7/8/26: Trump Says Iran Ceasefire Over, Bibi Rages Over Turkey, Platner Fallout Continues

Summary

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Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

Episode: Trump Says Iran Ceasefire Over, Bibi Rages Over Turkey, Platner Fallout Continues

Date: July 8, 2026
Hosts: Ryan Grim, Sagar Enjeti

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Overview

In this episode of Breaking Points, Ryan Grim and Sagar Enjeti dive into a rapidly shifting international and domestic landscape. The episode focuses on:

• The collapse of the Iran ceasefire and U.S.–Iran tensions after new American military strikes
• Prime Minister Netanyahu (Bibi) launching a media campaign against Turkey, especially around F-35 sales
• The ongoing political earthquake in Maine following sexual assault allegations against Senate candidate Graham Platner and the Democratic Party’s contentious succession process
• An in-depth media critique on how outlets covered the Platner story and the broader implications for MeToo journalism and political organizing

The conversation is brisk, candid, and loaded with sharp criticism for U.S. political decision-makers, the mainstream press, and the Democratic Party establishment, reflecting Breaking Points’ independent, anti-establishment voice.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Iran Ceasefire Collapse & Trump’s Comments

Timestamps: 02:21 — 19:13

• Trump declares the Iran ceasefire over, using incendiary language:
  • “I don't want to deal with them anymore. They're scum...As far as I'm concerned, it's over.” — Donald Trump [07:04]
  • Describes U.S. reprisals as “20 to 1” after Iranian attacks: “We hit them very hard last night. Very hard. I would say 20 to 1, 20 times tougher... they're dirty players.” — Donald Trump [08:07]
• U.S. military refrains from couching new strikes as “self-defense,” which Ryan Grim notes is a significant, hawkish rhetorical shift.
• Dispute over “free passage” in the Strait of Hormuz at the heart of the crisis:
  • Iran interprets it as requiring coordination with its authorities, while the U.S. wants unimpeded passage.
  • Sagar explains that the U.S. doesn’t want to “institutionalize the process of these international ships working with Iran to go through, because that is then effectively ceding the idea that they control it.” [11:41]
• Strategic stalemate and global risk:
  • Iran won’t back down, and Trump lacks the leverage to change their stance without massive escalation.
  • Shipping chaos and high oil prices persist. Any escalation could have dire regional and geopolitical consequences, including ecological disaster from attacks on Qatari LNG tankers. [17:01]
• Ryan and Sagar agree that instability in the region reflects America’s loss of power and a wider global realignment, with U.S. allies in Europe and Asia becoming less dependent on American military guarantees.

Notable Quotes

• “It is easier for Iran to just constantly sit there and be like, look, we're not getting completely pounded by bombs. We can lob a few bombs in the Straits of Hormuz and continue to negotiate over time. That instability...is exactly what is diminishing U.S. power.” — Ryan Grim [16:28]
• “20 to 1 airstrikes from President Trump aren't going to do it.” — Sagar Enjeti [17:12]

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2. Bibi Netanyahu’s Media Blitz: U.S., Turkey, and F-35s

Timestamps: 23:52 — 33:23

• Trump visits Ankara to warm ties with Turkey, causing Israeli outrage.:

  • “President Erdogan even met him on the tarmac ... this show of allyship ... is throwing Israeli politics into complete chaos.” — Ryan Grim [23:52]

• Netanyahu on CNN rails against F-35 sales to Turkey:

  • Calls Turkey “a regime that's infected with the Muslim Brotherhood, which hates the United States...he harbors Hamas ... and the most important thing ... he threatens to destroy my country, the one and only Jewish state.” — Bibi Netanyahu [25:09]
  • Argues that selling F-35s would “destroy the power balance in the Middle East.” [26:26]

• Hosts skewer Bibi’s ‘concern’ for journalists and anti-occupation rhetoric as hypocritical.

• The real subtext, per Ryan and Sagar:

  • The fight is over Israeli air superiority and U.S. prioritization of Israeli interests over those of NATO/Turkey.
  • “The imbalance is balanced to the Israelis.” — Sagar Enjeti [27:40]

• Trump pointedly suggests Turkey is “more loyal” than other allies without naming Israel, escalating the rift.

  • “We have a better relationship with Turkey. And Turkey has been in many ways much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal.” — Donald Trump [30:54]

• Netanyahu and the Israeli right openly “breaking up” U.S.–Turkey/NATO alliances to cement Israeli dominance.

  • The hosts anticipate increased pressure from neocons and Israeli lobbyists on Trump to reverse course.

