In short
Post–July 4 U.S. Senate turmoil ahead of November midterms—control math, Lindsey Graham’s sudden death, Mitch McConnell’s health secrecy and viral “proof of life” photo, and the collapse of Democratic candidate Grant Plattner’s Maine Senate bid.
Guests (hosts)
Willie Lowry, Paul Hunter, and Katie Simpson—CBC Washington correspondents based two blocks from the White House.
Guest backgrounds
All three are CBC political reporters covering U.S. federal politics and Senate developments.
Key claims
Senate control hinges on Democrats winning a net four seats to reach 51 (VP tiebreak). Graham died likely from an aortic dissection; FBI says no evidence of foul play, but social media conspiracy theories spread. McConnell (84) hadn’t been seen for weeks; his office released a hospital photo after speculation, and his office cites a fall, brief unconsciousness, and pneumonia. Plattner’s campaign collapsed after a sexual assault allegation; he denied it and withdrew.
Notable examples
Graham’s Ukraine/NATO trip and Zelensky meeting; “zombie memes/Weekend at Bernie’s” about McConnell; Plattner’s alleged Nazi-symbol tattoo, controversial social posts, and his Iraq/Afghanistan veteran background and oyster farming in Maine.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOPolitical Landscape Post-July 4th
0:31 to 1:50
Discussion of recent political events in the U.S., focusing on the Senate.
“We're having this moment before we all head off for whether it's vacation or backfill, mostly backfill.”
Midterm Elections and Senate Control
1:50 to 6:01
Analysis of the current Senate composition and the implications for midterm elections.
“We're CBC's Washington Correspondents, two blocks from the White House.”
Lindsey Graham's Sudden Passing
6:01 to 9:14
Exploration of the impact of Senator Lindsey Graham's death on American politics.
“Senators play a very active role in this country, 100%.”
Conspiracy Theories and Political Division
9:14 to 13:14
Discussion on the spread of conspiracy theories following Graham's death and societal reactions.
“And then you saw the sort of filtration of this moment in American politics, the zero-sum game political environment in which we live.”
Mitch McConnell's Health Speculation
13:14 to 14:00
Review of Mitch McConnell's recent health issues and public speculation surrounding it.
“And when Trump talks about the swamp and things like that, it's like politicians that you can't trust.”
Mitch McConnell's Health Speculations
14:00 to 17:36
Discussion on Mitch McConnell's health issues and public speculation.
“Lindsey Graham is just one sort of part of why this week is so consequential for the Senate.”
The Political Legacy of Mitch McConnell
17:36 to 22:52
Exploration of McConnell's political decisions and their implications.
“And in the statement that his office released, he said that he had had a fall, was unconscious briefly, was taken to hospital and then contracted pneumonia.”
Age and Transparency in Politics
22:52 to 24:28
Debate on ageism and the transparency of elected officials.
“But I think it also opens up the question of age, right?”
Cory Booker's Perspective on McConnell
24:28 to 25:41
Cory Booker's thoughts on Mitch McConnell's situation and political longevity.
“Speaking to all of this recently was a Democratic senator from New Jersey, Cory Booker.”
Collapse of Graham Plattner's Senate Campaign
25:41 to 28:00
Analysis of the issues surrounding Graham Plattner's Senate candidacy.
“Listen wherever you get your podcasts or find us on YouTube.”
Show all 13 chapters
Controversies in the Senate Race
28:00 to 29:59
Explore the various controversies surrounding Plattner's Senate campaign and their implications.
“who is a longtime Republican senator who, you know, given her track record, she has sort of been one of those senators, Republicans that has sort of worked across the aisle.”
Voter Perception and Candidate Viability
30:00 to 31:29
Discuss how voter perceptions influenced the support for Plattner despite controversies.
“Some considered them degrading, deeply, deeply controversial, and calling them controversial might even be the most generous way you can describe it.”
Challenges for the Democratic Party
31:30 to 32:08
Analyze the challenges Democrats face in finding a new candidate after Plattner's exit.
“It's 100 % a failure in vetting and they ignored it until they couldn't.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Paul Hunter:The United States is about to mark its 250th anniversary.
