Raging Against the Machine, Graham Platner Exits the Maine Senate Race

This podcast is brought to you by Altana AI. In a fracturing global order, how do we collaborate more, enforce more, and trade more all at the same time? You build an infrastructure of trust. Altana provides it. Compliance verified at the product level. AI powered visibility. Intelligence shared across borders without compromising sovereignty. The future of trade is trust. Altana, the network for trusted trade.altana.a.a.a. From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch. Graham Platner drops out of the main Senate race after an accusation of rape and as Democrats reverse their endorsements. What are the lessons from the Graham Platner episode for the Democratic Party? And can they still retake the Senate this year? Plus, Ken Griffin... The hedge fund chief says he'd support Marco Rubio for president. Does that signal that some Republicans want an alternative to JD Vance in 2028? Welcome to Potomac Watch. I'm Paul Giego, the Wall Street Journal, with Kim Strassel and Alicia Finley. the Graham Platner fiasco, and fiasco it is. He dropped out of the race late Wednesday. Let's listen to a clip from his video announcement. We believe that for the movement to continue, it can't be made. And for that reason,

We are suspending campaign operations. This is incredibly difficult because I know that some will think it's an admission of guilt, and it most certainly is not. We're not doing it because of the allegations. We're doing it because of the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power. Kim, we should add that Graham Platner has denied the allegations from his former girlfriend. But there wasn't a heck of a lot of remorse in that comment in that video. What do you make of it? Well, one thing I would just note, it's good to know that the Democratic Party has some standards. It took a while to figure out where they were, but apparently, Paul, like, they were okay with the Nazi tattoo. They were okay with all the years of Reddit postings, smearing women and minorities and Jews. They were okay with his profile on a notorious messaging app and extramarital sexting. It took this particular allegation of rape. And as you note, he has vehemently denied that, but it took this allegation for... them to finally move. This was a non-apology, okay? This was Graham Platner raging against the machine. There was a lot of talk in there about how they threatened to take all of this away from him. And it was... obviously pretty clear from behind the scenes reporting that the party did come in and get very tough and explained that if he did not get out, that he would not have any more money, that he would not get access to voter data. So they pushed him out of this race. Now, one thing I find really interesting about this message that he put online is that the they he continued to talk to, the sort of shady they that did all this to them. He meant establishment Democrats. and the sort of party structure as a whole. But I think that that looks past the fact that the first people who actually abandoned him were some of the progressives who helped propel him forward, you know, the very people that were his original backers. And it says something about how poorly he was vetted that once all of this really started to come out, that the party... all the way across from the top to the bottom, from the moderates to pure progressives, understood that they had a candidate that could not win and that they were risking their ambitions to retake the Senate. So, you know, this was obviously all mistakes of his own making, but this says a great deal about dysfunction within the Democratic Party as well, how this came to be and how they're handling it now. I have a little bit of sympathy for Graham Platner in this respect. He was. was just another main businessman, if you will, an oyster farmer, not exactly a large operation, biggest customer of his business, his mother's restaurant. But the Democratic consultants came to him. They found him. They encouraged him to run. They backed him, kept backing him. Even though the stories came out that you describe one after another, they kept backing him and kept backing him.

