How will Democrats fight Trump after dumping their candidate Graham Platner in Maine?

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1:01The stakes are high because the Senate is up for grabs right now. Republicans control the chamber, but Democrats are hoping to rest back by winning over four seats. And integral to that goal is the state of Maine. And Maine is at the central focus right now because the candidate, Graham Plattner, the Democratic Senate nominee, has been beset by allegations of rape and sexual assault. Here he is talking about it. Regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful of the political reality it will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.

1:42Those were the goals when we launched this campaign, and they remain my goals today. So could these allegations cost Democrats this main race and control of the entire U.S. Senate? Welcome to AmeriCast.

2:26Hello, it's Anthony in the BBC Bureau in Washington, D.C. And it's Sumi, also in the BBC Bureau in Washington, D.C. Ah, Sumi, so good to have you back. It's great to be here and honored to share this amazing podcast studio with you. And we get to talk about American politics and in particular, one of the most important Senate races in this midterm elections coming up in November. We've talked about it before. Or we're talking about it again now because this race could really decide who controls the Senate. This is the one that Democrats have to win back from Republicans if they want to tip the balance their way.

3:00Yeah, that's right. Probably for some of our international audiences, they're wondering why on earth do we spend so much time talking about the state of Maine? But that's precisely the reason the Democrats don't just want to win the House of Representatives back in the midterm elections. they want to win back the Senate as well. And if you do the math, Maine is a key part of that equation. And it's a place where you have an incumbent Republican senator, Susan Collins. She's been there for many years and she's looking particularly vulnerable this cycle. And because of that, Democrats thought or think that they have a real chance to unseat her.

3:32But it all comes down to who would do that. Yeah. Susan Collins has defied political gravity in Maine. Maine has been won by Democrats for decades. And every time her seat comes up, every six years, they put a big target on her thinking that they can knock her off and they haven't been able to do it. But this time they feel it could be different because of the headwinds that Republicans are facing nationwide. Donald Trump is not popular in Maine. Susan Collins has voted with Donald Trump on a lot of key big issues. And the Democrats think they can take advantage of that and win this seat. But the man they nominated in a race that was decided last month, just over a month ago, Graham Plattner, a political novice, an oysterman, an ex-Marine.

4:15We have talked about him multiple times now on this podcast. He has been bedeviled by personal controversies pretty much since he entered this race about a year ago. But a big one just dropped a couple of days ago. And this one seems like it's going to be different. This one seems like it might actually knock him out of the race. and turn over the whole apple cart when it comes to trying to predict who is going to win this and if Susan Collins could hold on to that seat. We will talk a bit later in the pod about why Graham Plattner is both controversial, but also exciting for a lot of Democrats in particular.

4:48But you mentioned the new allegations that have emerged, Anthony. One of those women who's come forward is Jenny Rassico. She had previously dated Graham Plattner. She spoke to Politico and also CNN's Jake Tapper. So let's listen to what she said. So let me just be, and I apologize, guys, let me be as direct as I can. Did Graham Planner rape you? By definition, yes. Absolutely. Because he had non-consensual sex with you, forced himself on you, even after you had told him no and fought him off? He violated multiple layers of consent that night by coming into my home when I asked him not to, and by advancing on me when I told him not to, and furthermore, another incident that I had told him not to do.

5:46With protection. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. By the way that my nervous system reacted to this experience, absolutely. Absolutely. There are going to be Democrats who say, I believe you, but I don't care. Yeah. I'm going to vote for him anyway, because we need a progressive voice in the United States Senate. Are you going to be okay with that? Are you going to be able to handle that? I'm not saying it's the right answer or the right response. No, I have friends who feel that way. And that's been a hard pill to swallow. And I guess I need to not ask potentially. Maybe I need to not ask in order to not care what they do.

6:27I understand. I understand that the state of our political environment is so much so that we need a lot of change. And he's offering that change. And you know, I'm not mad at anyone who has voted for him all along. if he wasn't who he was, I would be voting for him as well. And going forward, I don't know what's going to happen. So it was the magazine Politico that originally broke this story on Monday. And after that story was posted online, Graham Plattner published his own video response to that on social media. Here it is. I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me.

7:12Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false. Over the last 10 months, I have been deeply humbled by the faith Mainers have put in me. You have welcomed me into your homes, into your places of work, into your restaurants, into your houses of worship. You have shown that a different kind of politics, one that puts the interests of people over corporations, is not just possible, but is inevitable. This movement we have built, the largest volunteer base in the history of Maine politics, the hundreds of thousands of grassroots donors, and the supporters across the ideological spectrum, we were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, and a focus on defeating Susan Collins.

8:00So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality it will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins. Those were the goals when we launched this campaign, and they remain my goals today. So Graham Plattner there clearly refuting the allegations that were put to him, but since the story broke, an ex-girlfriend of Plattner also told the Washington Post that he took off protection during sex multiple times without consent.

