The Democrats’ Platner Problem

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Next Tuesday is another primary day in a state where one candidate has become the Democratic Party's focus. Grant, why are you on a kid's sex? Do you believe you deserve to represent Maine? Do you have no shame? Are there more shoes to drop in your past? Grant, are you going to stay in the race, sir? Reporter swarmed Graham Platner after news broke about text messages. The main Senate candidate is accused of sending to multiple women, prompting him and his wife, Amy, to respond. The Wall Street Journal of New York Times ran stories without any evidence besides the gossip from a former staffer. I'm sorry. That's a... That's, frankly, journalistic malpractice. We pushed back on it. They did it anyways. The New York Times has since interviewed ex-friends of Graham Platner, some of whom called him demeaning to women and one who said it could be physically threatening. The Graham Platner campaign called one of them a Republican operative. But before this, he was called out for a number of other issues. Fox's Eric Sean summed some of it up. Planner's campaign has been hit with a slew of controversies from his old social media posts that called white rule people stupid and racist. Dismissing rape in the military, he apologized for those, to covering up a skull and crossbones tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol he got, well, in the Marines in 2007. This week, Graham Platner met with high-ranking Senate Democrats who had not pulled endorsements. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren was asked. Are these accusations disturbing to you? What is disturbing to me is what's happening in this economy and how right now the Republicans just sign off on it. But the Wall Street Journal reported senators, including Warren and Bernie Sanders, were concerned about what else could come out about Plattenor. He is said to have assured them in a meeting that there is nothing more and that the worst of what has come out isn't true. This was before the latest reports from the New York Times about ex-girlfriend's experiences with Graham Platner. Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman, though, is skeptical. lied to everybody. He said that there wasn't any after his Nazi tattoo situation. When asked repeatedly about Graham Platner, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer repeatedly said, We're going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate. Democrats like Senator Cory Booker have said Graham Platner has questions to answer. Another congressman from Massachusetts has called Graham Platner's tattoo disqualifying. You just wonder what the level of pain tolerance is for Democrats right now on this because, you know, this has been trickling out for almost a year now. Fox News Sunday, anchor Shannon Bream is also the host of the Live in the Bream podcast. Things from his past, old posts, things that he said, but there are new things that continue to come out too. Of course, there were concerns about. Nazi imagery from a tattoo that he said he didn't realize what it was, eventually had it covered up. But there are those in his past who've come forward to tell a different story about what he did understand or didn't understand about that tattoo. But posting of his unearthed online, a sexting scandal with a number of women when he was newly married, which is only a couple of years ago. So we're told other stuff is going to drop. This is oppo research season along with primary season. So

For now, the Democrats who've been supporting him are standing with him. But there have been Democrats from the beginning who said, this is not our guy. This is not what we need to line up behind. And Janet Mills, the governor there, her name is still on the ballot. So it'll be interesting to see if there's a last minute push to make her, again, a viable nominee for Democrats. Yeah, reports about Democrats meeting with Graham Platner this week that high-level senators asked him if anything else is coming out. It shows even if they don't want to talk about that on camera necessarily, they do have concerns. That's fair to say because the level of what you've seen already, you know, you've got a couple of Democrats out there saying things like if this was a Republican candidate, we would absolutely be furious and calling this person out, making every single Republican line up either yes or no behind him. You know, so there's very much an awareness that every Democrat out there is going to be asked about this and whether or not they support this. And, you know, there have been those Jake Ockincloss, a congressman. He's a former veteran himself. Um, you know, months ago he was saying, you know, we got to draw the line on some of these things. And for a lot of people, that would be a Nazi tattoo. But, you know, since then, you've had him also disparage a purple heart winning wounded soldier. And that person penned a piece in the Wall Street Journal and opinion piece saying, I'm the guy that he was disparaging about getting shot. And, you know, a lot of his defenders, Graham Platner will say. Listen, he suffered some serious things having been in combat. And we certainly, everybody gets that, that there's something only veterans and those who've been in combat will really understand about PTSD and walking through those things. But these aren't just old things. These are newer things. And these are not things from your 15-year-old crazy kid. This is, you know, 35, 40 years old. And I think Democrats are very well aware of that. You noted this. He has primary opponents, though he's seen as the favorite. Governor Janet Mills is one of them. She suspended her campaign for Senate, though, due to a lack of money earlier this year. But she has since said, since all of this has come out about Graham Platner, you know, hey, I'm still technically on the ballot. It sounds like she's sort of making herself still an option. But is there an appetite for that? It doesn't sound like, you know, the party is racing to say, let's back Janet Mills now. Yeah, and I think, though, that some of them have to have in the back of their minds, like, oh, boy, what do we do here? Because remember, too, I thought about the situation in Alaska and the situation that went on there where then Lisa Murkowski, the sitting senator, was somebody who then essentially had a write-in campaign. So if Democrats do get Graham Platner, if things get worse with, you know, revelations for him or the ability for... the electorate up in Maine to be on board with this. And he's facing off against Susan Collins, well-respected, you know, center-right senator up there. Does a third party decide to get in? Does Janet Mills mount a running campaign? And I don't know how Maine's laws work, but I thought about that Lisa Murkowski situation. Like, do we end up with an independent or a third who gets involved in the general if Graham Platner just becomes so weighed down that Democrats feel like he's not viable for them?

