Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Polls and Tension cause a Platner Campaign Suspension plus Trump Says 'Enough' on Iran

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Polls and Tension cause a Platner Campaign Suspension plus Trump Says 'Enough' on Iran · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Well, it finally happened. After days of mounting pressure, Graham
0:04
Speaker 1: Platner has dropped out of the main Senate race, leaving
0:07
Speaker 1: Democrats scrambling to save one of the races they believe
0:11
Speaker 1: gave them their best chance to flip a Republican Senate seat,
0:15
Speaker 1: which could easily mean them having the majority in the
0:18
Speaker 1: Senate after the midterm elections. But before we get to
0:22
Speaker 1: what happened next, let's remember exactly what brought us to
0:25
Speaker 1: this point. This wasn't one controversy, it was a cascade.
0:31
Speaker 1: Platner's campaign had already been rocked by resurface social media
0:36
Speaker 1: posts that generated massive backlash. Then came the scrutiny over
0:40
Speaker 1: at tattoo, a ss Nazi tattoo. Then, of course the
0:45
Speaker 1: candidate said, oh, I just got it well intoxicated in
0:48
Speaker 1: the Marines. It just happened to resemble the Naziss symbol,
0:52
Speaker 1: but he didn't really know it.
0:53
Speaker 2: But then later he covered it up.
0:56
Speaker 1: Former partners then came out and made allegations about abusive
0:59
Speaker 1: behavior here a non consensual sexual conduct rape. Finally, a
1:05
Speaker 1: former girlfriend publicly accused him of sexually assaulting her. In
1:09
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, an allegation that Platner has repeatedly and
1:13
Speaker 1: categorically denied. Now, as all those allegations mounted, the political
1:18
Speaker 1: support was solid until the very end when polling that
1:22
Speaker 1: has showed that Graham may not be able to win
1:24
Speaker 1: the race. And that is when things changed. Overnight. Bernie Sanders,
1:30
Speaker 1: who stood by him no matter what until the poll
1:32
Speaker 1: numbers switched, called for him to step aside. Then Senate
1:36
Speaker 1: Democratic leaders with drew their support and said the money
1:39
Speaker 1: would be shut off to his campaign. Progressive organizations who
1:43
Speaker 1: stood by him through everything, once they saw the poll numbers,
1:47
Speaker 1: they abandoned him instantly and helped destroy him. Then the
1:51
Speaker 1: main Democratic party concluded he could no longer be their nominee,
1:56
Speaker 1: shutting off the money. And then Graham Platner came out
2:00
Speaker 1: and was forced to say this now before I get
2:04
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Speaker 1: All right, now, let me get to this audio gram Platnir,
3:55
Speaker 1: and I want you to listen carefully. He is telling
3:58
Speaker 1: you that he is the actual victim and the Democratic
4:02
Speaker 1: Party in the liberal media turned on him.
4:05
Speaker 2: It's not a joke. He wants you to feel sorry
4:08
Speaker 2: for him. Here he is.
4:09
Speaker 3: Hey everyone, it's cramp Platner here. I think, as many
4:13
Speaker 3: of you know, over the past couple of days, I
4:15
Speaker 3: have faced some very serious allegations, and I just want
4:19
Speaker 3: to make it clear this is all false. The things
4:23
Speaker 3: that have been claimed did not happen. It's not real.
4:28
Speaker 3: It has placed an immense amount of weight on me
4:35
Speaker 3: as I think about what needs to happen now. Amy
4:44
Speaker 3: and I are regular people. We were not looking for
4:47
Speaker 3: this experience. We were not looking to get into politics.
4:52
Speaker 3: We had no desire to run for office. I just
4:58
Speaker 3: want you to think about what you would do as
5:01
Speaker 3: a regular person in a position where a much larger world,
5:09
Speaker 3: large forces were working against you personally to accuse you
5:16
Speaker 3: of the worst thing that a person could do and
5:20
Speaker 3: it was not remotely true. I learned about this through
5:28
Speaker 3: press inquiries with no time to truly respond, no time
5:36
Speaker 3: for investigations, before a corporate media system and the political
5:43
Speaker 3: establishment got to act as judge, jury, and executioner. Accusations
5:51
Speaker 3: are supposed to be the beginning of things, not the end.
5:59
Speaker 3: I think it's really import and to understand why this
6:02
Speaker 3: is happening in the timeline, why this is happening right now,
6:07
Speaker 3: much like October when the first attack started, Much like
6:14
Speaker 3: the news that was created the week before the primary,
6:19
Speaker 3: There is a reason that this is happening now. I
6:24
Speaker 3: only have until July thirteenth until I am officially the nominee.
6:29
Speaker 3: This was the last week to try to get me
6:31
Speaker 3: off of the ballot, and that's why this is occurring.
