Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Maximum Pressure Returns on Iran plus Democrats Eating Their Own in Maine

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Maximum Pressure Returns on Iran plus Democrats Eating Their Own in Maine · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Maximum pressure.
0:01
Speaker 2: That is exactly what the President of the United States
0:03
Speaker 2: of America is announcing now when it comes to dealing
0:06
Speaker 2: with Iran. And the major story today is that Trump
0:09
Speaker 2: administration has now officially reimposed US oil sanctions on Iran,
0:16
Speaker 2: revoking the temporary waiver that had allowed Iranian oil sales
0:20
Speaker 2: under last month's Memorandum of Understanding. The decision came after
0:24
Speaker 2: what the administration described as Iran violating the conditions of
0:28
Speaker 2: that agreement by launching new attacks against commercial shipping near
0:34
Speaker 2: the Strait of Hormuz. That is obviously one of the
0:37
Speaker 2: most strategically important waterways in the world, and we're about
0:40
Speaker 2: a third of the world's oil goes through each and
0:43
Speaker 2: every day under normal conditions. As this was announced, here's
0:47
Speaker 2: how Fox News had it for the world.
0:49
Speaker 3: And again, another reported tankers strike in the Strait of Hormuz.
0:54
Speaker 3: We think two have been struck. It might be more,
0:57
Speaker 3: but we'll hang on. We'll hang on to two for
0:59
Speaker 3: the moment. A tanker struck by an unknown projectile trying
1:03
Speaker 3: to transit the straight of horror moves. Apparently another one
1:06
Speaker 3: made a U turn and turned around. No casualties reported.
1:10
Speaker 3: Vessels are being advised to transit with caution. Meanwhile, from
1:13
Speaker 3: Fox Business, they've obtained audio of an Iranian threatening the
1:17
Speaker 3: ships in the Strait.
1:18
Speaker 1: And here is how that sounded in English.
1:22
Speaker 4: This is last farming, this is last warning, this is
1:26
Speaker 4: lave warning. You're running down yer, so you logging downier,
1:32
Speaker 4: your order to Alterco supports that immediacy, alter Coat support immediately.
1:38
Speaker 4: I use this south of Lada exis g if this
1:41
Speaker 4: abay human targeted out.
1:47
Speaker 2: Now the President clearly was responding to not only that
1:51
Speaker 2: but also the attacks on the ships, and that is
1:54
Speaker 2: why the President has officially revoked the US license allowing
1:57
Speaker 2: a Rand to sell its oil. This is it's clearly
2:00
Speaker 2: him hitting back hard after the millis attacked, those vessels.
2:04
Speaker 2: No more playing games and as he described it, maximum
2:07
Speaker 2: pressure is coming back now.
2:09
Speaker 1: According to the reports, multiple commercial.
2:11
Speaker 2: Vessels, including oil and liquid natural gas tankers, were attacked
2:16
Speaker 2: near the Strait over the last twenty four hours. These
2:19
Speaker 2: incidentss immediately raised fears that Iran was once again threatening
2:23
Speaker 2: one of the world's busiest energy checkpoints. And then you
2:26
Speaker 2: hear the audio they just played for you. The administration
2:29
Speaker 2: responded swiftly, saying the sanctions relief was always quote performance based,
2:35
Speaker 2: and then Iran had failed to uphold its end to
2:37
Speaker 2: the agreement. This is exactly what President Trump warned would happen,
2:41
Speaker 2: and his administration has consistently argued that America would negotiate
2:47
Speaker 2: from strength, not from weakness, and that any sanctioned relief
2:51
Speaker 2: would disappear the moment Iran resumed threatening international commerce or
2:55
Speaker 2: regional stability.
2:57
Speaker 1: Those are the President's exact words.
2:59
Speaker 2: So this move is a clear signal that the White
3:02
Speaker 2: House intends to enforce that promise. Now, before I get
3:06
Speaker 2: to more of the logistics of this, I also want
3:08
Speaker 2: to just talk to you about something that's happening right
3:11
Speaker 2: now that is really important, and that is America standing
3:15
Speaker 2: with our most sacred ally in the Middle East, Israel,
3:18
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3:29
Speaker 1: It's the same flagpen that I wear on TV.
3:31
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3:34
Speaker 2: you can show your support for both countries by getting
3:38
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3:43
Speaker 2: we just celebrate our two hundred and fiftyth anniversary on
3:46
Speaker 2: July fourth, and that is a milestone. That also is
3:49
Speaker 2: I think a time to reflect on the enduring relationship
3:52
Speaker 2: between the US and Israel. They are our greatest ally.
