TEXT RESPONSE 7-7-26

It says influential, progressive, I mean, I'm just going to say socialist. Bernie Sanders urged Graham Platner to exit the race for Senate in Maine. This is a day after a woman he was romantically involved with publicly alleged that he sexually assaulted her. Bernie Sanders said Tuesday that he had spoken with Graham Platner, and in light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside. Now, the allegation, which Graham Platner denied. prompted top Senate Democrats and close allies to rescind their endorsements, cut off funding, and call for him to drop out. Now, Bernie Sanders' statement came after most of Graham Platner's other allies had pulled their support. Graham Platner's run has drawn broad grassroots support but has been plagued by controversy. That's kind of an understatement over and over again. Like I said, the latest... allegation here. It's one of the least surprising things I've seen in politics this year. Of all the things that have happened, no one is surprised by this. But it says Democrats have been scrambling to find a backup candidate and a process to select one. And what they see is a must-win race against Republican Senator Susan Collins with a deadline later this month to put a new name on the ballot. Now, this incident was first reported by Politico, Jenny Risakad, who is a 41-year-old main resident, said Graham Platner forced himself on her about five years ago and had non-consensual sex with her, so rape, after she told him repeatedly to stop. In fact, here is some of what she said. We played this earlier, but I'll play it again here. He was heavily intoxicated, had intentions with me, and wasn't listening when I said, no. And you were saying, no, don't, no, don't, over and over. I remember, you know, obviously I've had to recall a lot of this. This is something that I tried for many years to forget. And so small details. You know, might get past me, but yes, I remember very specifically saying, I'm not into this. I remember that the most, sort of saying that the most firmly. I remember specifically him, like, grabbing at my chest, and I, like, hit his hand, and I said, don't touch me. And I remember that during the occupation. And then he kept going. Yeah. I... know that you have been very reluctant to tell this story. Very reluctant. Yeah. I'm actually surprised you're here. I've thrown up three times today. Is that right? Yeah. Why did you ultimately decide to do it? Why come forward? A few reasons. One of the biggest ones is that I think that there are a lot of men in this world relying on the silence of women. I mean, that's probably true, but you probably should have came out with this. I just have to say, she probably could have said this years ago. You know, it sounds like he committed a crime and should be charged with a crime beyond serious allegations and beyond a political campaign. You should be arrested and charged. You know, I know it's hard for people to come forward and admit something like that happened to them. But how are we ever going to get it under control or stop it if they don't report it? Yeah, and report it fast.

In the beginning. Yeah. Don't wait until there's a political campaign involved. And any evidence that was there now is gone. There's no way to prove one way or the other. Yeah, that's true. I mean, I guess there could be some ways, but you're right, for the most part, in terms of charging them with a crime and arresting them, there better be substantive proof on that, and that's going to be hard to do. Now, Graham Platner has denied this. Here's what he said. I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false. Over the last 10 months, I have been deeply humbled by the faith mayors have put in me. You have welcomed me into your homes, into your places of work, into your restaurants, into your houses of worship. You have shown that a different kind of politics, one that puts the interests of people over corporations, is not just possible, but is inevitable. This movement we have built, the largest volunteer base in the history of Maine politics, the hundreds of thousands of grassroots donors, and the supporters across the ideological spectrum, we were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, and a focus on defeating Susan Collins. All right, there you go. We also had Zohran Mamdani come out and say, all I have to say other than the fact that I, yeah, I wish. She would have come out years ago so this guy can be put in jail. He used to be charged with a crime. But I am still of the belief that, I mean, I hate that this is what it's come to to get this guy to possibly drop out. Now he hasn't dropped out yet. I haven't seen any breaking news on that. He probably will drop out. But this is what it took. Not the Nazi tattoo, not the socialist policies, not some of the crazy rhetoric. It took this. That's what. That's what frankly bothers me. I think there were a lot of other reasons to make sure this guy doesn't become a candidate, but he did well. I'm not even talking about just winning a primary. Apparently this guy had a ton of support with Democrats in the state of Maine. Beyond that, even before this, he did really well. That should be the more troubling part. of a lot of this. I wish he could have been rejected for that. And he was initially branded by Democrats because for some reason, Democrats in the leadership, they believe this is like what real working class blue collar men want. A guy like Graham Platner, he's the guy. First, they told him it was Tim Walz. Remember, he was the manly man. Remember that? Now they say it's a grand platinum. They have no idea, apparently. They are very out of touch. Remember now they don't know the difference in men and women. Oh, that's true. That's right. I've got to cut him a break. It's hard for them to understand. So when they have to actually reach male voters, how are they going to know how to do that? That's a good point. So if you think he's going to drop out, you can let me know. We have our.