6:43
Speaker 3: It's not the false allegations though, that have brought us
6:47
Speaker 3: to where we are. It's the fact that they are
6:50
Speaker 3: being used by the political establishment to put structural pressure
6:58
Speaker 3: on us. We live in a political system that is
7:04
Speaker 3: not built for normal people. It is a system that
7:09
Speaker 3: is built structurally to make sure that movements like ours
7:14
Speaker 3: cannot flourish, that if they begin to succeed, they can
7:19
Speaker 3: be crushed. What we have accomplished here you made possible
7:31
Speaker 3: the people of Maine, the volunteers, the voters, the grassroots donors,
7:37
Speaker 3: and I have all the faith in the world that
7:40
Speaker 3: we could win if we could continue to harness that.
7:46
Speaker 3: But the brutal political reality is that they are going
7:50
Speaker 3: to take everything away from us, those in power who
7:58
Speaker 3: have the ability to do so. Are you using these
8:00
Speaker 3: allegations as an excuse to take away all of the
8:05
Speaker 3: things that we need to run a campaign. We are
8:09
Speaker 3: going to lose our ability to fundraise, We are going
8:13
Speaker 3: to lose our ability to access voter data. We are
8:17
Speaker 3: going to lose all of the things that any campaign
8:22
Speaker 3: needs on the basic level simply to function. Larger organizations,
8:31
Speaker 3: the national level party, the bigger donor networks, they have
8:35
Speaker 3: all committed to spending no money in this race. If
8:39
Speaker 3: I'm in it, they would rather see Susan Collins win
8:44
Speaker 3: than have me be the next Senator from Maine. What
8:54
Speaker 3: comes next needs to come from the people needs to
9:00
Speaker 3: come from the people of Maine needs to come from
9:02
Speaker 3: the voters who, on June ninth, at a strength of
9:07
Speaker 3: over one hundred and fifty thousand, the largest number in
9:09
Speaker 3: the history of Maine primaries, said no to this kind
9:14
Speaker 3: of politics, voted for a politics that would actually represent them,
9:20
Speaker 3: voted against the political system, against the donor class, against
9:25
Speaker 3: the entrenched forces. And I'm not asking for how this
9:34
Speaker 3: process is going to work. I'm not trying to dictate
9:37
Speaker 3: to anyone who it should be or how we get there.
9:40
Speaker 3: But I will say this. It needs to be open, transparent,
9:45
Speaker 3: and democratic. It needs to be reflecting the will and
9:49
Speaker 3: the values of the people that built this movement, the
9:52
Speaker 3: people that showed up on June ninth. People in DC
9:56
Speaker 3: need to stay in DC. Decisions should not be made
10:00
Speaker 3: in back rooms by people in places of political power.
10:04
Speaker 3: Party apparatics are not the ones to make these decisions.
10:08
Speaker 3: These decisions need to be made in the open by
10:10
Speaker 3: the people of this state, the people who got us here.
10:16
Speaker 3: This is exactly the kind of political system that everyone
10:21
Speaker 3: voted against.
10:22
Speaker 2: On June ninth, Isn't it interesting?
10:25
Speaker 1: The Grand Platinum has been over the establishment pressure dropped
10:29
Speaker 1: out of the race, but is calling them out, saying,
10:32
Speaker 1: you forced me out and the media. The dude, by
10:36
Speaker 1: the way, that pretended to be a big old fighter
10:38
Speaker 1: totally surrendered. Now he's maintaining that all I want to
10:43
Speaker 1: make this clear, all the allegations are false. He's saying,
10:47
Speaker 1: I just learned about them through the media because they
10:50
Speaker 1: wanted me out. Now, the Democrats, to be clear, they're
10:54
Speaker 1: not exactly celebrating in this moment either.
10:56
Speaker 2: They're panicked. This wasn't just any Senate race.
11:00
Speaker 1: For months, national Democrats considered Maine one of their very
11:03
Speaker 1: best pickup opportunities in the country. The Republican Susan Collins
11:08
Speaker 1: has always been one of the toughest Republicans for Democrats
11:11
Speaker 1: to defeat, but they believe that Platner's outsider campaign had
11:16
Speaker 1: really energized voters in a new, unique way. Now, just
11:20
Speaker 1: months before election day, that entire strategy has collapsed, and
11:25
Speaker 1: instead of spending that summer that they were hoping for
11:28
Speaker 1: attacking and talking about Susan Collins, Democrats are holding emergency
11:33
Speaker 1: meetings trying to figure out who their nominee will even be.
11:36
Speaker 1: The main Democratic party now has only a narrow legal
11:40
Speaker 1: window to formally replace Platner on the ballot, with a
11:43
Speaker 1: party convention expected to choose a new nominee before the
11:46
Speaker 1: state's deadline. Now, there's already several names that are being floated.
11:50
Speaker 1: Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson has announced he's running
11:55
Speaker 1: for the nomination. Former CDC director Narov Shah is also considering,
12:01
Speaker 1: we're being told entering the race. Jordan Wood is also
12:05
Speaker 1: weighing a campaign. And there's many other names are actually
12:08
Speaker 1: circulating as I'm talking to you right now. Even the
12:12
Speaker 1: actor this isn't a joke. Patrick Dempsey had to publicly
12:16
Speaker 1: say he wasn't interested because the speculation was so intense.
