Graham Pollard- Segment 3

You know, saying this happened 40 years ago. Next thing you're going to know, he, you know, Jay walked once. He didn't pay speed, you know, like minor things. They were getting mocked. And then the next day, they kind of did like not a pullback of the story, but they ran another story that was like, you know, everyone in Maine said this is not a big deal. So I think they kind of got bullied out of their original reporting a little bit on it. However, it definitely got picked up in the national circuit. You know, all of the right-wing national news, that was Fox News, the RNC, they're all running with it. And then we had a video that we actually recorded a couple weeks ago of a man in Alagash that is known Troy his entire life who said he saw Troy slap his cousin slash girlfriend slash partner. outside of a bar in Alagash. So we kind of followed up with the Bangor Daily News story with that video, and that started taking off a little bit last night. So you definitely have a troubling pattern with this guy where he certainly appears to have had anger issues over his life. Now, he denies it, right? What does he say? He doesn't remember it or he didn't do it. Like, what is the official line from Troy in his campaign? He didn't deny that he punched the guy. So the story from the Bangor Daily News included that he got in a fight and punched someone when he was, I think he was 19 when it happened. And then it also had a police report where he allegedly shoved Lana, his second cousin slash girlfriend at the time. Now, he didn't deny the punch. They did deny the domestic incident. Lana came out and said she didn't remember anything. And then I have not seen anyone in the campaign. deny or confirm our video with the guy alleging he saw Troy Jackson slap Lana. So I haven't seen any reaction to that one. Huh. Interesting. Interesting that they have her out there. And she's not denying that it happened. She's just saying she doesn't remember it. Correct. Yeah. That's been my understanding of everything. So yeah, I mean. People in Alagash don't like him. That's the moral of the story. I myself didn't go up there, but another Péter Magyar reporter, John Featherston, took a couple guys from our crew and went up to Alagash, which is a tiny town. There's really not much there. And just talk to people for three days, and it's hard to find anybody that was really saying any good things about Troy Jackson up there. I mean, I'm sure he has his loyalist, but a large percentage of the population did not like Troy Jackson. You got to remember Troy Jackson law. a local select board election up there in his hometown of Alagash. So there are some allegations that we've heard that are a hundred times worse than anything that's been reported. It's just kind of tricky with them because it's like the allegations are so salacious. We don't want to just put it out there. And they're very difficult to verify. So we're working our best to try to verify some of these things. All I can say is a general picture, it takes a troubling pattern of behavior for Troy Jackson. Now, I will say I do like Troy Jackson. So Troy and I get along actually pretty well. I like him. I think he's wrong on almost every policy there is. And I wouldn't be surprised at all these allegations about him are true. But I do personally like Troy Jackson. So I just want to get that out of there because he said no one likes him. But I do think no one in Alagash does like him. And in fact, there are certain people, and I won't.

say which other lawmakers i'm thinking of uh but there are certain ones that sometimes people send to the legislature just to get them out of town they're like you know we send them down to augusta we make up their problem there was a i i'm trying to figure out how to not reveal who i'm talking about there's one legislator and i met some former colleagues from his past in law enforcement. And I said, oh, well, you must have worked with this particular senator. And they said, oh, yeah, we were, we think he's much better where he is now than when he was working with us. And so I get the same sense from Troy. They didn't want him running their town. And they sent him to Augusta to just get rid of him and keeps turning back up in more and more responsibilities. How would you grade the Jackson campaign and their effort? Because this is, you know, if we think about the parallels to swapping out. Joe Biden, Sleepy Joe Biden for Kamala Harris during that Brat summer. This was the point in time where there was kind of all of the vibes, and it was the vibe campaign, whatever else. Troy is now out with real campaign collateral. He's got the campaign out of him in the car. He's got the attacks on Susan about her being corrupt and there for too long. How do you think that Troy is doing? And do you think he has, when I look at these polls that say he's way ahead of her, I'm always reminded of Sarah Gideon, who is not the U.S. Senator from Maine, do you think that Troy's campaign is actually doing what they need to do? do to get their positive narrative? Or do you think the Susan Collins campaign right now is doing a good enough job introducing him to Mainers and then also touting her accomplishments? Well, here's the thing with Troy Jackson and with all of these super progressive candidates that you're seeing pop up across the country, the guy from Michigan, Grand Planet, before him. They have really figured out, and maybe mastered is not the right word, but they're leaning more into the 2026 media landscape than some of these more establishment politicians. What I mean by that is they put a huge focus on social media. on graphic design, they have exceptional digital teams where they can produce really high quality content. And I think Troy Jackson's team is doing a decent job of that, if I'm being honest. Like if I look at the things they're putting out, they're slick, they sound good. The problem Troy has, in my opinion, when you compare him to Graham Platner, is he's just not as naturally charismatic as Graham Platner was. Like, Graham Platner could go up on a stage and deliver a... confident, powerful address, as much as I didn't like him and just agreed with everything he said. He was a natural speaker. Troy Jackson, when you strip away the production quality, is really not nearly at the same level of talent. And I think that is going to be difficult for him when it comes to things like debates or town halls. You know, I don't really see Troy. Graham Platner was going all across the state doing these town hall speeches. I don't see Troy really doing that.

