Graham Platner Targets Susan Collins In Fiery ‘Fight Oligarchy’ Speech | APT

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:02]Well, good evening Or No.

[00:00:05]>> [cheering] >> I was excited, but I got to say the energy in this room is palpable.

[00:00:12]Thank you, Troy.

[00:00:14]For your kind words.

[00:00:17]>> [applause] >> For your years of service to the state of Maine.

[00:00:25]Much like Senator Sanders, Troy Jackson has been a steadfast champion for the working class for a long time.

[00:00:37]>> [applause] >> When far too many of politicians affinity for working people could be swayed by political winds, when their dedication to standing up for us down here in the real world wavered with polling data or campaign contributions, Troy Jackson stood firm.

[00:01:02]A logger from Allagash with a single-minded focus in improving the lives of working manners.

[00:01:09]That is why I was proud to rank Troy number one for governor along with Shenna Bellows and Hannah Pingree. Thank you, Troy Jackson.

[00:01:21]>> [cheering] [applause] >> I voted early cuz my schedule's crazy these days.

[00:01:36]Now, last time I shared a stage with Senator Sanders, it was 13 days after we launched the campaign.

[00:01:44]It felt surreal then.

[00:01:46]And I'll tell you the truth, uh it feels very surreal still.

[00:01:51]Until 9 months ago, being harbormaster of Sullivan, Maine was what I thought would be the extent of my political career.

[00:01:59]Today, I am deeply humbled to say that together we have built a movement.

[00:02:08]>> [cheering] [applause] >> That is not a testament to me.

[00:02:21]It is a testament to this country, to this state, and to you.

[00:02:29]Thank you.

[00:02:31]>> [cheering] [applause] >> Now, I am a son of rural Maine.

[00:02:40]I'm the 9-year-old raking blueberries in the July sun.

[00:02:45]I'm the teenager who was kicked out of boarding school because my resentment for institutional power existed long before the politics that matched it.

[00:02:56]>> [applause] >> I'm the 21-year-old in Ramadi serving my country next to my fellow Marines.

[00:03:06]And I'm the young >> [applause] >> And I'm the young man who came back with the weight of the forever wars and the alienation And I am the man who found my way home.

[00:03:29]>> [cheering] [applause] >> Found my way to making a living on the sea, found my way to community, and found my way to love.

[00:03:46]This state raised me.

[00:03:48]>> [clears throat] >> Mhm. And uh >> [applause] >> This state raised me and this state saved me. Let me tell you I love the state of Maine.

[00:04:07]>> [screaming] [cheering] [applause] [applause and cheering] [applause] [cheering] [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> Now, Senator Sanders asked a question during his 2020 presidential campaign, "Are you willing to fight for someone you don't know as much as you are willing to fight for yourself?"

[00:04:49]If this campaign has been any indication, the answer here in Maine is a resounding yes.

[00:04:56]>> [cheering] [applause] >> As we have crisscrossed this state under the snowfall in Madawaska at shift change at the mill, as the sun rises down east or as it sets in Rangeley, at the boat launch steps from my front door or in the high school gymnasium 200 miles away, I have heard from Mainers.

[00:05:27]I have heard from seniors scared that future generations will never have the same opportunities they did to buy a house in the place that they love, to send their kids to well-funded public schools, who watch in horror as their grandchildren have to hold on so tight with the fear that if they don't everything will be ripped away.

[00:05:58]And I've heard from students who fear not only for themselves but for their parents and their grandparents, the people who gave them everything and whose Social Security checks get smaller each month as everything else gets more expensive.

[00:06:17]I've heard from fishermen who with all the challenges they are facing are also concerned about how tariffs are impacting their neighbors who are contractors or from loggers who fear for the nurses and the teachers in their communities because they never seem to be paid what we all know they are worth.

[00:06:40]>> [applause and cheering] [applause] >> Here in Maine we are ready to fight as hard for the people we do not know as we are for the ones that we do. It is who we are and who we always will be as Mainers.

[00:07:07]>> [cheering] [applause] [applause] >> This movement, our movement, is not divided by age or class or gender or race. It is not divided by where in Maine we live or even how long we've been here. This is a movement of Maine, by Maine, for Maine to take back what is ours.

[00:07:41]>> [applause] [cheering] >> Because for decades they have taken from us piece by piece, store by store, hospital by hospital, home by home they have taken.

[00:08:03]They took so much they began to think that we didn't even exist at all.

[00:08:09]But they don't know Maine.

[00:08:13]>> [cheering] [applause] >> They don't know the power that we have here.

[00:08:21]And we are taking back what is ours. We are taking it back from the corporations that seek profit no matter the cost, from the billionaires for whom greed is the point, and from corrupt politicians like Susan Collins.

[00:08:40]>> [cheering and applause] [applause] >> Politicians who have sold us out. Now there's a word I want to use to describe what we're fighting.

[00:09:02]I keep hearing from the pundit class or the news media that people up here don't know what it means.

[00:09:12]So before I use it, I just want to make sure by a show of hands, does anybody know the word oligarchy?

[00:09:21]That's what I thought.

[00:09:23]>> [laughter] >> Turns out it's not that complicated.

