Episode 316: Graham Cracker Crumbles

Summary

Blocked and Reported, Episode 316: "Graham Cracker Crumbles" (July 13, 2026)

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Overview

In this episode, hosts Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal bring their signature blend of dark humor and incisive commentary to the latest explosive developments surrounding Graham Platner, Maine’s once-promising Democratic Senate candidate whose campaign has unraveled amid serious allegations of sexual assault and growing evidence of personal and political dysfunction. The hosts dissect the layers of the scandal, the media frenzy, the roles of various political operatives, and the broader implications for the Democratic Party and left-wing politics. Along the way, they explore the MeToo movement’s legacy, political tribalism, and why elite consultants keep searching for "working class" candidates in all the wrong places.

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Aging (and “Asian”) Updates

00:00 – 02:32

• Jesse opens with a self-deprecating “aging update” (a sore ear), which segues into contemplation of getting older.
• Katie jokes about dressing young and feeling out of place on pop radio.
• The pair reflect on memory wards playing music from one’s youth and imagine their own retirements listening to ‘90s hits:
  • Jesse: “It’s going to be like the Thong Song, unfortunately … as I slip towards death and dementia.” (02:10)
  • Katie: “It’s going to be a lot of Alanis Morissette.” (02:22)
• Brief discussion of aphantasia (not being able to visualize mental images).

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Trans Sports, Bureaucracy, and Bureaucratic Chaos in Tahoe Truckee

02:32 – 09:25

• Jesse shares details from his recent reporting on a convoluted conflict involving the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District (California) and trans inclusion in high school athletics.
  • Geography complicates competition: easier logistically for California schools to compete in Nevada conferences, but California law requires support for trans athletes’ participation; Nevada changed to a "biological sex" policy under Trump.
  • “The district is now planning to…” (06:26): They’ll likely have to join California’s conference, forcing risky winter travel.
• Only a hypothetical scenario: “As far as everyone knows, there’s no openly trans students in Truckee … so basically [they’re] changing the entire shape of their athletic life … for hypothetical reasons.” (07:09)
• Political/legal chaos:
  • Trump DOJ sues California for letting trans girls play; California pressures Truckee to leave Nevada for not letting trans girls play. “It’s like something out of a hacky political satire.” (08:17 – Katie)
  • Jesse: “No matter what Tahoe Truckee does, it is violating something someone said.” (08:25)
• The hosts highlight this as a microcosm of America’s fractured debates around sex/gender.

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The Graham Platner Implosion: Allegations and Fallout

09:25 – 32:04

Background and Timeline

• Platner, a Marine veteran running as a Democrat for Maine Senate, is hit with interpersonal and (now) criminal allegations.
• Previous episode recounted the New York Times profile focused on Lindsey Fifield’s allegations of physical intimidation (“twist[ing] her arm behind her back” and “holding her hostage for a night”—Jesse, 10:34), with listeners and partisans diminishing or weaponizing her claims due to her GOP ties.
• New allegation: Politico publishes an accusation of rape by ex-girlfriend Jenny Rasico, pushing Platner from the race.
  • Katie: “He’s got 99 problems and women are all of them.” (02:56)

Allegations Details and Media Handling

• Rasico’s detailed accusation: Platner, “almost blackout drunk,” came over after she said not to; forced sex, no memory the next day; she waited until her period, told him what happened online, and cut contact.
• Platner’s denial hampered by his blackouts. Jesse and Katie note the commonality and forensic challenges of blackout amnesia.
  • Jesse: “Once you admit that you have had severe PTSD and alcohol problems, that's going to entail some blackouts, at which point you can’t meaningfully deny anything.” (18:52)
• Hosts debunk “why not go to the cops?” questions, noting how rare reporting to police is among acquaintanceship sexual assault survivors.
  • Katie: “It is completely not uncommon for women to not report sexual assaults to the police … particularly when the assaulter is someone they are close to…” (22:31)
• The difference between past MeToo excesses and this case: “But I found both Fifield’s story and Jenny Racico’s stories very convincing.” (24:47 – Katie)

Pattern of Behavior and the Response

• The growing pattern: two named accusations, plus “reckless and unsettling” conduct and a trail of questionable behavior (sexting, online misogyny, marital infidelity).
• Platner’s defenders (Michael Tracy, Clay Travis, lefty pundits) initially rush to his side, then abandon ship.
  • The hosts lampoon the ideological hypocrisy and tribalism of both left and right: “They will cape for someone like Graham Platner while accusing the media … of being evil Zionists.” (29:29 – Jesse)
• Notable quote:
  • Katie: “This guy is a walking red flag. And this is a really good lesson for partisans who get excited... If you were a partisan … and then you have to go back and be like, whoopsies, he was a rapist.” (26:27)

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Consultants and the Pursuit of “Vibes” Candidates

32:04 – 44:55

How Did Platner Get Here? Consultant Fiascos

• Platner’s candidacy was orchestrated by progressive consultants desperate for a “working class” candidate.
• No vetting: “They didn’t even interview him.” (41:04 – Katie)
  • Katie: “Brock could have found this.” (41:08)
  • Platner’s own wife delivered damning evidence to the campaign.
• Main engineers of the catastrophe: Dan Moraf and Leanne Fan (professionally privileged, loving his “vibes”), plus out-of-state operative Morris Katz.
  • Moraf has a privileged background (grandson of Toys R Us founder), and, days before recording, was said to have been barred from Summer Lee’s campaign over sexual misconduct complaints. (42:23)
• The hosts ridicule the “populist” fantasy of uncredentialed outsiders:
  • Katie: “His entire qualification was that he had a mustache.” (27:44)
  • Jesse: “What’s more establishment than sexually harassing someone and then fleeing to Yale Law School?” (46:41)

Pattern: Progressive Elites LARPing as the Working Class

• Katie and Jesse read and ridicule contemporaneous press awe at Platner’s “rugged hands” and blue-collar visuals.
• Nate Silver dubbed the consultants “Beavis and Butthead” and called their search for Platner “a sort of mad science experiment talent search based solely on outward appearances with no vetting whatsoever.” (38:54)

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Collapse of Partisan Integrity and the Left’s “Electability” Problem

44:55 – 53:15

The Echo Chamber and Sliding Moral Standards

• The Platner Scandal as a mirror image of MeToo-era tribal behavior:
  • Leftists rushed to defend Platner, right-wingers did the same for Trump.
  • Katie: “This is just like Republicans giving a pass to Donald Trump.” (31:39)
  • Jesse: “There's a pattern of behavior. There's a pattern of treating women roughly, including physically … [Platner] is a thoroughly busted, horrible seeming human being in terms of not both sleaziness ... but this is way, way beyond that now.” (27:47)

Would You Still Vote for Him?

• Both wrestle with the dilemma: is it ever justified to vote for someone credibly accused of rape if the broader stakes are high enough?
  • Katie: “I think I probably would have.” (56:34)
  • Jesse: “It would be very difficult to. I don’t think I could… but I understand the argument.” (56:16)
• The hosts note the hypocrisy/cognitive dissonance of voters across the spectrum, where moral red lines shift for partisan gain.

Why Populist Outsider Candidates Keep Failing

• Hosts revisit polling: Platner was “21 points underwater among non-college voters” despite being marketed as a working-class hero. Numbers didn’t support his supposed appeal.
• Katie: “If Platner were … actually appealing to or speaking to working people, he would have had a totally different position on trans stuff.” (51:51)
• Jesse: “In these lefty spaces, you’re not allowed to hold different views on [Israel, gender identity] … [Democrats’] biggest problem is the perception they’re dominated by culturally alien weirdos.” (51:38)

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Media, Glute Massages, and the Surreal Finale

53:15 – End

Press, Victim Blaming, and the Limits of Journalistic Detail

• Ryan Grim criticized for trying to “contextualize” the rape allegation with a “glute massage” text; hosts find this ridiculous and veering toward victim-blaming.
  • Jesse: “You don’t want to give readers the wrong sense. What do you think?”
  • Katie: “I don’t trust Ryan Grim on this. I think that the detail … worth including. It doesn’t exonerate him at all.”
• Platner’s 11-minute dropout video is derided by Katie (“He seems extremely aggrieved, very conspiratorial. … I find this stuff really disgusting.” 36:57) and Jesse (“I thought, this guy is a sociopath.” 36:42) for its deflection and conspiratorial overtones.

Populism as a Liberal Fantasy

• The broader lesson: high-status, well-educated operatives keep misreading “authenticity” and “working class” signals.
• Platner’s real background: private school, family loan, fake oyster farm, stylized blue-collar cosplay.

Notable Quotes

• Jesse: “More red flags than a Chinese parade.”
• Katie: “He looks like a man who wears Carhartt. Therefore, he is a man of the people.” (37:39)

On Morris Katz’s Puberty Book

• Online outrage over Katz’s prior authorship of a puberty book is firmly dismissed by Katie and Jesse as a non-scandal, just a failed attempt at humor.