12:21
Speaker 1: That's how chaotic this has actually become. Now when Hollywood
12:25
Speaker 1: actors have to deny that they're running for Senate, you know,
12:28
Speaker 1: a political party is searching for anyone that can stabilize
12:32
Speaker 1: a disaster of a race. And here's the question Democrats
12:36
Speaker 1: now have to answer, how did we get here? Because
12:39
Speaker 1: let's be honest, many of the controversy surrounding Platner weren't new.
12:43
Speaker 1: Questions about his online history, questions about his tattoo, questions
12:48
Speaker 1: about his past relationships. Much of that had already surfaced
12:52
Speaker 1: before the Democratic primary, voters made him their nominee. Yeah,
12:56
Speaker 1: they picked him knowing all of this, And many prominent
12:59
Speaker 1: Democrats are actually even continuing to back him because they
13:03
Speaker 1: believe he gave them the strongest chance to win. It
13:08
Speaker 1: only was because of these new allegations from a Democratic
13:12
Speaker 1: woman who said that he raped her. Was it finally
13:17
Speaker 1: time for Democrats to call it quits? Platner, of course
13:21
Speaker 1: saying he's innocent, saying those allegations are false over and
13:25
Speaker 1: over again. He's also now saying he's the real victim
13:30
Speaker 1: of the liberal media and of the Democratic establishment that
13:34
Speaker 1: forced him out.
13:35
Speaker 2: Of the race.
13:36
Speaker 1: So if you're wanting to know what this looks like
13:39
Speaker 1: now in a major election, Republicans suddenly have a chance
13:43
Speaker 1: to campaign against a Democratic party that has spent the
13:46
Speaker 1: last week consumed by internal turmoil instead of focusing on
13:50
Speaker 1: the general election. And Democrats have now got to introduce
13:53
Speaker 1: an entirely new statewide nominee with very little time to build, fundraising,
13:58
Speaker 1: organize volunteers to fine even a message and challenge an
14:03
Speaker 1: incumbent senator. That's incredibly difficult to do. And Democrats right
14:08
Speaker 1: now they're hoping you'll forget about Grand Platinir forever. But
14:12
Speaker 1: the reality is he was the highlight of the Democrats
14:16
Speaker 1: cycle of twenty twenty six. Let that sink in now.
14:21
Speaker 1: The race is not over, but the clock is ticking
14:24
Speaker 1: and there's no clear consensus candidate. One thing is for sure.
14:29
Speaker 1: Democrats are going to rally like never before, with money
14:32
Speaker 1: probably coming in from all over the country. And that
14:36
Speaker 1: is where the story is at this hour. The Democratic
14:40
Speaker 1: Party at this moment when it comes to Grand Platiner,
14:43
Speaker 1: is pretty much bipolar. They don't actually know what's going on.
14:47
Speaker 1: They have no clue what's going to happen next, and
14:50
Speaker 1: Democrats are accusing their embattled Maine Senate nominee, Grand Platiner
14:55
Speaker 1: of trying to influence who would replace him if he
15:00
Speaker 1: dropped out of the race after facing new rape allegations.
15:04
Speaker 1: Platner is being pushed by the Democratic Party to drop
15:07
Speaker 1: out of the race after his ex girlfriend accused him
15:10
Speaker 1: of entering her home in the middle of the night
15:12
Speaker 1: and raping her in twenty twenty one. Now, Democrats have
15:15
Speaker 1: been looking for a new nominee, and Devin Murphy Anderson,
15:20
Speaker 1: the executive director of the main Democratic Party, is now
15:23
Speaker 1: accusing Platner's team of trying to put their thumb on
15:26
Speaker 1: the scale of what this process would actually look like.
15:30
Speaker 1: Other Democrats are now saying we may have to hold
15:32
Speaker 1: our nose and vote for him, but his former girlfriend
15:35
Speaker 1: doing a sit down now saying this to see it
15:38
Speaker 1: an exclusively trying to make sure the Platner drops out
15:42
Speaker 1: of the race.
15:43
Speaker 4: I think something else that's kind of missing from this
15:46
Speaker 4: conversation is that particular period of time and the people
15:50
Speaker 4: that I was socializing with because my cousins were working
15:53
Speaker 4: at Walter Reed, they were military. I was working for
15:55
Speaker 4: a military service group a lot of these post nine
15:58
Speaker 4: eleven vets, but the also wanted to continue having military careers.