And finally on this platinum front, let's say he still wins despite these controversies, and that seems very likely. Does the story end up being then about turnout and what turnout looks like against incumbent Republican Susan Collins? In other words, like do we start comparing numbers, like how many Democrats were motivated to go vote for platinum versus how many Republicans showed up for Susan Collins? Yeah, that's a good question because we know in an off year meeting that it's a midterm election. The president in power generally gets punished. His party gets punished. People's problems haven't been all solved since the last presidential campaign. They're going to punish the party that's kind of running things. So we would expect there's going to be really strong Democrat turnout. But, you know, Republicans are going to pour money into that race. They have to. And if the constant hammering of the ad is... You know, this guy got some serious issues. He's insulted everyone. He's called Mainers, stupid and racist. I mean, he's insulted soldiers. He has had a Nazi tattoo. He's been potentially, you know, unethical in some of these potential, you know, sexting relationships that his wife is standing by him. And they say they've worked through that. But, I mean, if that barrage of an ad is running all the time there in Maine, I think for a lot of those folks, it's going to be distasteful. But. Republicans know they've got a situation on a much lesser level, but some of the same underlying fundamentals with Ken Paxton down in Texas that for a lot of Republicans, he is unsavory. And independence may have that feeling about him with some of his issues, too, which are different. But did they stay home where Democrats are very motivated about James Talarico? We do head in to Maine after some notable primary results from this week. New Jersey's 12th district, Democrats elected Adam Hamawi as their candidate. He's a plastic surgeon who volunteered in Gaza. But years ago, he testified apparently on behalf of Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the Blind Sheikh. He was convicted of plotting terrorist attacks in New York in the 90s. And he was also considered a sort of a leader for those who ended up carrying out the 93 World Trade Center bombing. It sounds like this is a pretty left-leaning district, Shannon. Will this be the district's member of Congress? I mean, highly possible. And again, a lot of times APO research doesn't really surface in the primary the way that it will in the general. And sometimes the opposing party says, yeah, that's the guy that we want or that's the woman we want in his primary because we've got some stuff to drop in the general. But will New Jersey be swayed by that? Will a lot of those voters think? this is, you know, they're throwing things at him. These are 20, 30 years old. He's not accused of terrorism or any of these, you know, very offensive things. Or are they going to push for wanting more of an explanation about his potential ties or relationships with people? I think that's definitely one to watch. But I think that if you're a Democrat and you're anti-President Trump, You're not going to be as worried about these things that feel like ancient connections to other controversies. You know, the one with him serving in Gaza, there are reports that, you know, this was one of those hospitals that had tunnels underneath that terrorists were using. Well, you know, the doctor could say, I was there to help. I didn't know anything about that. So it'll be interesting to see how much local press has access to him and if they ask those questions.