Meta Reflections and Closing Thoughts

• The episode closes with the hosts’ characteristic mix of resignation and dry wit: “I'm sure everyone involved here will learn their lessons ... I'm sure everyone will hold themselves to the same extremely stringent moral standards they so frequently hold everyone else.” (60:05 – Jesse)

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Key Timestamps

• 00:00 – 02:32 | Aging banter
• 02:32 – 09:25 | Tahoe Truckee trans sports story
• 09:25 – 32:04 | Platner introduction, allegations, and media handling
• 32:04 – 44:55 | Consultant-driven political disaster
• 44:55 – 53:15 | Electability, tribalism, the MeToo context
• 53:15 – end | Media failure, “glute massage," dropout video, Democratic Party’s leftward drift, and strained appeals to authenticity

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

Katie: “His entire qualifications was that he had a mustache.” (27:44)

Jesse: “More red flags than a Chinese parade.” (54:59)

Katie: “Do you think this is because Emma’s never actually met someone who's genuinely working class and she just saw him and she was like, man of the people?” (29:29)

Jesse: "What's more establishment than sexually harassing someone and then fleeing to Yale Law School?" (46:41)

Katie: “It's this idea that less experience is better. It's this like populist fever dream.” (46:11)

Jesse: “The beard and the gruff voice will only get you so far if you come from a very different world ideologically.” (53:15)

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Summary

This episode is an exhaustive, darkly comedic autopsy of how the left’s desire for “authenticity” and outsider mystique backfired in spectacular fashion. Herzog and Singal trace the Platner saga from bumbling consultants to the perverse morality of tribal politics, highlighting the ongoing tension between purity and electability, elite posturing and actual working-class appeal. Along the way, they poke holes in partisan outrage, media missteps, and the stubborn belief that a working-class image can replace basic vetting and integrity.

For listeners seeking an unvarnished, skeptical, and at times bitingly funny breakdown of the latest political fiasco—and what it says about who gets power, who keeps it, and who gets trampled in the stampede—this is essential blocked and reported.

Transcript

[Katie]

Foreign.

[Jesse]

Katie, I've got an aging update. Oh, not an Asian update, an aging update.

[Katie]

What are we talking about today? Ear, Hair? Back aches? What's on the docket?

[Jesse]

It's weird that that's how you phrased it. My right ear is sore. It's. I have a sore ear. Oh, there's nothing else going on. I don't have an ear infection.

[Katie]

Did something crawl in it?

[Jesse]

Maybe the cartilage itself is somehow sore and I don't know.

[Katie]

Did you pierce it?

[Jesse]

That must be it. I pierced it hundreds of times. I don't. I don't know. It's just. It's. We. I mean, this is not an original observation, but you hit your 40s and stuff just goes south in sort of colorfully unexpected ways.

[Katie]

We're gonna listen back to this in our 50s and we're gonna think, which is what I'm sure at least one of us will be doing with our spare time, is just listening to old episodes of the podcast. Right. Reliving the glory days. But we're going to look back at this and we're going to think, babies.

[Jesse]

You have no idea.

[Katie]

Babies bitching about aging.

[Jesse]

So I have a sore ear. That's my. That's my update. What's new with you, Katie?

[Katie]

That's your update.

[Jesse]

That's it.

[Katie]

Okay.

[Jesse]

That's how I chose to start the episode.

[Katie]

All right, let's see. Aging.

[Jesse]

Well, do you have any Asian updates or just aging updates?

[Katie]

No, I haven't seen any Asians in a while, but Asian aging updates constantly. Constantly. It's weird. I've, like, we've reached the age at which, like, we are no longer considered young. I would say I still feel young. I dress young. Like, I'm wearing tube tops. I'm wearing tankinis, short shorts. But I know it's no longer age appropriate. I feel weird when I listen to pop radio now. Like, I should be listening to oldies.

[Jesse]

I just feel weird in general.

[Katie]

I did have a realization the other day, which is that, okay, so I. I saw something about, you know how in old folks homes, like, especially memory units, memory wards, they'll play music from, like, when the people with Alzheimer's when they were kids, and they sort of perk up. You hear stories about this.

[Jesse]

Yeah. Like Nazi marches and stuff. Yeah.

[Katie]

I was thinking more like Elvis the beat. Like, for our part.

[Jesse]

Elvis, yes.

[Katie]

For us, it's going to be like

[Jesse]

the Thong Song, unfortunately. Yeah, I do. I wouldn't mind. There's like, a lot of 90s rock songs that continue to do it like a little, hey, jealousy as I slip towards death and dementia. That'd be good. Or Ace of Base, the sign.

[Katie]

Oh, yes, that'll. It's going to be a lot of Alanis Morissette.

[Jesse]

Anyway, Katie, what are we here to discuss other than Asians and aging?

[Katie]

Jesse, today we are going to be talking all about Graham Platner and his latest women problems. But before we get to that, you wanted to talk a little bit about the. What? You just wrote something. You want to talk about it?

[Jesse]

Yeah, let me. I think this story might be of some interest to listeners. So let me just talk about it for a minute and then, yes, I want to get to Platner Dammerung as I saw someone describe it online.

[Katie]

He's got 99 problems and women are all of them good.

[Jesse]

Jay Z reference. You're always making tight Jay Z references.

[Katie]

You know, I'm a real JZ head.

[Jesse]

Katie, can I bring you back in your mind to like 4 months ago? Close your eyes.

[Katie]

You know, I don't envision. This is very insulting of you.

[Jesse]

I don't envision either. What's that condition called?

[Katie]

Aphantasia. Although I've never quite figured out how to pronounce it. Aphantasia.

[Jesse]

In any case, I was. You remember when I was in California, right?

[Katie]

Oh, how could I forget?

[Jesse]

It was an incredible time. While I was there, I heard a story about this part of northern Lake Tahoe called the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District. Truckee is sort of the biggest town in that northern Tahoe region. So this district had, for decades competed mostly against schools in Nevada, not in California, when it came to high school athletics.

[Katie]

And why is that?

[Jesse]

Do you remember offhand, the Donner Party? Remind me what the Donner Party is.

[Katie]

Yeah. The Donner Party was a group of settlers. So this was the problem.

[Jesse]

Settler colonialists.

[Katie]

They were very problematic. They were going to take over unceded native territory, and they ended up eating each other. Because this is just what whites do.

[Jesse]

This is what whites do.

[Katie]

They did a cultural appropriation. They did a land grab. They did a human cannibalism.

[Jesse]

They had come from the Midwest to. They were trying to get to the Sacramento Valley.

[Katie]

That is not Minnesota. Nice.

[Jesse]

This was. When was it? I want to say 1857. Donner party. Sure. Well, I'm going to actually check, Katie, because I care about research. Yeah, no, 1846 to 1847.

[Katie]

Gotcha.

[Jesse]

Yeah, they got. So the dot. The Donner Pass, as it's now called, is called that because the Donner party got pinned down in the Sierras. The Sierras have some of the most Snow in the U.S. just crazy weather. They didn't check their weather app on their iPhones. I don't know why. And they got stuck there and they got pinned down before they could get through the mountains. And, yeah, some of them died. They had to eat one another. Katie Covered ears. But they had to eat their pets and their other animals after they died.

[Katie]

Would I eat you first or moose first? Not a hard question.

[Jesse]

You definitely me first, so.

[Katie]

You're fuzzier. He'd be easier to skin than you.

[Jesse]

So basically the. This school district mostly competes against Nevada schools because it just works better in terms of not having to get over the Donner Pass, which I've driven a number of times and which can have crazy weather. Easier to have your kids play in Nevada. So they're crossing state lines literally, just like Kyle Rittenhouse. Yeah. And there are these weird, interesting aspects of the geography of the Sierras. I get into the piece, like, basically the mountains basically block moisture and snow from getting to the east. So the east side of the Sierras is just a much different, drier, more arid landscape.

[Katie]

Okay, what is this story that you heard about?

[Jesse]

Okay, so for decades, Tahoe Truckee competing in Nevada. Then Trump signs his executive order threatening to pull funding from educational institutions that allow self ID in sports. The Nevada conference that Truckee plays in had. Had, whatever you want to call it, a trans inclusive policy. But then they. Because the Trump eo, they're like, oh, shit, we better change this to biological sex. So Tahoe Truckee in California competing in a Nevada district in a Nevada conference that does biological sex. Problem is, California passed a self ID law in sports in 2013. So if you're a high school in California, you have to let trans girls play on the girls team. So suddenly, the school district finds itself potentially in violation of California state law if it continues to compete in Nevada, yada, yada, yada. The district is now planning to.

[Katie]

So Truckee is in California.