3:56
Speaker 2: President John F. Kennedy once said Israel was not created
3:59
Speaker 2: in order to disappear. Israel will endure and flourish, And
4:03
Speaker 2: those words capture the spirit of a young democracy that
4:07
Speaker 2: is still determined to survive. We now have two nations
4:11
Speaker 2: that are thousands of miles apart, yet united by shared
4:14
Speaker 2: values of democracy, faith, freedom, and resilience. So as we
4:19
Speaker 2: celebrate our two hundred and fifty years of independence, let's
4:23
Speaker 2: make sure that we stand with Israel and the International
4:26
Speaker 2: Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Not only do they say
4:28
Speaker 2: it's time to turn to prayer, but asking God for
4:32
Speaker 2: wisdom and guidance, and make sure that we have the
4:35
Speaker 2: right elected officials that are leading America and Israel into
4:39
Speaker 2: the moral clarity and national unity that we need. So
4:42
Speaker 2: grab your pen and stand with America and Israel. Get
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4:55
Speaker 2: to the broader picture here. It was only weeks ago
4:58
Speaker 2: that many believed we were with minessing one of the
5:00
Speaker 2: biggest diplomatic breakthroughs in years, and after months of military conflict,
5:05
Speaker 2: the White House and the President were hoping that not
5:08
Speaker 2: only could they reach a memo designed to stop the fighting,
5:12
Speaker 2: but it was also to reopen the Straight of Four
5:14
Speaker 2: Moves and begin negotiations over RAN's nuclear program and then
5:19
Speaker 2: also their regional activities, their sponsorship of terrorism. Now, part
5:23
Speaker 2: of that agreement eased restrictions on Iranian oil exports in
5:27
Speaker 2: exchange for specific commitments from Tehran. Now, that agreement was
5:35
Speaker 2: never unconditional, even though the media tried to play it
5:38
Speaker 2: up that way. Again, it was never unconditional. The Trump
5:43
Speaker 2: administration has repeatedly described it as a conditional performance based arrangement.
5:50
Speaker 2: In other words, Iran behaves or they receive no economic relief,
5:56
Speaker 2: Iran then violate the agreement, and they immediately have now
5:59
Speaker 2: lost the benefits, which is what the Trump administration said
6:03
Speaker 2: was going to happen. Now, the administration also says the
6:06
Speaker 2: attacks against shipping across the.
6:08
Speaker 1: Region is a red line. They knew that in Iran.
6:12
Speaker 2: It was explicitly stated by multiple people in the Trump administration.
6:17
Speaker 2: So it should come as no surprise as the Iranian
6:21
Speaker 2: crewed exports once again face US restrictions. This is what
6:26
Speaker 2: the present said was going to happen, and he did
6:28
Speaker 2: not flinch. Now, all prices have also surged after the
6:32
Speaker 2: sanctions announcement and reports of new attacks in the Strait.
6:37
Speaker 2: Traders once again are pricing in the geopolitical risk because
6:40
Speaker 2: roughly again one fifth of the world's seaborne oil has
6:46
Speaker 2: historically moved through the narrow waterway. Even the possibility of
6:50
Speaker 2: renewed disruptions affect energy markets worldwide. Shipping companies, by the way,
6:55
Speaker 2: they're also responding at this hour. Maritime security organizations have
6:59
Speaker 2: also raise the threat level for vessels operating in the area.
7:03
Speaker 2: Insurers are reevaluating the risk of commercial traffic moving through
7:07
Speaker 2: the Strait as well. And this is why the Strait
7:10
Speaker 2: matters so much. It's not just about a Ran, It's
7:13
Speaker 2: not just about the Middle East. It's also, by the way,
7:16
Speaker 2: not just about gasoline prices. It's not just about supply
7:19
Speaker 2: chain issues. It also affects your life and the financial markets.
7:24
Speaker 2: Whenever there's instability in that region, we see the ripple
7:28
Speaker 2: effects and we see it at our gas pumps right
7:31
Speaker 2: now when you go out to get gased. So the
7:33
Speaker 2: big question now is whether these sanctions are signaling the
7:36
Speaker 2: collapse of diplomacy or simply a return to maximum pressure
7:41
Speaker 2: before negotiations continue. I wish I could to answer that question,
7:45
Speaker 2: tell you which one I think it is. I don't
7:46
Speaker 2: think anyone knows right now.