16:02
Speaker 4: They knew that a PTSD diagnosis was like a career killer,
16:07
Speaker 4: and so getting people help, getting him specifically help for
16:10
Speaker 4: his PTSD, which he was very much struggling with at
16:14
Speaker 4: this time. That was my main focus was just like
16:18
Speaker 4: how do I get him help? How do I keep
16:19
Speaker 4: him from killing himself. My biggest concern throughout most of
16:22
Speaker 4: our relationship was like, He's going to kill himself, and
16:24
Speaker 4: he kept it, would threaten it. He had a plan,
16:27
Speaker 4: and it was really hard for me to try to
16:32
Speaker 4: navigate my own social relationship like my own sphere and
16:36
Speaker 4: kind of feel like I had to keep that a
16:37
Speaker 4: secret from everybody, And so it made our relationship and
16:41
Speaker 4: a lot of those elements more secretive than they otherwise
16:43
Speaker 4: would have been. Like maybe I would have been able
16:44
Speaker 4: to tell a friend and say, hey, Graham's been like this,
16:50
Speaker 4: or just telling them about specific incidents.
16:53
Speaker 2: With more clarity.
16:55
Speaker 4: But I was in this like this is a suffering
16:58
Speaker 4: man who needs help.
17:00
Speaker 2: I'm going to make it worse.
17:01
Speaker 5: Yeah, I did.
17:01
Speaker 6: At the true did him like the victim even though
17:03
Speaker 6: you were of it?
17:04
Speaker 7: Oh?
17:04
Speaker 8: Yes?
17:04
Speaker 4: And that was actually kind of a common theme too.
17:07
Speaker 4: Anytime that I like, he would say, oh, you're making
17:09
Speaker 4: me feel bad and I was like, that's you know,
17:11
Speaker 4: like in retrospect, like, well, yes, you should have felt.
17:14
Speaker 5: Bad about you know.
17:15
Speaker 9: And he would he would accuse me.
17:18
Speaker 4: Of like guilt tripping him if I brought up things,
17:19
Speaker 4: and especially if I brought up things like if I
17:21
Speaker 4: was getting a pattern of behavior together, he would accuse
17:25
Speaker 4: me of like, oh, like are you always going to
17:27
Speaker 4: bring up the past, Like we're never going to be
17:28
Speaker 4: able to move forward if you keep bringing up the
17:30
Speaker 4: you know that kind of thing. But then when it
17:32
Speaker 4: became clear like there is no future here, the only
17:34
Speaker 4: reason for this relationship was for me to keep him
17:37
Speaker 4: from killing himself or to try to get him help.
17:41
Speaker 1: Now, this is really interesting information to come out. They're
17:44
Speaker 1: now saying the same people that were supporting him, the
17:47
Speaker 1: grand Platner is an individual who they were worried was
17:51
Speaker 1: going to kill himself and had a plan to do it,
17:54
Speaker 1: that he has massive problems with PTSD, disparaging him clearly
17:59
Speaker 1: now at all cause to get rid of him. But
18:01
Speaker 1: there are other Democrats that are also worried that maybe
18:05
Speaker 1: he won't drop out, and if he doesn't, then what
18:08
Speaker 1: do we have to do. Well, they're floating that idea
18:11
Speaker 1: on ABC News on the View when they said this earlier.
18:16
Speaker 4: And if you are one of those people that was
18:18
Speaker 4: willing to plug your nose, you're the problem.
18:21
Speaker 10: Well then I'm the problem because I was one of
18:23
Speaker 10: those people and I said it. If I lived in Maine,
18:26
Speaker 10: I would have, you know, plugged my nose and I
18:29
Speaker 10: would have voted for him. Anyway. I think that we
18:31
Speaker 10: are in a time of ecisentral crisis in this country.
18:33
Speaker 10: I think Republicans fall in line. They don't fall in loved.
18:37
Speaker 10: Democrats want to fall in love and not fall in line.
18:41
Speaker 10: You know, the Republican Party, the bar is so very low.
18:44
Speaker 10: I can't believe. I cannot believe that they want to
18:48
Speaker 10: try to assume the moral high ground.
18:51
Speaker 1: So you can hear they're the other strategy it is
18:53
Speaker 1: to say, well, Planner's not great, we may have to
18:55
Speaker 1: hold our nose, but Donald Trump is so evil that
18:59
Speaker 1: we really just have to find someone to counter him.
19:02
Speaker 2: So that's how we got to this point.
19:04
Speaker 1: And yeah, maybe he's not perfect, but you know, maybe
19:08
Speaker 1: you just have to hold your noes. Then ms NOW
19:11
Speaker 1: formerly ms NBC, I STI don't know why they change
19:14
Speaker 1: their name. Both networks suck. It's still the same thing,
19:17
Speaker 1: but just so you know, it's ms now now. Apparently
19:20
Speaker 1: they are taking it even a step further, saying that
19:23
Speaker 1: Donald Trump actually has created Graham Platner because of how
19:27
Speaker 1: bad Donald Trump is.
19:29
Speaker 2: That's their new spin.
