Episode 314: Authentic Authenticity On A Silver Platner

Summary

Podcast Summary: Blocked and Reported – Episode 314: Authentic Authenticity On A Silver Platner

Release Date: June 29, 2026
Hosts: Katie Herzog & Jesse Singal

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Jesse and Katie dissect the race for the US Senate seat in Maine, focusing on the Democratic nominee Graham Platner—a self-branded "working class" oyster farmer, military veteran, and up-and-coming lefty candidate—but whose personal authenticity and political viability are hotly contested. Amidst recent controversy stemming from a Nazi-associated tattoo, relationship scandals, and a family background that contradicts his working-class claims, the episode explores themes of authenticity, class identity, media smear campaigns, and intra-party Democratic infighting. The hosts also grapple with broader questions about what “working class” actually means, how personal scandals affect political prospects, and how partisan narratives are shaped by media coverage and social media actors.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Fireworks Rant & Freedom Fetishism (00:08–06:27)

• Katie’s Annual Complaint: Katie laments the omnipresence of fireworks around the 4th of July in western Washington, likening her neighborhood to “Tehran” with endless explosions.
  • Notable quote (Katie, 00:28):
    “They’re horrific. They should not exist. They should be illegal.”
• She notes a community divide on fireworks (rural “freedom” vs. urban annoyance) and brags about filling out a county anti-fireworks survey five times.
• Jesse jokes about her anti-working-class stance, while Katie pivots, blaming both immigrants and locals for firework excess.
  • Notable quote (Jesse, 03:03):
    "You’re saying you don’t like working class people in their culture."
• The topic segues into the nature of American patriotism and the hosts' dislike of holiday fireworks culture.

Timestamp:

• Katie’s survey-stuffing confession: [01:45]
• Cultural divide on fireworks: [02:19]

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2. Episode Structure, Corrections & Announcements (06:27–12:22)

• This Week’s Topic: Jesse shifts to introduce the main topic—Maine’s Senate race and Graham Platner—and clarifies some listener corrections from previous episodes (misstatements about cousin marriage, language errors, and British place names).
  • Notable corrections:
    • On Urdu/Arabic script confusion: [08:00]
    • On cousin marriage genetics: [09:38]

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3. Who Is Graham Platner? – Candidate Profile & “Working Class” Debate (12:22–28:37)

• Platner’s Image: Platner is running against Susan Collins, branding himself as “working class” through his oyster farm and military background.
  • Jesse recaps the stakes: control of the Senate, pivotal for Trump’s second term.
• Platner’s Personal Background: Despite his claims, Platner’s family includes a celebrated architect (grandfather) and a wealthy father (attorney); he received $200,000 from his dad for a home and parental support for fertility treatments in Norway.
  • Notable quote (Jesse, 20:11):
    "He regular says versions of the line, I’ve never been close to money and power… This is not true. No, not really."
• Class Complications: Katie and Jesse discuss how Platner and his DSA-aligned supporters blur distinctions of class and authenticity—contrasting “broke” vs. “poor,” and economic vs. cultural markers of class.
  • Jesse uses his own early journalism career as an analogy, distinguishing safety-net privilege from real working-class vulnerability.

Timestamps:

• Platner’s campaign framing and authenticity claims: [19:45–21:00]
• Family background revelations: [21:37–22:39]
• “Difference between being poor and being broke”: [25:27–26:09]

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4. Is Platner a Poseur? – Authenticity, Aesthetics, and Class Performance (28:37–34:05)

• Class as Costume: Katie argues Platner (and others) “dress” working class without real economic vulnerability, while Jesse notes the difference between true cultural competence and surface-level affectation.
  • Katie, 29:15:
    “He strikes me as someone who is playing the role of working class who is not.”
• Oyster Farm Reality: Jesse and his researcher clear up rumors—Platner has run the oyster farm since 2019, but it’s small and largely supported by family.

Timestamp:

• Working class “costume” & what makes someone “authentic”: [29:15]

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5. The Nazi Tattoo Scandal – Timeline & Fallout (34:05–49:47)

• The Tattoo: Platner sports a “Totenkopf” (SS death’s head)—originally acquired during a drunken night in Croatia, per his story.
• Disputed Timeline: Evidence shows he was long aware of the tattoo’s Nazi implications, directly contradicting his campaign claims.
  • Eyewitnesses and former friends report he bragged about the tattoo as a Nazi symbol while in DC a decade ago.
• Contemporaneous Evidence:
  • Multiple journalists cite 2010s texts and social media posts (under Reddit user “P-Hustle”) revealing Platner’s knowledge of Nazi iconography in tattoos.
  • An ex-girlfriend (“420MercyMain69”) validates his awareness and offers “leftist” apologetics for keeping the tattoo as a reminder of moral growth.
  • Notable quote (Katie, 35:05):
    “What is harder to believe is that at no point in the last 17 years did he figure out that his tattoo was a totenkamp.”

Timestamps:

• First-hand “Totenkopf” knowledge, witness account: [35:55–36:24]
• Platner’s own posts showing familiarity with Nazi tattoos: [38:12–38:44]

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6. Relationship Controversies & Pattern of Behavior (49:47–54:46)

• Cheating & Allegations: Platner’s exes allege infidelity—including cheating on a fiancée, ongoing sexting during his campaign, and past emotional/physical abuse (including forcibly restraining a girlfriend during an argument).
  • Notable quote (Jesse, 50:16):
    “He just seems like a pretty bad dude. It’s not the same as lying about a Nazi tattoo.”
• Disclosure Process: These details arose during campaign vetting and media investigations by the NYT and WSJ (with some sourced from Lindsay Fifield, a conservative activist and former girlfriend), leading to debates about the partisan & personal motivations behind the leaks.

Timestamps:

• Relationship controversies break: [50:02–50:53]
• Alleged physical restraint incident readout: [51:58]

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7. The Left’s (and Media’s) Contortions – Defending Platner & Conspiracy Narratives (54:46–61:25)

• Inconsistent Defenses: Friends and high-profile leftist commentators (e.g., Emma Vigeland, Freddie deBoer) defend Platner on the grounds of his “authenticity,” “working class” status, or as a victim of establishment smear campaigns (sometimes with conspiratorial overtones around “Zionist” coordination).
  • Notable quote (Emma Vigeland, 47:57):
    “Do we want an authentic working class party or not?”
  • On media conspiracies, Freddie deBoer, 55:37:
    “…the center right faction of the Democratic Party has weaponized liberal media like the New York Times… against a more populist left-wing candidate who represents a threat…”
• Hosts’ Callouts: Katie and Jesse point out the hypocrisy in how progressive figures can downplay serious misdeeds among their own, while zealously policing minor infractions in opponents.

Timestamps:

• Emma Vigeland’s defense: [47:57]
• Freddie deBoer’s conspiracy framing: [55:11]

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8. How Will Voters Respond? Political Realities & Moral Trade-Offs (61:25–64:44)

• Polling Uncertainty: Available polls show a dead heat; no reliable data post-scandal.
• Ultimate Stakes: Jesse and Katie concede that in a two-party system, Platner’s personal failings pale in importance compared to the need to block Trump’s control of the Senate; both would “hold their nose” and vote for Platner if it means limiting Trump’s power.
  • Notable quote (Katie, 63:09):
    “I would probably hold my nose and vote for him because… I’m a single-issue voter and that issue is Donald Trump.”
• Underlying Message: The scandal reveals both the limitations of authenticity politics and the hard trade-offs inherent in contemporary partisan elections.

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9. The Astroturf “Populist” Revolution – Progressive Consultants & Image Crafting (64:44–66:41)

• Consultant Unveiling: Platner was handpicked and packaged by Bernie 2020 campaign consultants, who claim voters want “real human beings” rather than candidates “grown in vats.”
  • Katie (sarcastic, 66:15):
    “So the guy was plucked out of obscurity by two consultants, is running against the consulting class.”

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Memorable Quotes

• Katie (on fireworks culture): "It is somehow impinging on their rights to be complete fucking dumbasses to ask them not to burn down a community." [02:19]
• Jesse (on authenticity): "He regular says versions of the line, 'I’ve never been close to money and power'… This is not true. No, not really." [20:11]
• Katie (on class performance): “He strikes me as someone who is playing the role of working class who is not.” [29:15]
• Jesse (on political defenses): “If an authentic working class person said they thought there were two sexes or… were skeptical of trans women in women's sports, Emma would view them as a monster… but a Nazi tattoo that a guy is clearly lying about? Then you need to understand the full context.” [48:20]
• Katie (on November choices): "I would probably hold my nose and vote for him because… I’m a single-issue voter and that issue is Donald Trump." [63:09]
• Jesse (on authenticity spin): “He lied about the Nazi tattoo, but he did it socialistly, so it’s okay.” [49:32]

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Important Timestamps

• [00:08–06:27] – Fireworks rant, class, and “freedom” values
• [12:22–28:37] – Platner’s background, family, and conceptions of class
• [34:05–49:47] – Nazi tattoo: timeline, evidence, media coverage, reactions
• [49:47–54:46] – Relationship scandals & behavioral pattern
• [54:46–61:25] – Defense by left, conspiracy framing, media ecosystem
• [61:25–64:44] – Polling, voting calculations, and what matters in the end
• [64:44–66:41] – Populist packaging, consultant economy, meta-political commentary

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Tone

• The episode maintains the podcast's signature blend of deadpan humor, casual banter, and acerbic media criticism.
• Both hosts oscillate between cynical resignation and journalistic skepticism, interrogating not just Platner but everyone—supporters, the media, even themselves.

