BREWER, Maine —
U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner is using President Trump’s decision to green‑light a joint U.S.-Israel strike on Iran to go after what he calls the “Epstein class.”
Mr. Platner, who is running to unseat Republican Sen. Susan M. Collins, says working‑ and middle‑class Americans are being asked to pay the price while Mr. Trump, his wealthy allies and Republicans in Washington protect billionaires.
He says the military action in Iran highlights a system where the rich avoid accountability and ordinary people get dragged into “another stupid war” that “nobody wants.”
“This war is also being pushed because Donald Trump is in the Epstein files,” Mr. Platner said Sunday night after reports of the first U.S. casualties in the war. “And other people in the White House, and other people connected with the Epstein class, they are terrified that we have noticed what they are doing. They are terrified that we’re going to start wondering why the hell we let them stay in power.
“They are willing to sacrifice the lives of young American men and women and the lives of Iranian civilians simply to protect their political interests,” he said. “I cannot think of a more reprehensible act.”
Mr. Trump and his advisers say U.S. and Israeli forces attacked Iran after negotiations failed to stop Tehran’s bid to develop nuclear weapons.
Epstein’s death in prison sparked years of speculation that the sex trafficker kept a list of powerful clients connected to his private island. Lawmakers from both parties passed legislation requiring the release of all related government files, and they have accused the Trump administration of withholding some of them.
Eight months out from the election, the label of “Epstein class” is gaining traction, with many crediting Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia. The Democrat used the phrase in a fiery Atlanta rally earlier last month, telling the crowd: “This is a government of, by, and for the ultra-rich. It is the wealthiest Cabinet ever. This is the Epstein class, ruling our country. They are the elites they pretend to hate.”
His remarks drew national attention and underscored what he sees as the Trump administration’s damage to the working‑class voters he promised to champion.
Mr. Ossoff may have borrowed the line from former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who publicly split with Mr. Trump over the Epstein files and accused him of abandoning his pledge to avoid foreign wars.
“Today is the first day of real reckoning for the Epstein class,” the Georgia Republican said at a committee hearing last year. “We’re here to stand with forgotten and abandoned Americans against an Epstein class that had no regard for the rules or the laws.”
The frustration has crossed party lines — an echo of Mr. Trump’s own past claims that the system was rigged against working people.
Mr. Platner is tapping into that same energy in his Democratic primary against Gov. Janet Mills. His pro‑labor, anti‑corporate message have energized the progressive wing of the party.
The 41-year-old has also weathered controversies — including a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol, which he says he didn’t recognize and has since covered — while building a strong lead in early polling.
He has raised significant money and drawn enthusiastic crowds across the state, hammering the idea that politicians in both parties have let Wall Street, Big Tech, and billionaire “Epstein class” insiders rig the system against working Americans.
At the Brewer event, speaker after speaker argued that the push toward war exposes the divide between the ultra‑rich and everyone else.
“This government enriches itself while veterans sleep on sidewalks,” said Paige Loud, a candidate in the 2nd Congressional District. “Epstein’s pedophile friends are living in the White House free, while survivors of abuse struggle to access services.”
State Rep. Amy Roeber, running for a state Senate seat, said “rich men start wars that our kids will pay for in their blood. It won’t be the CEOs’ sons that go there. It won’t be Trump’s sons, now will it? It will be a poor kid from a trailer park in Millinocket.”
The remarks drew applause, as did those of Adam Toothaker, a former Marine Corps officer and president of a Veterans for Peace chapter in Maine, who told the crowd they had “more in common with an Iranian working-class person, or a Cuban working-class person, or a Venezuelan working-class person than any of the Epstein class that run this country.”
In his closing remarks, Mr. Platner paused, apparently holding back tears, before blasting leaders “who do not know the realities of war” yet tell those who do that casualties are just part of the necessary sacrifice.
“We just need to be prepared for more casualties, because that’s what happens. It’s not what f—-ing happens to them. It’s what happens to us,” he said. “And to watch these people do this, it disgusts me on a level that I cannot truly articulate.”
Before leaving the stage, he pointed to a sign in the crowd — one he said captured the mood perfectly: “The best sign I’ve seen today,” Mr. Platner told the audience.
It read: “The Epstein Files Are Not In Iran.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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