Notable Moments

• Hosts ridicule CNN’s failure to challenge Bibi:
  • “But why do you deserve Israeli air superiority in the region? ... Nothing. It's crazy.” — Ryan Grim [29:47]

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3. The Graham Platner MeToo Fallout & The Democratic Party’s Response

Timestamps: 39:57 — 55:22

• Maine Democratic establishment launches a ‘coup’ to replace Platner after sexual assault allegations.
  • “To me, this is a coup.” — Ryan Grim [42:00]
  • Executive Director Devin Murphy Anderson: “We have reiterated that Graham Platner must drop out of this race ... they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee.” [40:48]
• Platner campaign responds that they simply seek an inclusive, volunteer-driven process. The hosts argue the process is anti-democratic:
  • “It is by definition going to be an anti-democratic process.” — Sagar Enjeti [43:46]
  • “I really think if you're anti establishment Democrat in Maine, you should be outraged by the way this is playing out.” — Ryan Grim [46:25]
• Broad frustration with the left’s lack of fight:
  • “Everybody just immediately was like, yeah, Platner's gotta go. But nobody demanded any sort of conditions ... they've given up all their leverage.” — Ryan Grim [45:49]
• Bernie Sanders and others echo the demand Platner drop out but ask nothing in return.
• **The left is warned to act strategically and “fight” for power rather than surrender to party elites. Epicenter is whether the eventual replacement will reflect Platner's grassroots support or revert to establishment control.

Notable Quotes

• “There are three kind of ways you can handle serious, huge allegations ... [they chose] complete and total surrender.” — Sagar Enjeti [46:25]

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4. Media Critique: The Handling of MeToo Allegations Against Platner

Timestamps: 58:34 — 86:49

Coverage Gaps and the Power of Narrative Control

• Politico and CNN are accused of leaving out crucial context from their coverage of Platner’s accuser, Jenny Racicot.
  • “...it was a night where him and I were texting back and forth and he had taken something I said as an invitation… and that’s not how I meant it. And I quickly clarified.” — Jenny Racicot (CNN) [58:54]
  • The text about “needing her glute massaged” was omitted from Politico’s original story, falsely painting Platner as completely uninvited.
  • “Politico affirmatively wrote in its article that he was uninvited...uninvited is false. Like, it is just flat out false. There was an invitation.” — Sagar Enjeti [70:30]
• The hosts argue that this editorial choice distorted public understanding and echoes similar problems from earlier MeToo media cycles.
  • “The irresponsibility of not reporting that led to an understanding of how the event transpired, which is not fulsome with the general reality...this is a media story.” — Ryan Grim [65:09]
• New York Times also accused of mishandling corroboration in earlier reporting on Lindsay Fifield’s allegations, providing poor context and fueling confusion.
  • Quoting Fifield: “I gave them screenshots...emails to my landlord urgently ending my lease and moving... I thought my details would only serve to affirm Jenny and the other anonymous [woman]... but tell me again how they could not corroborate.” [80:04]
• Adam Wren (Politico) interview with Mika Brzezinski exposes lack of hard evidence; “corroboration” only refers to messages with friends and therapists months later.

MeToo, Movement Strategy, and Political Consequences

• The hosts question the political left’s lack of tactical savvy in times of crisis:
  • “If you’re going to take on the man…you gotta be squeaky clean. No skeletons or any of that in the closet.” — Ryan Grim [86:05]
  • Graham Platner’s personal failings are condemned, but the “media failure” and “anti-democratic” party process are seen as equally damaging.

Notable Quotes

• “...this is where the rumor mill actually got past what was written...people are losing trust in media and what are we doing?” — Ryan Grim [79:13]
• “I said it before in our previous block: Take it as a lesson guys. Clean living will get you a clean life. And if you want to run for office, you shouldn’t be acting like this.” — Ryan Grim [84:03]

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Notable Quotes & Moments with Timestamps

• Trump on Iran:
  “I don't want to deal with them anymore. They're scum...As far as I'm concerned, it's over.” [07:04]

• Bibi on Turkey:
  “He harbors Hamas, the Hamas terrorists. He supports them. He finances them. He's thrown his opponents in jail, all of them...And the most important thing...he threatens to destroy my country.” [25:09]

• Ryan Grim on Bibi’s rhetoric:
  “He's so concerned about journalists...Person who murdered a bunch of journalists. He's very concerned about journalists.” [27:13]

• Sagar on Politico’s omission:
  “Politico affirmatively wrote in its article that he was uninvited...uninvited is false. Like, it is just flat out false. There was an invitation.” [70:30]

• Ryan Grim on the Democratic left’s tactics:
  “Everybody just immediately was like, yeah, Platner's gotta go. But nobody demanded any sort of conditions...they've given up all their leverage.” [45:49]

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Episode Structure & Flow

• [02:21] Iran ceasefire collapse and Trump’s comments
• [23:52] Netanyahu’s full-court media press on Turkey and U.S. Middle East strategy
• [39:57] The Platner crisis and party succession fight in Maine
• [58:34] In-depth critique of media coverage of the Platner allegations and wider MeToo context
• [80:04] Lindsay Fifield’s statement on NYT reporting and leftist organizing consequences
• [86:02] Final reflections on politics, movement strategy, and the necessity for “clean living” in public life

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Summary

This episode is a sweeping tour through today’s most politically volatile headlines, with:

• A critical look at U.S.–Iran relations and Trump’s impulsive foreign policy
• An unvarnished critique of Bibi Netanyahu’s influence over U.S. foreign policy and the contradiction-laden alliance with Turkey
• A condemnation of the Democratic Party’s anti-democratic tendencies and the left’s lack of leverage in the wake of the Platner debacle
• An extended, nuanced discussion of MeToo journalism’s standards, the importance of context in sexual assault reporting, and the dangers of narrative-driven omission by mainstream media

The hosts’ signature tone—skeptical, independent, and animated by a sense of urgency about the consequences of establishment politics—runs through the entire conversation, making this a must-listen for anyone following U.S. politics, media, and the ongoing reconfiguration of power both at home and abroad.

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Transcript

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

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[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

My first guest is Karis Hilton, Shakira, Luke and Yerim. Do you have surprises? Many surprises. Welcome to the Sweet 305 podcast where the group chat comes to life.

[Donald Trump]

What up?

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

You're the only person I know that loves a yellow Starburst. It's lemonade. This is suite 305. Here, oversharing is encouraged. Listen to Sweet 305 with Lele Pons on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts, I'm Jake

[Jake Brennan]

Brennan, and on the Disgraceland Podcast, I explore the wild lies of rock stars and unbelievable true crime stories from music history. These are the stories you haven't heard, the kind you'll end up telling someone else. Like the time Paul McCartney spent in a notorious prison. Or the bizarre crime Lady Gaga is accused of. Or that time Blondie's Debbie Harry escaped. Ted Bunny. Listen to Disgraceland on the iHeartRadio app podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ryan Grim]

Hey, guys, Sagar and Krystal here.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

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[Ryan Grim]

We need your help to build the future of independent news media and we hope to see [e-mail] Good morning, everybody. Happy Wednesday. Have an amazing show for everybody today. Bro show people. Live for the pounds.

[Sagar Enjeti]

It goes back.

[Ryan Grim]

Actually, no, it's. Thank you for having me.

[Sagar Enjeti]

It is Wednesday. That's right, it's Wednesday.

[Ryan Grim]

After all, people getting a lot of bro shows this week. That's how the schedule goes. That's how the schedule goes. We're gonna do our best here so we're gonna kick off Donald Trump some major comments abroad in Ankara basically saying the Memorandum of Is over as well as the ceasefire. This follows retaliatory strikes between Iran and the United States. Iran then firing back at US bases. Probably the biggest exchange of fire since the ceasefire began. Some. I don't even know what the date is at this point.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Does it matter?

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, it doesn't matter. Along with probably the biggest news is the revocation of American, or, sorry, the reimposition of American sanctions on Iranian oil, almost certainly to invite a major Iranian response and perhaps a resumption of the war. Oil markets popping a little bit, but still delusional, as has been the case. Turkey, we're gonna talk about that. Ryan and Emily covered a little bit of this on Monday. But Bibi Netanyahu all over American cable news to tell us why Turkey is actually our greatest enemy. Nehran's over. Now it's all about Turkey. Trump making some comments there, Bibi putting his full thumb on the scale to prevent the sale of F35s and Bibi actually saying some of the quiet part out loud. So this will be a major tussle between the US and Israel. Wonder who I would put my money on in terms winning that fight. We are gonna talk about Graham Platner situation in Maine. There is a basically, I mean, I would describe it as a full blown coup attempt now currently happening in Maine. You can evaluate for yourself. But the executive director of the Maine Democratic Party out this morning. Ryan saying that Graham Platner should have absolutely no say whatsoever in who replaces him. Full scale civil war between the establishment and Graham Platner in perhaps who will replace him. It does appear all signs currently point to him dropping out, but we're not entirely sure yet. We are going to talk about MeToo again. I know that this is a bit difficult, two bros on the bro show who are litigating this, but actually a lot of this is gonna be reporting. Ryan has some exclusive reporting that he can show everybody for some of the text messages that led up to this exchange between Graham Platner and his current accuser, which Politico had but did not release, which in and of itself, in my opinion is immediate.

[Sagar Enjeti]

It's not how you do journalism.

[Ryan Grim]

It is not how you do journalism whatsoever. This is in addition to some new interviews, CNN and others of people who are accusing Graham Platner of improper behavior. And a lot of this is reminding us of the eight year ago kind of litigation through MeToo. And honestly, a lot of the journalistic standards here. And you do not have to in any way say Graham Platner is innocent or Grant Platner did not act very terribly. But to say unequivocally that the way the media is handling this story is genuinely irresponsible. So we're gonna go through that. And then, Ryan, you've got Kai Newkirk, who's gonna join you.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Sagar. Sagar stumbled into a Wednesday show here and he's what are socialists doing on the rundown?