[Jesse]

I'm sorry, I didn't explain the basics. Yeah, well, north. North Lake Tahoe. Yeah. On the California side. And eventually the district decided it has to move to this California Athletic Conference. Problem is, that conference is in, like, Sacramento and other lower elevation parts of the state. So if this switch occurs, they're going to have to send van loads and busloads of kids over the Don in the winter, which is a time when it can get like 3 or 4ft snow at a pop.

[Katie]

Ooh, there's going to be a lot of forfeits there. Plus they're higher elevation. Right. So they're going to have an unfair advantage training at high elevation.

[Jesse]

Exactly. That's the biggest thing. Although to be fair, they play well. No, the other Nevada schools are also at elevation, just not as much.

[Katie]

So are there any trans kids in these districts, do you know?

[Jesse]

No. So what's crazy is, and there's details in the story, but there was this one complaint from an unnamed student, that former student, that set off this entire bureaucratic process that was very opaque. We had to request a complaint, me and my researcher, via a public records request. No one knew exactly what was going on. But there's, as far as everyone knows, there's no openly trans students in Truckee, so. Or Truckee Tahoe Unified School District. So they're basically changing the entire shape of like their athletic life and affecting the logistics for hundreds of families to. For like, hypothetical reasons. It also gets a little bit more complicated because. Katie, just read this one part of

[Katie]

my story while this unfolded. The Trump Department of Justice sued the California Department of Education and California Inner Interscholastic Federation claiming that allowing transgender girls to compete on girls teams is a violation of Title 9 for keeping. For those keeping track at home, we have the Trump administration suing California for allowing trans girls to play in a female category while the California pressures tt us. What's that? Ttusd.

[Jesse]

That's, that's the Tahoe Truckee Unified School

[Katie]

District to leave a Nevada based athletic conference because it doesn't allow trans girls to play in the female category. It's like something out of a hacky political satire.

[Jesse]

So in other words, no matter what Tahoe Truckee does, it is violating something someone said. Yeah, yeah. This is a hard story to summarize because there's a lot of like really weird bureaucratic stuff, but it's just like a good example of what happens in a country where there's such a divide about what sex and gender mean. So, Katie, after we stop recording, I hope you will print it out in reading it and take notes and we'll include a link in the show notes.

[Katie]

Okay, so if the, if this Trump lawsuit against the California Department of Education proceeds, I mean, will California, will that solve the problem? Will for, for the Truckee students, California will have to stop letting trans girls play in girl sports, therefore they can stay and play in Nevada?

[Jesse]

I think so, yeah. I don't know how long that's going to take. And this is sort of the, the flip side of that lawsuit we saw last week, or whenever it was that lawsuit said states that restricted to biological. Allowed to do. So what we don't have yet is like, a final decision on whether policies like California's violate Title 9, which is what some advocates.

[Katie]

Got it?

[Jesse]

Yeah, got it.

[Katie]

Okay. Platner.

[Jesse]

Platner.

[Katie]

We're on Platner time, baby.

[Jesse]

It is platinum time once again, in all likelihood for the final time. Although with this guy, you don't know, as most of you listeners likely know by now, Graham Platner, AKA Oyster, not so Po Boy. What do you think of that, Kitty?

[Katie]

Not good.

[Jesse]

The Banshee of Bangor.

[Katie]

That's better.

[Jesse]

The Asshole of Augusta.

[Katie]

Oh, I like that.

[Jesse]

Or several other nicknames I didn't have time to come up with. He is out as the candidate, Democratic candidate for main senator. That's because earlier this week, or last week, depending on. When you're listening, Politico ran a story about a woman named Jenny Rasico who is accusing Platner of rape.

[Katie]

Yeah, okay. So Rasico, she had been mentioned. We. Last week. We talked about. Was that last week.

[Jesse]

It's all a blur. At some point.

[Katie]

At some point, we talked about a story that the New York Times published about Graham Platner's women problems and his accuser, the main accuser in that story was a woman named Lindsey Fifield. Fifield, Was that right?

[Jesse]

Yep.

[Katie]

And she didn't accuse. She did accuse him of, like, grabbing her and holding her hostage for a night. That's sort of true, right?

[Jesse]

Yeah, that's right, 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.

[Katie]

Cause that's how we fight.

[Jesse]

Eventually, Ms. Fifield said she fell asleep and left the next morning. So it's her fault for falling asleep. If she'd stayed awake, he would have let her out.

[Katie]

It could have been a much shorter captive situation.

[Jesse]

Very funny stuff. Yeah.

[Katie]

So. Yeah, so she had. So the New York Times published that accusation, but then later this past week, Politico. Politico published an actual rape allegation from his ex girlfriend, Jenny Rock. Racico. Rasico.

[Jesse]

Yeah. But Rasico had been mentioned a little bit more vaguely in the Time story. So. Yeah, this is from that first time story, not the new political one. Jenny Racico, 41, a main Democrat, who said she dated him casually off and on between 2019 and 2021, said the post, meaning his problematic Reddit post deepened her belief that he did not respect women. When I saw the old comments that he made online, she said, I recognized a version of him that I had experiences with.

[Katie]

That's a long time to do a situationship.

[Jesse]

Later on in that same story, she was not shocked. She said, when she saw the incendiary comments he had made about women that have surfaced during the campaign. I was like, that makes sense. She said, this person does not respect women. Ms. Rasico also said that in 2021, he arrived at her house drunk after she had asked him not to come over. She declined to elaborate, but said she cut off contact soon after that episode and found his behavior, quote, reckless and, quote, unsettling.

[Katie]

Okay, reckless and unsettling. It's a bit vague. It's from my understanding. She declined to go. So she said, it says she declined to elaborate, but from my understanding. And Jesse, correct me if I'm wrong here, she told the New York Times about this rape allegation, but she. It was off the record.

[Jesse]

That is my understanding as well.

[Katie]

Yeah. So they focus on this, on this Lindsay Lindsey Fifield allegation.

[Jesse]

That was the strongest one they had on the record and the most specific one.

[Katie]

Right. And she herself, she is a. She's a Republican operative. And so after the story came out, people were basically partisans, were trying to dismiss the story as a hit piece because of her own position.

[Jesse]

Yeah. And she, you know, Fifield's a Republican and she had posted some just hyper partisan garbage on social media. But then these other people on the left, Platner's defenders, who themselves are constantly posting lefty hyper partisan garbage, they basically, like, displayed her old bad political posts suggesting she couldn't be trusted because of her opinions on whatever dumb political fight of the day. So that itself is a form of hyper partisan garbage. To be like, we don't believe this woman in account because she's a Republican.

[Katie]

That doesn't fit on a hashtag as well.

[Jesse]

It doesn't. It doesn't fit on a hashtag.

[Katie]

So this is why, as far as we know, why Jenny Rasico decided to come out and tell her story to Politico was because. Well, in part, I think, also because she said that she just didn't, like, want to see this man in the Senate. Right. Even though she agrees with his politics.

[Jesse]

Yeah. Here's what she said in the new Politico article. That, that, that, as likely, I would hope, ended Platner's political career. Rasico said she later felt compelled to go public after her experiences because the reaction to the Times story was dominated by controversy about another woman, Lindsay Fifield, who alleged Platner mistreated her and faced attacks because of her ties to the Republican Party.

[Katie]

See, I think that writing is. That makes it sound like she was like she was upset that her story wasn't the. Like maybe this isn't what she meant, but the way that's written it, I interpreted that as like she was upset that her story wasn't the. Wasn't like the forefront. Does that make sense?

[Jesse]

Well, I mean part of what she says is my part of the story was just a read over Rasico said in an interview. And the story was Lindsey and the accusations of her being politically motivated. I think it might have been a mix. And there's been all sorts of speculation about what the Times reporters did or didn't do. At the end of the day, I'm sure you and I have both had situations where you're have multiple conversations with a source and they want to go on the record about some stuff and off the record about others. And oftentimes it's agonizing because they know they have information that you want to put in the story. You can't use it. That's how you get weird stuff where they can on the record. Unsettling and reckless.

[Katie]

Right.

[Jesse]

But the Times reporter knows that she thinks he raped him but can't report it. That's not unusual. And I would not accept. I would just be careful. There's a lot of like claims of reckless reporting going on. I would just be very careful.

[Katie]

Including by. By Lindsey Fifield. She wrote this long Twitter thread we can link to in the show notes basically saying that the New York Times that, that she gave them a lot of things to corrobora and they didn't. They didn't do it in a way that she, that she was happy with.

[Jesse]

Yeah, which again, it just. It there's a source can think. Sometimes a source will think you should put this in the story because this is really good evidence. And reporter could disagree for a lot of different reasons. I think Fifield also feels like she was a bit hung out to dry because the reporters made it sound like they had been talking to a lot of other women.

[Katie]

Well, and she says in this Twitter thread the most. The line most shared from the piece was the claim that the Times quote, could not corroborate my story despite talking to two of my friends. I gave them the contact information for five friends. I could see why she's upset about that. If she gives them Five numbers, and they only called two people, and then they didn't call the other three. And they included this line about not corroborating, but they didn't take the steps to corroborate it. I would be upset about that if I were the source as well.