7:48
Speaker 1: Now.
7:48
Speaker 2: Interestingly enough, the administration officials are making clear that the
7:53
Speaker 2: talks are quote not necessarily over the reports coming out
7:58
Speaker 2: of the White House. They say they still believe a
8:00
Speaker 2: broader agreement as possible, but only if Iran changes course
8:04
Speaker 2: and ends the attacks on international shipping. That has been
8:08
Speaker 2: one of President Trump's negotiating trademarks throughout both of his presidency.
8:13
Speaker 2: You apply enormous economic pressure, We've seen this with sanction
8:16
Speaker 2: deals by the way that we're being done around the world,
8:18
Speaker 2: and we keep the military options on the table at
8:21
Speaker 2: the same time, then you leave the diplomatic door wide open.
8:25
Speaker 2: You reward compliance, you punish violations not down the road,
8:30
Speaker 2: but immediately. And today's sanctions they fit squarely within the
8:34
Speaker 2: president strategy, which if anyone is negotiating with his president,
8:38
Speaker 2: it should not be hard to figure out what the
8:40
Speaker 2: president is actually saying what the President is actually advocating for,
8:44
Speaker 2: what the President of United States of America is doing. Like,
8:47
Speaker 2: there is no guessing needed here. It is obvious what
8:51
Speaker 2: the President is telling you you have to do. It's
8:54
Speaker 2: literally in writing. So this is a violation. It is
8:58
Speaker 2: going to carry consequences. Some say it is going to
9:02
Speaker 2: be a significant amount of consequences. We don't know for
9:05
Speaker 2: sure yet what's going to happen, but this is certainly
9:08
Speaker 2: a moment where the President believes that maximum pressure is
9:11
Speaker 2: on the table and he's not going to be screwed
9:14
Speaker 2: with by Iran sending yet again another message this President
9:18
Speaker 2: means business. The Democratic Party at this moment when it
9:24
Speaker 2: comes to Grand Platiner, is pretty much bipolar. They don't
9:28
Speaker 2: actually know what's going on. They have no clue what's
9:31
Speaker 2: going to happen next, and Democrats are accusing their embattled
9:35
Speaker 2: Maine Senate nominee Grand Platiner of trying to influence who
9:40
Speaker 2: would replace him if he dropped out of the race
9:43
Speaker 2: after facing new rape allegations. Platner is being pushed by
9:48
Speaker 2: the Democratic Party to drop out of the race after
9:50
Speaker 2: his ex girlfriend accused him of entering her home in
9:53
Speaker 2: the middle of the night and raping her in twenty
9:56
Speaker 2: twenty one. Now, Democrats have been looking for a new nominee,
10:01
Speaker 2: and Devin Murphy Anderson, the executive director the main Democratic Party,
10:05
Speaker 2: is now accusing Platner's team of trying to put their
10:09
Speaker 2: thumb on the scale of what this process would actually
10:11
Speaker 2: look like. Other Democrats are now saying we may have
10:14
Speaker 2: to hold our nos and vote for him, but his
10:17
Speaker 2: former girlfriend doing a sit down now saying this to
10:21
Speaker 2: see it in exclusively trying to make sure the Platner
10:24
Speaker 2: drops out of the rates.
10:26
Speaker 5: I think something else that's kind of missing from this
10:29
Speaker 5: conversation is that particular period of time and the people
10:33
Speaker 5: that I was socializing with because my cousins were working
10:36
Speaker 5: at Walter Reed, they were military. I was working for
10:38
Speaker 5: a military service group a lot of these post nine
10:41
Speaker 5: eleven vets, but that also wanted to continue having military careers.
10:45
Speaker 1: They knew that.
10:47
Speaker 5: A PTSD diagnosis was like a career killer, and so
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Speaker 5: getting people help, getting him specifically help for his PTSD,
10:54
Speaker 5: which he was very much struggling with at this time.
10:59
Speaker 5: That was my focus was just like how do I
11:01
Speaker 5: get him help, How do I keep him from killing himself.
11:03
Speaker 5: My biggest concern throughout most of our relationship was like,
11:06
Speaker 5: he's going to kill himself, and he kept it, would
11:08
Speaker 5: threaten it, he had a plan, and it was really
11:12
Speaker 5: hard for me to try to navigate my own social
11:16
Speaker 5: like relationship, like my own sphere and kind of feel
11:19
Speaker 5: like I had to keep that a secret from everybody,
11:21
Speaker 5: And so it made our relationship and a lot of
11:24
Speaker 5: those elements more secretive than they otherwise would have been.