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Conclusion

Jesse and Katie offer a nuanced, irreverent, and at times darkly comic autopsy of the Graham Platner saga—using it as a lens for bigger anxieties about class, authenticity, partisan hypocrisy, and contemporary activist politics. Throughout, they thread the needle between critique, self-critique, and the hard electoral realities facing Democrats in the Trump era—reminding listeners that character matters, but outcomes, unfortunately, matter more.

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Next Week:
The hosts promise a follow-up episode exploring the DSA, New York politics, and the persistent class/ideological fractures within the Democratic Party.

Transcript

[Host/Announcer]

Foreign.

[Jesse]

I understand you have something to complain about. Not about the show, just about society, basically.

[Katie]

Yes, Jesse, it is about the time. We're a little early, but I feel like I can maybe extend this a little bit. This is about the time of year that I start complaining about fireworks.

[Jesse]

Okay.

[Katie]

Do you have strong feelings about fireworks?

[Jesse]

I want to hear yours first.

[Katie]

They're bad. They're horrific. They should not exist. They should be illegal. And you know who I really blame? There's, like, where I live in western Washington, not just the night of July 4th, but the entire week leading up to July 4th is. It's. It's just like being in Tehran. No differences.

[Jesse]

Identical.

[Katie]

Identical. The people are slightly less tan, but other than that, it's just bombs going off all night and all day. Which riddled me that why would anybody be shooting off their fireworks during the day? I don't know, but they do it, so I'm complaining about it. Complaining about it. This is like, mostly what I do this summer is just complain about fireworks and then write my elected officials and ask them to do something about it. Which actually did work this year. So the county that we moved to, they. They have now. We'll start next year. It's not in place this year, unfortunately, but next year will be the first moratorium on setting off fireworks, which is great because it's an extremely dry area. We've already had wildfires out here. The fact that people are setting off explosives during a drought in a really dry time of year in general, very dumb. And next year will be the last year. So they sent out this countywide survey, and I filled it out five times. So I think we can all thank me for that.

[Jesse]

Oh, so there is voter, and you're undocumented. Right. And you had moose. Moose, who is not a US Citizen.

[Katie]

I did it all from the same name, the same email address. They did. They didn't say. You could only fill it out once. I just wanted them to know how much I care about the issue.

[Jesse]

Is this a bi. This is just a survey.

[Katie]

It's not like a binding, but.

[Jesse]

So your town does surveys on. Do you want people shooting off fireworks?

[Katie]

And I said no five times.

[Jesse]

I'm sure in a community of the sorts of people who move to the woods for peace and quiet, this was not like you're probably. Most of your neighbors are probably in the same boat as you. They don't want loud boom, boom noises.

[Katie]

You would be surprised. So this is. There's. There's always a ton of debate about this on Facebook. The county is not racially, but is sort of politically diverse. Definitely the towns run blue, but the more rural areas, like, it's like, well, it used to be logging country, so there's definitely some red there. And when you tell people, like, the. The fire department will put something up about, like, please be cautious about fireworks or don't set off fireworks this year. It's really dry. And they'll just be a plot of people. Freedom, freedom, freedom. It's like it is there. It is somehow impinging on their rights to be complete fucking dumbasses to ask them not to burn down a community.

[Jesse]

So you're. I mean, this gets to what this episode's about. You're saying you don't like working class people in their culture.

[Katie]

That is exactly what I'm saying. I don't like fireworks in their culture. And although I will say, like, in my old neighborhood, it was not like the white working class that were the. The greatest offenders. It was the immigrants. Those people fucking love America. Love it. It's disgusting.

[Jesse]

I just love, like, not.

[Katie]

I try to lecture them.

[Jesse]

Love the way you phrase that for maximum impact. If someone. If someone. If someone clipped it. I've got something to say about the working class. And to be clear, I don't mean the white working class. They're fine. It's the others, the white working class.

[Katie]

They were at home. They were in their basements playing Slay the spire.

[Jesse]

Fortnite. Fortnite.

[Katie]

Playing Fortnite.

[Jesse]

The working class does not play Slay the Spire. That's a bougie game.

[Katie]

It was the immigran immigrants who were really celebrating. And I would go, I would go try to educate them. I would say things like, do you know what we have done to your country? What was your country again? Do you know what we did to it, My Nepalese neighbors, just to try to convince them not to celebrate, just like, save it for New Year's. Don't be celebrating.

[Jesse]

Oh, so you spread anti American sentiment not because you believe it, because you don't want people to celebrate America because of the fireworks?

[Katie]

Yes. Look, if people want to celebrate America with sparklers, that's fine. It's the fireworks that are the issue. And it's not even like, for a lot of people, you know, it's about dogs and vets. No, no, it's just, for me, it's like, it's really about wildfires. But I did get some good news yesterday. So Whidbey island is across the water from where we live. And Nice, Nice island. Great place. Love to visit. And some patriot there blew up his house.

[Jesse]

Jesus.

[Katie]

He had. Yeah, he had an estimated 700 pounds of fireworks in his home. Blew it up. The home no longer exists unfortunately of several firefighters were injured in this blast. And he also destroyed his neighbor some, which is too bad. But I do think I, I take a little bit of joy from the fact that that's £700 fewer fireworks that will be set off in my area.

[Jesse]

And you do, I mean, you've never been a fan of firefighters, so them getting injured, I love.

[Katie]

That is not true. I love firefighters. Specifically the ones with the, the white, the white ones with the black spots and the floppy ears.

[Jesse]

I was, I was a weird child, as I'm sure that comes as a. I was, I didn't like fire. I did not like the bright lights and big booms of the fireworks. I was like your dog. And now that I'm older, Moose is

[Katie]

actually much better about fireworks than I am. I'm the one who needs the thunder vest.

[Jesse]

Wait, don't you actually go to Canada to get away from that?

[Katie]

We did last year, which was great. This year we are not. But last year we did. And then we got there on Canada Day. Turns out. Guess how they celebrate Canada Day, Jesse?

[Jesse]

Fireworks.

[Katie]

Yes, but the difference is that there was a burn ban and people actually obey it. They don't consider burn bans to be some sort of assault on their rights to burn down their own communities. So we didn't hear any fireworks works. It was fantastic.

[Jesse]

I've sort of fallen into the habit. I might have actually told this dumb story, but I fall into the habit of going. A friend has had a Fourth of July party in D.C. the last few years. Plus this year I want to celebrate Trump's accomplishments. So it's a no brainer. Yeah, you can't really see.

[Katie]

Are you going to go swim in the fountain?

[Jesse]

Fountain store is amazing, but his, his apartment overlooks a street where the residents just set off the most illegal seeming fireworks for hours straight. You can just stand on his balcony and watching this like large ordinance fly toward. Very exciting. So.

[Katie]

All right, Jesse, with my anti American fireworks rant out of the way, what are we talking about today?

[Jesse]

Well, today's episode is sort of a one parter that turned into a two parter. I, I wanted to talk about the DSA revolution in New York City. We just had primaries and several pretty far left folks were elected. There's a group gathering outside my apartment to expropriate it and take me to a gulag. They've set up in Prospect park. So I'm going to have to deal with that once we stop recording.

[Katie]

First they come for the podcasters, but

[Jesse]

we're actually going to do that next week for our next free episode.

[Katie]

All right, DSA next week.

[Jesse]

DSA next week. This week we're going to talk about Graham Platner. Graham, everyone's made poor decisions in their 20s. Platner, the senator.

[Katie]

I have a brunch tattoo.

[Jesse]

A brunch tattoo.

[Katie]

I use the word brunch on my arm. Oh, I mean, honestly, would you rather have a Nazi tattoo or a brunch tattoo?

[Jesse]

Yeah, Graham Platter. I want to talk about Graham Platner this week. So I've been wanting to talk about him for a while because there's a lot there. And then in between this week's free episode and next week's free episode, we're going to. We have a primo coming up. Also the second part of a two parter. That one's on Marsha P. Johnson and who Threw the. It's a little confusing, but I bet. I bet our listeners are smart enough to figure this out.

[Katie]

Should we just share our calendar with the entire group so people can figure out what's happening?

[Jesse]

Right now you're listening to part one of the two part DSA series. In between part one and two of the DSA series is part two of the who Threw the First Brick at Stonewall? Series.

[Katie]

Exactly. You got it. Yeah.

[Jesse]

And we're also launching a 10 parter on the Mexican Revolution, but that's a separate thing. You'll have to pay separate for.

[Katie]

That would be the great. A great name for a taco truck.

[Jesse]

The Mexican Revolution. Yeah.

[Katie]

Yeah, let's do that.

[Jesse]

Okay, couple few corrections. First. I made multiple errors last episode. Last free episode, which is not what I usually do. I don't like it. We talked a little bit about a leaflet that was written in Urdu. And I don't remember the exact quote, but I basically said that I thought the Urdu script was like the Arabic script quite pretty. Technically I was correct, but that's because they basically use the same Alphabet. There's like some. Apparently some minor differences, but it's like basically the same thing.

[Host/Announcer]

Dumb.

[Jesse]

I'm really dumb.

[Katie]

What was your SAT score? What's your iq? Do you need to get on disability? That is so dumb.

[Jesse]

I know, it's unbelievable. We also talked about a London borough called Haringay because there was an election there. And I called it Herringay Green because I read or heard something about like turning Herringay Green, like the Green Party. But in my defense, that sounds like the kind of place, a British place name. I'm from Haringay Green.

[Katie]

I can see a hat like British people wearing. Do British people wear hats or they wear, like, the little caps? A cap, and it's red and it says, make Haringay Green again.