[Ryan Grim]

What are all these DSA Communists? But this guy, I'm gonna make an exception for this dude because he's currently running for office in Arizona and is. What is. He filed an official complaint with the Arizona Attorney General alleging foreign interference by the state of Israel via a massive spending bomb against him. So any American who's under attack by the Israel lobby, America first here to support them. And then you have, Ryan, a candidate, David Morales, running dsa, is trying to take Providence.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And as people say, as goes Providence, so goes the. As goes Providence, so goes Boss, so goes Providence.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, yeah, so goes Providence. Great city, though, don't get me wrong. Great city. I got married in Rhode Island. I'll always love it. Okay, before we get to any of that, thank you to everybody who's been subscribing to the show, breakingpoints.com if you're able to. But do not forget that we have our incredible newsletter, which is out here right now, which you can subscribe to perfectly for free. Just go to breakingpoints.com, the pop up's right there. You put your email in and you get the first three blocks. Our premium subscribers, of course, get access to the full thing, which is a written version, basically rundown of our entire show. It has links. We work very, very hard on this product. We're incredibly proud of it. So please sign up and take advantage if you are able to.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I promised to put a link into yesterday's newsletter and I forgot. I'm going to try to stop doing that. I'm really going to try better. Yeah. If I say I'm going to put a link in, I'm going to put a link in. Also, one fun thing today, Dropsite news turns two.

[Bibi Netanyahu]

Wow.

[Sagar Enjeti]

This is our second anniversary.

[Ryan Grim]

I remember it like it was yesterday. I know it really was yesterday.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I don't know if it's been super long or.

[Ryan Grim]

I feel like whenever we hit our five year anniversary, like five years, it happened yesterday, but I guess a lot has happened too. So there we go. All right, let's go. Ahead and start with Iran. As Ryan said, some crazy stuff happening there. Trump basically saying the ceasefire is over in Ankara. Let's take a listen.

[Donald Trump]

I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them anymore. They're scum. You know what scum is? They're scum. They're sick people. They're led by sick people, and they're vicious, violent people. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they'd use it. As far as I'm concerned, it's over. I'll speak to our negotiators. They want to negotiate. They're good people. Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, but they have to come back to me. As far as I'm concerned, it's just a waste of time dealing with them. They're liars. We make a deal and they. If I make a deal with him, we have a deal, and he goes out, he talks, we make a deal. Everyone's agreed, no nuclear weapon. We make a deal. They go outside, talk to the press. They say, we never even talked about it. There's something wrong with them. They're cuckoo. As far as I'm concerned, it's over.

[Ryan Grim]

As far as I'm concerned, it's over. He says now multiple times. So let's go ahead and put the next one, Take a Listen, where he talks specifically about the strikes on Iran, describing them as 20 to 1 in terms of what the US received. Let's take a listen.

[Donald Trump]

We attacked very powerfully last night. The very dangerous people from Iran, they're sick, there's something wrong with them. We said, go and do your funeral stuff. And instead of that, they start shooting rockets at ships yesterday. And so we hit them very hard last night. Very hard. I would say 20 to 1, 20 times tougher. I told them, every time you hit, we hit. And of course, they're dirty players. So they go after everyone, probably including me. I've been number one on their list for years. And they're a bunch of scum. You want to know that? They're scum. And so we don't like them. I don't like them. And they're evil people. And it's the denuclearization of Iran. And we're going to denuke it. We're not going to let them because they're crazy and they can't have a nuclear weapon. And they go around killing people. They've killed thousands and thousands of our soldiers. They've killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

[Ryan Grim]

Evil people. We're going to denuke it. This Is all. I mean, look, let's put a one up here just to show you even the shift in language from the United States. The U.S. central Command forces have begun launching a series of powerful strikes against Iran. Note this time they don't even say powerful self defense strikes like they usually do, which in and of itself is a meaningless phrase to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway. The US strikes are in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz. So what this basically comes down to is a complete disagreement on what it actually means to have the Memorandum of Understanding and the phrase specifically that says free passage through the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian understanding of the, of the phrase free passage is yes, you can go through for free with coordination with Iranian authorities. The American version of that is we can go through however we want, including through routes set up by the United States military and the government of Oman. Iran is desperately and is basically willing to blow up the entire ceasefire over. Basically they are threatening to blow up a entire ceasefire over the idea of control over the Strait of Hormuz because it is their ultimate leverage that they were able to exert in this war. The economic nuke, basically, as Robert Pape has described it here on our show. And why I think that's very important is just that there is a total mismatch between what the US Wants and what Iran wants. Iran wants not only security for itself for all time, but also to increase its overall regional power. So that's why the ceasefire in and of itself, they don't particularly care about taking some more of these smaller strikes, which on Kashim island or around the Strait of Hormuz. The United States needs an immediate drop in oil prices. Remember Brent crude still around $76 per barrel. The national price of gasoline is still some $3.70, still a full dollar above where it was before the war even began. So you can see is Trump, while he can say all of these things, he can't fully resume the war either. So we're in this very difficult status quo where oil is gonna remain high and in the interim you have chaos, really in the straight, Ryan. You've got shipping slowing down. You had a Qatari LNG tanker which got hit, which is a huge, you know, huge deal because Qatar was one of their major.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And they're much more explosive.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, exactly. Much more flammable.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And we can look at bullet 5 of the MOU reads the Islamic Republic of Iran will make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days only from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa, the Strait of Hormuz. The traffic of commercial vehicles will immediately start. So Iran is clearly reading that they will make the arrangements using their best efforts for the safe passage in coordination with Oman. Now, what the US has been doing is they've been trying to tell all of these ships go through the southern passage, that is on the Omani side, and do not coordinate with Iran. Iran isn't asking for money, but they want basically, give me your license plate, license, license and registration. And the US does not want to institutionalize the process of these international ships working with Iran to go through, because that is then effectively ceding the idea that they control it. But if that was something that, that, if you ask me, that the US Wanted, maybe they should have negotiated for that better in the talks. That's where you work that out. So Iran is saying, hey, we didn't get their license and registration. We're hitting them now. Trump has a huge problem here. Even 20 to 1 strikes are not going to persuade Iran that their position should change on this question.