11:26
Speaker 5: Like maybe I would have been able to tell a
11:28
Speaker 5: friend and say, hey, Graham's been like this, or just
11:34
Speaker 5: telling them about specific incidents.
11:36
Speaker 1: With more clarity.
11:38
Speaker 5: But I was in this like this is a suffering
11:41
Speaker 5: man who needs help.
11:43
Speaker 1: I'm going to make it worse.
11:44
Speaker 6: Yeah I did at the time.
11:47
Speaker 5: Oh yes, And that was actually kind of a common
11:49
Speaker 5: theme too. Anytime that I like, he would say, oh,
11:52
Speaker 5: you're making me feel bad, and I was like, that's
11:54
Speaker 5: you know, like in retrospect, like, well, yes, you should
11:57
Speaker 5: have felt bad about you know. And he would he
12:00
Speaker 5: would accuse me of like guilt tripping him if I
12:02
Speaker 5: brought up things, especially if I brought up things like
12:04
Speaker 5: if I was putting a pattern of behavior together, he
12:07
Speaker 5: would accuse me of like, oh, like, are you always
12:10
Speaker 5: going to bring up the past, Like we're never going
12:11
Speaker 5: to be able to move forward if you keep bringing
12:13
Speaker 5: up you know, that kind of thing.
12:14
Speaker 1: But then when it.
12:15
Speaker 7: Became clear like there is no future here.
12:16
Speaker 5: The only reason for this relationship was for me to
12:20
Speaker 5: keep him from killing himself or to try to get
12:22
Speaker 5: him help.
12:24
Speaker 2: Now, this is really interesting information to come out. They're
12:27
Speaker 2: now saying the same people that were supporting him, the
12:30
Speaker 2: grand Platner is an individual who they were worried was
12:34
Speaker 2: going to kill himself and had a plan to do it,
12:37
Speaker 2: that he has massive problems with PTSD, disparaging him clearly
12:42
Speaker 2: now at all costs to get rid of him. But
12:44
Speaker 2: there are other Democrats that are also worried that maybe
12:48
Speaker 2: he won't drop out, and if he doesn't, then what
12:51
Speaker 2: do we have to do? Well, they're floating that idea
12:54
Speaker 2: on ABC News on the View when they said this earlier,
12:59
Speaker 2: and you are.
13:00
Speaker 8: One of those people that was willing to plug your nose,
13:03
Speaker 8: you're the problem.
13:04
Speaker 6: Well, then I'm the problem because I was one of
13:06
Speaker 6: those people and I said it. If I lived in Maine,
13:09
Speaker 6: I would have, you know, plugged my nose and I
13:12
Speaker 6: would have voted for him. Anyway, I think that we
13:14
Speaker 6: are in a time of ecisentil crisis in this country.
13:17
Speaker 6: I think Republicans fall in line, they don't fall in loved.
13:20
Speaker 6: Democrats want to fall in love and not fall in line.
13:24
Speaker 6: You know, the Republican Party, the bar is so very low.
13:27
Speaker 6: I can't believe. I cannot believe that they want to
13:31
Speaker 6: try to assume the moral high ground.
13:34
Speaker 2: So you can hear they're the other strategy it is
13:36
Speaker 2: to say, well, platters not great. We may have to
13:38
Speaker 2: hold our nose, but Donald Trump is so evil that
13:42
Speaker 2: we really just had to find someone to counter him.
13:45
Speaker 1: So that's how we got to this point.
13:47
Speaker 2: And yeah, maybe he's not perfect, but you know, maybe
13:51
Speaker 2: you just have to hold your nose. Then ms NOW
13:54
Speaker 2: formerly ms NBC. I don't don't know why they change
13:57
Speaker 2: their name. Both networks suck. It's still the same thing,
14:00
Speaker 2: but just so you know, it's ms now now. Apparently
14:03
Speaker 2: they are taking it even a step further, saying that
14:06
Speaker 2: Donald Trump actually has created Grand Platner because of how
14:11
Speaker 2: bad Donald Trump is.
14:12
Speaker 1: That's their new spin.