0:05Katie Simpson:And so on the Global Story podcast from the BBC, we're telling surprising tales of American influence on the world stage and in ordinary people's lives all across the globe.
0:15Willy Lowry:We have this ability to export our story and a lot of people have bought it.
0:20Katie Simpson:I feel like the American dream is alive, but not well.
0:23Paul Hunter:From the BBC, it's the United States at 250.
0:26Katie Simpson:Listen wherever you get your podcasts or find us on YouTube. This is a CBC Podcast.
0:34Paul Hunter:All three of us in the same room.
0:36Katie Simpson:The band is back. Once again.
0:38Paul Hunter:It feels so good.
0:39Katie Simpson:It really does feel good. I've missed you all.
0:41Paul Hunter:We're having this moment before we all head off for whether it's vacation or backfill, mostly backfill. We're going to be sort of all over the place. And that's what makes it kind of fun. But we'll still be doing the podcast.
0:53Katie Simpson:The podcast. The beauty of modern technology. There you go.
0:56Paul Hunter:So post-July 4th, it has been an incredibly eventful few weeks here in American politics. And the number one story that sort of is gripping America right now or Washington right now is what's going on with the Senate after the sudden death of longtime Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
1:12Katie Simpson:There's also the collapse of Graham Plattner's main Senate campaign for the Democrats.
1:18Willy Lowry:To former Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell finally addressing rampant speculation over his health after a lengthy absence from the public eye, complete with zombie memes and proof of life photos. It's been crazy.
1:32Paul Hunter:We are in a meme moment and you open up whatever your algorithm is feeding you right now. It is. It's not based in reality. That's for sure.
1:40Katie Simpson:The Internet is running wild.
1:42Paul Hunter:It is. It was. Yeah, exactly. As opposed to all those times when it was just so orderly and so wonderful. So this week we are asking, with midterm elections only months away, what is going on with the Senate?
1:57Katie Simpson:I'm Willie Lowry. I'm Paul Hunter.
1:59Paul Hunter:And I'm Katie Simpson. We're CBC's Washington Correspondents, two blocks from the White House.
2:12Paul Hunter:Because we are largely speaking to Canadians, Paul, I think we need to set the scene to sort of give a baseline here before we dive into our conversation. Control of the Senate is going to be determined in the midterm elections. And can you just give us a lay of the land now as we hurdle toward those elections in November?
2:28Willy Lowry:Please, Paul. The fabled and anticipated math question. It's a reason you got it.
2:35Paul Hunter:Oh, I love that you have a prop. I've got a prop.
2:37Willy Lowry:If only this run, you know, there we had a full page graphic. This is a renewed version. Remember, I pulled out my old map some time ago. I'll never forget. You love that. I do love that. A question.
2:47Katie Simpson:Is that marker or colored pencil?
2:49Willy Lowry:It's marker and blue for Democrats and red for Republican states. So what this is about. So effect is. So the Senate has 100 seats and every midterms, about a third of them come up for election. And so the question always is if one party or the other is going to gain or lose, it's they talk about seats, states rather, that are in play where it could go one way or the other. And there's a few of them, mostly Republican this time, but it's hard. It's hard to flip a state because population trends don't change that quickly in short spans of time. But to count an amount right now, 53 for Republicans, 47-ish, 45 really for Democrats and two independents who caucus with Democrats.
3:34Willy Lowry:To gain control of the Senate, getting to 50 isn't enough because the tiebreaker goes to the vice president and currently the vice president's Republican. So the magic number for Democrats is 51. This is the math part. So at 47, they talk about a net gain of four. They need to hold the states that they have and win in four Republican states. That is not easy. No. Right? It just isn't. But here we are talking about it because it is possible. A year ago, I think we said this when we talked about this in an earlier podcast. A year ago, we wouldn't be having this conversation. But here we are because there's enough there's been enough negativity around Trump, say Republicans, that that maybe this is doable.
4:20Willy Lowry:So they look at states like Maine. We'll talk about that later, I'm guessing. North Carolina, Republican state now, they kind of think they have a lock on that. Maybe Ohio. We've talked about Texas. They dream about that. Right. But if the catch is if Democrats don't hold on in Michigan or they somehow don't hold on in Georgia. They basically all the incumbents have to win. Everything's got to go their way. And they've got to end up to go back to that phrase again with a net gain of four. So that's where things stand as we approach the sort of final, you know, race to the finish line in November.