[Jesse]

Well, the specific line is the Times could not independently corroborate Ms. Fifield's account of the altercations. Independently corroborate? Look, if she told people at the time that Platner had physically hurt her, that's evidence and they should have included it. I just. I think the line the Times could not independently corroborate corroborate Ms. Fifield's account of the altercations. You know, there's a reason they included that line.

[Katie]

Okay, let's get into the specifics here. What exactly did Rasico accuse Platner of?

[Jesse]

So they'd been texting one night in 2021. She made clear to him not to come over. She says he came. These are all her allegations. Of course, he denies he came over very drunk, quote, almost blackout drunk, as Raso put it. She told him she didn't want to have sex. He followed her into the bedroom and forced. Forced her to have sex. That's why I'm using the word rape, including ejaculating inside her. So, Katie, please read this bit about the aftermath, because it's important.

[Katie]

The following morning, she said Platner tried to put his arm around her and she pushed him away. She said she asked him whether he remembered what had happened the previous night. According to Rasico, Platner said he didn't. He didn't remember. Rasico said she asked him to leave and never contact her again. Rascoe said she waited several weeks until she got her period to ensure she wasn't pregnant, then sent Platner a private message on Instagram saying that the encounter was non consensual and she did not want to hear from him ever again. Rasico had no further contact with him after that, she said. Rasico said she later deleted all her texts and social media correspondence with Platner as she tried to move on from the assault and said she had not been able to recover the Instagram message messages he sent him about the incident

[Jesse]

as we'll get to shortly. Like, Platner has been mostly abandoned by everyone you matters, but there is a subset of people who basically think he's being railroaded or that, like, really weak evidence is being used to end his political career. I think Michael Tracy is probably at the top of that list Michael Tracy,

[Katie]

his bar to prove sexual assault, very high. And oftentimes I'm. I'm with him. Not in this case. I think he's mostly right about the Epstein stuff. This stuff, not so much.

[Jesse]

Well, yeah, and I saw like some big name conservatives like Clay Travis basically, and other skeptics pointing out, like, why didn't she call the police? I gotta say, like, friend of the podcast, Rosenfield handled this well, like a. She was on the fifth column and dealt with it in a thoughtful way even.

[Katie]

What Cassie.

[Jesse]

Well, she basically said that, like, if it's someone you know and you still might care about them, not a str. Like, she basically said it's different if a stranger grabs you and rapes you. How you might think about the law enforcement versus someone you had been intimate with, you know, over the course of two, two or three years, and this horrible thing happens. But Kat just basically said she could understand not wanting to involve law enforcement. And look, I'm. I'm a guy who will never have to deal with something like this, but I, I can intuitively.

[Katie]

Unless you break into Grand Platner's house, in which case he will rape you.

[Jesse]

As he, as he said.

[Katie]

Maybe that's what happened. Maybe he, he was so blacked out that he thought that he was in his house and she broke in.

[Jesse]

That. That's it. Well, that, that's the side note I just want to make is like, he's been open about his drunken pastors, videos of him dancing shirtless. But like, once you admit that you have had severe PTSD and alcohol problems, that's going to entail some blackouts, at which point you can't meaningfully deny anything. Anything. It's tricky. That's a good reason not to get blackout drunk, as you have firsthand experience with it.

[Katie]

Absolutely. I mean, for people who've never experienced this, a blackout is basically a form of amnesia. Your brain is literally not making memories of the events at hand. And for people who are in blackouts, they can oftentimes look conscious, even sober. Like you can.

[Jesse]

Dude, I had a friend in college with a severe drinking problem who you could have like, slightly incoherent but pretty in depth conversations with him. And he just. It. It was like just a blank spot in his memory.

[Katie]

The next day you would have. No, you look out your. You look out your window, you think, oh, how did I. Oh, my car is there. I guess I drove home last night, huh? Like, no memory of the night before. That is not an uncommon thing. It's a Very strange physical phenomenon. And so him having no memory of that, if he was in a blackout, that's completely believable. That doesn't mean he's not legally culpable.

[Jesse]

Of course not. But, but what I'm saying is, like, it just, logically, it doesn't make sense for him to deny this.

[Katie]

Right? You can't, you can't deny something.

[Jesse]

It doesn't, because he can't be, he can't be sure.

[Katie]

And that's obviously a problem if you're the person who's blacked out because you, you know, there, there are certain, like, I have blacked out before. I am 100 sure that I have never raped anyone. I'm sure of that. I'm also, I'm not, you know,

[Jesse]

okay, but, but that, but back to the cop thing, I, I, I don't have a lot of trouble. Okay? What I've had, we've covered genuine excesses of the MeToo era, right? And what I, what I had a problem with was cases where, like, a media figure's life would be ruined and the story was like, well, we had consensual sex, but this one time I felt coerced. And then two years of hooking up with him later, I realized that that incident two years earlier had been emotional abuse and coercion. So now I want to cancel it. That's very different from this. And I, I do not have trouble imagining why a woman in her situation would not want to call the police. Do you?

[Katie]

I don't have trouble imagining it. And in fact, I, you know, I, I am, I think, truly one of the rare woman who has never been sexually assaulted. Although even by the, Even by some definitions, yes, I would also qualify as a victim by some definitions. I have a higher bar for that sort of thing.

[Jesse]

I had my butt grabbed once in the 9:30 club by, but you wanted it. So I guess by that definition I was assaulted. I was wearing, I was not wearing anything on the bot.

[Katie]

Look, yes, we have, we talked a lot about the exorcist of the MeToo movement. I think that some allegations, like Al Franken comes to mind, like, should not have ended someone's career or.

[Jesse]

No, Franken one's a great example of just, like, dumb fucking photo. Yeah, sorry, continue.

[Katie]

Right, but if you're a woman and you're friends with women, you know a lot of people who have been sexually assaulted and probably not that many who have gone to the police.

[Jesse]

Yeah.

[Katie]

Like, I know a woman who was pushed up, who was, like, walking home from a Bar and pushed up against the wall and. And these two guys, like, stuck their hand, like in like attempted to stick their hand inside of her while her friend is like beating them. Is like trying, like beating them with a purse. Didn't go to the cops. You know what I mean? Like, these things, like women have their own. Which I don't like. I think that. When I think that. I think that these things should enter the legal system more so that at least there's like documentation and a fucking record.

[Jesse]

Yeah, yeah.

[Katie]

But it is completely not uncommon for women to not report sexual assaults to the police. And particularly true when the. When the assaulter is someone they are close to, someone they live with. Even this is not uncommon. This is. This does not mean that the, the event didn't take place.

[Jesse]

In. In my 20s, I dated someone who I'm actually still friends with and she had moved to Boston from elsewhere. And I'm not. I'm not. I'm not blaming her, but like, you. You. If you're like a. What you probably shouldn't get into like an unmarked cab is this pre Uber. This was. This was pre Uber. And she got into like a sort of illegitimate cab and the guy groped her and she. She did not want to go to the police and I encouraged her to. And to this day, I feel a little bit weird about it.

[Katie]

Like, I think you did the right thing. Well, wait, did anything happen?

[Jesse]

I very much doubt it. I think she gave them a statement and it was not a pleasant experience. And it's hard to like, catch somebody who does a bad thing, especially if they're in like an unmarked cab. To this day I'm torn about it because, like, you know, did I like for. It's obviously her decision. I didn't like, force her to, but I can understand why she should not want to forcible rape report. I also. But I also, like. I'm with you, that I sort of think in some cases there's this. There's this idea that if you talk about it, it will re. Traumatize you in some concrete way and like, can be unpleasant. But you. You do need to weigh that against the possibility that the person did that to you could do it to someone else. And I think, like, yeah, so I can understand that like someone saying to Rasiko like, you know, you should have reported this. I don't really think it. It calls into question her truthfulness that she didn't involve the police because this was a guy she knew and who she thought was blackout drunk when he did It. Which does not excuse it. But. But yeah, yeah.

[Katie]

This case. Look, I think that. I think that I am more skeptical than a lot of women and particularly a lot of, like, liberal journalists when discussing things like rape and sexual assault. Just after looking into so many me too cases and being like, oh, this is. No. But I found this. I found both Fifield's story and Jenny Racico's stories very convincing.

[Jesse]

I also think again, we'll include a link to Jamie Kirchick's look into the Armie Hammer story. Although Armie Hammer is now in the news for different reasons, but that. That was.

[Katie]

He is. Yeah.

[Jesse]

He started in this crazy. What's it, ue or ue bowl, like anti migrant movie that Elon Musk put on Twitter for free for 48 hours. And it's just my.

[Katie]

How far he has fallen.

[Jesse]

It's just like a vengeance pulp movie about mass migration.