14:15
Speaker 8: What do you think the soul searching is not just
14:19
Speaker 8: in the Democratic Party, but for all of us. Who
14:21
Speaker 8: covered these things well, listen. I think, first of all,
14:24
Speaker 8: I thought back then, when the first tranche of these
14:26
Speaker 8: allegations came forward, that the Platner campaign should have had
14:29
Speaker 8: a lot more explaining to do. But we're caught in
14:32
Speaker 8: a moment where there is such profound desperation to have
14:36
Speaker 8: some check on Trump's worst impulses, and there is such
14:40
Speaker 8: hunger for Democrats to control the Senate that it feels
14:43
Speaker 8: like people were willing to abide a form of dangerous
14:48
Speaker 8: masculinity that in a pre Trump era would have been
14:51
Speaker 8: totally disqualifying. And I think it does prompt some real
14:54
Speaker 8: soul searching about, you know, what we ask of our
14:57
Speaker 8: quote unquote warriors, and what we abide and what we
15:00
Speaker 8: stomach as a society and as a party when it
15:03
Speaker 8: comes to you know, true fighters, and what it looks
15:07
Speaker 8: like to be a man in the twenty first century.
15:09
Speaker 8: And honestly, without you know, sounding too much like a
15:12
Speaker 8: college professor, I do think so much of the crisis
15:15
Speaker 8: right now is the collapse of the patriarchy and people
15:18
Speaker 8: being completely at sea and trying to figure out what
15:21
Speaker 8: it means to hold power and to keep power and
15:24
Speaker 8: to wield it in a just fashion, and the Platner
15:27
Speaker 8: campaign just raises a huge set of questions about what
15:31
Speaker 8: strength means and what crosses the line when you are
15:34
Speaker 8: a strong person. And I think there's a lot of
15:37
Speaker 8: gut checking that needs to happen inside democratic circles, because
15:40
Speaker 8: what is abundantly clear is this person has not had
15:43
Speaker 8: a check on his power and has felt unfettered and
15:45
Speaker 8: unapologetic about exercising that power and not offering any explanation
15:49
Speaker 8: for it.
15:50
Speaker 2: All Right, so let's just unpack that for a second.
15:53
Speaker 2: This guy's so bad because Donald Trump was bad, and
15:57
Speaker 2: since Donald Trump is bad, they're for this is just
16:02
Speaker 2: how bad it is, Like that is the new spin.
16:05
Speaker 2: Graham Plattner, a Nazi Democratic communist candidate, is somehow the
16:09
Speaker 2: fault of Donald Trump. Graham Plattner's campaign has also responded
16:14
Speaker 2: to Lindsay Fitfield's interview, and this is what they said
16:18
Speaker 2: moments ago in a statement to CNN after their exclusive
16:21
Speaker 2: sit down.
16:22
Speaker 7: This afternoon, our team reached out to the Platner campaign
16:25
Speaker 7: regarding these allegations made by Fivefield against Graham Plattner in
16:29
Speaker 7: the portun of our conversation that we just brought to
16:32
Speaker 7: you In a statement to CNN, the Plantner campaign says
16:34
Speaker 7: or claims are quote categorically false and come from a
16:36
Speaker 7: person with a well documented political agenda.
16:39
Speaker 2: Unquote political agenda. Now, what is the political agenda? Why
16:43
Speaker 2: are all these people coming out of the woodwork right now?
16:47
Speaker 2: It's real simple. This is a political hit job by
16:51
Speaker 2: the Democratic Party. This is exactly the same playbook that
16:54
Speaker 2: they used against Eric Swawell. When you get former girlfriends
16:58
Speaker 2: who they didn't talk to before now talking to them
17:01
Speaker 2: to trash him the way that they are, it is
17:04
Speaker 2: obvious this is a orchestrated effort by the Democratic Party.
17:08
Speaker 2: If you are a grand Platner, by the way, do
17:11
Speaker 2: you actually drop out by the thirteenth and allow for
17:14
Speaker 2: another candidate or do you stay on the ballot drop
17:17
Speaker 2: out after the thirteenth to screw everyone that's now screwing you.
17:21
Speaker 1: That's the big question. Now.
17:23
Speaker 2: There's also another piece of audio from the former Platner girlfriend,
17:26
Speaker 2: and here's what she said in this quote exclusive interview
17:29
Speaker 2: with CNN.
17:30
Speaker 1: At the time. Weirdly enough, this isn't a soundpathetic. I
17:33
Speaker 1: felt like, oh, he really loves me. I'm sorry.
17:38
Speaker 5: It felt like he really cared, like, oh, his jealousy.