[Ryan Grim]

Yes.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Trump has already demonstrated that he does not have the military capacity to bend Iran's will on the Strait of Hormuz. Like, we all watched it happen. And so that leaves either massive escalation and occupation of Iran and complete decapitation of not just the regime, but like complete regime change. Like, and you install the Shah or whatever.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

Right.

[Ryan Grim]

Like you need the shah's failson who lives here in Maryland.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Yes. Yeah. So there's that or there's the negotiations. This back and forth where they fire on ships and we fire on them does not change the status quo. Right. They still, like right now, if you're a ship, no matter how many times the US has just bombed Iran over the last 24 hours, you still better coordinate with Iran or you're gonna get hit.

[Ryan Grim]

Let's put a four up here on the screen. This is about transits through the Strait of Hormuz. You can actually see what they look like in terms of how they have gone down, halted transit, anchored, instead of entering the strait. Remember, I mean, whenever we say, oh, is the strait open? It's really up to Iran and it's up to the insurance company. And then the company itself. The company says, we're not going through, and insurance says, nope, don't do it. Well, then we're not going to. You can actually literally see the circle There where a ship is refusing to go through the strait. So we are not even close to resuming normal traffic through the strait. This was already a problem. We've had multiple strikes now by Iran on in the strait. We had. What was it? A renewal of said ceasefire. Nobody's saying that that can't happen tomorrow, but this type of language from Trump combined, I think you guys covered when I was gone, the comments from the vice president, J.D. vance, where he was like, look, the ceasefire gives us an opportunity to rearrange.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Yeah, we're gonna restock.

[Ryan Grim]

We're restock our oil. I'm like, well, you know, if I'm Iran and I'm listening to that, I'm like, well, maybe I should start shooting. And now I should never stop shooting, actually.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I'm not gonna let you sneak past, I think.

[Ryan Grim]

And also remember, you know, Iran has intern politics too. Take a look at the funeral where it was millions of people. And guess what? There is a huge faction of the Iranian government who opposed the ceasefire from day one, huge faction of the IRGC who said, you are making a catastrophic mistake. They're gonna rearm and they're gonna bomb us. And according to Trita Parsi, the internal belief inside of Iran is that Israel and the United States will resume the war within six months, exactly like they did the last time. And so. So this is all setting the stage potentially for a major conflagration or confrontation. This will not happen tomorrow, necessarily. It could happen months from now. But on again, off again, we're probably not gonna have time to cover the situation in Ukraine. Perfect example. The critical nexus of the battle in Ukraine is now where you have a development of the drone threat. You have Moscow and Ukraine locked in the contest, ballistic missiles that are flying over the top and Ukraine having the ability to strike deep inside of Russia to Russian oil refineries. That's where the strategic calculus leaps to another level. And it's very unfortunate because we have effectively entered forever war territory here. In terms of the logic, it's easier to just mow the lawn with Iran. It's easier for Iran to just constantly sit there and be like, look, we're not getting completely pounded by bombs. We can lob a few bombs in the Straits of Hormuz and continue to negotiate over time. That instability in the global market and order is exactly what is diminishing. US Power will keep. Keep having a magnet for the US and it's leading to crazy situations like Asia Pacific abandoning the United States, the European NATO summit, half of it with the European leaders is about, how can we stop being dependent on America? Like, we can't be dependent on these people. The entire world seeing a pushback and America not even having the ability, even if they wanted to arm Ukraine today, we can't. We don't have any other systems. We blew it all.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And to add to your point about Iran's internal calculations, Yesterday there were 2 million plus mourners in Najaf, Iraq, for the Ayatollah. So. And the morning in Karbala is expected to be even bigger than that. So what Iran is seeing is millions of people not just pouring out into the streets of Iran, but also Iraq. So they're seeing themselves solidify and develop as a significant regional power. And so, yeah, 20 to 1 airstrikes from President Trump aren't going to do it. We can put up a five. The geopolitical implications of this Qatari ship getting hit are significant as well. You know, Qatar had reached some kind of agreement with Iran. And what Iran is showing here is that we may have an agreement. But if you're not respecting the rules that we're setting up to get ships through the Strait of Hormuz, even your LNG tanker is going to get hit, which everyone here is playing with fire, like, could be an absolutely, you know, catastrophic attack, you know, for everybody on board, anybody nearby, and also ecologically for the entire, for the entire region. So far, they've been almost lucky that this is all that's happened so far. Put up a six from drop site.

