Graham Platner Faces Calls to Exit Maine Senate Race

Ryan and Dana talk with National Correspondent Rory O’Neill about growing calls for Graham Platner to withdraw from Maine's U.S. Senate race following a sexual assault allegation. They discuss Platner's response and his decision to consider the future of his campaign.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So Ryan Gorman Show podcast presented by Farah and Farah
Accident Attorneys from Tampa.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
We're joined by her national correspondent, Rory O'Neil Graham Platner,
I gotta be honest, I am. I am shocked that
more disturbing allegations keep dropping about a guy with the
Nazi tattoo. I did not see this coming. What now?

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yeah, So, this woman has come forward to multiple media organizations,
doing a sit down interview with Jake Tapper at CNN
laying out what happened. She claims in twenty twenty one,
she and Platner were sort of on and off dating
and that he came to her home drunk, uninvited and
forced himself on her.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
That's her story.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Platner released a two minute video denying the allegation, saying
they're gonna sort of regroup with the campaign. There's a
Monday deadline under main party laws where Platner can drop
out before then at five o'clock on Monday, then the
party has two weeks to find somebody else. All the
Democrats who endorse them, with a couple of exceptions but
that could change, have already pulled their endorsements. No federal

(01:07):
money or no national party money is going to go
into the race. I suspect he'll be dropping out later today.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
And that seems to be the new pattern with Democrats,
like they pick a bad candidate and then they push
for that candidate after they get the nomination to drop out. Right,
what is that?

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:26):
They already knew enough about him, the Nazi tattoo, all
the social media posts that he had made in the past,
that app that he was on, he was sexting all
these women while he was married. We had the first
allegation that came out about the ex girlfriend saying that
he locked her in a bedroom.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Like that wasn't enough. No, no, They kept saying, no, no, no,
this is who we need, and now you're stuck and
they're going to try to weasel their way out by
getting him to drop out and getting somebody else. I'm
assuming it would be the governor, right, Jana Mills.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Oh no, she's probably on the bottom of the list.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
She's probably not left enough.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah. Yeah, again, So thet so main Democrats, there's a
couple of candidates for governor who came up short that
are probably more likely candidates for governor because Mills is
being forced out, so the Democratic primary for governor just
wrapped up, So the thinking one of those might be
probably and Nick Dreamy from the Medical show.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
Oh, Patrick, he does have connections to Maine because some
of my friends have met him, and I'm very jealous
of that.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
I love him. He's in a good show, A Memory
of a Killer on Fox.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
Oh, I haven't seen that.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
He's got a He runs a main healthcare charity and
he's got roots of Maine.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
So there's talk about trying to enlist him. Oh he
could be Oh my gosh, that would be amazing.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
If he ran for Senate, he.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Would sweep the female vote. Even Republican women would vote
for mc dreaming. Yeah, exactly, you know my vote.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
I'm definitely not a Democrat. Grand Platner, the Democratic Senate
nominee for the main is denying the sexual assault allegations
made against him. A woman he dated off and on
for two years told Political Politico that he showed about
her house drunk uninvited, walked in, pinned her down on
the couch, and raped her back in twenty twenty one,
and the woman shared emails between her and her therapist

(03:17):
with Politico, and they also spoke to a man she
dated and shared details of the assault with, so they've
corroborated her story. He denied the allegations, saying any accusation
that he did anything that wasn't consensual is false. He
posted a video statement on social media yesterday, and hear
some of what he said.

Speaker 5 (03:37):
So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful
of political reality it will inflect. 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 belonged to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
So, Senator Chuck Schumer, Ruben Diego, Rocanna, Elizabeth Warren, they
have all pulled their endorsement and many of them are
also calling for him to drop out of this race.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
The idea that Democrats can just keep taking Mulligan's You know,
it's hard to argue you're the pro democracy party when
you keep forcing out Canada to your voters. Picked like
you picked Graham Platner, You backed him, You told everybody
else they should get behind him, despite the fact that
he had all kinds of allegations at the time, not

(04:27):
to mention a Nazi tattoo.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
Right, he had so many things against him already, all
of the Reddit posts, all of the other accusations against him,
the kick app that he was on the you know,
cheating on his wife or fiance or whatever she was,
that whole story.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
It's unseerious. And look, we're talking about Susan Collins here,
all right, he's like the most moderate Republican. You're not
talking about Mike Lee or Ted Cruz. All right. It's
like take the l you pick the wrong candidate and
if you can't support him, then get behind Susan Collins
and move on instead of trying to get him to
drop out, and then the voters they ended up not

(05:08):
having a say in who the nominee is going to
be right and doing it that way. It just it's
happening too often with the Democrats.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
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