19:32
Speaker 5: What do you think the soul searching is not just
19:35
Speaker 5: in the Democratic Party, but for all of us who
19:38
Speaker 5: covered these things. Well, listen, I think, first of all,
19:41
Speaker 5: I thought back then, when the first tranche of these
19:43
Speaker 5: allegations came forward that the Platner campaign should have had
19:46
Speaker 5: a lot more explaining to do, but we're caught in
19:49
Speaker 5: a moment where there is such profound desperation to have
19:53
Speaker 5: some check on Trump's worst impulses, and there is such
19:57
Speaker 5: hunger for Democrats to control the Senate that it feels
19:59
Speaker 5: like people were willing to abide a form of dangerous
20:05
Speaker 5: masculinity that in a pre Trump era would have been
20:08
Speaker 5: totally disqualifying. And I think it does prompt some real
20:11
Speaker 5: soul searching about, you know, what we ask of our
20:14
Speaker 5: quote unquote warriors, and what we abide and what we
20:16
Speaker 5: stomach as a society and as a party when it
20:20
Speaker 5: comes to true fighters, and what it looks like to
20:24
Speaker 5: be a man in the twenty first century. And honestly,
20:27
Speaker 5: without you know, sounding too much like a college professor,
20:30
Speaker 5: I do think so much of the crisis right now
20:32
Speaker 5: is the collapse of the patriarchy and people being completely
20:36
Speaker 5: at sea and trying to figure out what it means
20:38
Speaker 5: to hold power and to keep power and to wield
20:41
Speaker 5: it in a just fashion. And the Platner campaign just
20:45
Speaker 5: raises a huge set of questions about what strength means
20:49
Speaker 5: and what crosses the line when you are a strong person,
20:52
Speaker 5: and I think there's a lot of gut checking that
20:55
Speaker 5: needs to happen inside democratic circles, because what is abundantly
20:58
Speaker 5: clear is this person has not had to check on
21:00
Speaker 5: his power and has felt unfettered and unapologetic about exercising
21:04
Speaker 5: that power and not offering any explanation for it.
21:07
Speaker 2: All Right, so let's just unpack that for a second.
21:10
Speaker 1: This guy's so bad because Donald Trump was bad, and
21:14
Speaker 1: since Donald Trump is bad, therefore this is just how
21:19
Speaker 1: bad it is.
21:20
Speaker 2: Like that is the new spin.
21:22
Speaker 1: Graham Platner, a Nazi Democratic communist candidate, is somehow the
21:26
Speaker 1: fault of Donald Trump. Graham Plattner's campaign has also responded
21:31
Speaker 1: to Lindsay Fitfield's interview, and this is what they said
21:35
Speaker 1: moments ago. In a statement to CNN after their exclusive
21:38
Speaker 1: sit down.
21:39
Speaker 6: This afternoon, our team reached out to the Platner campaign
21:41
Speaker 6: regarding these allegations made by Fifield against Graham Platner in
21:46
Speaker 6: the portun of our conversation that we just brought to you.
21:49
Speaker 6: In a statement to CNN, the Platner campaign says or
21:51
Speaker 6: claims are quote categorically false and come from a person
21:53
Speaker 6: with a well documented political agenda.
21:56
Speaker 2: Unquote political agenda.
21:58
Speaker 1: Now, what is the political Why are all these people
22:01
Speaker 1: coming out of the woodwork right now? It's real simple.
22:06
Speaker 1: This is a political hit job by the Democratic Party.
22:09
Speaker 1: This is exactly the same playbook that they used against
22:12
Speaker 1: Eric Swalwell. When you get former girlfriends who they didn't
22:16
Speaker 1: talk to before now talking to them to trash him
22:19
Speaker 1: the way that they are, it is obvious this is
22:22
Speaker 1: a orchestrated effort by the Democratic Party. If you are
22:25
Speaker 1: a grand Platner, by the way, do you actually drop
22:29
Speaker 1: out by the thirteenth and allow for another candidate or
22:32
Speaker 1: do you stay on the ballot drop out after the
22:35
Speaker 1: thirteenth to screw everyone that's now screwing you. That's the
22:39
Speaker 1: big question. Now, there's also another piece of audio from
22:42
Speaker 1: the former Platner girlfriend, and here's what she said in
22:45
Speaker 1: this quote exclusive interview with CNN.
22:47
Speaker 2: At the time.
22:48
Speaker 4: Weirdly enough, this isn't a soundpathetic. I felt like, oh,
22:52
Speaker 4: he really loves me.
22:54
Speaker 9: I'm sorry.
22:55
Speaker 2: It felt like he really cared, like oh.
22:58
Speaker 4: His jealousy and I started new relationships at that time
23:02
Speaker 4: felt like love. And now I know that that was
23:05
Speaker 4: not love, and it was not It was not really
23:07
Speaker 4: we thought we were in.
23:08
Speaker 2: Love, but it was that sounds very toxic.
23:12
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, toxic is a great word I do now.
23:16
Speaker 1: Platner at this moment continues to deny all of these
23:20
Speaker 1: allegations against them, the sexual assault allegations. He's called them false,
23:25
Speaker 1: and he has not announced he's leaving the race. Instead,
23:28
Speaker 1: he said he is taking time to determine quote, the
23:30
Speaker 1: best path forward.
23:32
Speaker 2: Two.