[Ryan Grim]

Yes.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Up to five ships now may have been hit just over the past two days.

[Ryan Grim]

The key there is that southern Omani route, which is as far away from Iran as possible. That's where you're gonna get really say

[Sagar Enjeti]

far, because it's like, it's obviously close enough.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, it's really not that far. That's the entire problem with the geography.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Close enough for drones and hand grenade.

[Ryan Grim]

Exactly right. And speedboats, if that's something that you want to do, too. And so we're just locked in this situation. How will it resolve? Who knows again? And that's why it's always important to say, Trump says it's over. You can't take that to the bank. Trump says that it's back on. You can't take that to the bank either. There's all of these. But I will say, as far as

[Sagar Enjeti]

I'm concerned, it's back on.

[Ryan Grim]

There are signals that are so in the same way that the JD Ascension and Geneva, the Lake Lucerne summit, it was a positive Sign like, you can't take back these comments about Israel or any of that. You can't. These are all good. Well, now we're seeing signs in the opposite direction. So one of the worst signs I saw, Pete Hegseth was on his way to Israel. Visit just got canceled. Well, bit of a problem. Why does visit get canceled? You could read it two ways. One is they're mad at Bibi over his comments on Turkey, which we're about to talk about. One is we're about to go back to war, so he needs to be at the Pentagon. So both of these are, you know, I mean, one would be a positive, one would be a negative. You also have Secretary Rubio who's traveling with the President, not the vice president, who's here in Washington. Well, you've got the vice president away from the president. You've got the hawkish Secretary of State with the president, along with the Secretary of defense, two of the people who opposed the ceasefire initially and always thought that it was going to be a total failure. So all of these tea leaves that we're reading around, who are around Trump and what they're urging him to do, et cetera, all of this currently points in a direction of at least a collapse of the memorandum understanding, which just leads to even more instability, which means stock markets are going to go down, oil prices will go slightly up, but no way a return to normal, which is what everybody wanted in the first place. Nobody wants this war except for Trump.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And we're down to 90 million barrels are in our strategic reserve, that is. And we released, I think, 6 million last week, so we're still going down. 90 million is nothing like. You can see the bottom of that little bit.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and much more. Okay, okay, let's get to the Turkey situation.

[Hoda Kotb]

Hey, I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. Okay. If you know me, you know this. I'm always searching for inspiration, for support, and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover all of that together. We're going to have these meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people. Like. Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer, and that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartum depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety.

[Hoda Kotb]

Olympic champ Shawn Johnson revealed why she had no choice but to be a gymnast.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us. We just have to find it.

[Hoda Kotb]

Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

My first guest is Paris Hilton, Shakira, Luke and Yerin Samira y Gracie.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I'm so excited. On a bouncy bed, you have surprises, many surprises.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

Welcome to suite 305 where the group chat comes to life.

[Hoda Kotb]

What up?

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

You're the only person I know that loves a yellow Starburst. It's lemonade. This is suite 305. Listen to suite 305 with Lele Pons as part of my Cultura podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jake Brennan]

I'm Jake Brennan and on my podcast Disgraceland, I tell the stories behind music's biggest names, the moments, rumors and real life events that helped shape their legacy. Like the story behind Sonic U Youth that starts with downtown New York cool and ends with album art inspired by a true crime. Sonic Youth was not fronted by a groupy hustling alpha like David Lee Roth. No, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore was an artist in love with a fellow artist who just happened to play bass in the same band with him and his other artist friends. Her name was Kim Gordon. And Thurston and Kim were every bit as cool as the couple on the COVID of Goo. The same couple involved in one of the UK's darkest true crimes. Disgraceland is part of the exactly right network. Listen to new episodes every Tuesday, bonus episodes Thursday, and rewinds on Sunday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ryan Grim]

Turning now to the situation with Bibi and Turkey. I mean, they are full on. So Bibi is furious right now. Let's put B1 up here. You guys can see it. Trump arrived in Ankara to great fanfare. President Erdogan even met him on the tarmac, which is such a huge deal. Apparently, he never does that. And this show of allyship between these two longstanding nations is throwing Israeli politics into complete chaos. So much so that Bibi Netanyahu has now taken to Fox News and cnn, not his own press, to beg the United States not to resume the sale of F35 planes to Turkey, which of course is a NATO. All more important to the United States in every way than Israel. But Here he is saying it will jeopardize not US Security, but Israeli security, and that's why we shouldn't do it. Let's take a listen.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

President Trump is in Turkey right now. He said this morning he will consider selling F35 fighter jets to Turkey, which is a reversal of a ban he put in place. You said yesterday that would, quote, upset the power balance in the Middle East. Have you made that clear to President Trump?

