Graham Platner Is Saying What Democrats Usually Won’t

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Do you want the help of Democratic super PACs? Do you want Rahm Emanuel's help?

[00:00:04]He's offered you his help. Uh whose help do you want and not want?

[00:00:10]>> I didn't actually know that that had been offered.

[00:00:11]>> Yeah, Rahm Emanuel offered you his help.

[00:00:14]>> What I'll say is this. What we built here is our own. We built this by ourselves. the team, the the people of Maine, the the coalition we built, we built this thing and and we have in many ways succeeded over all of the people who are supposed to be experts at this.

[00:00:34]Um, we'll certainly take financial help.

[00:00:37]We're going to need it. I mean, in the fight against the Republicans and and and Republican super PACs, yeah, we're going to need help when it comes to paying for TV ads and paying for everything else. But I got to like I'm when this whole thing started, a whole bunch of people who were supposed to be the best at politics told us that it was utterly insane and it was never going to work and we just beat those people.

[00:01:01]>> I would just push like the the question of like if money is corrupting and money flowing into super PACs is corrupting and but you need all the help you can get. Like >> Oh, I mean I don't want super PAC money.

[00:01:12]I mean I I still just I I mean we want donors. Yeah. Yeah, >> we want people to like pitch in, >> but like Chuck Schumer's super PAC presumably in wanting to beat Susan Collins are going to come in here and help.

[00:01:21]>> I I have no doubt that that's going to happen. I also kind of have no uh no interest in like us work like coordinating.

[00:01:30]>> Yeah. Well, that wouldn't be allowed.

[00:01:31]>> No, that's the like there I'll just put it this way. I know for a fact that because every single Democrat in America wants to beat Susan Collins, there's going to be a ton of like outside money that pours in.

[00:01:43]I do not think that that is the thing that wins. I think that money might m might give us parody unlike the airwaves, but what's going to win is the organizing.

[00:01:53]>> Yeah.

[00:01:53]>> I mean, what's going to win is like the campaign that we built and I don't I just don't really have any interest in receiving honestly like the advice of people who I who told us that this could never happen, >> right?

[00:02:09]>> Because they were wrong, right? Uh so there's a yeah there's an element and then there's also just the fact that like for us we have an immense amount of I would say leverage in this moment.

[00:02:20]Everybody wants to beat Susan Collins and we're the only ones who can do it and they're going to have to come to us.

[00:02:27]They're going to have to come to us if they want to beat Susan Collins. If they want to use what we've been able to build as a way of beating Susan Collins, I'm happy to have them come along and be supportive, but they don't get to tell us what to do. Uh, I don't even know if whether I wanted it or I didn't want it.

[00:02:43]It doesn't stop it.

[00:02:44]>> Yeah, it's not going to Yeah, they're going to do >> I'm realistic about how this works. Um, a right-wing radio host this week said the RNC has more coming out on you and they already he already knows what it is and I mean is it like I guess I guess the question is like is there is there stuff we don't already know that you can imag lived my life >> uh it whatever it is is going to either be lies or something that is going to be just you know blown entirely out of proportion or taken out of context or something like that. I've not lived a very I haven't lived a like simple life, but I also haven't lived a very complicated life either. Um, and so I'm not I mean I'm sure the Republicans are saying they've got more. I'm sure the Republicans are going to claim a whole bunch of new things. Uh, this is the party that said Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

[00:03:39]>> When it comes to Republicans, uh, I don't know. It's hard for me to It's hard for me to like take those kind of threats. Not that I don't take them seriously because they're going to do it, right? Like they're going to come at they'll say I mean they're going to say awful things about me over the next few months. I mean they've already started and that's just going to get worse.

[00:03:58]>> Um but of course they're going to do that primarily because the last thing they ever want to talk about is policy, >> right? I mean, they need to run nothing but negative ads backed by tens, maybe even hundreds of millions of dollars because the last thing they want this race to be about is raising taxes on the rich, is changing our health care system. The last thing they want to talk about is the need to increase the power of organized labor in this country. The >> I think these are conversations that they know they're going to lose and so they're going to spend every single dollar they have making sure that we try not to have them. The thing for us though, they're going to talk about me for the next six months and we're just going to keep talking about Maine.