17:42
Speaker 5: When I started new relationships at that time felt like
17:46
Speaker 5: love and now I know that that was not love
17:48
Speaker 5: and it was not it was not really we thought
17:51
Speaker 5: we were in love, but it was. That sounds very toxic, Yes, yeah,
17:56
Speaker 5: toxic is a great word.
17:57
Speaker 2: I do now at this moment, continues to deny all
18:03
Speaker 2: of these allegations against them, the sexual assault allegations. He's
18:07
Speaker 2: called them false, and he has not announced he's leaving
18:09
Speaker 2: the race. Instead, he said he is taking time to
18:12
Speaker 2: determine quote the best path forward.
18:15
Speaker 1: Two.
18:16
Speaker 2: It still seems like he has some sort of campaign
18:18
Speaker 2: apparatus that is putting out instant responses to the new
18:23
Speaker 2: allegations to destroy him as a person. And in the
18:26
Speaker 2: last several days you have the entire Democratic machine going
18:30
Speaker 2: against him. Democratic leaders, including the Senate Minority Leader Chuck
18:34
Speaker 2: Schumer and Senator Bernie Sanders. They're now publicly calling multiple
18:39
Speaker 2: times on Platner to drop out of the race. Now,
18:43
Speaker 2: the reason why they're putting maximum pressure is all.
18:46
Speaker 1: Because of the date.
18:48
Speaker 2: If he doesn't step aside before the States July thirteenth deadline,
18:53
Speaker 2: the party will not be able to nominate a replacement
18:56
Speaker 2: candidate and what's remarkable is now how quickly the political.
19:00
Speaker 1: Landscape has changed.
19:01
Speaker 2: For months, all of these same Democrats defended Platner through
19:05
Speaker 2: previous controversies, but after the latest allegations, really because of
19:10
Speaker 2: the poll numbers, then they all said, we're going to
19:13
Speaker 2: be done with you. And if Platner wants to know
19:16
Speaker 2: what his future looks like, he should probably just call
19:18
Speaker 2: Eric Swallwell talk to him about what's happening to his race,
19:23
Speaker 2: because he knows all about it. This is, by the way,
19:27
Speaker 2: the Democratic Communist Socialist Marxist Party. They'll use you if
19:31
Speaker 2: as a Communist Socialist or Marxist until they think you
19:34
Speaker 2: can't win, and when you can't win, they will get
19:38
Speaker 2: rid of you faster than they even try to get
19:40
Speaker 2: rid of Donald Trump. Well, it finally happened. After days
19:45
Speaker 2: of mounting pressure, Graham Platner has dropped out of the
19:49
Speaker 2: main Senate race, leaving Democrats scrambling to save one of
19:53
Speaker 2: the races they believe gave them their best chance to
19:56
Speaker 2: flip a Republican Senate seat, which could easily meet them
20:00
Speaker 2: having the majority in the Senate after the midterm elections.
20:04
Speaker 2: But before we get to what happened next, let's remember
20:07
Speaker 2: exactly what brought us to this point. This wasn't one controversy,
20:13
Speaker 2: it was a cascade. Platner's campaign had already been rocked
20:18
Speaker 2: by resurface social media posts that generated massive backlash. Then
20:23
Speaker 2: came the scrutiny over at tattoo, a ss Nazi tattoo. Then,
20:28
Speaker 2: of course the candidate said, oh, I just got it
20:30
Speaker 2: well intoxicated in the Marines. It just happened to resemble
20:34
Speaker 2: the Naziss symbol, but he didn't really know it. But
20:37
Speaker 2: then later he covered it up. Former partners then came
20:40
Speaker 2: out and made allegations about abusive behavior and non consensual
20:45
Speaker 2: sexual conduct rape. Finally, a former girlfriend publicly accused him
20:51
Speaker 2: of sexually assaulting her in twenty twenty one, an allegation
20:55
Speaker 2: that Platner has repeatedly and categorically denied. Now, as all
20:59
Speaker 2: those allegations mounted, the political support was solid until the
21:04
Speaker 2: very end, when pulling that has showed that Graham may
21:07
Speaker 2: not be able to win the race. And that is
21:10
Speaker 2: when things changed. Overnight. Bernie Sanders, who stood by him
21:14
Speaker 2: no matter what until the poll numbers switched, called for
21:17
Speaker 2: him to step aside. Then Senate Democratic leaders with drew
21:21
Speaker 2: their support and said the money would be shut off
21:23
Speaker 2: to his campaign. Progressive organizations who stood by him through everything,
21:29
Speaker 2: once they saw the poll numbers, they abandoned him instantly
21:32
Speaker 2: and helped destroy him. Then the main Democratic Party concluded
21:37
Speaker 2: he could no longer be their nominee, shutting off the money.