5:00Katie Simpson:At the risk of ruining the rest of this conversation and having mud on my face come November, that seems like a tall order.
5:09Willy Lowry:Yes. But the other thing in their favor is, you know, historically, and it's not always true, but historically, the party in power loses ground in the certainly in the in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, again, it's a bit more complicated because a lot depends on a lot of factors, including the candidates you've got in each state. But Democrats have reason to be optimistic, notwithstanding it's tough, notwithstanding hiccups, notwithstanding certain candidates looking at you, Maine. But it's possible. And I should say we're taping this conversation on Tuesday.
5:46Paul Hunter:And for Canadians who are listening to this, you'll so often hear us talking about the Senate, and it's so important. It is a key part of the legislative branch of the U.S. government. So essentially, these are lawmakers that, you know, hold the balance of power and whoever is in control has a really big role in setting the agenda. So not only are they part of the passing legislation process, they're also part of the key approving nominees into certain roles, whether they're Supreme Court justices or whether they're cabinet members, those kinds of things. It's a really important role.
6:19Willy Lowry:Senators play a very active role in this country, 100%.
6:23Paul Hunter:The reason we are talking about this or one of the reasons we are talking about this is today is because of the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. He was in the middle of a campaign. He was seeking his fifth term in the Senate and he died suddenly on Saturday. Willie, what is the latest that we know about what happened and how the reaction is sort of filtered through Washington?
6:45Katie Simpson:Yeah, first of all, the reaction is one of shock. Suddenly is certainly the way to phrase it. He had just been to Ukraine and to NATO the week before. He died a day after he returned. He had met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, just incredibly active, especially on the kind of foreign policy front. And his death is a real blow. He was a close confidant and ally to President Donald Trump. Preliminary reports suggest that he died of an aortic dissection. That's essentially when there's a tear in the main artery. His arteries had hardened, apparently. But that hasn't stopped the Internet from running wild.
7:30Katie Simpson:There are all sorts of conspiracy theories that he may have been killed or poisoned by a foreign entity. Think Russia, according to the Internet. Now, Trump has pretty much said no to that. But again, it is enough to prompt the FBI to announce that it was assisting local authorities in kind of, if not investigating, certainly looking into it.
7:58Willy Lowry:I don't understand that. Like they were swarming his place.
8:00Paul Hunter:Yeah. So in the immediate aftermath, and they were, so the FBI has said there's no evidence of foul play, but they were doing it out of an abundance of caution. And given that Iran had openly been threatening to kill Lindsey Graham, given the way that Russia has gone after critics and adversaries, that is what is fueling a lot of the speculation, even though all the evidence so far, you know, leads to the fact that this was a medical issue. And the thing is, I think the death of Lindsey Graham, if we sort of just take a step back, it's another one of those mirror moments for America. Because just look at how things have sort of filtered in the last couple of days.
8:39Paul Hunter:You have an immediate, immediately, in the immediate aftermath, when there's little information available, you see conspiracy theorists do what they do. And they jump onto social media. And there is a whole ecosystem. Conspiracy theorists can make money in some of these cases, you know, through whether it's clicks and views or bringing you to the website or whatever it is. There's a whole ecosystem around that. We immediately saw that that is one aspect of reaction. In the Senate, we saw a reaction where colleagues from both parties came forward to offer their condolences to humanize Lindsey Graham.
9:14Paul Hunter:And then you saw the sort of filtration of this moment in American politics, the zero-sum game political environment in which we live. It started before Donald Trump became president, but really has hardened in the Trump era of politics. And the people who disagree with Lindsey Graham's politics are on social media largely celebrating his death, mocking his death in this moment, celebrating his death because they did not like what he stood for politically.
9:46Katie Simpson:That is true, though. I would counter that with most, if not all, of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate have issued words of condolences, humanizing him, essentially saying he was a great person to work with, that they work closely with him.