[Katie]

He was like fucking a peach with Timothy Chalamet and now he's doing anti.

[Jesse]

Well, Hammer claims to have been disgusted at seeing how the film turned out. He did get driven out of Hollywood on, like, just read the j. It's insane.

[Katie]

He's like, working in real estate.

[Jesse]

Yeah, I don't. So I don't think those two are unrelated. But the point is there were insane stories of people losing their livelihoods over nothing. But I just don't think this slots into that. Also with Platner, there's a pattern of behavior. There's a pattern of treating women roughly, including physically. These are two different women named accusers. If you have a named accuser saying he did specific things, that's really different from this vaguer, emotional abuse type stuff. And in Kirchik's investigation of the Army Hammer allegation, he found that, like, in one situation, a major media outlet describes someone as Armie Hammer's ex girlfriend who had never met him in person, which is insane. That's not what this is. No one denies these women, including Platner, like, no one denies that he dated them and knew them and could have been in a position to do these things. So his.

[Katie]

His wife told his, like, campaign staff that he was sexting with other women

[Jesse]

like a year ago. This was very recent.

[Katie]

This guy is a walking red flag. And this is the, like, this is what happens. This is a really good lesson for partisans who get excited, particularly talking heads who get like, people like Emma Vin or whatever who get really excited about a political candidate. If you were a partisan who is trying to get people to vote for someone. If you're trying to push some political agenda and then you have to go back and be like, whoopsies, he was a rapist. I just like, I've never had the impulse of being like, I love this.

[Jesse]

It's very like, weird. Like, I get.

[Katie]

I find it weird. I find it weird, like with any political candidate. But to valorize someone who, who frankly shouldn't have been running in the fucking first place. What is this man doing running for Senate? He has no experience. We shouldn't even know his name.

[Jesse]

It's so. And we'll get to how that happened, but it's insane. Yeah, look like, like I feel a little tingle when Obama gives one of his speeches or when you watch one of his old speeches. He's.

[Katie]

But Obama also didn't. Sorry to interrupt you, Jesse, but Obama also didn't jump straight into running for U.S. senate. That wasn't his first fucking job.

[Jesse]

Well, although it's funny, at the time people said he didn't have quite enough experience because he had been like state rep and then half a term as senator. 1. I forget the exact chronology, but Platner had. Yeah, I mean, we're. Okay, we're going to get to that. Just one other thing.

[Katie]

His entire qualifications was that he had a mustache.

[Jesse]

The must. It was a mustache qualification situation. Other thing I keep seeing is like people are suddenly being like the sort of corollary or converse or whatever of the argument. Why didn't she call the police? Is questions of whether or not there's enough evidence to legally convict him in a court of law. Who cares? The question is not whether he, beyond a reasonable doubt, did these things. The question is, do we want someone like this in the Senate who's just a thoroughly busted, horrible seeming human being in terms of not both sleaziness of. Of how he treats women, which if it was just sleaziness, but he was otherwise an incredible candidate. I'm not sure I care that much. Maybe I'm sort of French. Like, if you have affairs, I guess it's for the voters to decide, but this is way, way beyond that now.

[Katie]

There's a. Sorry, there's a. There's just a massive difference morally between having an affair, which I still think is. Is deeply immoral.

[Jesse]

It's a sign of bad character.

[Katie]

Right. And rape. There's a difference. What is criminal, of course.

[Jesse]

Of course. Or physical abuse, locking someone in a room before she calms down. Platner is a Marine, right. Lindsey Fifield posed him. Why is he false? Imprisoned, I mean, anyway, most platinum defenders Abandon ship pretty quickly from Bernie Sanders all the way down to the aforementioned Emma Vigilant.

[Katie]

When you've lost Emma.

[Jesse]

When you've lost Emma. Emma, of course, along with Majority Report, had previously blamed the negative publicity on a Zionist media conspiracy. That's paraphrasing, but just barely. The Zionist media was trying to get Platner out. Or you have shitty fucking judgment. That's another possibility. But that's just leftist content creators now. They will, they will will cape for someone like Graham Platner while accusing the media that is trying to do their job of being evil Zionists.

[Katie]

Do you think this is because never. Emma's never actually met someone who's genuinely working class and she just saw him and she was like man of the

[Jesse]

people Again, you keep foreshadowing the rest of the segment, but we should just, we should pause for a second to reflect on how many people absolutely. But clown themselves defending a very bad seeming guy. We should read this from the cut. The Cut did this job for us. So just read this bit.

[Katie]

Even in the face of these claims, many of his allies waved away.

[Jesse]

And this was the original claims before the rape thing.

[Katie]

Many of his allies waved away these allegations of cruel behavior towards women as if they were nothing more than an inconvenience. Liberal darling Jon Favreau, a pod Save America and leftist streamer Hassan Piker boasted by him initially. Despite the reports, political commentator Matt Stoller disparagingly said Platner represented, quote, a rejection of Dem Hr lady politics. As if the women gtner dated and who described his reckless and unsettling behavior are just nagging hags.

[Jesse]

Don't you hate when you rape someone at work? And some nagging Dem Hr lady is like, oh, you can't do that. You can't assault people.

[Katie]

She's like, I have to take the anti rape training. Some supporters latched on to the fact that Fifield is a Republican to cast her allegations as a political hit job. Journalist Ryan Graham went as far as positing that Democrats need to confront their bigotry against white men, while his former colleague Ken Klippenstein argued that, quote, people are done with the clean cut types who've harbored AMB for political office since they were on high school student council and have lived every waking moment accordingly. I call them smooth groins. Real life Barbie dolls with smooth plastic where a sexual organ should be. Oh, that's so bad.

[Jesse]

Well, I mean what's pathetic is like basically every male pundit involved here is like me, a fucking low T whining nerd. And it's like, there. There's not two ounces of testosterone.

[Katie]

These are. Everyone on this list went to private school.

[Jesse]

I bet there's all this bullshit fake machismo about damn HR lady politics and not having a. It's gross. And I'm not surprised, like, not to be dick. Just, just watched how, like, the biggest lefty types, partisan lefty types, comport themselves on social media. I'm not really surprised that they would give a pass to a guy like this.

[Katie]

This is just like Republicans giving a pass to Donald. Donald Trump.

[Jesse]

Well, and look, and we're not just beating up on lefties because there was the same partisan brain insanity claiming Joe Biden shouldn't have dropped out. And to this day, there's dead enders.

[Katie]

I mean, I might be one of those dead enders because him dropping out didn't win the. Fucking.

[Jesse]

Didn.

[Katie]

Didn't win the presidential candidate.

[Jesse]

Well, but he was clearly unfit to be president.

[Katie]

But it was clear he was unfit to be president. That is clear. That is clear.

[Jesse]

And he should not have been. He should not have been the candidate. At that point. It didn't work.

[Katie]

But that does, I mean, but that does bring us to the problem that, that the Democrats have now, which is that the voters of Maine chose Graham Platner. And now what?

[Jesse]

Well, they're doing, they're doing this convention and there's a lot of fighting about what role the Platner wing should have in the party and that it's a difficult situation, to be sure. Now, Maine voters did choose Platner. I think platinum partisans are slightly. I'll get to some other polling soon. But like, they're slightly maybe over. Like, they'll be like, oh, it was like a historic primary victory. Look, he clearly excited some people, but also by the time of the Democratic primary, his only real competitor, Janet Mills, had dropped out because she ran out of money. So Platner ended up getting 72% of the vote against basically no one. So I don't. So we'll get to the question of whether he would have won the primary. But I just want to finish wrap up, put a bow on the media response thing because there was also this, like, Ryan Grimm subplot. Did you see that?

[Katie]

The thing about the glute massage.

[Jesse]

Yeah. So, so basically, Ryan Grim reported that Politico had left out certain details about the text exchange that preceded the alleged rape on Breaking Points in a clip that was posted by Dropsite News, which is the very successful substack he co founded Lefty subsect. Grim said that during the text exchange, Rasico had said she needed a glute massage. In his segment, Grimm was clear that Rasico wasn't, like, hiding that. And during an interview with Jake Tapper, Rasico had said that Platner had, quote, taken something that I said as an invitation, end quote, when it was an invitation, and then ignored her text telling him not to come over. The texts are all gone. No one has them. So we're all relying on, on energy.

[Katie]

But wait, so Ryan got that from who? From Platner himself.

[Jesse]

I think Platner's camp and Raciko both confirmed the glute thing to Ryan. Yeah.

[Katie]

Okay. And Ryan's point is that Politico, that this was a detail that Politico should have included in the story, which makes it seem like he thinks that the, the saying, I need a glute massage,

[Jesse]

code for please come rape me.

[Katie]

Right. But, but she said, I mean, and Ryan said, I believe, you know, right after that, she said, no, don't come over.