[00:04:41]>> We're just going to be talking about like where we are, the state of life for Mayers and the reason why things got harder down here because at the end of the day, we we all know why. So, yeah, I'm not it's not that I'm not worried, but it's it's what's coming. They're going to do it.

[00:04:59]>> Tucker Carlson says he wants to meet you. Um, I I would ask would you be on his show? But there's like I want an answer to that, but there's also like what are your views about whether being on someone's show endorses their views?

[00:05:13]Like where is the line on that?

[00:05:15]>> I to the second part. I don't think so. I like I don't think that's true.

[00:05:21]>> Being on someone's show >> there but there is a line, right? Yeah.

[00:05:24]And like and so and I struggle with this because I do very much believe that you have to go into spaces that you don't often spend time in to reach a new audience who may not ever have heard like our kind of message. And I do think it's very important to go into, especially these days, I think, right-wing spaces, and talk to people who have an audience that is seemingly more and more receptive to the realization that Donald Trump is part of the Epstein class, that the reason that we continue to support the Netanyahu government is because of the relationship between Apac and American politicians. There are a lot of people who are like becoming aware of this that don't live in the spaces we usually spend time in. And being able to go and talk about this stuff and just talk about the fact that the reason that things are hard, it isn't because of immigrants. It's because corporations and billionaires are robbing you. That's why. And that's the message. And to get that message through, you're going to have to go talk to people. the same time obviously you don't want to go bringing a lot of attention to someone who is uh an overt racist or an actual Nazi or a a dedicated anti-semite or islamophobe. I think each case needs to be taken in detail. The one caveat I will put to that and I think it's a big one is how many people do these folks reach? Let's use Tucker Carlson as an example.

[00:06:57]>> Yeah, it's a good example.

[00:06:58]>> It's a perfect example.

[00:07:01]>> If I go and talk to Tucker Carlson, >> are we exposing new people to Tucker Carlson or are we exposing people that listen to Tucker Carlson to us? That's I think the math equation that needs to be made.

[00:07:12]>> It's it's a question. I mean, another example, Steve Bannon. I could imagine Steve Bannon saying, "I want to have you on."

[00:07:18]>> Which would the answer?

[00:07:19]>> I don't know that I would talk to Steve Bannon.

[00:07:22]>> What about Tucker?

[00:07:24]>> I am struggling with this one. I just read this. Somebody just yesterday somebody sent me the interview.

[00:07:29]>> One of the reasons I struggle with is a lot of people I know, a lot of guys I served in the military with are avid Tucker fans.

[00:07:35]>> They watch and listen to him. I mean, his I forget what his numbers are, but it's insane. I mean, more people watch him than watch Fox News.

[00:07:41]>> Yeah. and and so it's a and then there are elements around foreign policy where there is this very serious shift happening and I think his audience is very clearly like amenable to a I mean he was he came out and said he was against the war in Iran on moral grounds.

[00:07:59]>> Y >> I know I mean that's that's a stronger statement on the war in Iran than a lot of sitting like Democrats.

[00:08:08]>> Yes.

[00:08:10]Uh, and I of course am also opposed to Warren Ran on moral grounds.

[00:08:14]Like the whole point is to get your message out. It's not to go and like just tr it's and be like, you know, uh, try to pander to people to try to like, you know, trick them. Like you got to go in and stand by your stand by your guns.

[00:08:28]But I always talk about on the stump the need to find common ground with people who we disagree with on a bunch of other things. And I mean, this is like kind of the perfect example of that. Um, I will be very upfront with you. I actually don't have an answer.

[00:08:42]>> Okay.

[00:08:43]>> I don't know.

[00:08:43]>> Fair enough. It's worth chewing. You don't have >> No. No. I mean, I mean, because I'm rolling this one around in my head a lot. Um, and cuz I I mean, I've I've been deeply critical of Dr. C for essentially my entire adult life. Yeah.

[00:08:55]Um, and so it's >> I think if you tell him that, if you have the chance to go on, you should you should just tell him that.

[00:09:00]>> Oh, I mean, I think and to I I assume he probably understands that. Yeah. But to be honest though, certainly on foreign policy stuff, it it's hard to tell if it's real or if it's a performance. But without question, there's a massive shift.

[00:09:15]>> Yeah. There's also I assume there's also like >> okay, if I go, I'm weighing these things, but if I go, I'm I want to encourage that shift.