[Bibi Netanyahu]

Yes, I have actually spoke to him several times about it. And I think that everybody understands that, notwithstanding the personal friendship that President Trump has with Erdogan, it doesn't make Turkey a friendly or a friendly state to the United States. To the contrary, it's a regime that's infected with the Muslim Brotherhood, which hates the United States. He harbors Hamas, the Hamas terrorists. He supports them. He finances them. He's thrown his opponents in jail, all of them. He throws more journalists in jail than anyone can understand. So he's not exactly a model ally of the United States. But even worse than that, he threatens Greece, a NATO ally. He occupies half of Cyprus, another NATO country. And the most important thing, and I put it right on the table, he threatens to destroy my country, the one and only Jewish state. His number two says that we have no place among the nations, and you know what that means. And his number three, the Interior minister, says that he's looking forward to be the governor of Jerusalem.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Hello.

[Bibi Netanyahu]

You know, we're a sovereign country.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

He is considering giving the country these planes. F35.

[Bibi Netanyahu]

Well, as I said, it would destroy the power balance in the Middle east because Turkey, I think, has aggressive aspirations. I mean, they openly say that they want to restore the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire not only included Turkey, it included many other countries, included Syria, it included pieces of Jordan, included all of present day Israel, included some Gulf countries. So this is not a force for peace and stability. And if you give, you know, this kind of radical regime that admittedly smiles to America when it is necessary or smiles to the President of the United States when it's necessary, when you're given that power, you're going to see aggression in its wake. I wouldn't do that.

[Ryan Grim]

There's so much going on there, Ryan, that you flagged number one. He's so concerned about journalists.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Wow.

[Ryan Grim]

Person who murdered a bunch of journalists. He's very concerned about journalists. Second, Turkey is occupying, anti occupation.

[Sagar Enjeti]

End the occupation, says Netanyahu.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, you might as well be a Ryan Grimm.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Defend journalists and end the occupation.

[Ryan Grim]

The final little quiet part out loud is this would Threaten Israeli air superiority in the region. That's what it's all about.

[Sagar Enjeti]

That's the whole thing she calls a balance. That's the opposite of a balance.

[Ryan Grim]

Exactly. It's the imbalance. The imbalance is balanced to the Israelis. The Israeli right to them is the right to not only have their country, to have whatever is you would define as Palestine is to have half of Lebanon is to have half of Syria is to bomb Qatar at will, is to bomb Iran at will. Is to. Why would.

[Sagar Enjeti]

What was. Nobody has the capacity to fight back.

[Ryan Grim]

Nobody has. The Israeli demand was Iran cannot have a ballistic missile which is capable of hitting Israel. Not anything on nuclear weapons is a ballistic missile can.

[Jake Brennan]

Why?

[Ryan Grim]

Because they need no balance whatsoever. So they can take over whatever they want. The Israelis are like, look, we'll ship the nuclear weapon or nuclear material out of the country. Nope, not good enough. Why? Because they don't have. They can't have the ability to threaten Tel Aviv or Jerusalem or any of these. Haifa, any of the other cities in Israel. That's what it's actually all about, this entire thing. And so when he says this about Turkey, which we all know, they've been saying it out loud now for what? For the entire war, basically, they're like, turkey is next. From Naftali Bennet, Prime Minister, this is purely about breaking up the US and NATO. And I'm no defender of NATO, but if we're gonna break up, NATO should be on our terms, not on Israeli terms. Okay. It should be a lot more about why should we defend North Macedonia or whatever, you know, Montenegro, as opposed to. Well, Israel wants to bomb Turkey, and that's a huge problem. The irony, of course, is that by launching this war, Trump, Trump has made himself much more reliant on Turkey and much more reliant on the Gulf countries, because he needs them, because we no longer have any weapons to actually restore some sort of regional balance. But he's still the superpower person on top of that. So he both has to court Erdogan and court Bibi. He has this rogue actor over here, and then this NATO ally over here with a population which. Which hates Israel with a fiery passion. Israelis hate them, you know, right back. And I just think it demonstrates exactly the sheer instability of our alliance here with Israel. And also, I mean, are we.

[Bibi Netanyahu]

What.

[Ryan Grim]

What can we even say about CNN just inviting this propaganda commercial on for why he shouldn't be able to buy F35? She didn't even. She didn't even challenge. But why do you deserve Israeli air Superiority in the region. Did you even think to ask that?

[Sagar Enjeti]

Right.