8:35And the woman actually told the Post that she decided to speak publicly about it this week because she wanted to show that Jenny Rassico, who spoke to CNN, that clip we heard, that she's not alone. The Plattner campaign has called this claim categorically false and politically motivated. But Anthony, what is clear is, again, these are incredibly serious allegations. And immediately you saw a response from Democrats across the country in a way that with the other controversies that we've seen with Graham Plattner, you didn't have. Right. There was some rallying around Plattner by some of his original supporters, people on the progressive left who said that the earlier allegations, which included allegations of marital infidelity with sex messages, of being a disturbing boyfriend, sometimes engaging with flaring his temper and sometimes being hostile to his girlfriends.

9:29Those people came forward that they said that that was inappropriate, but it wasn't the wholesale abandonment of his campaign that we have seen now. And it isn't just the National Democrats who have said they're going to be cutting off all financial support to Plattner. It's not just the main Democratic Party, which has called for him to step aside. It is people like Elizabeth Warren, the senator from Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders. The senator from Vermont, progressive leaders, Ro Khanna, who was one of his earlier endorsers, earliest endorsers from California. All of these people have said that they've spoken with him or have publicly called for him to step aside.

10:06So we're in a weird kind of limbo state now. It's about 930 on Wednesday morning. And everyone has been waiting around since Monday night for this shoe to drop for him to leave the campaign. And if Democrats want to be able to replace him on the ballot, he has to do that by Monday. So he has a few days that he could wait, but the clock is ticking. Yeah. You know, I found it so interesting to see this wave of people, Democrats, national Democrats, rescinding their endorsements of Graham Plattner. And they came in different tones. For Bernie Sanders, it took a day. And a lot of people were wondering, and Bernie Sanders was one of his biggest champions and is an icon of the progressive movement of the left wing of the Democratic Party, as is Elizabeth Warren, as you said, to many people.

10:54But it was clear that this was one controversy too far. And again, these are such serious allegations that for those national Democrats, they just couldn't stand behind Graham Plattner anymore. But, you know, I was speaking to a Democratic analyst yesterday who was seething, truly seething. And he said, I've been fielding calls from, you know, Republicans and other Democrats all day. And what I've said is, from the very beginning, it was clear that this was a flawed candidate. And, you know, the Democrat I was speaking to is more of a centrist, more of an establishment candidate. But something I'm sure you've seen online as well, Anthony, is he said, you know what the establishment does well?

11:30We vet people. We, you know, pick people who have had a past of public service. We pick people who are proven, have a proven track record. And that means you don't get these type of surprises down the road. And there is real concern among the Democrats that this was their chance to win a critical Senate seat. And that chance might be slipping away. Yeah, absolutely. And those red flags were there. I mean, as many red flags as May Day. It was not a surprise to a lot of people who were trying to find the best candidate that that this moment would ultimately come. And if you remember, right before the primary main in June, Plattner came to Washington, D.C.

12:08And he had meetings with a lot of senior Democrats at the Capitol. And one of the things we heard from reports was that people like Elizabeth Warren asked him point blank, is there any more that might come out? And he said, well, we don't know. Obviously, people are going to make allegations. And then also asked, is there any allegations? Are there any allegations of sexual assault? And he definitively said no on that. And he has denied this allegation in particular, although when the woman saying that he was blackout drunk. He was her boyfriend, but he came to her house. There are corroborating evidence of messages she sent to people at the time, warnings she gave well before Plattner contemplated a political career, warnings she gave to another woman about having a relationship with Plattner.

12:55So it's not, there's substantiating evidence here, which is, I think, one of the reasons why a lot of Plattner's former allies have been so quick to distance themselves. But we do see, I think those fishers which were there before where the establishment said this guy's a little sketchy, but also, you know, they wanted someone more centrist, more traditional in the political sense to take on Susan Collins. And then the people on the progressive left who formed this movement around Plattner. And the reason why he won was because he connected with a lot of Mainers. I was up there and I went to some of his rallies and the people there were passionate about him.

13:34They were the ones who pulled them over the top, despite all of these red flags and all of these warnings from the Democratic establishment. And I think that is the real point here, is that this is, again, a clear example of this battle in the Democratic Party between the course that they have gone in the past and this anti-establishment fervor that we've seen really roiling the party in places like New York and recently also in Colorado, as we've talked about some of those primary elections there. And look, there's been a push for anti-establishment outsider candidates, both on the right and the left.

