July 11, 2026 • 13 mins
-
Political Crisis and Party Strategy
- Democrats are scrambling to save a potentially important Senate seat after losing their nominee.
-
Impact of Public Allegations
- Misconduct allegations can dramatically alter a political campaign, particularly when they affect electability.
-
Conflict Between Outsiders and Party Establishments
- Platner is presented as framing himself as a grassroots outsider battling entrenched political forces.
-
Media Influence
- The role of media coverage is shaping public opinion and political outcomes.
-
Electoral Consequences
- Challenges Democrats face in finding a replacement candidate and rebuilding a campaign before Election Day.
-
Platner faced multiple controversies, including:
- Resurfaced social media posts.
- Scrutiny surrounding a tattoo alleged to resemble a Nazi symbol.
- Allegations from former partners regarding abusive behavior.
- Sexual assault and rape accusations, which Platner repeatedly denied.
-
Democratic leaders initially continued supporting him despite earlier controversies.
-
Support rapidly disappeared when polling indicated he might no longer be able to win.
-
Prominent Democrats, party organizations, and donors withdrew support, funding, and campaign resources.
-
Platner announced his withdrawal while maintaining his innocence and claiming he was targeted by:
- The political establishment.
- Corporate media.
- Democratic Party leadership.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
When they go low, we go high.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
The question is when Democrats go high, do they win?
I believe that the accusations are awful and that they
are disqualifying for a political candidate.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
If true.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The question is is that was this an orchestrated thing?
And both of them can be true. It can be
real and it can be orchestrated.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Good Saturday morning. Nice to have you with us on
the forty seven Morning Update, and we've got a big
story for you. Grant Platner has dropped out of the
race in Maine. So what comes next for the Democratic
Party and what does this mean for the GOP chances
of holding power in the Senate. We break it down
for you. It's the forty seven Morning Update and it
starts right now.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Story number one, Well, it finally happened.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
After days of mounting pressure, grand has dropped out of
the main Senate race, leaving Democrats scrambling to save one
of the races they believe gave them their best chance
to flip a Republican Senate seat, which could easily mean
them having the majority in the Senate. After the midterm elections.
But before we get to what happened next, let's remember
(01:19):
exactly what brought us to this point. This wasn't one controversy,
it was a cascade. Platner's campaign had already been rocked
by resurface social media posts that generated massive backlash. Then
came the scrutiny over at tattoo, a ss Nazi tattoo. Then,
(01:39):
of course the candidate said, oh, I just got it
well intoxicated in the Marines. It just happened to resemble
the Naziss symbol, but he didn't really know it. But
then later he covered it up. Former partners then came
out and made allegations about abusive behavior and non consensual
sexual conduct rape. Finally, formal girlfriend publicly accused him of
(02:02):
sexually assaulting her in twenty twenty one, an allegation that
Platner has repeatedly and categorically denied. Now, as all those
allegations mounted, the political support was solid until the very end,
when pulling that has showed that Graham may not be
able to win the race. And that is when things changed. Overnight.
(02:24):
Bernie Sanders, who stood by him no matter what until
the poll numbers switched called for him to step aside.
Then Senate Democratic leaders with drew their support and said
the money would be shut off to his campaign. Progressive
organizations who stood by him through everything, once they saw
the poll numbers, they abandoned him instantly and helped destroy him.
(02:45):
Then the main Democratic Party concluded he could no longer
be their nominee, shutting off the money. And then Graham
Platner came out and was forced to say this.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
Everyone, it's cramp Platner here. I think, as many of
you know, over the past couple of days, I have
faced some very serious allegations, and I just want to
make it clear this is all false. The things that
have been claimed did not happen. It's not real. It
(03:19):
has placed an immense amount of weight on me as
I think about what needs to happen now. Amy and
I are regular people. We were not looking for this experience.
We were not looking to get into politics. We had
(03:42):
no desire to run for office. I just want you
to think about what you would do as a regular
person in a position where a much larger world, large
forces we're working against you personally to accuse you of
(04:05):
the worst thing that a person could do and it
was not remotely true. I learned about this through press
inquiries with no time to truly respond, no time for investigations,
(04:26):
before a corporate media system and the political establishment got
to act as judge, jury, and executioner. Accusations are supposed
to be the beginning of things, not the end. I
(04:48):
think it's really important to understand why this is happening
in the timeline, why this is happening right now, much
like October when the first attack started, much like the
news that was created the week before the primary. There
(05:08):
is a reason that this is happening now. I only
have until July thirteenth until I am officially the nominee.
This was the last week to try to get me
off of the ballot, and that's why this is occurring.