Read the full transcript
10:01Paul Hunter:It's not a Democrat-Republican divide here. It is a media divide here. It is on the mainstream media. You see Democrats and Republicans mourning their friend, their colleague, talking about them in a human way. You open up social media. And it's not just Democrats and progressives who are doing this. It is a broad swath. It's a result of the zero-sum game politics that we exist in right now.
10:21Katie Simpson:I think that's a really good point. I think it's important to point out that there is no evidence that these various conspiracy theories are true. And the president himself is known to push a conspiracy here and there. He's, for the most part, kind of shut that down. Let's take a brief listen to Trump speaking shortly after Graham's death was announced. And we should point out, the two were on the phone just hours before Graham died.
10:49Paul Hunter:Well, it's devastating. I thought he was fine. He called me last night. He just got back from Ukraine. And he had a great trip. He was telling me about the trip. He was pushing very, very hard. You probably know he wanted to do the Save America Act. He was talking about that. He was full of vim and vigor. He was tired. He said, I'm tired because it's a long trip. But other than that, he was fine. After that, we heard from Mehmet Oz, Dr. Oz, who used to have a TV show but is now part of the Trump cabinet. He was asked by, I believe it was ABC News, would Lindsey Graham have known what's coming based on what we know so far from the preliminary medical report?
11:27Paul Hunter:and Dr. Oz essentially said, no, he probably wouldn't have known this was coming. This is something that sort of builds up in your system. But another senator says that one of his former staffers got a call from Lindsey Graham on Saturday night that he was having chest pains and that he had plans to be on Meet the Press the next day, which is a political talk show in Washington, D.C., of which he was a frequent guest, and that he wasn't going to seek medical attention until after he made that TV appearance and then it was too late.
11:56Willy Lowry:Can I say something else, though, about Lindsey Graham and back to the mirroring of America or American politics anyway? I mean, there will be people who I think we can agree rightly say that in no small way he is master of his own fate. He in terms of the divisive this regarding him, that people who would look at him and say, that's what is wrong with politics. Right. Right. Because Lindsey Graham, back when he ran for the White House before dropping out very quickly, I think I remember how, but it was pretty early on. But he called Donald Trump a race baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. And he didn't quite go that far after January 6th, but he had other negativities about Trump.
12:44Willy Lowry:He said, I'm out. I'm out. I'm out. That's right. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. I'm finished with Trump is what he was. Which did not last very long. Which didn't last very long and neither did last very long the first time. And Graham became kind of the Trump whisperer. But I think to many people, he symbolizes power and influence at any cost. Over principle. Over principle and over your own ideologies. And that's what I think a lot of people see Lindsey Graham as having done. And so hence the memes, hence the hate, and hence the distaste. It underlines so much about American politics. And when Trump talks about the swamp and things like that, it's like politicians that you can't trust.
13:21Willy Lowry:Well, ain't Lindsey Graham one of them?
13:24Paul Hunter:Yeah. In the eyes of his critics, you know, there are people that are angry about his advocacy for supporting Israel through the war in Gaza and some of the language he used about that and the positions he argued in favor of.
13:38Willy Lowry:Very hawkish. Very hawkish, including on Ukraine, by the way. I mean, this affects U.S. foreign policy in no small way. Again, back to Graham as the Trump whisperer. He had an influence on Trump. He did.
13:47Paul Hunter:To advocate more on behalf of Ukraine. And then his role trying to get more conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court, which we can talk about that both with Lindsey Graham and with Mitch McConnell.
14:10Paul Hunter:Lindsey Graham is just one sort of part of why this week is so consequential for the Senate. And we have to talk about Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell. Willie, he is the former Senate Majority Leader. He was hospitalized weeks ago, but his office released very little information about what happened, about his current condition. And it sparked so much intense speculation, again, conspiracy theories about what is going on until Sunday. And that's when things changed on Sunday. A bit. A bit. A bit.
14:40Katie Simpson:Did they? Again, yeah, the Internet is having a field day this week with U.S. politics. I should have invested in the Internet. I'd be rich.
14:50Paul Hunter:I heard that the Internet's on computers these days. That's what I heard. That's what I heard.
14:54Willy Lowry:All right, guys. Just trying to break your train of thought, really.
14:58Paul Hunter:Exactly. We want to distract you. So let me go.
