U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner is disavowing a series of now-deleted social media posts in which he criticized police and said that white rural Americans “actually are” racist and stupid.

Platner, a veteran and oyster farmer from Hancock County, is running to challenge Sen. Susan Collins. His Reddit posts from 2020 and 2021 were resurfaced this week by CNN, which reported that they were deleted prior to Platner’s campaign launch in August.

In an interview with the Press Herald Thursday, Platner said the posts came from a time when he was disillusioned and angry, but they don’t reflect who he is today.

“A lot of it isn’t even things I believed then,” Platner said. “A lot of them are just stupid joke comments. I look back now and I don’t mean to be flippant, but it was just dumb stuff on the internet and when I stopped being lonely and isolated I didn’t use that as an outlet anymore.”

In one since-removed post from 2020, Platner responded to a thread titled “White people aren’t as racist or stupid as Trump thinks” by writing, “Living in white rural America, I’m afraid to tell you they actually are.”

Platner, 41, said the comment is not something he stands by now.

“There are white racists,” he said. “They exist. They are not most Mainers. … I was making comments to get in fights with people, because I was bored and I was lonely.”

In another comment, from 2021,  Platner responded in a thread about a Black army lieutenant who was held at gunpoint and pepper-sprayed by police during a traffic stop. One Reddit user wrote, “Bastards. Cops are bastards,” to which Platner replied, “All of them, in fact.”

Platner said he has many friends who are police officers, and he does not think ill of them. He noted the comment and other similar posts came around the time of George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis and as protests for racial justice were sweeping the nation.

Other posts addressed Platner’s political opinions and how his military service reshaped his views. He served three deployments to Iraq with the Marine Corps and was deployed to Afghanistan with the Army National Guard before settling in Sullivan, where he grew up.

He said he returned from his last trip to Afghanistan in 2018, and that for a period after that he was dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and was disillusioned with the military.

In one post, Platner reflected on his life after his service, saying he was “a vegetable growing, psychedelics taking socialist these days. After the war, I’ve pretty much stopped believing in any of the patriotic nonsense that got me there in the first place, and am a firm believer that the best thing a person can do is help their neighbors and live a loving life.”

Platner said Thursday he no longer feels the same sense of disillusionment he once did.

“I’m proud that I got through a dark period in my life and I’m proud of the life that I live now,” he said.

Platner said he didn’t remember exactly when he deleted the posts but said he stopped using Reddit several years ago.

He is a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to challenge Collins, a Republican who has said she plans to run again for a sixth term next year. Gov. Janet Mills, who is finishing up her second term as governor, announced Tuesday that she is also running for the Democratic nomination.

During an event Thursday in Freeport, Mills was asked about CNN’s report on Platner’s comments about police and rural, white Americans being racists.

“I haven’t read the report,” she said. “I obviously disagree with those comments.”

Some other Democrats also criticized Platner on Thursday for his past posts, including Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, who said in a post on his personal Facebook page that Platner’s posts are a “liability” and an example of why Democrats “can’t simply anoint anyone with the victory.”

“I’d venture to guess Republicans would use the rural people are ‘racist and stupid’ line not just as an attack against Graham Platner but against Democrats up and down the ticket,” Fecteau wrote.

Platner quickly and unexpectedly emerged as a front-runner in the Democratic primary after launching his run in August. His campaign has reported having raised more than $4 million, and a series of town hall events across the state have been well-attended, with voters seemingly drawn to Platner’s message that the political system isn’t working and needs to be overhauled.

Dan Shea, a professor of government at Colby College, said Platner’s posts reflect an anger and disillusionment with the political system that many Americans and Mainers also feel. Some voters may be inclined to dismiss them as “off the cuff comments” from several years ago.

But the comments also could alienate more moderate voters, Shea said.

“His core appeal so far seems to me that he was trying to bridge the gap between Republicans and Democrats with a populist message that would work for all working-class Mainers,” Shea said. “One has to wonder if that populist outreach to Republicans will work as well with these comments.”

Staff Writer Randy Billings contributed to this report.