And now suddenly you get this rape accusation, admittedly much more serious. But suddenly he's thrown over the side. So, I mean, if he'd have stayed out of the race, if nobody, Alicia, had ever come up to him and said, you're our working class savior. We saw a video of you and you look like you're the real thing. And you've got all the right progressive views. You're our man. You know, we wouldn't know. who Graham Platner is. He was plucked from relative obscurity. He didn't really... I would say definite obscurity. So, I mean, leading candidate was the governor, Janet Mills. And she had a lot of support until Graham Platner fired up the progressive base and Bernie Sanders crowd. And you had Hasan Piker, who's a kind of a left-wing socialist influencer, a little bit kind of like Joe Rogan, though Joe Rogan's actually somewhat left-leaning to. depending on the issue. But he really got the base of the party fired up, even though Chuck Schumer and the other establishment Democrat had favored and was supporting Mills. And at that point, later in the spring, she eventually suspended her campaign, giving him basically a clear path to the nomination. Now, I still think that they should have done a lot more vetting. of him. The reporting is that it was very superficial. The analogy that occurred to me is like, well, I think many more women vet the guys they date before going on a second date than the Democratic operatives did when choosing him. Well, I think this is a bigger story, though. The vetting point is correct. But I think it's a bigger story than the vetting here. We are going to take a break. And when we come back, we'll have more on the Democrats and Graham Platner when we come back. This podcast is brought to you by Altana AI. Altana's AI brings governments and businesses into one trusted network. So compliance gets proven. Enforcement gets smarter and goods move faster across borders. Learn more at altona.a.a.a. I'm Matthew Hennessy, the editor of Free Expression, the new daily newsletter from the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal. Free expression is a little different than what you get in the print paper's opinion section. We've expanded things out a little bit. We have a great mix of columnists, including Matt Continetti, Louise Perry, and Kyle Smith. You also get frequent, sharp contributions from my editorial colleagues. And we publish outside contributors, too, from rock star economists like Tom Sol to real rock stars like John Androsic and David Drayman. You can sign up for free expression by going to the journal's homepage and looking for the free expression tab. We're also on substack, Twitter, Instagram, threads, and TikTok, if that's your sort of thing. Sign up for free expression today, and we'll see you in your inbox tomorrow.

Welcome back. I'm Paul Giego with Kim Strassel and Alicia Finley. There's a couple of things that are really fascinating here. One is that there is now this alternative path for candidates to take inside the Democratic Party, not unlike the path Trump took in the Republican Party, which was outside of the established channels, outside of officialdom, outside the party, really, to take over the party. Now that exists on the political left. And you have this consultant class of progressives. A lot of people mobilized by Bernie Sanders, real activist left fundraisers. And of course, you can raise money through the internet much more easily than you could in the past. And you have these podcasts, the network, not just Hasan Piker, but you have Pod Save America, these former Obama guys who are well listened to on the left. And Graham Platner was their flavor of the day. And they love the idea. of the outsider, the Deus X Machina, the working class hero in particular in the case of Graham Platner. But they've done it before when it comes to presidential candidates. I mean, Jimmy Carter was the great unknown nationally. Bill Clinton came out of Arkansas, the great relative unknown. Barack Obama. It came out of nowhere. And Democrats love to fall in love with their candidates. And this fellow, Graham Platner, was the guy they thought could beat Susan Collins rather than the stodgy. Janet Mills, Kim. So it's also a story about how Democrats think of themselves now and what they think they need to do to beat Donald Trump-style populism on the right. On your point about the outsider candidate, Paul, this is a classic story of the Democratic Party. By the way, it's also one of the Republican Party, too. And it's fascinating to me because it gets into broader political dynamics. And what I mean by that is... You have these influencers now, podcasters, folks on the outside. There's actually a term in the Senate right now for people who are supporting some of these outsider candidates. They call themselves the fight club. And they try to position themselves as outside of the party establishment, the party elite. And that's Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and some of these guys very much want to be associated with these insurgent candidates who come up out of nowhere. And of course, the party itself, when you are thinking about the party organs, the party structure, whether that's the Democratic National Committee or whether it's the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are running right now, they.