15:01Katie Simpson:I'm going to take a step back. So McConnell hadn't cast a vote in the Senate since June 11th and hadn't been seen in public since June 14th. As you said, prompting speculations to swirl over his well-being. He's already had a well-documented health issues. There was that moment where he froze in front of the cameras for several seconds. It felt like hours, but it was a very unnerving moment in scene for lots of people who were there and saw it on TV. So there was already that kind of history, again, that prompted the Internet to question his well-being, question whether he was even alive or not.
15:42Willy Lowry:How twisted is it that for almost a month, no one in Washington has had any idea what happened to Mitch McConnell?
15:49Katie Simpson:You know, just the things that I've heard and seen from some friends is that he's obviously not doing well, but don't know if he's alive or has passed away.
15:57Paul Hunter:Listen, he has a taxpayer funded role. His salary is paid for by all of us. I think that there's an obligation to give us more transparency.
16:05Katie Simpson:This isn't really only about Mitch McConnell. The whole point of public office is he's got a job to do on behalf of his constituents. And so finally, on Sunday, his office releases this statement, and it's a photo of Mitch McConnell sitting in a hospital bed next to his wife, Elaine Chao, with his hand on a newspaper, very much like a proof of life photo that a kidnapper would send to a family. I mean, really, really bizarre. So bizarre, in fact, that not just the Internet was wondering whether this was a real photo, but you had, in fact, senators themselves, his colleagues questioning whether it was real or not.
16:48Katie Simpson:I want us to take a brief listen to Republican Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin speaking with Real America's Voices, Eric Balling. Now, Mitch McConnell, can we talk a little Mitch McConnell, too, because I saw a picture that I'm not sure I believe is actually Mitch McConnell from the hospital. After what I've heard and what I've seen, do you believe Mitch McConnell is the one who said, I'm OK, here's the picture of my wife, Elaine Chao, and I in that hospital bed?
17:13Paul Hunter:Well, I just heard from some some other source that was an older photo. So I really don't know. I haven't talked to Mitch.
17:21Katie Simpson:I certainly wish he and his family well. I hope he can recover. Important to note here, Johnson later retracted that comment, calling it just a rumor and to discount it. But I think that speaks to where we are right now in the U.S., in the Senate. There is real concern over McConnell's well-being. And in the statement that his office released, he said that he had had a fall, was unconscious briefly, was taken to hospital and then contracted pneumonia. He says he's feeling well, he's recovering, but he's still not well enough to return to work. Important to note here, though, that McConnell is set to retire in January.
18:00Willy Lowry:But again, it underlines the bizarro world that we're in right now in this country in terms of politics, right? I mean, you did the Lindsey Graham piece on Sunday for the National, right? So I did the Mitch McConnell piece for the National on Friday. And I was looking at all the memes that came out. And they were like the zombies and with eyes, you know, scotch taped open and things like that. Like Weekend at Bernie's. They do like Weekend at Bernie's. I had Weekend at Bernie's in my piece, but there were some that were so disgusting. Oh, yeah. I've got a pretty high level for disgusting stuff.
18:26Willy Lowry:And I said, no, no, we can't even. That's next week's episode. That's next week's episode. We can't put that stuff on TV. No. The speed at which the hate. And again, right, there's even more than Lindsey Graham. Mitch McConnell is well hated by Democrats. On both sides. On both sides. He's done a lot to create the sort of, again, to use the divisive word, he's nothing if not divisive. And he's done a lot of stuff to bring himself a lot of political derision, let's say. But the speed at which this kind of stuff comes out, and again, it's driven by the social media and all that kind of stuff, of course.
19:03Willy Lowry:But it is, and the conspiracy theories, and the question of whether this photo is real or not, even though that's being debunked by smart organizations, right? It speaks to the time that we're in, and it just seems to be getting worse and worse and worse and worse and worse.
19:16Paul Hunter:There's no backing it up. The toothpaste can't go back into the tube. And again, it comes down to this moment that we exist in, the zero-sum game politics where you either win or lose, and it doesn't matter what the loss amounts to. A loss is a loss, whether it is people delighting in the death of someone or the illness of someone, being glad that they're not going to be able to vote for those policies and that kind of thing. And it's not a party sort of thing here. It is an American political moment.