[Jesse]

Yeah, I, so I, I, I was the, the consent. Okay, first of all, everything going on on X is just partisan assholes being partisan assholes, like both sides of it. You could in many cases see people acting exactly opposite to how they would act. It was one of their people online, one of their preferred candidates. That being said, the consensus seemed to be this was like, ridiculous that Ryan would bring this up. Now, Ryan, like, talked grinningly about how Platner had been his bartender in D.C. he's known and liked the guy for a long time. He's clearly a pro platinum or partisan.

[Katie]

Right. And Ryan also just, he's the guy who, who surfaced the very spurious candidate allegations that Tara Reid made against Joe Biden. Ryan is also a partisan.

[Jesse]

Absolutely. A partisan. Now, I'm of slightly two minds here. I, I can understand in an abstract journalistic sense how if you're trying to, like, reconstruct what happened that night, you might want to provide more details about the text that, that in Rasico's view, Platinum misinterpreted. As long as you're a million percent clear. She said no, no, no. Both in person and on text. It's still a rape. It doesn't excuse it. But I can also understand how, like, someone who views Grim as the partisan he is, it. It seems like he's, like, veering dangerously close to genuine victim blaming. Was her skirt too short?

[Katie]

Right?

[Jesse]

Yeah, not even denialism, but just like, what, what, who cares? Like, who cares? She could, she could have said Come over and hook up with me, do things to me. And then I changed my mind. No. And then told him no. And that doesn't really bear on the veracity of her story. She's. We know they were hooking up because she said so. So I, I don't really know what Grim thinks this is. Adding again, in an abstract sense. I can understand maybe wanting to include it as a detail, but I can also understand, like, you know, you don't want to give readers the wrong sense. What do you think?

[Katie]

Think I don't trust Ryan Grimm on this. I think that the detail.

[Jesse]

Yeah, sure.

[Katie]

Worth including it doesn't exonerate him at all.

[Jesse]

Doesn't come close to exonerate. It doesn't even really make the story more complex.

[Katie]

What did you think about his 11 minute, non apology, non denial video?

[Jesse]

The dropout one?

[Katie]

No platners.

[Jesse]

No, I said play a platinum dropout video. Can I say something embarrassing?

[Katie]

Yes.

[Jesse]

Given that I was preparing a segment on this, I didn't have it in me to watch the whole thing. When I watched, like the first bit of it, when I saw it was 11 minutes long, I thought, this guy is a sociopath.

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Jesse]

And I made a joke about it on X and I didn't do my job and watch it. What did you watch the whole thing?

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Jesse]

I just seems very.

[Katie]

He seems extremely aggrieved, very conspiratorial. They don't want. They're trying to create the powers that be. I find this. I find this stuff really disgusting.

[Jesse]

Like, me too.

[Katie]

And I'm not saying that he should even admit that he raped this woman, particularly if he has no memory of it.

[Jesse]

He's allowed to deny it for sure, but there's different ways of denying it.

[Katie]

But to turn this into a story about, you know, he didn't mention the Zionist media, but it does have that tone of like. Of the Emma Viglin tone of like.

[Jesse]

That's what it means.

[Katie]

The theys. Yeah, yeah, the theys. They want to kill our movement. As though it's. As though it's anyone's fault but his own. You know, it's.

[Jesse]

It's very.

[Katie]

It's very.

[Jesse]

It's Trumpish is what it is. Trump.

[Katie]

Actually. Actually, it's not just his fault. It's also the fault of the political operatives who plucked this guy out of him.

[Jesse]

It's much more their fault.

[Katie]

Saw a video of his mu. Of his mustache and thought, that's the man of. That's the man of the working class. It doesn't matter. That he's not actually working class. It doesn't matter that his dad gave him a loan for $200,000 to buy a south. It doesn't matter that he went to private school schools. It doesn't matter that his oyster farm is fucking fake. And his only customers and his mom. He looks like a man who wears Carhartt. If someone, therefore he is a man of the people.

[Jesse]

Later today, Spain is playing in the World Cup. If someone dropped. If a bunch of high paid soccer consultants were like, Jesse single would be a good soccer player and dropped me on the field and I embarrassed myself, it'd be hard for me to say no because like, who wouldn't want to be on the field? It would be more. It would be more. I would, I would love. Dude. I would be such a good goalkeeper. I would not. But that would be their fault. But yeah, let's get give to the people who brought us here the attention they deserve. So like, read this quote from Nate Silver. There's a photo of the two individuals. We'll get to one with the Vocal fry who were largely responsible for this debacle. Read what he said.

[Katie]

I want to do this in his voice.

[Jesse]

Just do your RFK voice because it's.

[Katie]

No, I'm going to do the vocal fire voice. This is Nate Silver. But I'm going to do it in the consultant's vocal pride voice. It's kind of ironic.

[Jesse]

No, that's RFK voice.

[Katie]

That is my RFK voice. What is Vocal Fry? I can't do it now, even though I do it all the time.

[Jesse]

It's kind of ironic.

[Katie]

That's up Speed.

[Jesse]

He was some.

[Katie]

He did upseak and I'm just going to read it normal. It's kind of ironic that Beavis and Butthead here said that voters don't want candidates grown in. Grown in bats. But their entire process of recruiting Platner was sort. Was a sort of mad science experiment talent search based solely on outward appearances with no vetting whatsoever. Exactly true. Exactly.

[Jesse]

And then nicely sums it up so that, yeah, that was a video we played a clip of last time you commented on Beavis's vocal fry. Which is something I would never drop someone on because I am a, a good person. But yeah, that's Dan Moraf and Leanne Fan. Moraff is like the vibes guy. He loved Graham Platner's vibes. And he would know because of his own working class background, he's the grandson of the guy who founded Toys R Us. So as Silver notes, this is basically

[Katie]

Work in the factory.

[Jesse]

This is as a child, he worked the Vietnamese facilities as silver notes. Like, this is basically over. Educated consultants creaming themselves over working class signifiers. Like, look at those tattoos. My God, he's eating raw shellfish. That's so cool. I only do that on vacation.

[Katie]

They saw his hands and they were just so impressed.

[Jesse]

Can I touch your hands? They're so rough. I. Back on June 21, the Wall Street Journal ran an article about him that started this way. A little more reading, Katie, if you please.

[Katie]

Rushing to launch Graham Platner's Senate bid, Dan Moraf, a progressive up and comer and Platner's top strategist, asked a Democratic research firm to vet the political novice. A thorough background check of a sanitary candidate, which has become standard practice and key races can take several weeks and cost roughly $20,000 or a monthly retainer more have asked for an expedited cheaper view to be done within days, according to people familiar with the matter. And then it goes on.

[Jesse]

Okay. And then it continues. And it says the firm he hired,

[Katie]

quote, was paid $6,250, according to federal disclosures. Followed up days later with additional limited vetting. They didn't do a candidate interview or questionnaire. Less than two weeks later, Platner announced his business, did the expedited research, didn't discover issues that would later hurt his campaign, including the full trove of Platner's Reddit posts or sexually explicit text Platner sent to other women while married. They could have gotten Jessica the 80s baby. She would have found this stuff in five minutes.

[Jesse]

That's what, that's what's amazing about it, how, like, they didn't even interview him.

[Katie]

Brock could have found this.

[Jesse]

You may recall from our last episode on this that the campaign only found out about the sexually explicit text, the recent ones, when Platner's own wife.

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Jesse]

Approached him and was like, you guys might want to know about this.

[Katie]

This guy may not the best candidate. Yeah.

[Jesse]

Yeah. So that's Dan Morath and then Katie. More news on Moraf. Just the morning we're recording July 10th, a veteran labor.

[Katie]

And he's. He's up. Speak vocal fry.

[Jesse]

Yeah, he's up. Speak vocal fry. Just the morning we're recording July 10th, Mike Elk, a veteran labor reporter, he broke the news that, quote, Congresswoman Summer Lee barred morath from her 2022 congressional campaign after receiving at least three complaints of sexual misconduct against Morath.

[Katie]

Oh, so he.

[Jesse]

So the guy who failed to vet the guy who was accused of Sexual misconduct was himself apparent barred from a congressional campaign because of three complaints of sexual misconduct.

[Katie]

Now, and these complaints are. This is legitimate.

[Jesse]

Mike Elk is a legitimate reporter. I did. I did not independently verify these. But something like. It's unlikely a legitimate reporter would say he was barred from a campaign unless he knew he's. Anyway, we don't. We don't know. Anyway, Dan Morav had trouble getting work in the political world after that reports out. So he did what working class people do and he took a break by going to Yale Law School.

[Katie]

And what about the woman in the. This.