(05:32):
It's not the false allegations though that have brought us
to where we are. It's the fact that they are
being used by the political establishment to put structural pressure
on us. We live in a political system that is
(05:54):
not built for normal people. It is a system that
is built truly to make sure that movements like ours
cannot flourish, that if they begin to succeed, they can
be crushed.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
What we have accomplished here.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
You made possible the people of Maine, the volunteers, the voters,
the grassroots donors, and I have all the faith in
the world that we could win if we could continue
to harness that. But the brutal political reality is that
(06:38):
they are going to take everything away from us. Those
in power who have the ability to do so are
using these allegations as an excuse to take away all
of the things that we need to run a campaign.
We are going to lose our ability to fundraise, we
(07:02):
are going to lose our ability to access voter data.
We are going to lose all of the things that
any campaign needs on the basic level simply to function.
Larger organizations, the national level, Party, the bigger donor networks,
(07:24):
they have all committed.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
To spending no money in this race.
Speaker 5 (07:28):
If I'm in it, they would rather see Susan Collins
win than have me be the next Senator from Maine.
What comes next needs to come from the people. Needs
(07:49):
to come from the people of Maine. Needs to come
from the voters, who on June ninth, at a strength
of over one hundred and fifty thousand, the largest number
in the history of Maine primaries, said no to this
kind of politics. Voted for a politics that would actually
represent them. Voted against the political system, against the donor class,
(08:14):
against the entrenched forces.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
And I'm not asking for how this process is going
to work.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
I'm not trying to dictate to anyone who it should
be or how we get there. But I will say this,
it needs to be open, transparent, and democratic. It needs
to be reflecting the will and the values of the
people that built this movement, the people that showed up
on June ninth. People in DC need to stay in DC.
(08:47):
Decisions should not be made in back rooms by people
in places of political power. Party apparatics are not the
ones to make these decisions. These decisions need to be
made in the open by the people of this state,
the people who got us here. This is exactly the
(09:08):
kind of political system that everyone voted against on June ninth.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Isn't it interesting?
Speaker 4 (09:14):
The Grand Platinum has been over the establishment pressure dropped
out of the race, but is calling them out, saying
you forced me out, and the media. The dude, by
the way, that pretended to be a big old fighter
totally surrendered. Now he's maintaining that all I want to
make this clear all the allegations are false. He's saying,
(09:36):
I just learned about them through the media because they
wanted me out. Now the Democrats, to be clear, they're
not exactly celebrating at this moment either.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
They're panicked. This wasn't just any Senate race.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
For months, national Democrats considered Maine one of their very
best pickup opportunities in the country. The Republican Susan Collins
has always been one of the toughest Republicans for Democrats
to defeat, but they believe that Platner's outsider campaign had
really energized voters in a new, unique way. Now, just
(10:09):
months before election day, that entire strategy has collapsed, and
instead of spending that summer that they were hoping for
attacking and talking about Susan Collins, Democrats are holding emergency
meetings trying to figure out who their nominee will even be.
The main Democratic party now has only a narrow legal
window to formally replace Platner on the ballot, with a
(10:32):
party convention expected to choose a new nominee before the
state's deadline. Now there's already several names that are being floated.
Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson has announced he's running
for the nomination. Former CDC director Narov Shah is also considering,
we're being told entering the race. Jordan Wood is also
(10:54):
weighing a campaign, and there's many other names are actually
circulating as I'm talking to you right now. Even the
actor this isn't a joke. Patrick Dempsey had to publicly
say he wasn't interested because the speculation was so intense.
That's how chaotic this has actually become. Now when Hollywood
(11:14):
actors have to deny that they're running for Senate, you know,
a political party is searching for anyone that can stabilize
a disaster of a race. And here's the question Democrats
now have to answer, how did we get here? Because
let's be honest, many of the controversy surrounding Platner weren't new.
Questions about his online history, questions about his tattoo, questions
(11:37):
about his past relationships. Much of that had already surfaced
before the Democratic primary. Voters made him their nominee. Yeah,
they picked him knowing all of this. And many prominent
Democrats are actually even continuing to back him because they
believe he gave them the strongest chance to win. It
only was because of these new allegations from a Democratic
(12:02):
woman who said that he raped her. Was it finally
time for Democrats to call it quits. Platner, of course
saying he's innocent, saying those allegations are false over and
over again. He's also now saying he's the real victim
of the liberal media and of the Democratic establishment that
(12:24):
forced him out of the race. So if you're wanting
to know what this looks like now in a major election,
Republicans suddenly have a chance to campaign against a Democratic
party that has spent the last week consumed by internal
turmoil instead of focusing on the general election. And Democrats
have now got to introduce an entirely new statewide nominee
(12:45):
with very little time to build, fundraising, organize volunteers, to
find even a message and challenge an incumbent senator. That's
incredibly difficult to do. And Democrats right now they're hoping
you'll forget about Graham Platner forever. But the reality is
he was the highlight of the Democrats cycle of twenty
(13:06):
twenty six. Let that sync in now. The race is
not over, but the clock is ticking and there's no
clear consensus candidate. One thing is for sure, Democrats are
going to rally like never before with money probably coming
in from all over the country, and that is where
the story is at this hour.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
When they go low, we go high.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
The question is when Democrats go high, do they win?