19:46Willy Lowry:Interestingly, I'll just say about McConnell that he is at the same time arguably the most consequential U.S. senator of this generation, which is a loosely defined term at this point. But he is the reason that the Supreme Court for a generation will be conservative. He blocked Barack Obama's nominee from getting to the Senate floor and put all his chips in on Donald Trump winning in 2016, which he did. And then in came a conservative justice. And then he squeezed in at the end of Trump's first term, the ability to get another conservative justice after Peter Ginsburg died, which was the exact same reason that he had rejected Obama.
20:26Katie Simpson:He flipped himself.
20:27Willy Lowry:And if you're a Republican, you're saying right on because you gamed the system in order to get the Supreme Court the way we Republicans want. But at the same time, he had a falling out with Donald Trump at the Republican convention. What was the year that we went to the Republican in Milwaukee? 20, 24.
20:46Paul Hunter:24, the most recent one? Yeah. Yeah.
20:48Willy Lowry:Yeah. So I was there. I happened to be at one of the doors going into the convention floor and McConnell walked in and he was standing right next to me and he just stood there and stopped. And then people noticed him and they started to boo.
21:00Paul Hunter:Really?
21:00Willy Lowry:And I thought he's there having created the Supreme Court that Republicans wanted.
21:05Paul Hunter:So badly wanted.
21:06Willy Lowry:And then he fell out of favor with Trump and MAGA and he stood in his last moment in one of those conventions, I guess. and he was booed and then he turned around and walked out. It was something to behold.
21:17Paul Hunter:To go back to the Obama thing. So Mitch McConnell, he was either the Senate Majority Leader or he would have been the Senate Majority Leader at that time. And it was very close to the 2016 election and there was a spot on the Supreme Court and it was supposed to go to Merrick Garland.
21:32Willy Lowry:It wasn't that close. It was an election year, but it was earlier in the year. That was why Democrats lost their mind.
21:38Paul Hunter:And so Mitch McConnell refused to start the process, the formal process in the Senate to allow a vote so this new justice could come in. And then that is what prevented Merrick Garland from being a Supreme Court justice. Instead, he went on to become the attorney general under the Biden administration. You fast forward to the end of Donald Trump's first term. Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies suddenly and unexpectedly, though we did know that her health had been failing at that point.
22:04Willy Lowry:But Obama tried to get her to retire and she wouldn't.
22:07Katie Simpson:But she died in, like, I think, September. I mean, it was right at the end.
22:11Willy Lowry:And in comes Amy Coney Barrett.
22:12Paul Hunter:And he squeezed her in there, made that happen. And it happened. And look at all of the different things that have happened at the U.S. Supreme Court. So what's going on with Mitch McConnell, I know that we sort of went down into sort of his legacy route. But the lack of information about his condition and the way that the Internet sort of filled the void with conspiracy theories. Does that, Paul, do you think that starts, opens up a new conversation that needs to be had that people who are in these positions of authority, what information they owe to voters in order to stop this from happening?
22:50Willy Lowry:Yes. And there have been calls for transparency even from the governor of Kentucky, right? Wanting to know more. But I think it also opens up the question of age, right? I mean, he's 84. It's, you know, ageism is a thing, right? But I think exactly half the U.S. Senate is age 65 or more. Chuck Grassley is 92.
23:14Katie Simpson:Median, the average age for Republicans is 64.5. The average age for Democrats, 66.
23:20Paul Hunter:That seems low, actually. That seems like lower than I actually was.
23:23Katie Simpson:Yeah.
23:23Paul Hunter:But no, I believe it. I believe it. I'm just saying.
23:25Willy Lowry:In the post, you know, I think this conversation really began with Biden in terms of bringing it to the fore. And now Trump. Right. And so you had an 80 ish president followed by an 80 ish president followed by this recognition that they're all old. And that has been you know, there's nothing wrong with being old. I'm just going to say said the oldest guy in this room. Along with age comes wisdom. Not a day, not a day past 40. But there is a growing chorus of people in this country who say enough is enough. In Canada, we have 75 years and you're done, right? And there is, I think Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff to Barack Obama, former mayor of Chicago, is calling for 75 to be the cutoff.