We had some notable primary results out of Iowa. Democrats have pretty high hopes in this environment for the state. Their sites are set, among other things on Joni Ernst, soon to be open Senate seat. It looks like Republicans turned out a bit more, though, to vote in their primary than the Democrats did. Still, are their hopes well-founded in Iowa? I mean, I do think for Democrats, it looks like a great opportunity with Ernst deciding that she wasn't going to run again. And so, yeah, they're very hopeful about some of the candidates they feel are more moderate kind of center-left would play well in Iowa. The president's preferred candidate in the primary did not proceed there in Iowa. I think it was a gubernatorial race. You know, so there's a lot that were. trying to watch in Iowa. It is really one of those states that has, it reads as very conservative when people who are opposed to the caucuses kind of having the first word and being there, they're like, it's very ag, it's very white. But Iowa has done some sort of edgy things. I mean, with their Supreme Court and with some of the early decisions they had on same-sex marriage. And I mean, it's not a place that is just simply red and conservative. It's been very purple in many respects. And so I think Democrats are hoping. to capitalize on this anti-Trump backlash going into the midterm and feel like that's a potential for them. Okay, non-primary news. We learned this week that President Trump wants acting attorney general Todd Blanche wants his personal attorney to go through the Senate confirmation process and become the actual AG. Is it a steep climb among Senate Republicans or will it be relatively easy? I don't think it's going to be easy, but I think it's possible. But, you know, we have to remember the president himself has sort of created some of these free agents. Bill Cassidy and John Cornyn, who are senators who have now been primaryed out because of the president's endorsement and very full-throated fight against them. I don't think that they're going to feel the need to do the president's bidding. Now, if they think Todd Blanche is the right guy, certainly they'll vote for him. But they're not going to have the same tire obligation. I think that they would have if they were running again. Thom Tillis is leaving. I think he's very much kind of been a yolo kind of guy and I'm going to do what I want to do. And you're talking about three votes there in play at least. You know, Rand Paul has his differences with the president. You start to lose three or four votes in the Senate. Not to mention, you know, the Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, you know, factor there. I think they've got to be counting these votes very, very closely. And I would expect. the confirmation battle could be pretty bruising, but Todd Blanche seems like he's up, you know, for the challenge. Fox News Sunday anchor Shannon Bream. Thank you so much. You just have a great day.

Precise, personal, powerful. It's America's weather team in the palm of your hands. Get Fox Weather updates throughout your busy day. Every day. Subscribe and listen now at Fox News Podcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Joe Concha with your Fox News commentary. Coming up. People around the nation are pushing back against the construction of data centers. Many expressing concerns the environmental impacts, noise, heat, and the amount of water and energy these centers need to power themselves to process, store, and transmit the massive amounts of digital information necessary to support artificial intelligence. Executives like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman say, harm can be contained. You can require energy be built out along with data centers. You can put data centers in very different places. I think the government's got a big tool here. While some like this Michigan resident in Saline Township argue that companies are ignoring the people. They're the ones making the money off it. The little people are going to get pushed to the side. We're a township and we got pushed to the side. But while data centers are critical to the AI revolution, they may also serve an important national security purpose. Data centers are not just commercial real estate or affecting people. at a local level is a zoning issue. David Deptula's retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General and Dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. He recently wrote about the military need for data centers in the Washington Post. They really have become critical to national security. And I've got to tell you, if America wants to win the artificial intelligence or AI race, and if they want to preserve military superiority. and deter China and then fight effectively in the future, we need the ability to store, process, protect, and move massive volumes of data at speed and scale. I'm reminded about back, I can't believe it's been this long, but, you know, 15. 18 years ago, I was the Air Force as chief of intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance. And one of the lines I came up with at that time was, hey, we're swimming in sensors, so we have to be careful that we don't drown in data. Well, guess what? I mean, that was 15 years ago. We're now at a point where we're accumulating vast amounts of data, much greater than we were back then. In your column, you talked about the Chinese outpacing the United States when it comes to these data centers. They have many more. Clearly, China sees the benefit of these data centers. Why isn't it taking off here in the U.S.? And what can you tell us about the Chinese threat? Well, China understands the strategic value of infrastructure.

So it's built at remarkable speed in railroads, manufacturing, shipbuilding, electronics, nuclear power, you name it. Now, China's also making data infrastructure a national priority. And so that should get our attention. This isn't just about commercial competition between American tech companies and Chinese tech companies. It's a strategic competition between two systems. China's trying to build the industrial, digital, and military base to dominate the next era of power. So if the United States slows itself down through permitting paralysis, grid bottlenecks, and local bans, we're giving the Chinese an opening. So, you know, that's the issue there. And I got to tell you, the Wall Street Journal just recently issued a report it should be a warning light. In it, they talk about the demand for AI and cloud infrastructure as exploding. But the fact of the matter is the physical buildout that's required to support that is not keeping pace. So the problem's not just money. And this is why I wrote that article. It's about perceptions and understanding and folks not realizing the importance of these data centers to national security. And so from a defense perspective, you know, that can be dangerous because if data infrastructure becomes a choke point, then all our ambitions for artificial intelligence, military modernization, and our ability to compete with China is going to become vulnerable. So we can't have a national strategy for AI without a national strategy for the infrastructure that makes AI possible. So for people at home, we're speaking in some general terms here about this information. You mentioned these data centers for the military or used to link shooters, intelligence analysts, decision makers. What kind of things are in these warehouses? What is this data? Essentially, you know, it's pretty boring, but there are banks and banks of processors. You know, to make it very easy to understand for an average citizen, it's racks and racks of, you know, what people at home experience is either a desktop computer. Right. But the information, general. What kind of information is on these? Oh, my goodness. Is it targeting data? What are we talking about here? Maps. Is it phone calls? Virtually everything.