[00:09:29]We know the word because we feel the consequences of it in our bones.

[00:09:35]We will not just fight the oligarchy, we will defeat the oligarchy and the political system that it maintains.

[00:09:45]>> [applause] [applause] [cheering] [applause] [cheering] >> We will defeat the political system that it maintains. The politics of Susan Collins, a politics a politics that turns politicians into millionaires.

[00:10:17]But tells you to be grateful for crumbs.

[00:10:22]It is a lie.

[00:10:25]It is a lie intended to serve the billionaire class. It is the lie we are told that we have to choose between clean water or health care. It is the lie that there is always money for forever wars, but never money for our schools.

[00:10:42]>> [cheering] [applause] [applause] [applause] >> That there's always enough to blow up someone else's children.

[00:10:59]But never enough to feed our own.

[00:11:02]>> [cheering] [applause] >> It is a lie that we have to look on helplessly as our hospitals close while health insurance CEOs and billionaires line their pockets with our blood, sweat and tears.

[00:11:25]And it is a lie that we are powerless to change the world around us.

[00:11:33]I am running I am running because I refuse to let their lies dictate our reality any longer because it is time for change.

[00:11:48]>> [applause and cheering] [applause] [applause and cheering] [applause] [cheering] [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> I believe that in our country the voices of working people are far more important than the voices of those who simply have money. I believe that we should not be settling for scraps that they throw to us from the table where they dine with the Epstein class.

[00:12:37]>> [cheering] [applause] >> I don't think that a CEO should have more power than a union member. I don't think that private equity deserves more time with a senator than someone who works two jobs just to get by.

[00:12:58]>> [cheering] [applause] >> We are in the straits we are today because that is exactly what has happened.

[00:13:13]But the world that we live in is not how it has to be.

[00:13:19]We can have a health care system that is not just another mechanism of extracting wealth out of working Americans, but a guarantee of safety and health for all.

[00:13:33]>> [cheering] [applause] [applause] [applause] >> Major life events, like buying a home or getting a college education, can be points of joy and pride instead of a relegation to a lifetime of debt.

[00:13:58]>> [cheering] [applause] >> Our taxpayer dollars can build schools and hospitals in America and not bombs to destroy them in Gaza and Iran.

[00:14:11]>> [cheering] [cheering] [applause] [cheering] [applause] [applause] >> We can take back the wealth that belongs to us that has been stolen by corrupt politicians and the corporations that bought them.

[00:14:49]We can use the power of government to usher usher in a golden age for unions and workers.

[00:14:58]>> [cheering] [applause] [applause] >> Not just double down on gig work and union busting for the benefit of Wall Street and CEOs. And we can we can look out for the most vulnerable, for children, for the elderly, where we lift each other up, whether we are starting a business or starting a family, or going to college, or buying a home, where we empower workers to fight for fair pay and fair conditions, and where we reap the profits of our hard work.

[00:15:45]>> [cheering and applause] [applause] [cheering] >> We can have an economy and a government that works for the 99% not just the 1%.

[00:16:08]>> [cheering and applause] >> But we will not get any of this with speeches alone.

[00:16:20]Or with any one politician alone.

[00:16:24]No one is coming to save us.

[00:16:28]We need one thing.

[00:16:31]Something the man speaking after me has been fighting for for 60 years.

[00:16:37]>> [cheering] [applause] >> We need a political revolution.

[00:16:48]>> [cheering] [applause] [cheering] [applause] [cheering] [applause] [cheering] [applause] [cheering] [cheering] [applause] >> It is thousands of people across Maine, millions of people across America acting together, creating a movement so powerful that money can't fight it. It is all of us doing what Spencer just asked us to do. It is taking precious time out of our week, week after week, and doing something that isn't complicated but is hard.

[00:17:48]Talking to our neighbors at their doors, overcoming our differences, and bringing them into our fight.

[00:17:59]>> [cheering] [applause] [applause] >> Because make no mistake, this is the fight of our lives.

[00:18:16]>> [cheering] [applause] >> Now, I'd like to end this speech the exact same way I did those many months ago when I first had the honor of joining Senator Sanders on stage.

[00:18:32]When we beat back fascism, when we defend our democracy and our freedom, let it be a different kind of freedom, not merely a romantic freedom, not merely a freedom that's solely about the defense of an infringement upon our rights, but a freedom that is material.

[00:18:53]A freedom to not be condemned to scraps and struggle, but to live with the dignity and fulfillment that gives us the society we deserve, where instead of dreaming of a life where we can get by, we can afford a life that allows us to dream.

[00:19:14]>> [cheering] [applause] [cheering] [applause] [cheering] [applause] [applause] >> That is the vision.

[00:19:45]This is the opportunity before us. We will win the primary.

[00:19:52]>> [cheering] [applause] >> We will win the general.

[00:19:58]>> [cheering] >> And we will show this country the way forward because as Maine goes, so goes the nation.

[00:20:12]It is >> [cheering] [applause and cheering] [cheering] [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> And now, it is my absolute honor to welcome to the stage a man who needs no introduction, Senator Bernie Sanders.

[00:21:18]>> Mhm.