23:33
Speaker 1: It still seems like he has some sort of campaign
23:36
Speaker 1: apparatus that is putting out instant responses to the new
23:40
Speaker 1: allegations to destroy him as a person. And in the
23:43
Speaker 1: last several days you have the entire Democratic machine going
23:47
Speaker 1: against him. Democratic leaders, including the Senate Minority Leader Chuck
23:51
Speaker 1: Schumer and Senator Bernie Sanders, they're now publicly calling multiple
23:56
Speaker 1: times on Platner to drop out of the race. Now,
24:00
Speaker 1: the reason why they're putting maximum pressure is all because
24:04
Speaker 1: of the date. If he doesn't step aside before the
24:07
Speaker 1: States July thirteenth deadline, the party will not be able
24:12
Speaker 1: to nominate a replacement candidate. And what's remarkable is now
24:15
Speaker 1: how quickly the political landscape has changed. For months, all
24:20
Speaker 1: of these same Democrats defended Platner through previous controversies, but
24:24
Speaker 1: after the latest allegations, really because of the poll numbers,
24:28
Speaker 1: then they all said we're.
24:30
Speaker 2: Going to be done with you.
24:32
Speaker 1: And if Platner wants to know what his future looks like,
24:34
Speaker 1: he should probably just call Eric Swalwell talk to him
24:38
Speaker 1: about what's happening to his race, because he knows all
24:41
Speaker 1: about it. This is, by the way, the Democratic Communist
24:45
Speaker 1: Socialist Marxist Party. They'll use you, if as a communist
24:49
Speaker 1: Socialist or Marxist until they think you can't win, and
24:52
Speaker 1: when you can't win, they will get rid of you
24:56
Speaker 1: faster than they even try to get rid of Donald Trump.
25:00
Speaker 1: We have major breaking news. President Donald Trump is making
25:04
Speaker 1: it crystal clear, as far as he's concerned, the ceasefire
25:07
Speaker 1: with Iran is over. Now let me be clear, this
25:11
Speaker 1: is not speculation. That is exactly what he told reporters
25:15
Speaker 1: while attending the NATO summit. His words were blunt, to me,
25:19
Speaker 1: I think it's over. I don't want to deal with
25:22
Speaker 1: them anymore. They're scum, They're led by sick people. The
25:27
Speaker 1: president United States of America making sure that we hit
25:30
Speaker 1: back extremely hard against Iran. And here's how they described
25:33
Speaker 1: it on ABC News and.
25:35
Speaker 11: The other breaking story at this hour, the US striking
25:38
Speaker 11: Iran right now, a US official telling ABC News at
25:41
Speaker 11: this hour tonight's operations are bigger in scope, meant it
25:44
Speaker 11: a greater Iran's ability to threaten ships in the Strait
25:46
Speaker 11: of Hormuz. Sencom releasing images of last night's attacks, saying
25:50
Speaker 11: they struck defense systems and coastal radar. Iran tonight saying
25:54
Speaker 11: it has targeted US military installations in Bahrain and Kuwait,
25:57
Speaker 11: and tonight promising more retaliation at this evening. Amid these
26:01
Speaker 11: new US strikes on Iran, oil prices already surging at
26:05
Speaker 11: our gas price is set to go up again. Rachel
26:07
Speaker 11: Scott leading US off.
26:08
Speaker 9: Tonight tonight as the US launches a new attack on Iran.
26:12
Speaker 9: The second and twenty four hours, President Trump now declaring
26:16
Speaker 9: the ceasefire over.
26:17
Speaker 12: I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them,
26:20
Speaker 12: in with this scum. You know what scum is. There's
26:23
Speaker 12: something wrong with them. Their cuckoo.
26:25
Speaker 9: The new US strikes hitting Aram's coastal radar sites and
26:28
Speaker 9: anti ship missile locations US a larger attack than last night,
26:33
Speaker 9: when eighty targets were hit. It comes in response to
26:37
Speaker 9: a run, firing on three cargo ships near the Strait
26:40
Speaker 9: of her moves.
26:41
Speaker 2: The big question what comes next?
26:44
Speaker 9: Overnight Iran launching missiles at US bases and the goal
26:47
Speaker 9: those missiles intercepted.
26:49
Speaker 1: Now as you're gonna hear there, even ABC News making
26:52
Speaker 1: it clear the President hitting back very hard. The President
26:55
Speaker 1: was also asked about what we can expect moving forward,
26:58
Speaker 1: and here's part of what he had to say.
27:00
Speaker 2: In Turkey, we're not attacking.
27:02
Speaker 7: At the highest level, the highest level of the bridges
27:08
Speaker 7: which we can knock down. I would say in one day,
27:10
Speaker 7: we knocked down every single bridge in Iran. There's not
27:13
Speaker 7: a thing they can do about it. The electric manufacturing
27:18
Speaker 7: facilities right their electric plants where they make their electricity there,
27:24
Speaker 7: we will if we have to take them out. I
27:27
Speaker 7: don't want to do that, but if we have to,
27:29
Speaker 7: we'll take them out. They have desalinization plants, will take
27:34
Speaker 7: them out if we have to. Hate to do that.