The volumes of data that are required to train, operate, update, and sustain military operations. So you're looking at the entire spectrum of, number one, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance data. Number two, capability information, both about current capabilities, friendly systems, as well as adversary systems. Number three, the control information. I mean, if we want autonomous aircraft and intelligent missile defenses and resilient and robust space systems, you have to have the data that's required to keep track of what's going on with each one of these systems in real time. And then the data that if you want to be able to do advanced targeting, you need to know what's going on with our adversaries in real time. If you want to accomplish predictive logistics. to reduce the impact if something goes wrong on your ship that you're sailing on or your aircraft that you're flying, then you need data about the actual operating systems of the vehicles that you're operating on. If you want faster decision-making, then you need to have the data surrounding those decisions that need to be acted upon. So, you know, artificial intelligence is the ability to reach into the panoply of data that exists. Let's just put it in, you know, on the Internet to be able to access that information. And now, you know, I mentioned the Internet. What we're talking about in a security situation is much, much more than the Internet, because all of what I just mentioned from a national security perspective is not something that you share on the Internet, but just to try to get folks to understand the kind of information that's necessary. So I hope that helps a little bit explain what it is that is being stored in these data centers. It does. It also, I could not help about thinking about the U.S. war with Iran right now. And I imagine Iran has some of this capability. Is this the first time the U.S. has faced an adversary with access to this type of information? Satellite photos, satellite reconnaissance aircraft. Is this the first time we have faced an adversary in war that had some of this capability? No, I wouldn't say it's the first time. Did the Taliban have data centers in Afghanistan? No, they didn't. They had access to the Internet, okay? Listen, you mentioned early on, you know, I'm the guy that wrote the attack plan for each and every day of Operation Netters Storm.

But the intelligence that we had was all handled in, let me put it this way, in a very rudimentary way when it came to... storage and processing and generally information might be might have been shared electronically but it's certainly all that intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance stuff look I was using photographs that sometimes were six months to two years old okay there was no such thing as immediate real-time information that you could get with access to the internet and a credit card like you can today. And so as time has gone on, yeah, ISIS didn't have data centers, but they could connect to the internet and you could get access to overhead imagery through things like Google Earth. I would have given my entire, I mean, a year's worth of pay to have had that kind of real-time data. And it is just becoming, it's exploded with access to space and the proliferation of commercial systems in space. I mean, my goodness, stuff that was at a top secret compartmented level of information just five years ago is now available on the internet to anybody who wants it. And who can pay for it. So, yes, Iran has, you know, we're fighting in an advanced group of folks who collect data and probably have stored it in ways that we haven't run into before. But it's certainly not, it's not as new as one might expect. Well, General Deptula, thank you so much for joining the Fox News rundown. My pleasure. Thanks, Lucas.

And now, some good news with Tanya J. Powers. A public school in Hawaii is making headlines for the food being served in their lunches. Students at Hana High and elementary school are learning more than just how to plant and grow crops. They're actually eating the fruits and vegetables of their labor. Hana is a rural town about two hours east of central Maui that's reachable by a curvy road and one-lane bridges. The campus garden is where they grow everything from sweet potatoes to corn and other crops. It's not just an environmental addition to the school. It's a classroom for... vocational training. They work on the gardens seven days a week, 365 days a year, and students as youngest four years old help out. Now, they've reached a long-term goal. While crops have been grown on campus for about a decade, the school recently became certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and approved by the Hawaii Department of Education to serve its homegrown food to students at lunchtime. For many of the students, learning how to grow their own food is not only an important skill to learn, but necessary. Some of the students say it's a way for them to provide for their family. Tanya J. Powers, Fox News.

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