I believe that the accusations are awful and that they
are disqualifying for a political candidate.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
If true.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The question is is that was this an orchestrated thing?
And both of them can be true. It can be
real and it can be orchestrated.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Good Saturday morning. Nice to have you with us on
the forty seven Morning Update, and we've got a big
story for you. Grant Platner has dropped out of the
race in Maine. So what comes next for the Democratic
Party and what does this mean for the GOP chances
of holding power in the Senate. We break it down
for you. It's the forty seven Morning Update and it
starts right now.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Story number one, Well, it finally happened.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
After days of mounting pressure, grand has dropped out of
the main Senate race, leaving Democrats scrambling to save one
of the races they believe gave them their best chance
to flip a Republican Senate seat, which could easily mean
them having the majority in the Senate. After the midterm elections.
But before we get to what happened next, let's remember
(01:19):
exactly what brought us to this point. This wasn't one controversy,
it was a cascade. Platner's campaign had already been rocked
by resurface social media posts that generated massive backlash. Then
came the scrutiny over at tattoo, a ss Nazi tattoo. Then,
(01:39):
of course the candidate said, oh, I just got it
well intoxicated in the Marines. It just happened to resemble
the Naziss symbol, but he didn't really know it. But
then later he covered it up. Former partners then came
out and made allegations about abusive behavior and non consensual
sexual conduct rape. Finally, formal girlfriend publicly accused him of
(02:02):
sexually assaulting her in twenty twenty one, an allegation that
Platner has repeatedly and categorically denied. Now, as all those
allegations mounted, the political support was solid until the very end,
when pulling that has showed that Graham may not be
able to win the race. And that is when things changed. Overnight.
(02:24):
Bernie Sanders, who stood by him no matter what until
the poll numbers switched called for him to step aside.
Then Senate Democratic leaders with drew their support and said
the money would be shut off to his campaign. Progressive
organizations who stood by him through everything, once they saw
the poll numbers, they abandoned him instantly and helped destroy him.
(02:45):
Then the main Democratic Party concluded he could no longer
be their nominee, shutting off the money. And then Graham
Platner came out and was forced to say this.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
Everyone, it's cramp Platner here. I think, as many of
you know, over the past couple of days, I have
faced some very serious allegations, and I just want to
make it clear this is all false. The things that
have been claimed did not happen. It's not real. It
(03:19):
has placed an immense amount of weight on me as
I think about what needs to happen now. Amy and
I are regular people. We were not looking for this experience.
We were not looking to get into politics. We had
(03:42):
no desire to run for office. I just want you
to think about what you would do as a regular
person in a position where a much larger world, large
forces we're working against you personally to accuse you of
(04:05):
the worst thing that a person could do and it
was not remotely true. I learned about this through press
inquiries with no time to truly respond, no time for investigations,
(04:26):
before a corporate media system and the political establishment got
to act as judge, jury, and executioner. Accusations are supposed
to be the beginning of things, not the end. I
(04:48):
think it's really important to understand why this is happening
in the timeline, why this is happening right now, much
like October when the first attack started, much like the
news that was created the week before the primary. There
(05:08):
is a reason that this is happening now. I only
have until July thirteenth until I am officially the nominee.
This was the last week to try to get me
off of the ballot, and that's why this is occurring.
(05:32):
It's not the false allegations though that have brought us
to where we are. It's the fact that they are
being used by the political establishment to put structural pressure
on us. We live in a political system that is
(05:54):
not built for normal people. It is a system that
is built truly to make sure that movements like ours
cannot flourish, that if they begin to succeed, they can
be crushed.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
What we have accomplished here.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
You made possible the people of Maine, the volunteers, the voters,
the grassroots donors, and I have all the faith in
the world that we could win if we could continue
to harness that. But the brutal political reality is that
(06:38):
they are going to take everything away from us. Those
in power who have the ability to do so are
using these allegations as an excuse to take away all
of the things that we need to run a campaign.