27:35
Speaker 7: That's probably the one I would like not to do least.
27:40
Speaker 7: We attacked carg Island last night. We knocked out a piece.
27:42
Speaker 7: I said, don't touch the oil because maybe we'll take
27:46
Speaker 7: over Cargo Island. We may take over carg island. There's
27:50
Speaker 7: not a thing they can do about it.
27:52
Speaker 1: And that wasn't all the President had to say about
27:54
Speaker 1: the warnings of what attacks could happen moving forward, what
27:58
Speaker 1: targets could happen, even taking over their island, which is
28:00
Speaker 1: where their oil comes in and out of. President Trump
28:03
Speaker 1: also said he's just sick and tired of dealing with
28:06
Speaker 1: the Iranian negotiators.
28:08
Speaker 12: I don't want to deal with them, him with this scum.
28:10
Speaker 12: You know what scum is. There's scum, there's sick people.
28:13
Speaker 8: President Trump opening the NATO summit by declaring, in his view,
28:17
Speaker 8: the agreement with Iran is off.
28:20
Speaker 2: There's something wrong with them. They're cuckoo.
28:22
Speaker 8: Appearing visibly angry, the President repeatedly criticized Iranian leaders.
28:27
Speaker 2: They're liars, they're cheats, they're sick people.
28:32
Speaker 8: His comments came hours after renewed US strikes on Iran.
28:36
Speaker 8: Thick orange smoke seen rising over bandar Abas onto Iran's
28:41
Speaker 8: main naval base. US Central Command launched what it called
28:44
Speaker 8: a series of powerful strikes, hitting more than eighty Iranian targets,
28:48
Speaker 8: including air defense systems, radars, and at least sixty small boats,
28:52
Speaker 8: all after the US has Iran attacked three tankers in
28:55
Speaker 8: the Strait of Horr Moons.
28:56
Speaker 3: I think for Judiad last night was absolutely necessary verishtonus Ponts.
29:01
Speaker 8: Trump also revoked a waiver allowing the sale of Iranian
29:04
Speaker 8: oil on the world market. In response, atop Iranian warned,
29:08
Speaker 8: the era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere.
29:12
Speaker 2: We don't fold.
29:14
Speaker 8: Iran retaliated with a tax of its own, saying it
29:17
Speaker 8: launch strikes on eighty five American military targets in Mahraine
29:21
Speaker 8: and Kuwait. The attacks came during a pause and negotiations
29:26
Speaker 8: as Iran holds a massive days long funeral for Ayatola
29:29
Speaker 8: Ali Khamani, the Supreme leader, killed on the first day
29:32
Speaker 8: of US Israel attacks on Iran.
29:34
Speaker 12: We said, go and do your funeral stuff, and instead
29:38
Speaker 12: of that, they set shooting rockets at chips.
29:42
Speaker 8: At the summit, the President also unloaded on Alliance members
29:45
Speaker 8: for not doing enough to help the US against Iran.
29:48
Speaker 2: We protect them, but they're not there for us.
29:50
Speaker 12: Think of it doesn't work.
29:52
Speaker 1: The Trump Administration's message couldn't be stronger, and the media
29:56
Speaker 1: is clearly carrying that message. After the President said so
29:59
Speaker 1: bluntly what he thought about the deal being over and
30:02
Speaker 1: what could come next, and the White House laying it
30:05
Speaker 1: out again, saying for decades, Iran has used terrorism, proxy,
30:09
Speaker 1: malicious hostage taking, attacks on American troops, and threats against
30:14
Speaker 1: allies as tools of its foreign policy. President Trump says
30:18
Speaker 1: for forty seven years, Iran acted as the bully of
30:21
Speaker 1: the Middle East, and he said that error is ending now.
30:25
Speaker 1: The White House also emphasized that these latest operations are
30:28
Speaker 1: about much more than retaliation. They're about preventing Iran from
30:32
Speaker 1: ever becoming a nuclear weapons state. President Trump's to the
30:36
Speaker 1: United States is prepared to target additional strategic infrastructure if necessary,
30:41
Speaker 1: including their critical power facilities. He also suggested the US
30:46
Speaker 1: could dramatically increase pressure on Iran's vital oil infrastructure, including
30:51
Speaker 1: carg Island, the country's primary oil export terminal, with a
30:56
Speaker 1: threat that we may take it over. The administration has
30:59
Speaker 1: also instead those major oil sanctions against Iran, tightening the
31:03
Speaker 1: economics cruise once again after determining Tehran violated the ceasefire agreement.
31:09
Speaker 1: Those sanctions are intended to cut off revenue that Washington
31:13
Speaker 1: says helps finance Iran's military and their terrorist proxy networks. Now,
31:18
Speaker 1: if you just take a step back. This isn't happening
31:21
Speaker 1: in isolation. President Trump is making these announcements while attending
31:25
Speaker 1: the NATO summit, where another major story is also unfolding.