[Jesse]

Okay. Really? Thank you for backing me up. One other thing is when we discuss cousin marriage in some immigrant community we

[Katie]

are both in favor of.

[Jesse]

Both in favor of. Well, we both said for hot cousins. Some immigrant communities in England have cousin marriage. I mentioned genetic counselors in, like, Jewish Orthodox communities. And I. We. We actually had someone write in who said that they're a genetic counselor and they specialize in prenatal and reproductive care. Katie, do you want to just read a little bit about this?

[Katie]

That sounds like a eugenic job. I work closely with both of these communities in New York. Cousin marriage, as you know, is common in the Arab world. For first cousins to marry and have children together, the background risk for birth defects in the general population is about 2 to 4%. When first cousins mate.

[Jesse]

Mate.

[Katie]

I like that. When cousins mate. Yeah. That risk increases to 6 to 8%. This is not true only for Arab couples, but for any couples who are first cousins in the Arab world, cousin marriage is not taboo, as it is in other parts of the world, which we know. When I counsel Arab couples on this issue, the response is typically that they are comfortable with the risks. Some children have special needs and some do not. And their family and community helps to take care of their children no matter what. Very interesting. And then this person writes, Orthodox Jews, cousin marriage is considered taboo. Okay. The gene pool, even in Orthodox communities, is large enough so that cousins are not marrying by chance. Where genetic counseling comes in is regarding inheritance of autosomal recessive genetic diseases. When two carriers of the same recessive condition mate, each child has a 25% chance to be affected with the disease.

[Jesse]

So this. This is stuff like Tay Sachs disease that affects people from certain ethnic groups. And if you're marrying within your ethnic group is. Yeah. Horrible plagues like being redheaded or a lefty being a lefty. I am lefty.

[Katie]

You're a lefty.

[Jesse]

I'm a lefty, but I have an idy. Why do you sound surprised? I'm a lefty. I'm creative. Lefties are creative. The point is. The point is, this is. This is. I can play to two different issues. This is not the same as cousin marriage. This has to do with certain recessive traits in Communities that intermarry. If you intermarry in a group that is more likely to have the recessive version of this gene, you have to be careful. So sorry about that.

[Katie]

Okay, wait, so what part did you get wrong? That the Orthodox Jews actually don't do cousin marriage. It's taboo.

[Jesse]

I don't think I said they did cousin marriage. I think I treated cousin marriage as like the same sort of genetic risk as the risks faced in the Jewish Orthodox community. But they're different sorts of risks for slightly different reasons.

[Katie]

I think you said that Orthodox Jews do cousin marriage.

[Jesse]

I hope I didn't say that because

[Katie]

I. I made a joke after that about how Jews and Muslims have so much in common. Your cousin marriage and your penises.

[Jesse]

Penises in terms of size or circumcision?

[Katie]

Circumcision. I was saying I don't know anything about size. I assume Arabs are bigger.

[Jesse]

I would not have. Okay, I hope I didn't say that because I would not. I don't know, like they're. I would have assumed there don't do cousin marriage because it's pretty uncommon in general. Either way. Now we've cleared it up. We've done a great job.

[Katie]

All right. The Muslims who. Cousin marriage. The Arabs do not.

[Jesse]

The Arabs do not.

[Katie]

I'm sorry, the Muslims do. I'm sorry, Muslims have nothing to do with it. The Arabs do cousin marriage. The Jews.

[Jesse]

Some of them. Some. Some of them do not.

[Katie]

Only 55%.

[Jesse]

And let's move on. I'm only going to dig myself in a further roll here. Katie, what jumps into your head just off the top of it, that big beautiful brain of yours. When I say the words Graham Platner,

[Katie]

my head is actually quite small. I know what some people would. Would probably consider like a form of microencephaly.

[Jesse]

Were your parents cousins?

[Katie]

My parents were not cousins, but I think I was just like really squeezed through the bir. I was almost born in the parking lot of Pedro's Porch. Just like really, just I think of.

[Jesse]

What porch?

[Katie]

Mexican restaurant in Asheville. I think I was just in there for a while so I can wear a toddler sized hat.

[Jesse]

Pedro's Porch.

[Katie]

Pedro's.

[Jesse]

Does it still exist?

[Katie]

No, the parking lot does. There's a little plaque.

[Jesse]

Someone wrote a song, song and lyrics by the Baja marimba band in 1964

[Katie]

about the Mexican restaurant on Biltmore Avenue in Asheville.

[Jesse]

I don't know, but we can. We can figure this out offline.

[Katie]

Okay, wait. Who did you ask me about?

[Jesse]

Graham Platner.

[Katie]

Again, A Ginger. Um, I think of Graham Platner as, like, a real hero of the working class, you know, a mere oyster farmer who went to, what, prep schools?

[Jesse]

We'll get to that. But. So you like a working class hero oyster farmer who went to prep schools and a hero.

[Katie]

Yes, it's a very common combo. You go to E and. I can't think of any American prep schools. What's a good American prep school? Sidwell Friends. And, you know, then you go get

[Jesse]

your masters in oysters.

[Katie]

Yeah, no, probably you get your master's in, like, philosophy or something. And then you're walking by a Carhartt store one day and you're like, you see the mannequins in the window and you're like, that's what I want. And then you go, you get a pair of boots, you go get a pair of Blundstones or something like that. You get some. Some, like, thick denims, and then you. You put it on and then all of a sudden you're working class. That's how it works.

[Jesse]

Okay.

[Katie]

That's what I did.

[Jesse]

Graham Platner is perhaps among the most famous up and coming lefty American politicians at the moment. He's running for Senate in Maine. This is a very big race, this Maine senatorial race, because while it presently seems pretty likely the Dems will retake the House. Although hold that thought for next week. We'll talk more about that. If they also controlled the Senate, that would be a very big deal. Control of the Senate brings with it just really important powers for the last two years of Trump's presidency. Control over confirmations, what makes it to the Senate floor for votes. Obviously, you'd also. If the House were to launch impeachment proceedings, the Senate then holds the trial.

[Katie]

No, no one will get them.

[Jesse]

I'm just. Well, there'll be some pressure once they could. If they control the House, and then he'll be impeached.

[Katie]

And then what will happen? What'll happen, Jesse? What'll happen?

[Jesse]

Be impeached and then they'll fail to convict because they don't have a super majority. Yeah. I'm just saying.

[Katie]

Nothing.

[Jesse]

I'm not. Just let me describe the mechanisms of our Democrats.

[Katie]

I think it's third. Impeachment will do it. I think this time.

[Jesse]

The point is, even if the Democrats retake the House, the difference between Trump and GOP control of the Senate versus Democratic control of the Senate is. Is pretty night and day. Would you. Would you agree with me there?

[Katie]

I would. I would agree with you there. If Trump were A normal human human being and not the chosen one who seems to get everything he wants. And is the, is the reason there's been so much focus on this main race because Susan Collins is considered particularly weak. Is this the only state that has a chance of flip flopping parties? Why Maine?

[Jesse]

Yeah. So last night, it depends who you ask, but last I checked, Democrats probability, the forecasters think they have like something in the low to mid 40% chance of taking the Senate. They have a real shot at the moment. It's extremely unlikely to happen if they don't take Maine. Graham Platner is running against Susan Collins. As you mentioned. She's represented the state since 1997. She's one of the last remain you like her?

[Katie]

I do. I mean compared to most Republicans, yes. She's slightly more independent. She doesn't vote with Trump 100% of the time. She's been a Trump critic. She's moderate.

[Jesse]

Funny you should say that because yeah, she's one of the last remaining moderate Republicans on paper because you can always count on her to just support whatever Trump is doing and then express disappointment that it happened. So I have stats on this. I pulled them. The center left, center for American Progress writes that Collins has voted with Trump 95 of the time.

[Katie]

Exactly. Like I said, not 100% of the time.

[Jesse]

Not 100%. Collins. Collins, seven votes, dot dot dot. That different from the White House were largely the more controversial nominees. They list Hegseth Patel and Emil Bove, who is a very controversial figure. For more nerdy reasons, they were nonetheless confirmed along with some larger budget bills that passed anyway. So when she has gone against Trump, it's been in situations where the GOP didn't need her vote. She also helped to confirm folks like RFK junior Tulsi Gabbard, both great Americans. So yeah, I guess she's modern in the. That she furrows her brow at Trump. I don't think she really gets in the way of Trump's agenda. She is a vulnerable candidate is the point.

[Katie]

And Platner just won the Democratic primary, so he is, he is our man in Maine taking a woman's job.

[Jesse]

Yes. His most serious opponent in the primary was the state's governor, Janet Mills. She, she withdrew from the campaign at the end of April because there was a polling gap and she didn't have that moolah. She didn't have the money she needed.

[Katie]

That's so crazy to me that this like totally unknown, inexperienced, fake oyster farmer who's able to raise more money and interest than the actual sitting governor of the state. Well, part of the problem then.

[Jesse]

Yeah. And part of what it tells you is it has to do with where the Democratic Party is. Mills sort of represented the dusty old Democratic establishment. And at the moment, if you just ask Americans what they think about the Democratic Party, it pulls somewhere between Lyme disease and chlamydia. So it is a bad time to be an establishment. Down.

[Katie]

What would you rather have?

[Jesse]

Oh, definitely chlamydia. Isn't chlamydia just easily curable?

[Katie]

I mean, so is Lyme, if you catch it on time. I had it. Remember I sent you that picture of my butt with the big bullseye?

[Jesse]

Well, you sent me a lot of pictures of your butt. Never done.

[Katie]

No, it was just the one chlamydia.

