He Boasted About Buying Cocaine on the Government Dime. His Party Endorsed Him Anyway.
In now-deleted Reddit posts written under the handle P-Hustle, Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner (D)described taking paid military leave, going “backpacking through Europe on the government dime,” doing drugs, and — in his own words — having “a blast partying it up in hostels across the continent.” He added two words: “No regrets.”
In a separate post, he wrote about buying cocaine as a matter of routine: “I always wonder what street you’re buying your cocaine on, because it’s not the street I’m buying my cocaine on.” The Washington Free Beacon surfaced the posts on June 1, 2026, the latest entry in an archive of roughly 2,000 Reddit comments that Republicans have been mining for weeks.
These are not allegations. They are Platner’s own documented statements. And the striking part is not the admission — it is what happened next: with the primary days away and the scandals stacked high, much of the national Democratic Party did not run from him. It stood by him.
- 76%Platner’s share among likely Democratic primary voters, vs. 10% for Mills — UNH poll, May 21–25, 2026
- $4,600,000raised in Q4 2025 alone — against a backdrop of escalating scandal coverage — Maine Public · Feb. 2, 2026
- 2sitting U.S. senators — Sanders (I) and Warren (D) — who endorsed him and held the line — NBC News · Wikipedia
- ~2,000Reddit posts in the archive Republicans have picked through — drugs, sexual content, and worse — Bangor Daily News · May 22, 2026
- June 9date of the 2026 Maine Democratic Senate primary — days after the cocaine posts surfaced — Maine Secretary of State · Wikipedia
“On the government dime.” He wrote the phrase himself.
The phrase that gives this story its edge is Platner’s own. In a February 2020 Reddit comment, recalling the months before he left the Marine Corps in 2008, he wrote that he “was making a pretty penny doing just about nothing,” then “went backpacking through Europe on the government dime, walked the Camino de Santiago, did some drugs and had a blast partying it up in hostels across the continent.” Asked whether he had any second thoughts, he answered in two words: “No regrets.”
A separate July 2020 post made the cocaine reference explicit and casual: “I always wonder what street you’re buying your cocaine on, because it’s not the street I’m buying my cocaine on.” The Free Beacon reported that he “highly” recommended the drug-fueled trip to other users. The posts were deleted, but archived copies preserved them — which is how Republican opposition researchers and reporters have been able to quote them verbatim.
“Went backpacking through Europe on the government dime, walked the Camino de Santiago, did some drugs and had a blast partying it up in hostels across the continent.”
Graham Platner (D), Reddit (handle 'P-Hustle'), Feb. 2020 — via Washington Free Beacon
The factual posture here is clean. There is no active criminal case and no charge to presume innocence against; these are the candidate’s own published words about his own conduct. The accountability question is not whether a 20-something did drugs two decades ago. It is that a man asking Maine voters to send him to the U.S. Senate boasted, in writing, about coasting on a military paycheck while partying abroad — and called it something he had “no regrets” about.
A self-styled “working-class Mainer” challenging Susan Collins. And the runaway primary frontrunner.
Graham Platner (D) is the harbor master of Sullivan, Maine, a Marine and Army veteran who launched a progressive, anti-establishment campaign in August 2025 to unseat five-term Republican Senator Susan Collins (R-ME). Backed by Bernie Sanders and organized labor, he positioned himself as an outsider running against his own party’s machine. The Democratic primary is scheduled for June 9, 2026.
Despite a steady drumbeat of scandal — the cocaine and drug posts, a separate trove of crude and offensive Reddit comments, a chest tattoo critics flagged as resembling Nazi SS imagery, a suggestive profile on a hookup app, and reports of sexually explicit texts to multiple women during his marriage — Platner has remained the overwhelming frontrunner. Governor Janet Mills (D), the establishment alternative, suspended active campaigning in late April after trailing by as much as 38 points, citing a lack of funds, though she remains on the ballot.
- →Primary date: June 9, 2026. Winner faces Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), seeking a sixth term and running unopposed in her own primary.
- →Graham Platner (D): Sullivan harbor master, Marine/Army veteran, progressive frontrunner — 76% in a UNH poll (May 21–25, 2026).
- →Gov. Janet Mills (D): suspended active campaigning in late April 2026 after trailing badly; remains on the ballot at 10%.
- →Also on the ballot: David Costello (D), the 2024 nominee; Andrea LaFlamme (D), a write-in candidate.
- →Collins raised $14.9 million with $9.7 million cash on hand as of May 20, 2026 — a Republican war chest waiting on the other side.
New from the Beacon: Graham Platner — the Maine Democrat challenging Susan Collins — admitted in deleted Reddit posts to buying cocaine and doing drugs while backpacking Europe 'on the government dime' during paid military leave. His verdict on it: 'No regrets.' (Paraphrased; see the linked report in Sources.)