[Jesse]

Yeah. His partner was Leanne Fan, who's also his fiance from the New York Times. The initial headhunters, Dan Baraf and Leanne Fan. And then a third out of state operative they called up to Maine, Morris Katz, who we'll get to shortly. This Trio, they told Mr. Platner he was the one, a hero of the movement, a historical figure who could be leading a revolution, according to a half dozen people with knowledge of their conversation. But a clutch of people, but a clutch of people who cared about Mr. Platner were telling him something else. They worried about his mental health amid his ongoing efforts to heal from post traumatic stress disorder after tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. They feared this trio of out of state operatives was a dangerous combination of inexperienced and overconfident. The worst case scenario, they thought wasn't running for Senate and losing it was destroying the life he worked hard to build, which seems to be exactly what fucking happened here.

[Katie]

Yeah, he. You know who he reminds me of is John Edwards.

[Jesse]

Interesting. How so? I feel. I think Edwards like was like a. What? You know, we. He was humiliate, publicly disgraced, but he was sort of like a genteel Southern gentleman, I thought.

[Katie]

No, no, no, no, no. He actually was working class. I mean, he was, he was born like.

[Jesse]

No, but how he presented.

[Katie]

Right, right. He was born like the son of a millworker.

[Jesse]

Yeah.

[Katie]

The thing that reminds me of Edwards is that. And Edwards had like greater political ambitions than. He wasn't plucked from obscurity like he wanted to be. He wanted to be president. But as a North Carolinian, he came across as like, as a very smart sort of, of compassionate man. And then it turned out that he'd been having an affair while his wife was dying. He was a bag. He was awful. And he ran for president knowing that all of this stuff was in his was. He had all these skeletons in his closet. And had he won the Democratic nomination, had this come out, he would have had just you know, he's not just destroying his own reputation, he's destroying, destroying the party. He's destroying. You know, you're hand, you're handing. If he had won the primary, he had been, he would have been handing the, the president over to. In that case, what was Meghan McCain's dad's name? Meg McCain. John McCain.

[Jesse]

Yeah.

[Katie]

This, just this rank ambition that these douchebags have where they will sacrifice everything, including the future of the country for their own, for their own egos. It's, it's truly disgusting. And Graham Platner might not have started out that way, but he clearly really got it into his head, thanks to these three idiots, that he was the chosen one. Well, he fucking wasn't.

[Jesse]

So yeah, Morris Katz, the out of state consultant these other two geniuses brought in, he's a 27 year old consultant who started working with Platner after helping Zoran Mamdani win the Democratic primary in the New York mayoral race. Now, I think maybe what's happening here is Mamdani Mamdani's, I think pretty close to generational politician. I think he's that talented. So basically I think a lot of people are just drafting off his own talent to further their own careers, which is fine. That's what you're supposed to do. If you run a successful campaign, Katz, it will not shock you. Also from a privileged background and the top of this New York profile of Platinum from last September is a hell of a time capsule. Within a few minutes of talking to him, I was like, this guy owes it to the country to run for Senate. Katz recalled of his first meeting of Platner with Platner within a few minutes of meeting him.

[Katie]

So it's good judgment.

[Jesse]

And then, yeah. So fast forward 10 months from immediately knowing this guy should run for office. Katz is then hunkering, hunkering with Katner, then hunkers with Platinum after the rape allegations come out. As Jeff Maurer put it, this tale of wine track Gen Z consultants falling in love with Platner seconds after staring into his deep blue proletariat eyes might be the most embarrassing story I've ever heard that doesn't involve someone getting diarrhea on a zip line.

[Katie]

They're so bad at this.

[Jesse]

They are so, so bad at this.

[Katie]

The thing that, I mean, there's a lot that drives me crazy about this story, but this idea that less experience is better. It's this like populist fever dream.

[Jesse]

Very populous.

[Katie]

Yes. Yeah, but why does anybody like who is our. Who is our Our most successful candidate who has run without ever holding political office before Donald Trump. Like, why does anybody think that this is a good model?

[Jesse]

Hey, Katie. Graham Platner was chair of the Sullivan Planning board. Don't say he doesn't have experience.

[Katie]

Oh, oh, yeah.

[Jesse]

I think there's like a weak, weird, complicated crisis going on in terms of like class and education stuff in the Democratic. Well, it. So they. These fuckers constantly claim they're anti establishment. Everything we've read about the three people responsible for this, they could not be more establishment. What's more establishment than sexually harassing someone and then fleeing to Yale Law School? They're, they're thoroughly establishment. So as Maurer alluded to, it's like rich people trying to find someone who they think will appeal to non rich people. But I mean, one problem is they just, they know a lot of, like, genuinely working class people. The other problem is, like, the Platner thing is part of a movement that we also saw with the New York City DSA race where they're not. They want to move the Democratic Party to the left, which is their right. But I don't think they're particularly concerned about electability. I wish we could, like, run a simulation to see how this race would have gone down. I don't think I buy the basic, like, theory of the platinum case. People are really leaning into the idea that like, wow, look how well he did in the primaries.

[Katie]

But, like, what was the turnout for the primary?

[Jesse]

So, so there has been this talk of like, he got, I think, more primary votes than anyone in history. Right.

[Katie]

Something like that.

[Jesse]

In Maine. In Maine, Democratic primary votes. Couple things.

[Katie]

One is like, it's still not that many votes. It's 150,000 votes.

[Jesse]

Yeah. And a couple things I'd point out. First of all, you had mentioned to me they moved to sort of a semi open primary for the first time. Meaning that, yeah, this is new.

[Katie]

It was their second ever use of this semi open primary. So. So that independent or unenrolled voters could participate in the primary.

[Jesse]

How is that semi open rather than open?

[Katie]

If it was totally open, Republicans could, could vote in the primary.

[Jesse]

Okay. So that. Right. So just. I'm not trying to be too much of a nerd here, but that right away, that's apples to oranges. If in the past it was a closed primary, this greatly increases the number of people who can potentially vote. There is a populous surge. We acknowledge that. Maine. Yes.

[Katie]

I don't know that's a bad thing.

[Jesse]

I don't know if residency Rules allow Maine college students to vote are a lot of like liberal arts type colleges in Maine. I'm curious if that was a factor. I'm just speculating. End of the day, after the first scandals came out, the race was tightening. It was looking something like a toss up. And the Times TikTok of the campaign's implosion noted that, quote, Mr. Platner's campaign had only about $1.3 million cash on hand a few weeks before he exited the race. According to his campaign, a fraction of Ms. Collins at Susan Collins, $9.7 million war chest as of May. A person familiar also said that they had had avail. $100,000 in cash available to spend that. That's nothing. So he would have won. We'll never know. Platner's die hards will always be able to say, play this stabbed in the back card. He would have won. I'm just not seeing how he was as compelling as this narrow slice of voters found him to be. And he was 21 points underwater among non college voters, according to the most recent Times Press Herald Sienna polling. Which shouldn't be surprising because he, look, I understand he's gruff and he talked about economic stuff in, you know, in a certain way, the, the oligarchs and the billionaires and I think there's some like, cross partisan appeal to that. But I don't know. I'm not convinced he would have actually gotten gettable voters. And this jumped out at me from the polling, which is the question, do you think the United States is on the right track or is headed in the wrong direction? And we often have this caricature that less educated, poorer people are much more pessimistic about America. But this is actually like very much a cultural thing.

[Katie]

So, in fact, is that a character for me to have? I think of liberals as being. It's like when you ask questions.

[Jesse]

Well, that's the thing. Yes. Liberal. Yes. There is such a correlation between being college educated and being liberal and being not college educated and being less liberal, more conservative.

[Katie]

They're too dumb to see the truth. Which is?

[Jesse]

Which is that America sucks.

[Katie]

Right.

[Jesse]

It's the worst place ever. But I found this striking. Do you think the US is on the right track or the wrong track? We're just doing white college versus white non college, college because 90% of main likely voters are white, white college voters, 23% right track, white non college voters, 41% right track. So, like, they're still somewhat pessimistic, but there's so much more Pessimism among college educated voters for complicated reasons. But these days if you're in it

[Katie]

might be having to do with. We've talked about the downward mobility of the downward mobility.

[Jesse]

Yeah, there's, there's thermostatic effects are basically like. Partisans tend to be more pessimistic when one of their guys isn't in charge and one of our guys is not in. There's a lot of things. But end of the day the whole theory of the case here is Platner could appeal to people who other Democratic candidates might not appeal to. And I'm just not convinced of that. Again, we'll never know. But I'm worried that like because in these lefty spaces you're not allowed to hold different views on at all. Different views on things like Israel or gender identity stuff.

[Katie]

Right.

[Jesse]

And Matt Iglesias just wrote that quote, the barrier to Democrats winning more elections is that lots of voters think the party is dominated by culturally alien weirdos who practice anti white racial discrimination, won't enforce the law and have bizarre beliefs about sex and gender.

[Katie]

And Platner actually fits into that category. Like if Platner were I think actually appealing to or speaking to working people, he would have had a totally different position on trans stuff.