[Jesse]

I think chlamydia. You can just. I'm not like. I'm not. I have not had chlamydia. I promise. I promise. Katie, I have it.

[Katie]

I know. Nobody thinks you've had chlamydia.

[Jesse]

I've not had sex.

[Katie]

How could I have chlamydia anyway?

[Jesse]

Platner. So. And because the Democratic Party is so unpopular and has been flailing about so wildly since 2024, it's. It's energized this new lefty cohort of people who want to remake the party in their own image. A lot of them are affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, or dsa. And that is the world Platner is from.

[Katie]

Okay, well, tell us more about Platner. How did he. He has no experience. He's never run for office. How does he become the Democratic nominee?

[Jesse]

Oysters, basically. Can we start with his oyster farm?

[Katie]

Let's please do so.

[Jesse]

Yeah. He has an oyster farm. And that represents the fact that one of the reasons we're supposed to like him is that he's supposedly not some rich product of the establishment. We're told he represents this sort of rugged beard, having military serving, beer swilling, gravel voice type of guy, usually a white dude who's been fleeing the Democratic Party in droves. So he's the sort of candidate that can bring those sorts of people back. We're told. We're told that in part by all.

[Katie]

Democrats are so dumb. All they need is a good beard.

[Jesse]

All they need is a good beard. One of the people telling us this about Graham Platner is Graham Platner himself. Quote, I'm a working class guy that lives a working class life. He told a local Maine television station, as reported by the New York Times, there's an authenticity There that most other politicians just can't provide because it's inauthentic for them, the authenticity is inauthentic. Okay. He regular says versions of the line, I've never been close to money and

[Katie]

power and this is not true. Correct?

[Jesse]

It's not true. No, not really. The Times investigation into his past and his finances says he has a quote, backstory that defies easy categories categorization. There's some truth to that. So he did five combat tours. He was a harbor master. He presently runs an oyster farm. He washed dishes in an inn after eighth grade. And his mom, who separated from his dad when he was young, did not have much money. But on his dad's side, there just isn't much of a trace of working class. Now, this depends partly how you define it. In the Times article, they say Platner describes working class as anyone who works and makes money off of wages and pays taxes.

[Katie]

So LeBron James would be working class. He's not an owner of the. Who does he play for? Lakers.

[Jesse]

Lakers, yeah. Yeah. The Times diplomatically describes that definition as expansive.

[Katie]

So you and I are not working class because we own the means of production, but Tim Cook, who does not own the means of production, is working class?

[Jesse]

I mean, yeah, when I, you know, it's, it's a fuzzy expression. Sometimes I usually think of someone who has a certain baseline level of economic precarity.

[Katie]

I think of it as someone who

[Jesse]

wears Carhartts or you work. Either you have economic precarity or you wear Carhartts, but not both. If it's both, you're not. They cancel each other out. But that Platner has never experienced economic precarity. So, Katie, read this about.

[Katie]

You said that he washed dishes in an Inn after 8th grade.

[Jesse]

Read this about Warren Platner, his grandfather. This is from the Times.

[Katie]

He was a, quote, celebrated architect who designed the dining room of Windows on the World, the storied restaurant atop the World Trade center and offices for the Ford foundation building. Before Mr. Platner was born, his grandfather also designed an expansive family estate in Connecticut that he said was inspired by a chateau. A chateau in the Lori Valley. Is it Laura? Lori?

[Jesse]

No idea.

[Katie]

A chateau.

[Jesse]

And I'm working class.

[Katie]

Working class valley of France. Working class wine country of France. Mr. Platner has said he visited his paternal grandparents at their home twice a year on Thanksgiving and Easter. Warren Platner is best known for a namesake line of furniture, including mid century modern easy chairs that today are priced starting at $15,000. Quote, I love them. President Trump, who kept platinum chairs in his office at Trump Tower, told the New York Times in 2010, I've had them recovered recently. I buy the velvet fabric directly from the company, and it costs a fortune. But don't they look great? God, Trump should have just been a fucking designer.

[Jesse]

How surreal must it be for the guy who wrote a story about a chair popular with rich people in 2010 and is like, oh, I'll get. I'll hit up Donald Trump. That it's just supposed to be weird for him to now read back on that and to see how it connects Platner's father, that was his grandfather. His father is a successful local attorney. Platner borrowed $200,000 from him to buy his home, and his father, quote, also paid for his and his wife's travel, lodging, and fertility treatments in Norway this year.

[Katie]

Norway.

[Jesse]

End quote.

[Katie]

They did not have fertility in Maine.

[Jesse]

Well, Norway.

[Katie]

He wanted. He wanted Norwegian babies.

[Jesse]

This sounds very eugenic. The oyster farm's biggest customer is his mom, who owns a restaurant and most of Platner.

[Katie]

So he's a Nepo baby.

[Jesse]

Most of Platner's own income comes from the almost $60,000 a year he receives from the military every year, tax free, a result of his 100% disability rating. So he has PTSD and hearing loss as a result of his service.

[Katie]

You know, Graham Platner's pedigree. This sort of reminds me of George Bush, like, actually raised in Connecticut, but putting on the heirs of a cowboy. He's doing the same. Putting on the heirs of a main oyster farmer.

[Jesse]

Well, it's tricky. I think there's, like, an interesting economic tie in here between Platner and the sorts of young people who. Who came out to vote for DSA candidates the other day.

[Katie]

Not a little tie in. They're the same.

[Jesse]

Well, yeah. And. But I mean, that.

[Katie]

Downwardly mobile.

[Jesse]

Yes. Yeah, exactly. So, like, there's a difference between your present income and savings and whether or not if things go south, you have a safety net. So I. When I first got to DC, I think my first job was, like, $34,000 a year. I was in my 20s. I lived in a group home, and my rent was, like, 600amonth. I didn't. It's not like I had, like, tremendous earning potential because I was in the D.C. nonprofit and journalism world, and there were probably waiters in D.C. who made more than me. But don't you think it would sort of miss the point if I lumped myself in with waiters by saying look, we both make 34,000 a year.

[Katie]

I mean, it depends on who the waiters are. You know, there are plenty of waiters who also have parents who are lawyers and doctors.

[Jesse]

A waiter, I'm saying you could call the waiter. Many of the waiters would be working class in a way. I was not. Not at the time.

[Katie]

Assuming that the waiters in question were not also people who went to private schools and had parents who made a lot of money. Yeah, plenty of waiters are actually in that same position.

[Jesse]

Yes, I was making $34,000 a year, but I didn't really have to like worry about slipping through any crack because frankly, if something bad happened, I had. I came from a wealthy suburb and like my parents could help me out if need be. And they had helped me out during unpaid internships.

[Katie]

Yeah, there's a difference between being poor and being broke.

[Jesse]

Yeah.

[Katie]

You know, I'm, I come from you and I come from different socioeconomic classes. Like, my parents were educated, but my parents were never wealthy. And still, like, I grew up thinking that my family was rich. Literally, I thought that we were wealthy because my, I was surrounded. I'm not from a wealthy suburb. I'm from a, like a pretty Podunk place. And so the people around us were genuinely poor. So relative to them, my family was very affluent. But then, but honestly, like, then I got into journalism and I was like, oh, no. Like, no. Compared to my peers now my parent, my family was pretty working class. Like educated, but working class.

[Jesse]

I think it's interesting with Platner because like he himself does not make a lot of money or live like the lifestyle of a wealthy person. But he and his allies have obviously played up this whole working class thing in a way I'm guessing most Americans would not agree with because they'd say you're not really working class if you can borrow 200 grand to buy a house or fly to Norway on your dad's dime for fertility treatments.

[Katie]

And class in general is such a fuzzy concept in a lot of ways. Like compare, compare, something like that. Like being a plumber with being a journalist. Most plumbers are going to make more than most journalists.

[Jesse]

Yeah.

[Katie]

But I consider, and maybe working class isn't the right terminology here. It's like blue collar versus white collar.

[Jesse]

Well, but a plumber, okay, take a 22 year old plumber who's like been through a full training may well making

[Katie]

a lot of money.

[Jesse]

Make more money definitely than like a lot of 22 year old NGO work, nonprofit workers in New York, but their

[Katie]

parents probably don't have second homes on Cape Cod.

[Jesse]

Yeah. And they hang out with different people in terms of, like, education, interest. Well, but this made me think about you because you're not, you know, dad was a professor. You're not, like, working class, but you went through, like, phases where you had, like, actual real person jobs, working bars and coffee shops and stuff, right?

[Katie]

Oh, yeah.

[Jesse]

In your 20s.

[Host/Announcer]

Yeah.

[Katie]

I mean, I went through, I went through. I didn't, like, start having office jobs until I was, like, in my late 20s, early 30s. And I went through many years of being broke. But while I was broke, I was never poor. Right. Like, I always could have called my parents and said, I'm in a desperate situation, please help me.

[Jesse]

But this is why I think, I think. I don't think we should entirely write Platner off as a privileged rich kid, because you, if you work in bars or restaurants for years or in other settings with people who largely don't come for money, you do, like, come to understand different types of people you wouldn't meet otherwise. And, like, that whole authentic authenticity thing sounds like bullshit, but he has, like, he hasn't come up in, like, a gilded world for the most part.

[Katie]

But he went. I mean, he went to private schools.

[Jesse]

He did. But his adulthood has largely been in settings where you do not have, like, mostly higher educated, wealthy people.

[Katie]

I mean, his grandfather has a Wikipedia page. Like, assuming, like, even if his mom's family didn't have a lot of money, assuming that he had access to his father's fortune, the fact that he, like, put on a uniform and did the military for a while or worked in oysters, I. To me, like, you can't, you can't opt in to being working class if you have a trust fund.