21:41
Speaker 2: And then Graham Platner came out and was forced to
21:45
Speaker 2: say this.
21:47
Speaker 9: Hey everyone, it's Cramp Platner here. I think, as many
21:51
Speaker 9: of you know, over the past couple days, I have
21:53
Speaker 9: faced some very serious allegations, and I just want to
21:56
Speaker 9: make it clear this is all false. The things that
22:00
Speaker 9: have been claimed did not happen. It's not real. It
22:07
Speaker 9: has placed an immense amount of weight on me as
22:13
Speaker 9: I think about what needs to happen now. Amy and
22:22
Speaker 9: I are regular people. We were not looking for this experience.
22:26
Speaker 9: We were not looking to get into politics. We had
22:30
Speaker 9: no desire to run for office. I just want you
22:36
Speaker 9: to think about what you would do as a regular
22:39
Speaker 9: person in a position where a much larger world, large
22:47
Speaker 9: forces were working against you personally to accuse you of
22:54
Speaker 9: the worst thing that a person could do, and it
22:58
Speaker 9: was not remotely true. I learned about this through press
23:06
Speaker 9: inquiries with no time to truly respond, no time for
23:13
Speaker 9: investigations before a corporate media system and the political establishment
23:23
Speaker 9: got to act as judge, jury, and executioner. Accusations are
23:29
Speaker 9: supposed to be the beginning of things, not the end.
23:36
Speaker 9: I think it's really important to understand why this is
23:40
Speaker 9: happening in the timeline, why this is happening right now,
23:45
Speaker 9: much like October when the first attack started, Much like
23:51
Speaker 9: the news that was created the week before the primary.
23:56
Speaker 9: There is a reason that this is happening now. I
24:02
Speaker 9: only have until July thirteenth until I am officially the nominee.
24:06
Speaker 9: This was the last week to try to get me
24:09
Speaker 9: off of the ballot, and that's why this is occurring.
24:21
Speaker 9: It's not the false allegations, though that have brought us
24:25
Speaker 9: to where we are. It's the fact that they are
24:27
Speaker 9: being used by the political establishment to put structural pressure
24:36
Speaker 9: on us. We live in a political system that is
24:42
Speaker 9: not built for normal people. It is a system that
24:47
Speaker 9: is built structurally to make sure that movements like ours
24:52
Speaker 9: cannot flourish, that if they begin to succeed, they can
24:57
Speaker 9: be crushed. What we have accomplished here you made possible.
25:09
Speaker 9: The people of Maine the volunteers, the voters, the grassroots donors,
25:15
Speaker 9: and I have all the faith in the world that
25:17
Speaker 9: we could win if we could continue to harness that.
25:24
Speaker 1: But the brutal political.
25:25
Speaker 9: Reality is that they are going to take everything away
25:29
Speaker 9: from us. Those in power who have the ability to
25:36
Speaker 9: do so are using these allegations as an excuse to
25:42
Speaker 9: take away all of the things that we need to
25:44
Speaker 9: run a campaign. We are going to lose our ability
25:48
Speaker 9: to fundraise, we are going to lose our ability to
25:52
Speaker 9: access voter data. We are going to lose all of
25:56
Speaker 9: the things that any campaign needs needs on the basic
26:01
Speaker 9: level simply to function. Larger organizations, the national level party,
26:11
Speaker 9: the bigger donor networks, they have all committed to spending
26:15
Speaker 9: no money in this race. If I'm in it, they
26:18
Speaker 9: would rather see Susan Collins win than have me be
26:23
Speaker 9: the next Senator from Maine. What comes next needs to
26:35
Speaker 9: come from the people. Needs to come from the people
26:38
Speaker 9: of Maine. Needs to come from the voters, who, on
26:42
Speaker 9: June ninth, at a strength of over one hundred and
26:45
Speaker 9: fifty thousand, the largest number in the history of Maine primaries,
26:50
Speaker 9: said no to this kind of politics, voted for a
26:55
Speaker 9: politics that would actually represent them. Voted against the political system,
27:01
Speaker 9: against the donor class, against the entrenched forces. And I'm
27:07
Speaker 9: not asking for how this process is going to work.