always prefer the stodgy candidate, the establishment candidate. And one reason why is because those guys tend to win. They've got a proven track record, right? They know how to do politics. They know how to raise money. You know, they might not be as exciting, but they also don't come with unbedded Reddit posts and sexting allegations. You know, these are, they're kind of tried and true individuals who've been through the rigors and people know the product that they are getting. And of course, they're always poo-poot. I mean, look at the way Janet Mills was treated in this race. She was just cast aside, vilified. It's still not entirely clear why she moved left in preparation for this run, adopting all kinds of political positions she hadn't in the past to kind of cave. to that progressive left vote. And she was still just, they took it to her. And the thing that I find interesting about this is when these moments happen, the party doesn't actually do anything. It moved in here now to play its part in getting rid of Graham Platner. But you want to know who's now going to make the choice about who comes after Graham Platner and Maine, the same progressives that helped get him nominated in the first place. The party's willing to sometimes flex its muscle, like when it has to get rid of a bad candidate, but neither party's structure anymore seems willing to kind of take on some of these movements in a way that would be beneficial in the long run for the party. Alicia, I want to ask you a question that our friends on the left have been raising, which is that there is, in the Graham Platner episode, a clear... indication that there's a double standard when it comes to sexual abuse allegations between the two political parties. So you get Graham Platner. He's not accused of rape. He's now has to leave the race because Democrats, true to their principles, decided that he had to go. Meanwhile, you have Donald J. Trump accused of any number of assaults. One case, rape. He, of course, denies them all. But saying, see, Trump has survived, even prospered. Won the nomination three times. And presidential twice. So. The parties have a difference in principle here. How do you respond to that? Well, I'm not sure there's a real difference in principle here. One of the problems is that the left has really always claimed the moral high ground on these kinds of issues. The Me Too Party. The Me Too, they really kind of kicked this off. They have tried to weaponize against Donald Trump. And you go back, they try to weaponize against Brett Kavanaugh by really stirring up these really dubious allegations going back to his high school years that weren't. and couldn't be corroborated. And in this case, I think what really happened is I think they would have been fine with Graham Platner. It would probably make some excuses for him if it had appeared that he could have beaten Susan Collins, right? But it looked like he was falling in the polls. His fundraising was drying up, so they found a nice excuse to throw him aside. And I think the same thing basically happened with Eric Squawal, too, in California, the governorship. Now, on the point of the double standards.

I think Republicans should hold their candidates to higher standards. Donald Trump, you know, Ken Paxton. Ken Paxton hasn't really been accused of sexual misconduct, though he was. Accused of philandering. And then there's some other corruption issues that he was impeached by the state house for. And then there were allegations about Pete Hegseth before he was even confirmed as defense secretary. And so I think it is unfortunate. Both parties kind of make excuses for their own candidates by pointing the finger. I mean, in the Pete Hegseth case, I would argue that the accusations just weren't as credible as these against Graham Platner. And I would point to one case, Tony Gonzalez, the congressman from Southern Texas, Kim, who was credibly accused, I think, actually demonstrated that he had been involved with somebody, I can't remember who was his campaign or his staff. Yes, and by the way, that was due to a lot of party pressure. And I do give the Republicans credit for that. There was no love lost there. And it ended up all being convenient because Republicans were able to piggyback that resignation alongside the Eric Swalwell. And so it was kind of a one-for-one situation. The only thing that had held that back for a while was the... houses got such a narrow majority at the moment that people were sort of worried about what it would do to the numbers. But there was definitely condemnation. I think one thing that's been interesting in is help, too, is you have a number of members of Congress these days, in particular women, members of Congress who have been really demanding that the House Ethics and Senate Ethics Committee do a better job of looking into some of this and have been quite vocal about criticizing allegations like this. It's putting it back on the hot seat. But this time, I think Republicans in general have maintained a little bit better of approach on this, even though it's very amusing because it's Democrats who like to point the fingers. But they've got a much broader double standard when it comes to their own candidates. In any event, I take Alicia's point that they both parties ought to police themselves better when it comes to this kind of behavior. So the question becomes now, what's next in Maine? And the Democrats are now going to. have apparently some kind of a convention where delegates from the different parts of the party in Maine are going to choose a new nominee. They have to choose one by July 27th, which is not very far away. And there are a variety of candidates. We won't bore you with all of the names. But they'll have a very short time period to get behind that candidate and try to defeat. Susan Collins, I think they have a harder task now, but I still think they can do it depending on the motivations of how motivated the voters can be, Alicia, in Maine. Will there be a hangover from this whole Graham Platner episode, or will they say we're so intent upon pasting a defeat on Trump and creating a Democratic Senate that we're willing to vote for just about anyone to defeat Susan Collins? Well, I think that is the question. I think whoever they nominate. will be a little tainted just by the Democratic Party's cover-up.