[Jesse]

No, but okay, take, take him and Gavin Newsom and drop them both into, like, send them to campaign at a genuinely working class bar with, like, mostly people who are not college educated, I do think that one of them, Newsom, is much more likely back. Hello, my fellow working class friend. Do you care to share a Budweiser with me? Whereas I think Platner probably can. Can speak the language. Now, I don't mean that a condescending sense. Just all subcultures and class levels have their own vernaculars. And he's probably can speak it.

[Katie]

I'm. I'm sure of that. I'm sure that he is more fluent in the vernacular of people who have bar fights than Gravin Newsom is. He's not slick looking. My point is that I think It's a put on. I think that he's a poser.

[Jesse]

Interesting. Okay. I'm not sure. Well, come on.

[Katie]

He has an oyster farmer and his customer is his mom. He strikes me as someone who is playing the role of working class who is not. And look, I know a lot of people like this. I dress like this. Like, I got asked the other day if I was a farmer and I was like, look at my fingernails. I'm obviously not a farmer. Like, I understand that because I like the aesthetic that he has.

[Jesse]

You're a content farmer. Is that what they meant?

[Katie]

I was so flattered by this that somebody would look at me and see someone who actually works. Like a hand job for a hand job.

[Jesse]

Someone who works a hand job.

[Katie]

I came out wrong. I do it. I do a fingertip job. I do a typing job. That someone who doesn't work a computer job for a living. But no, no, it's like, it's straight up. It's the pants.

[Jesse]

One thing we should say because Jessica, ladies. Baby. Has always did like really good in depth research on this and there's all sorts of.

[Host/Announcer]

Of.

[Jesse]

As with any high profile campaign, there's like a lot of bullshit floating around online. And I saw some people claiming that there was something truly fishy, actually, no pun intended, about the oyster farm, that he had just registered it or something.

[Katie]

Like, it's a new. A brand new oyster farm that he set up so that he could run for office.

[Jesse]

Yes, it appears so. The Walk Wockiag Neck Oyster company website says he took operations of the business back in 2019. A local Maine outlet that looked into it and they think that he. He was involved since at least back then. And there's like. He also talked about it on his old Reddit account, which is going to come up again, where he went by P Hustle, which I do think is instantly disqualifying to call yourself P Hustle.

[Katie]

Are you sure it wasn't Fussle?

[Jesse]

No, it's P Dash Hustle.

[Katie]

Okay. Actually. All right. Thinking about this working class thing, and I'm thinking of a friend of mine who I wrote about this guy in my book. He was a. Like, he was. If you saw him on this street, you'd be like, that guy is working class. He worked as an electrician. He did odd jobs. Mostly he drank. That's why he's in my book. Crawl space stuff. And he was poor.

[Jesse]

Like, he did crawl space stuff.

[Katie]

Yeah. Like cleaning.

[Jesse]

What does that mean?

[Katie]

Cleaning out crawl spaces. It's. That's a very working class Job. It's a disgusting job.

[Jesse]

No, I know, but you said crawl space stuff, which sounds weird and almost sexual.

[Katie]

And he. So if you saw this man, like. And it wasn't like he was also poor. He was also. Not just broke, but poor, didn't have a safety net. He was the child. And I found himself much after later afternoon. It was like, shocked the shit out of me. He was the son of a linguistics professor and a nun, but he had fallen so far from those. From that strata. Yes, that he was genuinely working class. But this had mo. This, like, was mostly to do with, like, alcoholism and. And, like, other life shit, that it gets complicated. And that's the part, like, there was. No, that's the part. To me, that Graham Platner that distinguishes someone like that from Graham Platner. Is that Graham Platner, like you just said, $200,000 from his dad for the down payment on his house. Flying to Norway on your dad's dime for fertility treatments.

[Jesse]

But it. It's different from a version of Graham Platner who had. He could have gone into democratic consulting or worked in finance.

[Katie]

So he's a fail.

[Jesse]

So, yeah, maybe he's a fail, son. Well, but. And you had mentioned the downwardly mobile thing. And this will come up next week, too. But a lot of this is also people who do come from prestigious backgrounds but who think they're not now getting a fair shake because especially. And this is more so in places like New York, where the cost of living is insane, than Maine. But this is all part of the same.

[Katie]

People cannot live anywhere but New York.

[Jesse]

They can't. They're not allowed to. Also, this should. This should go without saying, but he loves bringing journalists to the oyster farm, like, whenever he can. And it's very scenic. Makes a lot more sense than bringing him to one of the HE Fund. His dad has been involved in democratic fundraising for a while. Not going to bring him to one of those. Read the start of this Anna Marie Cox profile of him in the New Republic with your folksiest mania voice.

[Katie]

What does the main accent sound like, Maynard?

[Jesse]

It's like, I can't do it. It's like a little. There's like a. There's a good SNL where Fred Armeson and Bill Hader play a gay couple from Maine. So you should just check that out and I'll show you what the accent

[Katie]

sounds like at a.m. taunton Bay is glassy, the air cool, but salty enough to make your nose wrinkle. A man in rubber boots, canvas plants and a black T shirt worn to gray, carrying a large cooler on his shoulder, passes me on the beach. Yeah. For Graham, he says, his main accent, looping the first two words together. Yep.

[Jesse]

Yeah, yeah. For Graham. Yeah.

[Katie]

Good man. He said. Good man.

[Jesse]

Good man.

[Katie]

Good man, Good man, he says, continuing on his way.

[Jesse]

It's just like. It's sort of two on the nose. I mean, it just happened to be someone was passing by. He's like, oh, yeah, he's a very honest man.

[Katie]

The cooler was probably filled with Pellegrino.

[Jesse]

Do you think he just hired a local to be there when Anna Moody showed up?

[Katie]

Hold this on your. On your shoulder.

[Jesse]

Okay. We should probably move on to the tattoo, right?

[Katie]

Okay. Yeah, yeah.

[Jesse]

Okay. So this is one of the weirder subplots here. Graham Platner has a tattoo that appears to be a totem cop. Right? Yeah.

[Katie]

You still have it if it's underneath another tattoo.

[Jesse]

Very philosophical question, but, yeah, this is. This is a symbol associated with the Nazis. And the story he told when another Marine who got a matching tattoo said the same thing is that him and his Marine buddies were drunkenly in Split, Croatia, and they. There was this badass looking tattoo. And the Nazis, to their credit, very badass. They had some badass symbols. If you didn't know the underlying all that stuff that happened, you'd be like, that's cool. And he said. He has subsequently said he had the tattoo for many years, but at only recently during this campaign has he realized its significance. But he appears to be completely full of shit on that.

[Katie]

Okay, explain this. Why full of shit? Besides the fact that it's obvious?

[Jesse]

Right. Well, what, you think he should have known it was obvious it was an SS tattoo?

[Katie]

I think. No, not at the moment of getting it. Yeah, I think if you're, like, drunk with your buddies. I mean, honestly, who hasn't been, like, wasted with your buddies in Croatia and gotten it getting tattoos? Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. Yeah, totally. That's how I got the brunch tattoo. That doesn't surprise me at all. What is harder to believe is that at no point did in the last, like, 17 years did he figure out that his tattoo was a toten comp.

[Jesse]

Yeah. And I should say I'd be more likely to believe that if he was the sort of person, at the risk of foreshadowing or spoiling, if he was the sort of person who didn't constantly take his shirt off, I'd be more likely to buy that story. That is not the case. Speaking of which, Matthew Castle of Jewish Insider, full disclosure. I know him and he's a very good guy and a good journalist. He wrote a big piece on this in October of 2025 that made some news. Read this excerpt please, Katie.

[Katie]

But according to a person who socialized with Platner when he was living in Washington, D.C. more than a decade ago. He lived in D.C. what was he doing there? Do they have oyster farms there?

[Jesse]

Bartending?

[Katie]

Platner had specifically acknowledged that the tattoo was a totenkamp, the death's head symbol adopted by the infamous Nazi SS unit that guarded concentration camps in World War II. Quote, he said, oh, this is my toten comp, the former acquaintance told Jewish Insider recently, speaking on the condition of anonymity to address a sensitive issue. He said it in a cutesy little way.

[Jesse]

That's just my toting comp. I like it too. Thanks.

[Katie]

The Exchange occurred in 2012 at Tune In a popular dive bar on Capitol Hill, where Platner later worked as a bartender and was a frequent patron while he attended the George Washington University on the GI Bill, According to the former acquaintance, he would take his. So he was bartending while he was in college.

[Jesse]

Platner later worked as a bartender. It says.

[Katie]

Yeah, okay. No, later worked as a bartender and was a frequent patron.

[Jesse]

Okay, I will say, I mean, he got GI Bill, but George Washington University is also a very bougie university.

[Katie]

He would, according to the former acquaintance, he would often take his shirt off drinking with friends late at night at the bar and on. He's like Bert Kreischer and on at least one occasion had stated he knew what the tattoo represented.

[Jesse]

The former acquaintance, you can probably relate to him in that last part of getting drunk.

[Katie]

Drunk and taking your shirt off, showing your chats off. Yeah.

[Jesse]

That same day when that story came out, Platner announced he was going to have the tattoo removed. A few days later, Andrew Kaczynski of cnn last seen ruining Kamala Harris's otherwise perfect campaign by revealing answers she chose to give to questions she chose to answer. Kaczynski also reported talking to an anonymous former acquaintance. I think it's the same one who confirmed the tattoo. Kaczynski also said he himself, Kaczynski, had seen a text from this acquaintance at the time texting someone else about Graham Platner's tattoo. You get what I'm saying there, right?