14:08That's, you know, the Republicans have seen similar debates in their party as well. But in the end there, Donald Trump is a unifying figure. What is it then for Democrats? And I asked another Democratic analyst about the fact that Graham Plattner, despite the earlier controversies, was still doing very well in the polls. And in the reporting that you'd see on the ground with Mainers, and you spoke to them as well, you had a number of Democrats who would say, well, look, we need someone different. We need someone who is not the establishment because look what the establishment got us. We're back to Donald Trump again for another four years.

14:40And if you wanted to create a candidate in a lab who represents perhaps the right face and the right figure for a progressive movement in Maine, you'd come up with Graham Plattner. He was an oyster farmer. He's a marine combat veteran, as you said. He's got that gruff voice and the tattoos. He's unapologetic. And he seemed to just bulldoze through those initial controversies. But again, as I saw someone say online, a Democratic analyst, when someone tells you who they are, you believe them. Yeah, Plattner was one of the leading lights of this movement that we've seen over the past year of progressive candidates coming out and challenging the establishment.

15:21And he challenged perhaps the face of the main establishment in the sitting governor of the state, Janet Mills, and beat her fairly handily. Now, however, because it looks like he might drop out of the race, all of those divisions are bubbling back up to the surface. And one of the reasons why we may not have seen Plattner drop out quite as quickly is because there's maneuvering going on behind the scenes with Plattner and his people and his movement. All these volunteers he talked about, this large volunteer army in Maine, they want the process to replace him to be one that will produce someone like him, someone who has the progressive ideology, the progressive platform of Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and all these other people who who backed him.

16:09While the Maine Democratic Party doesn't want Plattner to have anything to do with it. And I think that's probably understandable at this point because he's becoming politically toxic. But actually the head of the Maine Democratic Party just last night released a video pushing back against what she said was the undue influence that Plattner's team is trying to have on this process, this scramble to find out how to replace him. Let's listen to what she had to say. As you know, the main Democratic Party has been working around the clock to develop a process to replace our U.S. Senate nominee that is open, inclusive, transparent and fair.

16:46The integrity of this process is just as important as the outcome. And we are committed to ensuring that Democrats across our state can have confidence in both. Unfortunately, Graham Plattner's team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like. We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Plattner's team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, nor in determining what this process looks like. We have also reiterated that Graham Plattner must drop out of this race so that Democrats in Maine can focus on defeating Susan Collins this November.

17:24We look forward to making this process public as soon as Graham Plattner formally withdraws from this race. Yeah, so clearly that's very troubling to a lot of main Democrats who think, as you said, Graham Plattner should have nothing to do with what comes next. And what happens is, as you said, Anthony, there is that Monday deadline for him to drop out and then they only have two weeks to be able to select who is going to be the replacement on the ticket. That's a pretty short time frame. I couldn't help but think about, you know, that moment in 2024 when Joe Biden dropped out of the race and there was that scramble.

17:55And then we knew that Kamala Harris was going to take his place essentially on the ticket. And there was this debate. Should there be, you know, a contest among Democrats? And this feels in a way of much smaller stakes, of course, in a different situation, very different figures. But the Democrats, again, caught back in the situation of who should be the face of our party facing off against the Republican candidate. Yeah, here we go again. It's very familiar. I think the outcome, the process will be different. We're not going to see a Kamala Harris swoop in and become the de facto nominee so quickly, because mostly in Maine, there isn't anyone.

18:33I mean, I suppose Janet Mills, who was the governor, the sitting governor who ran against Plattner and then dropped out because he was just beating her tail in the polls. She could come in, but it's going to be hard for her to claim the mantle of leadership after the results of that primary race. And the fact that a lot of Maine Democrats pretty resoundingly said, we like her, we like her as governor. We don't want her, who is, she's like in her late 70s. We don't want her to be a freshman senator replacing Susan Collins, who is in her mid 70s. We want someone younger. So, I mean, I made a bunch of phone calls yesterday to some of the people I spoke with in Maine, some of the political sources I had in Maine.

19:17It seems like the most likely outcome, if Plattner does drop out before Monday, is spend the next two weeks not having a big primary because it's just too hard to put on, but also not having a smoke-filled room, closed doors, a committee of a handful of people coming forward and saying this is going to be the nominee. It might be something like a series of caucuses at various sites where voters, Democratic voters, can make their input known or a mini convention somewhere where people could come and gather. And that would give the Plattner people a chance to have their input, but then have all the Democrats who maybe were not really thrilled about Plattner, but he was at the end of the line and at the beginning of June in the primary, really the only real choice for them, have them have a chance to come forward and support someone.

20:06I think there are two big questions for me looking at that process is. One, is there enough time for a candidate to actually build a successful campaign? That was one that we asked about Kamala Harris, of course, at the time. But then also, you know, if you look at the polling, which we talked about earlier, there was a New York Times, Portland Press Herald, Siena poll that found that Graham Plattner was in a neck and neck race with Susan Collins. Does his support translate to another Democratic candidate? Does that depend on whether that candidate is as progressive as he is? Or do you have a number of Democrats who say, look, we just want to get Susan Collins out of her seat and get the seat?