or at least the excuses that they made for him. We went through some of those, you know, the Nazi tattoos and his treatment of women. On the other hand, voters have really soured on Donald Trump. Two-thirds of independent voters disapprove of him. We actually see this across the country, not just in Maine. And they're really going to be the pivotal voters in the election, not Democrats and not Republicans. It's going to be the independents. And they want to check on Donald Trump. And even though Susan Collins has showed her independence in many respects. and has kind of held out for more, or used her leverage in the Senate to benefit the Senate and often to our own criticism for getting more money for the state and such. Benefit Maine, yeah. They just want somebody who will oppose Donald Trump. I think the democratic mobilization and the... Just they're so fired up. They've been outpolling in a lot of these special elections so far that have taken place since 24 Republicans by something like 10 percentage points beyond above what they had done previously. And we'll see if that continues in November. But I think it will certainly be an important factor. Can they retake the Senate without Maine if Democrats don't defeat Susan Collins in Maine? Yes, they can. But it's a harder. Road, but they must win four of North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Iowa, and Alaska, and not lose the three seats that might be vulnerable for them, Michigan, Georgia, and New Hampshire. I still think they have a good chance, Kim. What do you think? Oh, I think they have a good chance. Look, Republicans are struggling in a lot of places where they shouldn't be struggling at the moment. I mean, Alicia was talking about Texas and Ken Paxton. James Talarico, I just saw new information. I mean, he's just wiping the floor in fundraising compared to Ken Paxton. He's James Talarico, obviously, the Democratic Senate candidate. Texas shouldn't really be in play for Republicans, but they ended up going with a weak candidate. And you're seeing some of this. out in other states to Iowa, which really shouldn't be a lift for Republicans, but Donald Trump's farm tariffs have made that a tougher territory for them. I would just note one caveat, a slightly different view on Maine, is do not underestimate the degree to which progressives could be esteemed about. the way the Graham Platner was rolled out of this race. Not all of them, but for the true believers in the Progressive Party, remember, they have deep skepticism about, and this kind of belief in these theories that the establishment is out to get them and uses its power to do that. Graham Platner is very wise in suggesting that that is what had happened to him. He's very much playing into that view that, you know, he was, that all of these allegations are false and that they just used it because they wanted. to keep candidates like him down. But progressives remember, you know, accusations that were made about Bernie Sanders back during the 2016 campaign. They still remember the way the primary system was fiddled with to help Joe Biden, you know, get a leg up in that race. And, of course, they remember the sort of late.

departure of Biden and the coronation of Kamala Harris. And they look at all this and say, you know, they're out to get this. Will that be a little demoralizing for some of them up there? Will they maybe, will they get over it and just support whoever is chosen? I think a big deal, big part of this is going to also be how main Democrats go about. coronating or naming somebody else and how how they can make it look as though this is actually a process where there were voices of the people involved rather than just, you know, the party poobos choosing the next person. We are going to take another break. When we come back, we'll talk about Ken Griffin, a statement of support for Marco Rubio in 2028 when we come back. This podcast is brought to you by Altana AI. Altana's AI brings governments and businesses into one trusted network, so compliance gets proven, enforcement gets smarter, and goods move faster across borders. Learn more at altana.a.a.a. Don't forget, you can reach the latest episode of Potomac Watch anytime. Just ask your smart speaker, play the opinion Potomac Watch podcast. That is, play the opinion, Potomac Watch podcast. From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch. Welcome back. I'm Paul Giego here in Potomac Watch with Alicia Finley and Kim Strassel. All right, and just for fun today, let's mention the... Comments by Ken Griffin, the Citadel hedge fund CEO, who is a big supporter of Republican candidates and causes, but also somebody willing to criticize Donald Trump and certain Republicans when he has a mind to. He said at the annual Sun Valley Conference of Media Moguls this week, something interesting. He was asked who he would support between JD Vance, Vice President, and Marco Rubio, Secretary of State. Here was his answer. Absolutely. He is intelligent, thoughtful, and decent, very decent. Wow, Alicia, that's interesting. Outlier by just a rich guy or a straw in the wind about what some of the leading free market folks. in the Republican Party think. The latter, you have to keep in mind that Ken Griffin did support Marco Rubio in 2015, as did Paul Singer in a lot of the class of quote-unquote elites who JD Vance would smear as elites. He's been very dismissive.