[Katie]

Yes. So there is contemporaneous evidence.

[Jesse]

Yes. That and in journalism, like contemporaneous, if someone says this happened and they can show you here in my fucking phone 2015 text message talking about the tattoo. That's like usually considered pretty good evidence, right?

[Katie]

Yes, yes. This isn't just someone saying I. This happened 15 years ago. Believe me, there's some evidence here.

[Jesse]

Yeah. I can't tell you that. The evidence goes to school in Canada, so I can't show you. Making matters worse, Kaczynski and his team, they found Platner with that P Hustle guy on Reddit. A lot of posting and there had been posts.

[Katie]

He is P Hustle.

[Jesse]

He is P Hustle.

[Katie]

Yes.

[Jesse]

Not that P Hustle guy. That P Hustle guy is him. There have been a lot of posts where Platner spoke in, in great depth about members of the military getting Nazi looking imagery tattooed on their body. Like he knew this was a thing he clearly knew about. These posts were from like six years ago.

[Katie]

Does being a redditor disqualify you for being in the U.S. senate? It maybe should.

[Jesse]

Well, I mean, calling yourself P Hustle, does being a Redditor probably Nazi tattoo. I guess your mileage may vary. Yeah.

[Host/Announcer]

All right.

[Katie]

Do we know who this anonymous source is?

[Jesse]

Yeah. Yes. Well, we probably. But let's do housekeeping first before we get to that.

[Katie]

We are a podcast. This is blocked and reported can reach out to us with story tips, with corrections about cousin marriage in any ethnic group with feedback at blocks and reported podcast gmail.com. we also. I know this is going to be news to people. We have a premium subscription program. A lot of podcasts are going full paywall at this point. We're not doing it. We still have.

[Jesse]

Is that true? That a lot are.

[Katie]

Ethan is.

[Jesse]

Well, he should. He like. He's like a working father.

[Katie]

Yeah. Unlike us.

[Jesse]

Working father, your mother to moose.

[Katie]

And for a mere $7 a month or way less. If you join for a year. I think it's like how much Basically free.

[Jesse]

I think it's free if you do it for a year.

[Katie]

I think it's 70 for a year. So you get like a. What is the discount there? 20. I don't know. You get a significant discount if you join for a year and you get at least three, like 3.5 extra episodes every month. It's also the best and really the only way to support the show. And it is what keeps the show going. So please join us. We have some great content coming up for our primos. As Jesse mentioned, the next Primo show is going to be the continuation of our Marsha P. Johnson series.

[Jesse]

And then two part series.

[Katie]

Two part series. And then we have some really Great stuff coming up later in the month that I'm very excited about. You also get access to our live chats. You get access to our comment section, our chat, which is available through the Substack app. And what else?

[Jesse]

Jesse, did you give our email address?

[Katie]

I did. It's the first thing every time.

[Jesse]

Did you talk about how being a paid subscriber is the only way to support us?

[Katie]

I did, yes.

[Jesse]

I think that's it. Oh, rate and review us on Apple podcasts.

[Katie]

All right.

[Jesse]

Okay, so you were. So you're asking me about the anonymous source?

[Katie]

Yes.

[Jesse]

Yes. Okay, so I think this one is likely Lindsay Fifield. She was later quoted in a New York Times article we're about to get to Jewish Insider said that that source knew him more than 10 years ago. Times would later report this Lindsay Fifield person dated Platner between 2013 and 2015. So that. That would roughly fit.

[Katie]

Are we sure it's her?

[Jesse]

Yeah, that's my understanding is like all the. All the sort of facts line up. So she was. This Lindsay Fifield person, was the source.

[Katie]

Okay. And she's a conservative activist, right?

[Jesse]

Yeah, she's a longtime GOP type and the optics are awkward. The lefty outlet Zateo said because it

[Katie]

was cross cultural dating.

[Jesse]

Yes, because it's cross cultural dating. And because as a New York Post,

[Katie]

he canceled for that. For dating a conservative opera operative.

[Jesse]

The. The New York Post, back during the Brett Kavanaugh hearing, said that Inez Stepman and Lindsey Fifield are two millennial women who co founded the group Ladies for Kavanaugh to show their support for the nominee when they felt that view was being left out of the public discourse. So they, yeah, know she's. She's a partisan and she supported Kavanaugh, but it would have required a lot of, like, engineering of prior text threads or like hacking his social media history to undercut this evidence.

[Katie]

Based on what you've heard, dude, that happens. You know, that happened to Joanne Reed.

[Jesse]

It did happen. Joanne Reid, who's always loved gay marriage and gay people. So, yeah, I mean, based on what you've heard so far, it seems unlikely. Even if you set aside like, multiple journalists saying they talked to someone who said this. Those Reddit posts where he's specifically talking about, like, what is and isn't a Nazi tattoo. He's even very familiar with Nazi iconography. Also, a leftist woman has more recently come forward and said Platner knew the tattoo was a Nazi symbol. She has a very left coded social media profile Name 420 Mercy Main 69

[Katie]

I thought that was your name used

[Jesse]

to be do you know what a Mercy Main is?

[Katie]

No.

[Jesse]

Mercy is the healing character in the Overwatch universe. Mercy Mercy Main means that's a character you usually play. It's a multiplayer shooter and so the

[Katie]

the reason that it's that it's left coded is it says 69 and and

[Jesse]

Republicans don't 69 they don't say they're not allowed to because of the Bible or and 420 is weed which they also they can't smoke and they also don't play Overwatch. So this person Mercy 420 Mercy Main 69 said she met and started dating Platner when she moved to Maine for a summer job in 2021. So just read part of the statement.

[Katie]

She mostly please we went on dates in public, out in the open. I went to his house. When we finally got intimate I was lying my head on his chest and like the well informed leftist I am but the swooning young woman I was, I asked him point black blank oh my G OMG crazy question but is that a tome comp tattoo on your chest? Haha no worries if not lol. Is this how women speak? Yeah, you wouldn't know. I remember this plain as day. He sighed and put a hand to his forehead and pushed his hair back and said yeah. He explained that he didn't know what it was when he was younger but his leader but his leader of whatever military variety was big into World War II history and suggested he and his team all get it. My obvious response was wow. Oh my God. That's like OMG so so crazy.

[Jesse]

Lol.

[Katie]

Why didn't you get it removed proved? Okay, so she's saying that his Is she saying that he was conned into getting this or that his by his leader or that his leader didn't tell

[Jesse]

him he didn't know? Well keep reading.

[Katie]

He provided what at the time was a pretty convincing explanation that when he finally returned from war and then private he was a private contractor, canceled and had settled into leftist ideology. He kept it as a reminder that the United States and by extension himself were the bad guys. A blood brand of sorts that would serve as a constant reminder of his growth and change, but a mark he would always carry. He I'm sure that this worked on this woman.

[Jesse]

Horny young woman.

[Katie]

He should have tried with this explanation instead of just lying about it. But why should we believe this? 420mercy Main 69 people dug up these

[Jesse]

other tweets of hers from 2021 and 2022. Just read them, please.

[Katie]

At that point, her name appears to be Dipshit. Is that right?

[Jesse]

Dip something. I don't think we can see the whole thing. Yeah.

[Katie]

I get my tarot read once a month from a sweet older woman, and she's been confirming my feelings about Graham for the past few months. And this month's reading shows very positive things, not only for that, but also for my life and the changes I'm about to go through in general. And then another one. I was seeing a guy that owned a farm in Maine, and I got to eat oysters right of. Right out of the ocean. You are correct. It blows every other oyster quite literally out of the water. And then another one. Honestly, can't wait to get married to my oyster man and mooch off my husband specifically so I can have hand and face tattoos. Okay, this is believable.

[Jesse]

Yeah, it's like, I mean, the probability of someone coming forward saying, I dated Graham Platner, unless this had been a very long running plot to seed her social media profile with references to an oyster farmer and Graham. You sort of have to be conspiracy theorists who believe this person doesn't actually know platinum. So put this all together. Yeah. Tell me if this makes sense to you. He got the tattoo. Probably not knowing exactly what it was at the time.

[Katie]

I. That's what I assumed. But if his. If she says his leader was into World War II history, that suggests that his. At least the leader knew. I like, did, like, did his boss in the military, like, can, like, con these guys into getting Nazi tattoos?

[Jesse]

I like. Right. I just. To me, I'm not going to make any assumptions about drunk 20 something Marines in Split, Croatia. I. I would, I would not. I don't. I. This is gonna surprise everyone. I don't like Nazis or Nazi tattoos, but I could actually see something like that happening. But yes, you're right, that's a little bit ambiguous. But what I think is not ambiguous is that there's a lot of evidence to suggest he was simply lying when he said he only knew about this when it was brought up during the campaign.

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Host/Announcer]

Yeah.

[Jesse]

And as. As you pointed out, if he just fucking said, like, look, this was a horrible mistake I made years ago and I should have covered it up. I'm embarrassed I didn't. Here's why. Blah, blah, blah.

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Jesse]

You know, some people, for understandable reasons, wouldn't have accepted that. I. I don't think it's inherently disqualifying that he got this tattoo.

[Katie]

I mean, it's not a tramp stamp.

[Jesse]

It's not a tramp stamp. If he'd gotten a totem cop tramp stab.