27:13
Speaker 9: I'm not trying to dictate to anyone who it should
27:16
Speaker 9: be or how we get there. But I will say this,
27:19
Speaker 9: it needs to be open, transparent, and democratic. It needs
27:24
Speaker 9: to be reflecting the will and the values of the
27:27
Speaker 9: people that built this movement, the people that showed up
27:31
Speaker 9: on June ninth. People in DC need to stay in DC.
27:36
Speaker 9: Decisions should not be made in back rooms by people
27:39
Speaker 9: in places of political power. Party apparatics are not the
27:44
Speaker 9: ones to make these decisions. These decisions need to be
27:46
Speaker 9: made in the open by the people of this state,
27:50
Speaker 9: the people who got us here. This is exactly the
27:56
Speaker 9: kind of political system that everyone voted against June ninth.
28:01
Speaker 1: Isn't it interesting?
28:03
Speaker 2: The Grand Platinum has been over the establishment pressure dropped
28:07
Speaker 2: out of the race, but is calling them out, saying
28:10
Speaker 2: you forced me out, and the media. The dude, by
28:13
Speaker 2: the way, that pretended to be a big old fighter
28:16
Speaker 2: totally surrendered. Now he's maintaining that all I want to
28:20
Speaker 2: make this clear, all the allegations are false. He's saying,
28:25
Speaker 2: I just learned about them through the media because they
28:27
Speaker 2: wanted me out. Now, the Democrats, to be clear, they're
28:31
Speaker 2: not exactly celebrating at this moment either.
28:34
Speaker 1: They're panicked. This wasn't just any Senate race.
28:37
Speaker 2: For months, national Democrats considered Maine one of their very
28:41
Speaker 2: best pickup opportunities in the country.
28:44
Speaker 1: The Republican Susan Collins has always.
28:46
Speaker 2: Been one of the toughest Republicans for Democrats to defeat,
28:49
Speaker 2: but they believe that Platner's outsider campaign had really energized
28:55
Speaker 2: voters in a new, unique way. Now, just months before
28:58
Speaker 2: election day, that entire strategy has collapsed, and instead of
29:03
Speaker 2: spending that summer that they were hoping for attacking and
29:07
Speaker 2: talking about Susan Collins, Democrats are holding emergency meetings trying
29:11
Speaker 2: to figure out who their nominee will even be. The
29:14
Speaker 2: main Democratic party now has only a narrow legal window
29:18
Speaker 2: to formally replace Platner on the ballot, with a party
29:21
Speaker 2: convention expected to choose a new nominee before the state's deadline.
29:25
Speaker 2: Now there's already several names that are being floated. Former
29:29
Speaker 2: Maine Senate President Troy Jackson has announced he's running for
29:33
Speaker 2: the nomination former CDC director Narov Shah is also considering,
29:39
Speaker 2: we're being told, entering the race. Jordan Wood is also
29:42
Speaker 2: weighing a campaign, and there's many other names are actually
29:46
Speaker 2: circulating as I'm talking to you right now.
29:49
Speaker 1: Even the actor this isn't a joke.
29:51
Speaker 2: Patrick Dempsey had to publicly say he wasn't interested because
29:56
Speaker 2: the speculation was so intense. That's how chaotic this has
30:00
Speaker 2: actually become. Now in Hollywood, actors have to deny that
30:04
Speaker 2: they're running for Senate. You know, a political party is
30:07
Speaker 2: searching for anyone that can stabilize a disaster of a race.
30:12
Speaker 2: And here's the question Democrats now have to answer, how
30:15
Speaker 2: did we get here? Because, let's be honest, many of
30:18
Speaker 2: the controversy surrounding Platner weren't new. Questions about his online history,
30:23
Speaker 2: questions about his tattoo, questions about his past relationships. Much
30:28
Speaker 2: of that had already surfaced before the Democratic primary. Voters
30:32
Speaker 2: made him their nominee. Yeah, they picked him knowing all
30:35
Speaker 2: of this. One thing is for sure. Democrats are going
30:38
Speaker 2: to rally like never before, with money probably coming in
30:42
Speaker 2: from all over the country.
30:44
Speaker 1: And that is where the story is at this hour.
30:47
Speaker 2: We'll keep following this story, I can promise you that
30:50
Speaker 2: we've got a lot more that's going to happen the
30:52
Speaker 2: days ahead, So make sure you don't forget. Grab our podcast,
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Speaker 2: The Ben Ferguson Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts as
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