24:11Willy Lowry:Are you though?
24:12Katie Simpson:Not everybody ages the same way, right? And so –
24:16Willy Lowry:I just think there are – more and more Americans are starting to think about this because of recent political history and current. But will anything be done about it? I suspect not is my guess. Speaking to all of this recently was a Democratic senator from New Jersey, Cory Booker. Let's give a listen to what he had to say. Do you know anything about where Mitch McConnell is? And do you think Mitch McConnell should step aside? I know nothing about where Mitch McConnell is. This is unfortunately just an issue of politics in general. People don't know when to gracefully step aside. I've seen people make that mistake on both sides of the aisle.
24:54Willy Lowry:Well, I've been advised by people who left here, as one senator once told me, leave while you still have a third act. Don't let them carry you off the floor. At the end of the day, that kind of sums it up.
25:15Paul Hunter:The United States is about to mark its 250th anniversary.
25:19Katie Simpson:And so on the Global Story podcast from the BBC, we're telling surprising tales of American influence on the world stage and in ordinary people's lives all across the globe.
25:30Willy Lowry:We have this ability to export our story and a lot of people have bought it.
25:35Katie Simpson:I feel like the American dream is alive, but not well. From the BBC, it's the United States at 250. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or find us on YouTube. So finally, we cannot talk about the Senate and what's been transpiring there without covering the collapse of Graham Plattner's Senate race in Maine. Katie, can you take us through what Plattner actually represented to the Democrats and how it all came crashing down in really such spectacular fashion?
26:06Paul Hunter:I think this is a very public failure in vetting for the Democrats. Perhaps there are lessons that they may choose to learn out of this. I think it also highlights the fact that Democrats recognize that they have a very big problem with men. Men do not want to vote for them. And we've seen the Republican Party court male voters using masculinity, traditional masculinity to bring men to the party, which traditionally a lot of men have voted Republican. That's not a new kind of thing. But the way that Donald Trump and his cabinet and the way that they have sort of branded it, I think about things like the UFC fight at the White House, those kinds of things.
26:49Paul Hunter:And they've really sort of made it, you know, if you're a manly man, you vote Republican, you vote Trump. And it illustrates what's gone on with Graham Plattner, a complete disaster that should have truly been predictable. There were so many red flags. There were red flags, but also red flags in a moment where red flags don't affect other people in the same way. So Graham Plattner, for Canadians who may have heard the name but don't necessarily know all of the details, he is no longer in the race. I think one of the most the reason why, which I think we must emphasize right at the top, is he is accused by someone he had an on again, off again relationship with of sexual assault.
27:29Paul Hunter:And she's come forward in in recent days with her story going on the record public about it. And she in her words, she said she didn't want to be known in public as a rape victim. And she talked about how she was sort of going through an ethical dilemma in her mind because she supports his politics, but she doesn't support him as the person. So she spoke to Politico and described her experience with Grant Plattner, which Grant Plattner denies. He says this did not happen. He announced he's stepping down to be the candidate for the Democrats in the race to become the senator for Maine up against Susan Collins, who is a longtime Republican senator who, you know, given her track record, she has sort of been one of those senators, Republicans that has sort of worked across the aisle.
28:14Paul Hunter:But there's a frustration in this moment with some of the choices that she's made previously, particularly when it comes to the Supreme Court. So Democrats see it as a moment where they can possibly take out a sitting senator and flip one of those seats, which, again, they're looking for that net gain of four. She's one of the senators they've targeted. So Plattner is in recent days accused of sexual assault, a story that is shared on the record. He denies it, but he decides, OK, I'm out. It is it comes after weeks and weeks and months and months of scandal plaguing his campaign. But every controversy that came up along the way, he was able to not just maintain support, but build momentum.
28:56Paul Hunter:So Plattner is a former combat veteran. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He's talked openly about his extreme severe struggles with mental health, with PTSD and with substance abuse problems. And he first came to the attention of Democratic organizers as he's back in the United States. He's now working as an oyster farmer in Maine. He becomes known as a progressive voice in the community. And it's the Democrats themselves that approach him, asking, sort of courting him to try and consider running. And, you know, once that that happens, that he launches this campaign, he gets on board, he launches the campaign.