[Katie]

If he'd gotten a juicy tramp stamp,

[Jesse]

the responses from his defenders have been pretty brain melting. And here I don't want to risk getting into you and I. We have our own feelings. We have feelings and we don't want to get stuck in our feelings. But we've had the sorts of people who are caping for platinum online overlap heavily with people we've had negative run ins with. And they are overwhelmingly the sorts of people who love to try to get people's lives ruined or to get them fired for even misdemeanor infractions related to social justice. Yeah, but this has really shown that, like when it comes to people on their team, it's all fine. Like including Nazi tattoos they're lying about. So of course, read this from friend of the pod, Emma Vigilant and this was the day the Jewish Insider story came out.

[Katie]

How many people get tattoos that they thought looked cool but didn't understand the meaning of it? That I thought that brunch meant something else? And how many. How many vets took mercenary work for a period because the US doesn't support them? How many young men have shit posted online? Do we want an authentic working class party or not? I the only working class people that Emma knows would be the people she employs to clean her fucking house.

[Jesse]

Look, it's. None of us are working class, and the Democrat Tick Party does have problems with working class voters. To me, the problem is less her saying do we want an authentic working class party or not? Than this. If an authentic working class person said they thought there were two sexes or they were skeptical of trans women in women's sports, Emma would view them as a monster. She would never say that this big tent should include people with those incredibly mainstream views. But a Nazi tattoo that a guy is clearly lying about? Then you need to understand the full context because those are authentic. This is an authentic working class guy whose dad lent him $200,000 to buy a house. It's just, it's. It's so full of shit. And the way this signifier authentic working class. It's just she's deploying it in a really opportunistic way because the vast majority of working class people don't have Nazi tattoos. The vast majority of working class people do hold views on things like sex and gender or defunding the police that Emma Vigilant and people like her have made clear should get you hounded from polite left of center society. So I just think it's bullshit all the way down.

[Katie]

She's supporting this guy because she.

[Jesse]

He's a socialist.

[Katie]

She has.

[Jesse]

She's a socialist.

[Katie]

Yes. That's the only thing that it's about.

[Jesse]

Yes, he lied about the Nazi tattoo, but he did it socialistly, so it's okay.

[Katie]

Right, Right.

[Jesse]

So that was the post of the day of the Jewish Insider article. But these folks really lost their minds after some more recent coverage in the Times and the Wall Street Journal. You might have seen.

[Katie]

Yeah, this is something to do with him being a douchebag to women.

[Jesse]

Yeah. So that Mercy Main person mentioned, among the other stuff she talked about that she found out Graham had been engaged while they were dating.

[Katie]

Oh yeah.

[Jesse]

And I mean this puts us in the category of like, he just seems like a pretty bad dude. It's not the same as lying about a Nazi tattoo. So the time.

[Katie]

Wait, what do you think's worse? Cheating on your. On your fiance or getting a Nazi tattoo?

[Jesse]

It's a question for the philosopher.

[Katie]

Cheating on your fiance has a very specific victim. Yes, your fiance and the woman that you're dating.

[Jesse]

Anyway, so that, that his like treating women shittily was not some long ago thing. So the Times and the Wall Street Journal did publish reporting at the end of May and early June saying that like even right as his campaign was kicking off last year, there were vetting concerns because his current wife said that like he has been sexting with multiple other women recently. So this is an ongoing thing for him.

[Katie]

And how did that come out?

[Jesse]

Like who did she willingly during the vetting process?

[Katie]

Okay, so, so she said that to his. The like people who orchestrated this campaign. How did the Times find out about this?

[Jesse]

Yeah, here I can read it directly. Mr. Plattner's wife, Amy Gertner, told a senior campaign aide that he had been exchanging sexual messages with multiple other women.

[Katie]

Okay. And someone from the campaign lead to the Times.

[Jesse]

Yeah, it got there. It got to them one way or another. So on June 4, the Times took a closer look at his history with women. Quote, Mr. Platner could be charming, charismatic, they recalled in interviews, but also demeaning to women and in at least one case, even physically threatening. He drank heavily and was regularly unfaithful.

[Katie]

Sounds like he'll fit in in D.C. yeah.

[Jesse]

And, and, and the story's tricky because some of it is like he's admitted to being sort of a pts ridden alcoholic fuck up earlier in life and some of it is just like, you know, him being a really bad boyfriend. But some of it got weird. And worse than that. This comes from Lindsay Fifield, the aforementioned conservative type. Read this.

[Katie]

So this is from the Times?

[Jesse]

Yeah.

[Katie]

During one argument, she recalled, he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom, and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn't get out, telling her to remain there until she was calm. Eventually, Ms. Fifield said she fell asleep and left the next morning. Quote, it hurts, she said, but she added, it. It didn't cause an injury. It didn't break my arm. Mr. Platner, quote, strongly disputes any claims of physical intimidation or altercations. His campaign said the Times could not independently corroborate Ms. Fifield's account of the altercations. Ms. Fifield also recalled that Mr. Platner's displays of weaponry and discussions of violence sometimes left her uneasy. She said he kept an AR15 lying around his apartment on Capitol Hill and would sharpen an ax, a relief from his time working on the Appalachian Trail before he enlisted in the Marines while watching television. Why would you have an ax living in D.C. it was a relic of

[Jesse]

his time working the Appalachian Trail.

[Katie]

Yeah. He had what she described as a warrior ethos and would fantasize about killing people he deemed a threat, she said. He said he told her that rape was about power. Okay, that's like the Susan Brown Miller.

[Jesse]

He's a feminist.

[Katie]

It was something that stuck with her through the years. Ms. Fifield said he said this a lot, that if anybody ever broke in here, I would rape them. She recalled saying. He added that it would not be in a sexual way, not in a gay way. Okay, that's good.

[Jesse]

Not in a gay way, fellas.

[Katie]

Is rape gay?

[Jesse]

Yeah. So this story, there was not a smoking gun. And the Times said they could not. She was talking about an incident where he briefly physically restrained her, which is not good. But it didn't, like, break anything in the Times. Couldn't confirm that. So this story just made him out to be, like, a pretty bad guy on multiple fronts. But do you think I'm wrong, that, like, if this amount of evidence had been marshaled against, like, I don't know, a center left, establishment Democrat type, I. I think left would be, like, that's. Yeah, Yeah. I think they would find that disqualifying. Right.

[Katie]

Depends on the year. And it depends on. Because nobody, I think specific, particularly left and Republicans, like partisans, are not consistent about this.

[Jesse]

Yeah.

[Katie]

You know, so, like, Al Franken got run out of the Senate for Crimes far less serious than this. Like, he wasn't accused of physically restraining anybody. Yeah, but that was the moment of me too, when all of a sudden, like, something, like, something like this, if this had happened during me too. He's out.

[Jesse]

Yeah, he's. He's probably out. I mean, I, I'm just getting at like, like, look everyone.

[Katie]

Well, not if he was a. Not if he was a Republican. Like if he was a Democrat.

[Jesse]

I just think there's a lot of inconsistency here. I mean, I just talked about that in the context of Emma Vigilant. But this is the Platner candidacy. This is a part of a broader proxy war between the left DSA flank of the party and the more moderate members.

[Katie]

Yes.

[Jesse]

A lot of people pointed out, you know, Fifield was conservative and therefore she's got to have an agenda here. There was also this idea that this is some sort of intentional smear campaign on the part of the Times. So Freddy Deborah, he wrote a day after the second Times article came out. Of course, this is a coordinated rat of Graham Platner sub headline. Let's be adults here, please. Katie, will you read this?

[Katie]

For the record, I'm not a main voter and I'm not especially a Platner fan. He's not my vision for the future of the Democratic Party and I haven't donated money to him or anything. But this process has played out time and again where the center right faction of the Democratic Party has weaponized liberal media like say the New York Times, the Atlantic and New York to do their dirty work and inevitably against a more populous left wing candidate who represents a threat to the Clinton Obama Democratic Party machine. And it sucks.

[Jesse]

He also wrote that the reason the establishment wants Platner gone is not the tattoo or the text, but that the oyster farmer represents a movement within the party that's a genuine threat to the billionaires who control our political system. I guess including one of the billionaires bought his dad's chairs for his grandpa's chairs for $15,000. What do you think of Freddie's theory here?

[Katie]

I do not find it Plau. Like if this were. If there were any chance that he was going to lose the primary to like if like the governor of. Of of Maine had been a viable candidate or they had there had been any viable candidates and this came out right before the primary, maybe more plausible, but I don't think that the democr like the Dems need. Even if he's a DSA radical, the Dems need this seat. They need him to win.

[Jesse]

Yeah, I mean it's, it's the, the moderates and the DSA insurgents alike will be in the same boat if he. So that's a very good point. I mean, him.

[Katie]

I don't think that, that centrist Dems would rather Republicans keep the Senate than to have this like fake oyster farmer. No, because he, they see him as a threat to the, to the status quo. I also, which by the way, he, he won't be a threat to the status quo.

[Jesse]

I don't think meaningfully. I also this idea that the center right faction of the Democratic Party like smears anyone who goes up against the Clinton Obama Democratic Party machine. I mean, one of the most microscopically covered political figures in recent history is Hillary Clinton. Yeah, they covered her like crazy. Every.

[Katie]

No, don't. They covered up the email thing.

[Jesse]

Right. They covered up the email thing. Every hint of a potential scandal, which doesn't really jive with the theory that like the center, what he calls the center right faction controls what the media rights, which is also, I think a little bit crazy.

[Katie]

Yeah, I mean, Freddie is assuming that like there's some sort of coordination, there's a conspiracy between like this centrist at the New York Times and the Democratic Party, which I do not believe. I believe that journalists are ambitious and care more about breaking stories and their own names than anything else.