toward the corporate elites and people in finance. JD Vance has, and if you read his book, it's just dripping with disdain for these people. So I wouldn't be surprised if you're going to get kind of a quiet shadow caucus of people in. In the halls of high finance, Silicon Valley, trying to unite and rally behind Marco Rubio as an alternative to JD Vance, Marco Rubio has moved a little more in the Trumpian direction over the years, too, from where he was a decade ago, where he was very anti-tariff, very pro-immigration reform and all that legal pathways to coming into the country. So that was kind of the price of admission for entering to the White House is to adopt many of the presidents. positions, but I think they still view him as really, to his core, still being a free marketer and much more of, you know, believing in America's virtues rather than viewing kind of America in a very defeatist terms similar to the left. Well, it's interesting, as you say, JD Vance may not sweat this at all since it's just a billionaire, and you can dismiss that. On the other hand, put together a lot of billionaires and you have a campaign pretty well financed. You're right about Marco Rubio and Griffin supporting him in 2015, but it is interesting. JD Vance is the VP now. He's the clear frontrunner in every poll. He has the poll position, so to speak, as being VP. Griffin, if you're somebody who is trying to play politics with the insider, get in with the likely president, the likely nominee, at least. You know, you don't have to come out right now and say that, Kim. So I think this is interesting. What about you? Oh, no, I think this is fascinating. This is why people like Ken Griffin, because he says the things that everybody's thinking, but nobody else will actually say, right? You can do that when you're a billionaire. You can do that when you're a billionaire. And by the way, I mean, if JD Vance wants to snippet this, he can. But I mean, this is the fifth largest GOP donor in the 2024 election cycle. He gave more than $100 million to Republican candidates. And when you've got somebody that important out there in the race, it certainly signals. that J.D. Bans does not have this sewn up. And that's why J.JD Vance should be worried is to know that... Despite all of his best efforts, and he is working nonstop to try to present himself as the thing that just will happen, the inevitable candidate, that's not flying with a lot of people out there, including the moneymakers. By the way, in private conversations, members of the House and the Senate, there are a lot of Republicans that are not thrilled at the notion of J.D. Bants becoming the nominee. And that's before you get to any of the voters out there. And it does matter having these influential players and whether or not they're going to be on their side.

And I think that this is a signal that if JD Vance thinks this is sewn up and that there isn't going to be some sort of challenge to him going forward. There's a lot of people that are going to be rooting for that and working for that. And that's why he should be alarmed. I should say that there's no indication right now that Marco Rubio will even run. So, and there have been hints here and there that, in fact, he might support JD Vance if JD Vance ran. It's just, I think, interesting for the reasons both of you suggest. You know, we know that. politics, money can't buy you love, but it can buy a lot of other things. Thanks to Kim, thank you to Alicia, and thank you all for listening. We are here every day on Potomac Watch. This podcast is brought to you by Altana AI. In a fracturing global order, how do we collaborate more, enforce more, and trade more all at the same time? You build an infrastructure of trust. Altana provides it. Compliance verified at the product level. AI powered visibility. Intelligence shared across borders without compromising sovereignty. The future of trade is trust. Altana, the network for trusted trade. Altana.a.a.