Now, as far as Susan Collins is going, I think they're kind of deploying the opposite strategy where they're not focusing that much on social media, but they're really going hard on the old school boots on the ground, you know, volunteer door knocking approach. And they are starting to ramp up the campaign a little bit with this bus trip. She was just touring a steel manufacturer in Soco yesterday that... makes products for submarines and other industry across Maine. So if she can start building some momentum behind her, I think it's going to be difficult for Troy Jackson. But overall, I don't think Troy is doing necessarily a bad job with the campaign. I just have to say it. I really don't. So we're short on time. I should have booked you for an hour. The one thing I wanted to pick up from what you just said is the Graham Platner, you were talking about how he could go on stage. And you said it in the past tense, although I've heard that he's now making a reemergence on Labor Day, where he's going to be speaking in Ellsworth. Is it time for a comeback tour from Graham Platner, or is it too soon for the alleged rapist? So this was funny. There's some unanswered questions with this event, because this was announced by the Hancock Democrats, and it was essentially roundly mocked and ridiculed by everybody. And they deleted all of their posts maybe five or six hours later about the event. We reached out to them, and to their credit, which most people don't do on the left, they actually did get back to us pretty quickly. And the Hancock Dems said, you know, this isn't our event. We're not organizing the event. We're not sponsoring the event. It was being organized by Acadia Action, but we just promote local events. So. If you read the post before they deleted it, it certainly came across that they were promoting the event. But I'm curious if the main Democrat party put their hand on the scale and told them to delete it because they know it's a bad look or if they just delete it. I think it's great. I think they should feature it. I think they should. I think Troy should go introduce him. I would agree with that. I mean, he had no problem being with Graham Platner on stage through some of the allegations. It just took the final allegations. You heard me ask him on this show. I had Troy on, and I said, is he a good guy? Are you comfortable with him being in the Senate? But is he a good guy? Do you vouch for his character? And remember when Troy didn't? He was like, well, I mean, don't know him that well. I'm not known that long. That's a pretty good Troy Jackson impression there, Aaron. We've spent a lot of time together. I've also been yelled at by Troy Jackson. I've also yelled at Troy Jackson. We've had some very interesting experiences in my very short career in public life. Graham, before I let you go, we only have about a minute, two minutes left. And I want to get to the governor's race. I am not as dialed in as, I guess, other people are to the governor's race. But I think it's hard for them to get much attention. I...

Most people, you know, it's summer. Most people start paying attention in September. But am I wrong or is like Bobby Charles invisible? Yeah, that's kind of what it seems like. Well, first of all, the Senate race is definitely sucking up a lot of the oxygen in the room. And it was always going to. I've been saying it for months. But yeah, go ahead. No, you're totally right. But if you look at Polly Market or the betting markets. It's like he's at like 5%, 6% to win, which honestly that feels low to me. Even if he doesn't win, I wouldn't think it would be that much of a blowout. But. Yeah. That's the chance that he wins, right? The chance that he wins. I would say that's overstatement. I think it's probably closer to 2% to 3% chance that he wins at this point. Yeah, fair enough. But, you know, I don't think he's running the worst campaign ever, to be honest, if you actually pay attention to what he's doing. But for whatever reason, it's just not really breaking through and he's not really making much news. And I guess we're guilty of this at the main wire to a certain point. But he just hasn't really been making the headlines. Hannah Pingree hasn't really either. I don't think she is an incredibly, you know, inspiring candidate, but she is just kind of running steady. And, you know, she doesn't have all these crazy scandals like Graham Platner or Troy Jackson that we know about at least. And it kind of just seems like, you know, she, she's just holding court and holding steady. I have made the controversial statement that I don't think Rick Bennett even gets like seven or eight percent in the election. Why is that controversial? Who votes Rick Bennett? Well, when I said that, everyone immediately shot me down. I've heard rumors that the Hannah Pingree campaign is more worried about Rick Bennett than Bobby Charles, which I think is shocking. But when you say invisible, I mean, who's been more invisible than Rick Bennett so far? He has no money. He has no backing. He has, I mean, it's tougher. I like Rick personally, too. I like a lot of these people. I've worked with them in different capacities. Hey, Graham, we're out of time. We'll have you come back again. We'll do this again next month. Grandpa, check him out on the Mainwire. Mainwire TV every day at 4 o'clock. That's right. Thank you very much, Aaron. Anytime. And catch him with the mainwire.com. When we come back, Pastor Travis from the Calvary Chapel talking about their event tonight with Turning Point. I'm Aaron Chadbourne. This is Inside Maine.