[00:09:23]>> Very much like that. Well, and and you know, and this is the thing for me.

[00:09:26]>> I want to make sure that like as we talk about that shift, we're contextualizing it and what it needs to actually be.

[00:09:33]It's like, yeah, you should be critical of the Israeli government.

[00:09:37]>> You should also recognize that the United States still retains an immense amount of power in that relationship.

[00:09:42]>> Yeah.

[00:09:42]>> You should not have this kind of like, oh, no, America is controlled by the Israelis.

[00:09:47]It it is a two-way street here.

[00:09:49]>> I mean, we I mean that clearly like APEC has a lot of a lot of money and a lot of influence in our politics, but we can't leave the door open for what are clearly just anti-semitic conspiracy theories.

[00:10:00]You can you got to talk about the reality. And the reality is clear around apex influence around the relationship that the Israeli government has with American politics. We can talk about that very openly, but we also have to make clear that we have an immense amount of leverage >> still. And that's something that we need to be exercising. Um, and it isn't just kind of like we're just being controlled and tricked kind of thing. and which it and that narrative I think lends itself very quickly into delving into anti-semitic conspiracy theories. Um and so that's something that we have to push back on. But at the same time you got to talk about it in the greater context because if you don't and this is always my pitch on this thing if we don't go and talk about the reality people who are seeing like half the story are very easily going to sucked into the bad version of this.

[00:10:53]>> That's right. and we we have to be able to go and have those conversations. Um, but I honestly don't know when it comes to that.

[00:11:00]>> That's fair enough. Okay. So, if you lose, I'm curious what you think the stakes are beyond just this the Senate race or even the Senate majority. I'm wondering if you're what you think about the idea that it will be used as a referendum against the kind of politics that you're practicing. it will be used to say that workingclass populism cannot win in general elections in red and purple states. Like are is that on your mind? Like what are your thoughts on on that?

[00:11:31]>> Of course it's on my mind because that's exactly how it will be used. Now what I do think is that even if we lose what we have built is not going to disappear and and it's because of the way that we built it because we we aren't just building this kind of coalition and this ground game that is focused on just just election day and so after election day everybody just either if they're disappointed they just go home. It's much deeper than that and that's why we started the project back in September.

[00:12:02]So, I think there's like here in the state of Maine, if we lose, I am still very uh I'm still very convinced that we still are we I'm how do I say this? If we lose, I think we'll still kind of have won. I think we still will have opened a lot of mayors up to the realization that this kind of politics is very possible because >> even though the DC people will say actually Graham's not winning proves this is not possible. That's what because for them that all they care about is electoral polit like all they care about is like oh what is the the thing they have no deeper strategy and and I do or we I don't we do this kind of movement politics does which is that this is a generational fight we are just a continuation of the same fight that Bernie was part of which is a continuation the same fight that the civil rights movement was and the labor movement was. I mean going back to Thomas Payne, we have been engaged, Americans have been engaged in this project of trying to make us live up to the revolutionary promise of America at the beginning and it is that will just continue. The folks in DC, they don't even context they contextualize none of this stuff for them. Everything is in detail. It is just like this is what's happening right now. It's never in a grander story. It's never it's never placed in history. It is always just seen as like this weird little political power thing in its very discreet moment in history. And I think they're wrong about that.

[00:13:33]>> But you're you're sort of saying the opposite of what M Donnie said towards the end of his race. He said there is no moral victory. There's either victory.

[00:13:41]>> Oh, it's not a no. It's not a moral victory. It's an organizing victory. Oh, no, no, but there is no moral there there is no moral victory. That for me, victory here is about power.

[00:13:51]>> Yeah. Um, but because I very much believe that power is not just institutional, power exists outside of institutions.

[00:14:00]Power comes from organized people. That even if we lose this thing, which we're not going to, for the record, I' like to point that out. Yeah.

[00:14:07]>> But but even if we do, the risk was still worth taking.

[00:14:10]>> Yeah.

[00:14:12]because what we've been able to build I mean even just now I because the people who have gotten involved in this thing even if we lose there's they're they're into this >> and and and they understand the context they understand the the that this is a long-term project that in many ways it's going to require sacrifice and as we continue to push forward on that you know if if if somehow Susan Collins remains in power we still built all of this. And I don't think any of this goes away.