20:45I mean, I wonder, you know, some of the voters that you spoke to when you were in Maine, if you see them transferring their vote to another Democrat or whether they really bought into that anti-establishment progressive movement that he represented. Yeah, a lot of people I spoke to at polling places, I think, are going to vote for whoever the Democrat is just to beat Susan Collins. And there were a lot of them who did have very real misgivings about Plattner, but were willing to swallow them and go and vote to knock out Susan Collins. Because as we said at the top, this race is so pivotal. Now going to Plattner rallies and talking to Plattner supporters who are a little conspiratorial minded sometimes, they view the establishment as being out to get them, they're out to get their candidate, they think that the establishment was trying to derail Plattner from the very beginning, they might be more reluctant to fall in line unless they feel like this process is open, that this isn't someone being forced on them, that they have a say.

21:45And probably if it's someone not necessarily of the exact same mold as Plattner, but someone who champions some of his ideas, talking about income inequality and talking about the taxing the wealthy and talking about Medicare, health care for all and talking about raising the minimum wage and affordability issues. Those are some of the things that motivate them. I think what I've also been wondering just is how this will play out on a national level. Will you have those centrist, moderate Democrats say, see, this is why we don't need outsiders. We don't need people who are candidates who are bucking the norm.

22:24We need candidates who are tried and true lawmakers or come from the grassroots of politics in the Democratic Party. Or will those progressives say, look at the successes we've had with Zoran Mamdani. Look at the successes we've had with more progressive candidates. And if you want to win back younger voters in particular, it is the more democratic socialist agenda and left wing of the Democratic Party that is ascendant. And I don't think it's going to be a question that they can answer, you know, in the few weeks that it takes to pick a candidate in Maine and maybe not by 2028 even. But it is one that they've been struggling with ever since they had Barack Obama as president and he was their candidate.

23:05Finding the true face of the party, even with President Biden, has been a really difficult kind of soul searching, gutting battle for the party. Yeah, this is going to create more problems, I think, for Democrats nationally than it solves. Obviously, Plattner was concerned for for them for quite some time. But the fact that this is blown up, they may feel like saying I told you so. But if they do that, they are going to risk really ticking off the progressives who have shown that they are where the energy is in this party right now. It's not rallying behind handpicked candidates that Chuck Schumer puts forward, the Senate minority leader from New York.

23:44They're not his people who are getting folks to turn out and volunteer. They are the people who are kind of bubbling up from within the Democratic Party, the rank and file who want fighters, who want people who are willing to boldly kind of express the progressive views, champion a cause rather than just be anti -Trump. Anti-Trump's part of it, but they want them to stand for something as well. You know what I was really surprised to see in the New York Times coverage? I wasn't aware of this at all. Many of the names that are being thrown around as possible candidates to replace Graham Plattner on the ticket are not really household names.

24:21Yes, they ran for governor, but maybe a lot of Mainers don't actually know who they are. There's one who some people are mentioning, Patrick Dempsey, formerly the sexiest man alive and the actor. I don't think he's even said he's interested, but he's from Maine. He lives there. And I was fascinated to see. So after I saw that New York Times reporting, I searched around a bit. And indeed, his name is being thrown around. Again, he would have to be interested himself. But talk about someone with, you know, really big favorability ratings and who could win. Yeah. If it's not going to be one of those established candidates who have run, then it would have to be someone who has instant name recognition, has the ability to make a big splash.

25:01I mean, I suppose he's an outsider. I don't know much about his politics and what the base say about him. But it's going to be I mean, it's going to be fascinating to see how all of this shakes out and the stakes are so high. And there is a possibility, although we've heard some of the acrimony already and we've seen some sharp elbows. But there's a possibility that when all is said and done, the main Democrats end up with a candidate who doesn't have Plattner's baggage, a replacement level Democrat, someone who may not be able to energize voters as the way that Plattner did on the grassroots, but doesn't come with as many risks.

25:42And then this race, we have three months, we have plenty of time for this to be a more traditional race once this gets settled, but is able to make this race about Susan Collins and about whether the voters in Maine want the Republicans to continue to control the U.S. Senate for Donald Trump's last two years in office. And if that's the case, they may end up in a better place as far as their chances of winning the CEDAR than before. Now, of course, this could all go off the rails and Plattner and his people could sit on their hands and feel like the process undermines their movements and that they weren't being given, being listened to.

26:25This might end up where everyone's really angry and exchanging accusations and that Susan Collins once again breezes to victory. But there is a potential there. And so that is going to be really fascinating to watch. Okay, Sumi, before we go, we got a real treat for you, a new feature on AmeriCast.

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