[Jesse]

If the Times was in the pocket of the establishment, they would not have. They like covered Tara Reid's accusations, rape accusations, which are now widely considered to have been debunked. The Times gave them a lot of

[Katie]

airtime accusations that were not debunked by like that accusation was first, that story was first broke by Ryan Grimm.

[Jesse]

Yeah, it's just.

[Katie]

What do you think Ryan Grimm's motivations were to rat fuck Joe Biden?

[Jesse]

Well, Freddie's good. He's good. I just find this very conspiratorial. Speaking of which, I want to go back to Emma Vigilan for a sec before we wrap this up. Just listen to this clip, Katie, and let's embed this.

[Host/Announcer]

All of these attacks from what like people are understanding to be the establishment, I think could really backfire on this. Them. And a reminder that it's not just, I think ideologically, it's Zionists that are terrified of, of Platner, but the entire infrastructure of the Democratic consultant class is also in opposition to a campaign like this because of how he runs. Because if this is the standard, then the parasitic middlemen who are the Democratic consultant class that take these big commissions on Media buys and digital ads that have had very little success specifically in unseen Susan Collins, but even in broadly across the country, they would be rendered moot. And that's what we need to do because they are parasitic and taking away all of the energy from the Democratic grassroots. But they are terrified about that. So you have consultants going on television slamming Platner over and over again. They're trying it with Abdul Al Sayed, but he's such a boy scout that you can't find anything but this manner. Yeah, I mean, and whoa, did he actually do his residency? Like the manner of campaigning is threatening to the Democratic Party infrastructure. And then overall, of course, the politics of Platner is threatening to the Zionists that are running a coordinated smear campaign against him. Make no mistake about it.

[Katie]

Does she have any evidence to support this?

[Jesse]

Which part?

[Katie]

That there's a Zionist smear campaign against Graham Platner?

[Jesse]

No. Look, I've been, I've been pretty open on the show that I don't think criticism of Israel is anti Semitic, like even harsh criticism. I think people weaponize their allegations. But like, like Occam's razor here. And you could, you could say this to both Emma and Freddie Platner has like been a lightning rod for attention. He's running for Senate and he's an insurgent candidate. Despite having never served in any office. He's on track to potentially be a fricking a senator. A US Senator. That's what journalists do is they. They poke and prod the background of someone who is likely to be in a position of power. So I think if you spread the idea that this sort of bog standard poking and prodding and reporting is best explained by a coordinated Zionist smear campaign. And I'm directly quoting the Majority Report's own Facebook page. If you keep pressing that sort of message over and over and over, you probably shouldn't be surprised if you find some actual anti Semites in your orbit. I don't think Emma is necessarily an anti Semite, but a coordinated Zionist smear campaign is really verging into dangerous territory. And again, this is someone in Emma vigilant who like really polices is what other people say. I, I just think she should be careful about this. But look, do you think this is

[Katie]

the same Zionist who killed Charlie Kirk?

[Jesse]

Probably the same Zionist, if you had to guess.

[Katie]

Is it like one Zionist?

[Jesse]

Well, there's a group, there's like one really powerful. There's an annual conference and then every, there's quarterly, smaller subcommittee meetings in terms of who we should kill and who we should promote for office or deny office. So.

[Katie]

But I hope you at least have a Democratic vote about.

[Jesse]

So, Katie, one reason I want to keep in most of that is because, like, I do think the question of Maine voters, not like she blithely stated, Maine voters don't care.

[Katie]

Okay, so that headline, emma Viglin dissects the coordinated Zionist smear campaign against Graham Platner and it's why it's. And why it's backfiring with voters in Maine. Is that true, the smear?

[Jesse]

Well, we've established the Zionist smear campaign is true. You're saying because. Because we have the meetings, but the voter and main voters not caring are asking, is that true? Yes, I. No, I mean, she said that very confidently. Genuinely hard to say. First of all, if anyone knows what the voters of Maine think, it's definitely Emma Vigilant or me for that.

[Katie]

She probably has a summer home there.

[Jesse]

I'd say it's hard to say. Right at the start of this month, like before the second Times article came out and like the, the scandal really engulfed him, there was a poll showing Platner up four points. Nate Silver said at the time, quote, an internal poll showing plus 4 is not super reassuring given that internal polls typically exaggerate their candidate standing by four points or so. And that's smaller than Platinum's lead in most public polls before. Since then, there just hasn't been a lot of high quality polling. The New York Times reported a couple showing Platner plus one or plus two, which would suggest like a dead heat. But they, the Times notes that's from lower quality pollsters. So the, also like race doesn't really come into focus until after the primaries, until the field is otherwise cleared. And we just, we don't know yet. So I think it's really unclear.

[Katie]

Well, I mean, but also, so much of this is not actually about Platner. So much of this is actually about Trump.

[Jesse]

Yes.

[Katie]

And do you. Is what voters care about neutering Donald Trump? How important is that to you? That's what this will come down to. I don't think if Platler wins, I don't think this will be, I don't think this will be the socialist revolution. I think what this will come down to is do Maine voters want Trump to have less power, period?

[Jesse]

Well, if you were casting the deciding vote vote in Maine, like, how much do you buy the lesser of two evils thing where if you vote, you get to decide and then the Democrats take control of the Senate, I would vote for him.

[Katie]

I hate to, I hate to say it, I don't like this guy. I think he seems like a douchebag.

[Jesse]

He seems like a major D bag and a bit of a liar. But yeah, we, if you, it's a two party system, you have two options.

[Katie]

I probably would not have voted for him in the primary and I probably would have sat out the primary if he, you know, if there was no other viable candidate. But I would probably hold my nose and vote for him because the, the, in this case, I'm a single issue voter and that issue is Donald Trump.

[Jesse]

Yeah.

[Katie]

You know, like you compare this, like this guy's shit baggery against Donald Trump's corruption. He wear, you know, he's fake working class, he's a poser, shitty boyfriend. Donald Trump is incredibly corrupt and corrosive and has killed a lot of people, including for instance, like 170,006 school rules in Iran. So yeah, I'm voting for the shitty oyster farmer.

[Jesse]

Yeah, I mean, it's not, unfortunately, it's not about. If it was just about Platner's character. If I could vote on whether or not Platner has good character, I'd say no. But what you just said is infinitely more honest than saying the only reason people are concerned about Platner's background or the fact that he seems to be a very shitty, dishonest human being is because of a Zionist smear campaign. I mean, I guess the difference is you and I don't feel any particular, like, revolutionary affinity for Pl. We just want Democrats to control the Senate, whereas people like Emma Vigiland think he's one of, one of her.

[Katie]

I want him to be powerless in the Senate. I don't want him to be like

[Jesse]

you want him to win and then the next day fall into a coma and get replaced by an actual oyster farmer.

[Katie]

Impeachment. Impeach him over the. Over the shitty tattoo. What's the COVID up, by the way? Was it a swastika?

[Jesse]

This was, um.

[Katie]

The other thing is, so I believe I read and you know more about this story than, than I do, Jesse. But did I read somewhere that he was sort of handpicked by Democratic consultants himself?

[Jesse]

Yes.

[Katie]

Progressives.

[Jesse]

Yeah. So there was a video interview with, I think the Wall Street Journal. Jeff Maurer had a funny piece highlighting this video called Stare into the Face of youf Populist Revolution. And it's just an interview with these two campaign consultant types who apparently plucked Platner out of obscurity. Let's listen to this clip that Jeff Maurer post. So, yeah, the first guy's a Wall Street Journal reporter, and then the two. These people are called Dan Moraff and Leanne Fan, and they met as staffers on Bernie's 2020 campaign. And what did you think about that? How did you. How did you think your way through the fact that he had posted these things on social media? I said none of this will or should stop him from becoming a U.S. senator. And what was your thinking, Barry? I think if what the voters wanted were people who were grown in vats and had never done or said anything that they might regret their entire lives, we'd have a very different country. Part of our thesis here is that people do not want their candidates grown in bats. They want people who are real human beings, and they want people who do not look and sound like the background people who've been leading this country off a cliff for last century. And that was Graham.

[Katie]

I've never heard a male with vocal fry before.

[Host/Announcer]

What?

[Katie]

This is an incredible.

[Jesse]

I mean, I'm not one to. I can't talk, but it's like he's. It's.

[Katie]

If you. If you talk like that, we wouldn't have a podcast. That's horrifying.

[Jesse]

The pro. The problem, like, people are allowed to have annoying voices. I have an annoying voice. But it is funny because it's like this is the. These are the guys who pick the guy who's gonna go up against the

[Katie]

billionaires candidates who are raised in a vat.

[Jesse]

It's just. So.

[Katie]

So the gu Was plucked out of obscurity by two consultants, is running against the consulting class.

[Jesse]

Yes. And he has an oyster farm. But it's not like really what he does. It's sort of a hobby. His mom's the main customer and he.

[Katie]

And so on family values.

[Jesse]

So. Okay, that. That's it for our exploration of Graham Platner, but we're going to be revisiting some of these themes next week. There's a lot of directly adjacent stuff I want to discuss involving the dsa, New York City. Anti Semitism.

[Katie]

He is. Is not the worst person.

[Jesse]

Probably headed to D.C. maybe the second best.

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Jesse]

But yeah. Anti Semitism, anti Zionism, US Policy toward Israel, and I think most importantly, this, like, socioeconomic dividing line.

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Jesse]

In the Democratic Party that I think is like a real obstacle to anything resembling a coherent, unified party. We'll talk about all that next week. For now, thank you for listening. As always, Jessica. The 80s baby provided invaluable research Katie Marsha Marshall P. Johnson. Next week.

[Katie]

Yep, next week. Bye, everyone.

[Jesse]

Bye.