Sanders and Warren held the line. Others looked away. Few wanted to be on the record.
The defense came loudest from the left flank that recruited him. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who endorsed Platner, said he was “not at all” rethinking his support, telling reporters that “maybe rather than worrying about Graham Platner’s marriage, we worry about what’s happening to the working families in this country” — pointing to housing, health care, and grocery costs. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) endorsed him as a progressive anti-establishment champion and did not pull that endorsement as the posts surfaced.
Leadership chose silence over support or rebuke. When pressed, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) declined to say whether Platner’s posts made him a liability. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ)allowed only that Platner had “questions to answer.” The dissenters who spoke plainly were the exception: Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) singled Platner out by name over the tattoo, and Platner’s own campaign director, Genevieve McDonald, quit and called him “unelectable.”
“Maybe rather than worrying about Graham Platner's marriage, we worry about what's happening to the working families in this country.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), defending his endorsement — via NBC News
A Maine Democrat brags online about doing drugs on a military paycheck — 'on the government dime' — and the response from his party isn't 'drop out,' it's 'let's talk about groceries.' That's not damage control. That's an endorsement. (Paraphrased from on-air commentary.)
A taxpayer-funded paycheck, a continent of partying, and a Senate bid. The phrase does the work.
What separates this from a routine youthful-indiscretion story is the framing Platner chose himself. He did not describe leave that he simply enjoyed; he described “making a pretty penny doing just about nothing” and traveling “on the government dime.” The taxpayer is the silent third party in his own retelling. For a candidate running on working-class authenticity and military service, that is a self-inflicted contradiction, not an attack from his opponents.
The contradiction deepened with separate reporting that Platner — who brands himself a “working-class Mainer” — received roughly $200,000from his father to buy his house, even as he framed his finances around veterans’ benefits. The pattern reporters and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have pressed is consistent: a man who tells voters one story about himself while his own words and records tell another. The NRSC went so far as to stage an AI-assisted “dramatic reading” of his Reddit archive.
- Brand: disciplined working-class veteran running on service.Wrote that he was 'making a pretty penny doing just about nothing' and toured Europe 'on the government dime' on paid military leave.
- Brand: a self-made 'working-class Mainer.'Reportedly received about $200,000 from his father to buy his house, per records the Free Beacon obtained.
- Campaign line: the old posts were just him 'messing around on the internet.'The archive runs to roughly 2,000 comments — including casual cocaine references and 'No regrets' about drug-fueled travel on a military paycheck.
Graham Platner (D) didn't get caught doing drugs. He bragged about it — in writing — and called partying across Europe on a military paycheck 'the government dime,' with 'no regrets.' The scandal isn't the admission. It's that his party endorsed him after reading it.
Paraphrased commentary · not a verbatim post
Paraphrased editorial summary of the documented record; not a quotation of any named individual.
A Senate candidate brags in writing about buying cocaine and doing drugs on paid military leave — 'on the government dime' — and Maine Democrats line up to endorse him. If a Republican had written one of these posts, the same people would be demanding he drop out by lunch.
Paraphrased commentary · not a verbatim post
Paraphrased; composite of Republican and conservative commentary on the party's defense of Platner. Buttonless editorial card.
Scandal after scandal — and the money kept coming. That is the consequence worth measuring.
On this site, every accountability story is measured against what the conduct actually cost. The Platner case is unusual because the answer, so far, is: remarkably little. He raised $4,600,000 in the fourth quarter of 2025 — roughly three times the combined small-dollar haul of Mills and Collins — and another roughly $4,400,000 between April 1 and May 20, 2026, against about $1,700,000 for Collins over the same window. His average donation ran around $25 across more than 182,000 contributions. The scandals did not drain the account; the account kept filling.
The polling told the same story. An Emerson College survey in March put him at 55% to Mills’s 28%; by late May, a University of New Hampshire poll had him at 76% to 10%, and prediction markets gave him a roughly 98% chance of winning the nomination. Mills suspended her campaign. The establishment alternative folded; the scandal-laden frontrunner grew stronger. Whatever else the record shows, it does not show a party that imposed a price.
We are not litigating a hangover. We are documenting a defense. The party’s choice is the story.
A 2020 Reddit post about a 2008 trip would not, on its own, warrant a page here. What warrants it is the combination: a Senate candidate’s own boast about drug use on a taxpayer-funded military leave, the words “on the government dime” supplied by the candidate, and a national party apparatus that — presented with that record plus a stack of others — chose to endorse, defend, or stay conspicuously silent rather than ask him to step aside. That choice is a fact about the party, not just the man.
We report Platner’s admissions as exactly what they are: his own published statements, quoted in full, with no “alleged” needed and no embellishment added. Readers can decide whether “no regrets” about partying on the government’s dime is disqualifying. Our job is to put the candidate’s words and his party’s response side by side, sourced, and let the contrast stand. The primary is June 9.