29:37Paul Hunter:This is when it starts pretty early. First, he's got a tattoo that looks like that is known to be a Nazi symbol. He says covered up, covered up. And he says that, you know, this is he didn't know what it meant and that he got it when he'd been drinking with his buddies. And, you know, it didn't stop the campaign there. And then the next big sort of drop to come was a series of posts on social media, on Reddit and other social media that were derogatory. Some considered them degrading, deeply, deeply controversial, and calling them controversial might even be the most generous way you can describe it.
30:10Paul Hunter:But again, the campaign pushed ahead, pushed ahead, pushed again. It was drip, drip, drip of problem because even with all of these things going on, he continued to draw crowds. Massive crowds.
30:23Katie Simpson:And was polling ahead of Collins.
30:25Paul Hunter:of Susan Collins.
30:26Willy Lowry:He was the savior in spite of all that, or that's how he was seen. But in Maine, savior writ large, because Maine is such a key state in the midterms for the Senate. But that complicates things a lot when you see, like to go back to 2016, covering the rise of Trump, I would go to, you know, in New Hampshire, we tried to get into a Trump rally just to see what this guy looked like, because he's not going to, but the crowds, like something's going on here's what you thought. And I think that's what Dems saw with Plattner and that blinded them to all these other flashing red lights because people are voters are coming out to see this guy.
31:07Willy Lowry:And maybe he, if, if, if all these negatives don't matter for Trump, and we can go down the list of things that he sort of was Teflon regarding, maybe the Dems just said to themselves, well, I guess that's where the voting public is these days. They can overlook all this stuff.
31:23Paul Hunter:And that's where – and this is our version of that as they try to push ahead.
31:27Katie Simpson:Yeah. I mean they clearly willfully ignored all of the red flags. It's a failure in vetting. It's 100 % a failure in vetting and they ignored it until they couldn't.
31:36Willy Lowry:They kind of thought they had Maine in the bag I think up until all of this. Absolutely. And so if they've got – this is very complicated for them now. They've got to find a new candidate. That's someone who will attract crowds the way Plattner did. and that's given the amount of run, sorry to get into the jargon, but the amount of runway left, that's hard.
31:59Paul Hunter:This is probably gonna be the last time all three of us are in the studio together for a little bit. I'm gonna be in Toronto and Ottawa. I know you guys are both gonna be on the road doing, filling in for other people and other jobs and going on some vacation at some point. Ooh la la vacation.
32:10Willy Lowry:I mean, here's to hoping. Thankfully and helpfully, we have a wonderful lineup of CBC, Washington correspondents joining us over the coming weeks. Mike Crawley, Katie Nicholson, and Jamie Poisson, the host of Front Burner, all set to join us in the fun at some point. Also, Drake and The Weeknd, apparently. You're going to be away on those. It's too bad, really, because they're going to be here co-hosting.
32:33Katie Simpson:I'm missing Toronto's finest. Exactly. Oh, well, that makes me sad. But as always, if you have something that you'd like to ask or feedback about what you're hearing, please do send us an email at washingtonpod, all one word, at cbc.ca. That's WashingtonPod at CBC.ca or leave us a comment on Spotify.
32:53Willy Lowry:And if you like what you're hearing, spread the word. Tell a friend about this podcast and follow us on your favorite podcast app to never miss an episode. And send us questions. We like answering questions. So send us a listener questions. Paul likes answering questions. I like answering questions.
33:07Paul Hunter:Send them to Paul. Paul.hunter.
33:09Katie Simpson:And if you send the right question, you might get personalized mail.
33:14Paul Hunter:From Paul.
33:14Katie Simpson:Snail mail. Snail mail.
33:16Paul Hunter:All right. That is it from us. Okay, bye, everybody.
33:19Katie Simpson:See you guys.
From the publisher
Three major news stories about the U.S. Senate are sparking questions about the upcoming fall midterms. Washington correspondents Paul Hunter, Katie Simpson and Willy Lowry discuss the death of Republican Lindsey Graham, the ongoing absence of Republican Mitch McConnell and the campaign collapse of Democratic senate candidate Graham Platner.