31:29
Speaker 1: The White House says Trump has fundamentally changed NATO by
31:33
Speaker 1: pushing America's allies to shoulder more of the defense burden
31:37
Speaker 1: rather than relying overwhelmingly on US taxpayers. The administration argues
31:42
Speaker 1: that increased defense spending by NATO members is now helping
31:46
Speaker 1: American manufacturing and strengthening the US defense industrial base as well.
31:51
Speaker 1: Trump also announced that the United States will license Ukraine
31:55
Speaker 1: to manufacture Patriot missile defense systems, while leaving open the
31:59
Speaker 1: possible disability of future F thirty five sales to Turkey
32:03
Speaker 1: as well. So in one trip overseas, what you're seeing
32:07
Speaker 1: is multiple fronts of American foreign policy moving by the President,
32:12
Speaker 1: simultaneously continued pressure on Iran, NATO burden sharing support for
32:19
Speaker 1: Ukraine's now air defense systems, strategic discussions with Turkey as well,
32:23
Speaker 1: and then the diplomatic regions across the alliance. The White
32:27
Speaker 1: Houses also point to what they say are encouraging economic
32:30
Speaker 1: developments at home. President Trump highlighting Walmart decision to lower
32:35
Speaker 1: grocery prices and urged other retailers to follow suit. He
32:39
Speaker 1: also argued that falling oil and gasoline prices should translate
32:43
Speaker 1: into lower prices for American consumers across the economy immediately.
32:48
Speaker 1: And the administration is also celebrating several new investment announcements
32:52
Speaker 1: this week, including Apple reported thirty billion dollar investment in
32:57
Speaker 1: US semiconductor manufacturing and additional manufacturing expansion in Texas, presenting
33:03
Speaker 1: them as evidence that industrial investment continues flowing into the US.
33:08
Speaker 1: The White House once again is also urging Congress this
33:12
Speaker 1: week to advance additional legislation on defense funding as well
33:16
Speaker 1: as election security out of the midterms, making those priorities
33:21
Speaker 1: a centerpiece of its domestic agenda. Now, why is the
33:24
Speaker 1: White House talking about all of this right now? They're
33:27
Speaker 1: proving that the President is not just focused on Iran,
33:30
Speaker 1: that you can do multiple things at once, and the
33:33
Speaker 1: biggest question today is whether a RAN chooses further escalation
33:38
Speaker 1: or if they actually want to get a deal done.
33:40
Speaker 1: The President saying this from Air Force one hours after
33:44
Speaker 1: he had his big meetings at NATO.
33:47
Speaker 7: We hit back much on I'm all sale military conflicts, whatever.
33:52
Speaker 12: I don't know what win it very quickly is another
33:55
Speaker 12: way that we have any ways we could win, but
33:57
Speaker 12: we've already won militarily they have.
34:00
Speaker 7: They're very little left, and they want to make a
34:02
Speaker 7: deal so badly.
34:03
Speaker 2: They called a little while ago. They want to make
34:06
Speaker 2: a deal so badly.
34:07
Speaker 7: I just don't know if they're worthy of making it.
34:09
Speaker 2: You, I don't know that they're going to honor the deal.
34:11
Speaker 3: That's wrong.
34:12
Speaker 5: If they want to make a deal, why do you
34:14
Speaker 5: think they attacked commercial lessons?
34:17
Speaker 7: Because it's not crazy, to be honest with it's so crazy.
34:23
Speaker 7: They're a little bit adequate to them, but they want
34:25
Speaker 7: to make a deal badly.
34:30
Speaker 1: The President United States America saying that on his way
34:33
Speaker 1: home on Air Force one.
34:35
Speaker 2: And here's what the big takeaway is.
34:37
Speaker 1: The United States is demonstrating that not only is the
34:40
Speaker 1: Trump administration willing to respond militarily after attacks on international shipping,
34:45
Speaker 1: President Trump has also warned that these additional strikes will
34:48
Speaker 1: remain on the table, emphasizing that the objective is to
34:52
Speaker 1: eliminate a rand's ability to threaten maritime commerce and prevent
34:56
Speaker 1: the region from advancing towards a nuclear weapon. Now the
34:59
Speaker 1: coming hours and days well, that's going to determine whether
35:02
Speaker 1: ranbacks down or whether this confrontation enters another phase. The
35:07
Speaker 1: one thing that is certain this morning, the ceasefire that
35:10
Speaker 1: many hoped would stabilize the region appears to have collapsed,
35:14
Speaker 1: and the United States has made it clear it intends
35:17
Speaker 1: to respond with overwhelming force if American interests or international
35:22
Speaker 1: shipping are attacked again. Make sure you share this podcast
35:26
Speaker 1: with your family and friends, put it up on social
35:28
Speaker 1: media wherever you are, and we appreciate you listening every day.
35:32
Speaker 2: We'll see you back here tomorrow.