We are going to lose our ability to fundraise, we
(07:02):
are going to lose our ability to access voter data.
We are going to lose all of the things that
any campaign needs on the basic level simply to function.
Larger organizations, the national level, Party, the bigger donor networks,
(07:24):
they have all committed.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
To spending no money in this race.
Speaker 5 (07:28):
If I'm in it, they would rather see Susan Collins
win than have me be the next Senator from Maine.
What comes next needs to come from the people. Needs
(07:49):
to come from the people of Maine. Needs to come
from the voters, who on June ninth, at a strength
of over one hundred and fifty thousand, the largest number
in the history of Maine primaries, said no to this
kind of politics. Voted for a politics that would actually
represent them. Voted against the political system, against the donor class,
(08:14):
against the entrenched forces.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
And I'm not asking for how this process is going
to work.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
I'm not trying to dictate to anyone who it should
be or how we get there. But I will say this,
it needs to be open, transparent, and democratic. It needs
to be reflecting the will and the values of the
people that built this movement, the people that showed up
on June ninth. People in DC need to stay in DC.
(08:47):
Decisions should not be made in back rooms by people
in places of political power. Party apparatics are not the
ones to make these decisions. These decisions need to be
made in the open by the people of this state,
the people who got us here. This is exactly the
(09:08):
kind of political system that everyone voted against on June ninth.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Isn't it interesting?
Speaker 4 (09:14):
The Grand Platinum has been over the establishment pressure dropped
out of the race, but is calling them out, saying
you forced me out, and the media. The dude, by
the way, that pretended to be a big old fighter
totally surrendered. Now he's maintaining that all I want to
make this clear all the allegations are false. He's saying,
(09:36):
I just learned about them through the media because they
wanted me out. Now the Democrats, to be clear, they're
not exactly celebrating at this moment either.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
They're panicked. This wasn't just any Senate race.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
For months, national Democrats considered Maine one of their very
best pickup opportunities in the country. The Republican Susan Collins
has always been one of the toughest Republicans for Democrats
to defeat, but they believe that Platner's outsider campaign had
really energized voters in a new, unique way. Now, just
(10:09):
months before election day, that entire strategy has collapsed, and
instead of spending that summer that they were hoping for
attacking and talking about Susan Collins, Democrats are holding emergency
meetings trying to figure out who their nominee will even be.
The main Democratic party now has only a narrow legal
window to formally replace Platner on the ballot, with a
(10:32):
party convention expected to choose a new nominee before the
state's deadline. Now there's already several names that are being floated.
Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson has announced he's running
for the nomination. Former CDC director Narov Shah is also considering,
we're being told entering the race. Jordan Wood is also
(10:54):
weighing a campaign, and there's many other names are actually
circulating as I'm talking to you right now. Even the
actor this isn't a joke. Patrick Dempsey had to publicly
say he wasn't interested because the speculation was so intense.
That's how chaotic this has actually become. Now when Hollywood
(11:14):
actors have to deny that they're running for Senate, you know,
a political party is searching for anyone that can stabilize
a disaster of a race. And here's the question Democrats
now have to answer, how did we get here? Because
let's be honest, many of the controversy surrounding Platner weren't new.
Questions about his online history, questions about his tattoo, questions
(11:37):
about his past relationships. Much of that had already surfaced
before the Democratic primary. Voters made him their nominee. Yeah,
they picked him knowing all of this. And many prominent
Democrats are actually even continuing to back him because they
believe he gave them the strongest chance to win. It
only was because of these new allegations from a Democratic
(12:02):
woman who said that he raped her. Was it finally
time for Democrats to call it quits. Platner, of course
saying he's innocent, saying those allegations are false over and
over again. He's also now saying he's the real victim
of the liberal media and of the Democratic establishment that
(12:24):
forced him out of the race. So if you're wanting
to know what this looks like now in a major election,
Republicans suddenly have a chance to campaign against a Democratic
party that has spent the last week consumed by internal
turmoil instead of focusing on the general election. And Democrats
have now got to introduce an entirely new statewide nominee
(12:45):
with very little time to build, fundraising, organize volunteers, to
find even a message and challenge an incumbent senator. That's
incredibly difficult to do. And Democrats right now they're hoping
you'll forget about Graham Platner forever. But the reality is
he was the highlight of the Democrats cycle of twenty
(13:06):
twenty six. Let that sync in now. The race is
not over, but the clock is ticking and there's no
clear consensus candidate. One thing is for sure, Democrats are
going to rally like never before with money probably coming
in from all over the country, and that is where
the story is at this hour.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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