You know, when I think about it, his approach is like trying to cover up an outrageous tattoo. You can paint over it, but we all know what’s underneath.”

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