[Jesse]

Well, what happened was when he was asked about the transport stuff, the one interview I'm aware of, yeah he said this was a non issue and that out of state billionaires were making people concerned about it and they. This is like a basically an 8020 issue. I don't think obviously if he had become the nominee and this had been a normal campaign, it's not like he would have sought to talk about transports issues. But the inability to even meaningfully answer questions on that points to the fact that he is a creature of this political milieu that milieu. Milieu using French words is very elitist. That has a very specific set of priorities including the trans stuff and also like on Islamic Israel. Look, public opinion of Israel has cratered. But if you ask people what's your most important is issue I think in this poll is foreign policy which includes Israel was like 3% in Platner's world you need to talk about Israel all the time. So I think there's cross purposes here where the, if you actually wanted someone who can appeal to a broader set of voters. Iglesias point out, we know this. It's like socially moderate Dems like Josh Shapiro types. It's not, not like the, the beard and the gruff voice will only get you so far if you Come from a very different world ideologically.

[Katie]

Right. But so Democrats are in this awful position, particularly when it comes to issues like trans rights, where if you say, you know what? I think maybe Leah Thomas shouldn't be on the women's team. This position that, that, what was it, 80, 20, 80% of Americans agree with.

[Jesse]

Whatever it is, it's. It's not a close call. Whatever the numbers are. It depends how you phrase it.

[Katie]

You're gonna get. If you're in a blue state, you are going to get fucking creamy creamed.

[Jesse]

Seth Moulton in Massachusetts.

[Katie]

Yeah, right, right. You were gonna get creamed by the. By the pundits, by the pundit class, by the.

[Jesse]

Well, by. Or by a subset of people who frankly should have.

[Katie]

No, absolutely. But they have.

[Jesse]

But they role in the Democratic Party in purple, in purple and swing districts,

[Katie]

but they have outsize power. You can see this in terms of who of the. The DSA primaries in New York, who shows up this prime. The primary system that we have have is not everywhere, but in some places, leading to increased extremism on both sides. And you can see this and on the right, too, look at people like Lauren Boebert or. Or Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has actually turned out to be sort of an interesting character at her own right. The people who show up for primaries are skewing politics towards the extremes. This is a problem.

[Jesse]

Yeah, I would have been very curious to see how this would have turned out. Politics is complicated. Like, if Platner had won, that wouldn't have proved anything because it also would have been in a very anti Trump context if Collins had won, that wouldn't approve anything because Collins is like a longtime incumbent who. I think she has stuff to answer for in terms of, like, not standing up to Trump. But I just. The amount of credibility and capital people spent defending this guy who just. More red flags in a Chinese parade. Like, oh, my God, dude. It was really demoralizing to watch.

[Katie]

Okay, so here's the. Here's the really tough question. Both of us have the privilege of never having been for Platner in the first. First place. So, you know, this is. This is easy for us because we didn't fudgeing like him.

[Jesse]

Nope.

[Katie]

From the moment the Nazi tattoo came out. And even on a more basic level, I'm not down with his policies.

[Jesse]

The. Not the. The Nazi tattoo, to me is like the least damning thing. It just is, because I know it's

[Katie]

lying about the tattoo. Not the.

[Jesse]

Oh, I'm sorry. Lying about it. Yes, yes. If he got it. And then admitted to it. But, yeah, say he told people my totem comp.

[Katie]

I just got this nice diagonal interlocking cross on my chest, and I had no idea what it was.

[Jesse]

Right.

[Katie]

No, it's lying about it. But, you know, this guy, this is not a man I would have voted for in the primary in the first place. So this is easy. Easy. Very easy. Had this been a candidate whose policies I was really in line with, this would have been harder. And yet both of us said on the last episode that we talked about this, that if. If we remain voters in the general election, Collins versus Platner, we would have voted for. For him. Now there's a rape allegation. Jesse, would you still have voted for him?

[Jesse]

It would be very difficult to. And I mean, the problem is there is honestly more at stake in terms of who controls the Senate and.

[Katie]

Because it really is about Trump.

[Jesse]

It really is about Trump.

[Katie]

Right.

[Jesse]

I don't think I could. It's tricky because, like, you can't, like, imagine a situation where you literally. Your vote decided it, which is never how it works. I don't. I don't think I could. He's such a. He's a loome guy, and I. I think he's a rapist. I. I don't know. I don't think I could. What about you?

[Katie]

I think I probably would have.

[Jesse]

Would have. You still would have voted for him?

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Jesse]

You're gonna get some heat for that. But I. No, I think. Totally coherent. It's a totally coherent argument. People who voted for Trump because they wanted Trump was also accused of significantly more rapes because they wanted SCOTUS nominees and they wanted judges. And scotus. What, like, just judges alone have an impact over so many more people's lives, so. I understand that argument.

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Jesse]

I mean, just now, just, Just now, I got a New York Times alert. Witnesses of ICE killing in Houston dispute the official account. That's a guy who might be dead because of Trump's policies. And there's a million. Many such cases. Bigger picture and Republic Republicans getting on their high horse about that. Look, I share their disgust at the simps who simped for Platinum. But, like, come on, man. Donald Trump has been. So many have accused him of just, like, behavior that's disqualifying. So to me, that leaves. That would have. That leaves me in a difficult position of saying, like, why should. Why shouldn't you vote for Platinum? You're literally, you. It sucks that you have to choose whether to vote for a rapist. Alleged rapist. To reduce the power of a much more powerful and I think credibly accused rapist. But that's the crappy political system we built for ourselves.

[Katie]

It is. So I, I will say one thing in defense of Morris Cat, who otherwise I would not defend. Did you see this thing floating around about his children's puberty book?

[Jesse]

Yeah. I don't know why people care. He like, I know, wrote a book.

[Katie]

So he wrote a book about like a book for boys, how to force

[Jesse]

kids to go through the puberty.

[Katie]

About a book for boys about puberty. And there's this line in the book. It's like a very cartoony book, you

[Jesse]

know, and his parents are from, I think like a Hollywoodish and author. Authorish background. So that's probably how we got to write a children's book.

[Katie]

So there's this picture from the book that is going around from a page of the book. And there's a. On this page of the book, there's a picture of a butterfly or a picture of a. Of a caterpillar. And then an arrow to a butterfly. Like the butterfly, like the caterpillar morphs into a butterfly, right? And the butterfly, there's this like voice bubble. Word bubble. It says. And just like that, you come out of your cocoon is a beautiful butterfly. And then there's these, this box. Around age 14, your penis, testicles and scrotum continue to get bigger. Bobbles. Blah. And the scrotum gets darker. I didn't know that the scrotum gets darker.

[Jesse]

Wait, it's supposed to get bigger.

[Katie]

So it's just.

[Jesse]

I gotta go to a doctor.

[Katie]

This is about puberty. And then there's this little text at the bottom that says, at first we're going to use images of my penis to get this point across, but the publisher said it was inappropriate. So here we are with some fruit and animal metaphors. Is your penis actually going to become an animal or fruit? No, probably. Probably not. What will happen during puberty is your penis will develop and transform. You guys are smart though. You get the point. And people were posting this as though this were evidence of him.

[Jesse]

It's obviously.

[Katie]

It's a joke. It's a joke. It's a joke. And it's a joke that he put in a book for teenage boys. This is not a problem.

[Jesse]

Yeah. Who like dick jokes as dot as do adult. I, I did the. This. Well, we're in the phase of like the outrage where, where anything at all embarrassing from these guys past will be circulated. But I had no idea what the point was like, yeah, he wrote a book about puberty. Who cares?

[Katie]

It's a joke. And look, I'm not a teenage boy. I imagine that's the sort of joke a teenage boy.

[Jesse]

I find it funny. I find thinking about Morris Katz's prepubescent

[Katie]

so should not be choosing candidates for office. The book on puberty seems fine.

[Jesse]

I'm sure. I'm sure everyone involved here will learn their lessons. I'm sure the next like majority report will just be an hour long self reflection. I'm sure everyone involved will hold themselves to the same extremely stringent moral standards they so frequently hold everyone else. So we can look forward to that. Yeah, I'm getting preachy. That's enough.

[Katie]

Jesse. We forgot to do housekeeping.

[Jesse]

Should we do it, record it now and then misleadingly insert into the middle of the show? Should we skip it?

[Katie]

Let's just do it. Let's just do it very briefly right now. Please join us. Blocked and reported.org we need.

[Jesse]

I. I need you. I miss your musk. Okay. Is that hopefully the last time we're gonna talk about Grandblad? Oh, the other thing is there was reporting that he's gonna withdraw from the race on the very last day he legally can before this becomes like unbelievable cluster. I was already an unbelievable cluster. But as I said on Twitter, obviously there's a risk of him now relapsing and blacking out and just missing the date. So that'll be fun.

[Katie]

Yeah. All right. Best of luck to everyone, including us.

[Jesse]

This has been blocked and reported. As always, we are produced with help from Jessica the 80s baby. Thank you for listening. Bye bye.