Text Monster 423-267-1023, 4-2-7-1023. Still got a bunch of people weighing in on the marijuana issue. Usually when you bring it up, it does. And I only brought it up because, yes, we do have some Democrats in Tennessee want pot for potholes. We have to now legalize recreational marijuana and tax it so we can build roads. Now, I think we should probably prioritize building roads even before. We had a new tax anywhere. It should be the main priority, honestly. That's kind of what Greg Vidal was saying. I kind of think roads need to come before parks. Roads need to come before parks, need to be, come before a lot of things. You're right. I agree. I agree 100%. But on this subject, let's see, some people weighing in said these idiot Democrats and fake Republicans. Should be mandatory drug tested for every stupid laws they try to make into law. Okay. Another person says a country that allows cigarettes and alcohol to be marketed with basically no restrictions to age. With all the known health issues they cause, shows it stupidity and ignorance in restricting marijuana or hemp. Soft drinks do more physical damage than marijuana or hemp. Now, I have no idea if that's true. The issue with marijuana isn't necessarily the damage it does to your body, even though it does do damage to your body, but it's the damage it does to your mind, to your brain. That's the issue with marijuana. Soda is probably not good for your body, and I guess if you drink too much of it, the caffeine can mess with your brain, but it's not messing with your judgment, your brain the same way that marijuana would or hemp would. Let's just be honest about that. You can talk about health problems with soda, but it doesn't affect your judgment like a drug does. Now, alcohol obviously affects your judgment, but we have limits on that. Some people said, yes, some people do smoke weed just to get high, just like some people drink alcohol just to get drunk. Yeah, more lives are ruined by alcohol more than all the illegal drugs combined. I wish we're getting rid of both of them. Well, let's be honest. Cops would be out of a job. You want to talk, well, that's true, but you want to talk about why alcohol does so much damage because it is legal. That's why there's this thinking that if we legalized marijuana, less people would do it. I don't believe that. That's not true. This idea, you make an argument that alcohol does all these issues with society, that's because it's legal. So you want to add to it? You want to add another drug to it that can do all these problems as well? Probably even worse. I'm not sure that's the solution. The solution isn't to add something to the market that also affects your mind and your judgment in this way and could cause all these problems, which it will. It will be legalized in a lot of places and then we'll have to deal with it just like we have to deal with problems because alcohol is legal. I don't think we're going to make alcohol illegal anytime soon. You could talk about that all you want. I don't think it's going to happen. It's unrealistic to think so. But adding to the problem by just legalizing something else, I don't think it fixes it. And I don't buy this idea either that, well, they'll smoke weed and not drink. And that'll be fine. Okay. I've known plenty of people smoke weed. They didn't stop drinking. Trust me. In fact, it was kind of the opposite. They drank even more.

If you went away and you can, 423-267-1023. 4-2-3-267-102-3. We're on the show with Yeffy's Monster Rewind here in a couple minutes on Yaffe Live. Scrolling with Haley. I am Haley Karenia. I scroll with the homies here in the live chat because there's a lot to scroll through on X, on Instagram, on TikTok. Cutting through the clutter? One hot take at a time. Love seeing you all in the chat before the show. I tried to jump in just a few minutes before to say hello. I love the chat interaction. Thank you for helping. But I do it to get all of the videos and all of the content that you won't find anywhere else. Scrolling with Haley. Just search that up and I will be there. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.