[Ryan Grim]

Nothing. It's crazy.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Yeah, nothing. And so then watching. Oh, and last point, so we'll put up B6. Netanyahu said it. He jails his political opponents. Indeed, the mayor of Istanbul is the largest opposition figure, is in jail with like, Trump trumped up charges. But meanwhile, of course, Netanyahu has thousands of his political opponents in administrative detention, in torture chambers in Israel. But. So it'll be. It's interesting to see how Trump navigated this. Listen closely to how Trump talks about the F35s and his relationship with Turkey versus a certain other ally that he doesn't name, but is quite clear who he's referring to. Let's go to B4.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

Mr. President, are you going to sell F35s to Turkey?

[Ryan Grim]

And what about the legal restrictions?

[Donald Trump]

Well, it's a decision we're going to make. We have a very good relationship. I would think that many people, I can tell you, many people, including the people sitting right here, thinks, you know, why wouldn't we do that? We have a better relationship with Turkey. And Turkey has been in many ways much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal. So, yeah, it's something certainly we would consider. It's a great plane. It's the best currently, the best plane by far. And it's certainly something we will consider. Yeah.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Now, that's probably a double swipe at Europe and European countries who he's always dogging for not being loyal enough and not defending him when he went to war with Iran. But given the context of Netanyahu's 247 kind of public cable campaign against Trump doling out the F35 to Turkey to have him say, no, these guys are loyal. Unlike some other people who I'm not gonna mention, it's pretty difficult not to believe that he's also including Netanyahu in that. Who he feels, or he at least has been saying publicly he feels like has been an obstacle to his agenda in the Middle East.

[Ryan Grim]

Right. But at the same time, like, how can we see the collapse of the ceasefire and not bet on Netanyahu? By the way, you know, we didn't, we didn't even put this on the show. Shame on me. Guess what Israel also did today? Bomb Lebanon. Bomb Lebanon, Right. Which the Iranians are like, hello, hello, Paragraph one, ceasefire on all fronts. It's totally nuts. And so you look at this, you see the Israelis who are bombing Lebanon, you have this attack basically on the Trump administration, full blown, from Bibi Netanyahu on American cable news. And what does the President say? Nothing. I mean, every once in a while he'll give an interview and he's like, oh, Bibi, I'm the boss. And that's great. Okay. It's nice to say, but Bibi's not stupid. He knows exactly how to reach Trump through U.S. cable news. He's fully activated all of his allies. And the other thing is, now that Trump says that the ceasefire is over, the neocon tongue bath is about to come back full in force. Mr. President, the greatest and the strongest President, you didn't make any mistake here with the ceasefire. Don't worry about it. And at this, you know, you basically have, have, like, fifth columnists here in the United States who are agents of the Israeli government. Like, let's put B10 up here.

[Donald Trump]

Mark.

[Ryan Grim]

Mark Levin, look at this. I mean, this is basically propaganda on behalf of the Israeli government's position. Breaking news. Erdogan was prepared to join forces with Iran against Israel. The President has mentioned several times he talked Erdogan out of entering the war on the side of the Iranian regime, meaning he talked Erdogan out of going to war with the US And Israel. I really think this needs to be explained in detail and fully pursued. If a NATO country was going to join the enemy in our war against Iran, we need to know all about it. The President is rightfully condemning the support of NATO countries, but in the case of Turkey, it was prepared to fight us. Can you imagine Erdogan using our military equipment against us? Now this thug will have our F35s. By the way, Israel has F35s and we're praising the hell out of this guy. Like, as our best friend. We need to know a lot more about this. I mean, I mean, what they do is Bibi puts out the talking point, then the entire neocon industrial complex comes up behind him. It's a pressure campaign. And as Bruno Masias, he's a commentator I deeply respect, he called this years ago. I remember him saying it. He said, the death of NATO will have nothing to do with Ukraine. It will have nothing to do with Russia. It will be an Israeli war of aggression on Putin. And I mean, he could not have been more right. I really one of the most prescient predictions I have ever seen.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And on the Lebanon strike, people know a drone strike on a vehicle down in southern Lebanon. It hit a school principal, her mother, a foreign domestic worker, you know, like an au pair or something, and then a Syrian citizen that were all driving this car which had been trying to return to its check on their home down in. Down in southern Lebanon, where Israel has destroyed most of the homes.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, so. And then finally, do you want to talk about this Egypt thing? I wanted to give you that opportunity here. I know that was something that was so horrible.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Yes. We can put this next element up.

[Ryan Grim]

Just be nine guys.

[Sagar Enjeti]

One of the most sadistic and insane things I feel like I've ever seen. So the Egyptian Relief Committee was organizing. They put out a bunch of TVs so that people could watch in Gaza the Egypt Argentina game. Which trying to give people a little bit of life, a little bit of joy in as bleak a scenario as you could possibly imagine. An hour before the match, Israel kills the committee's PR guy. Yeah, like, just let them watch the game. Also, Israel would have been happy because Egypt was completely robbed in that game. I mean, credit to Argentina. Incredible, incredible comeback. But Egypt had this. One of the greatest goals in World cup history called off by some stupid var call. And then Argentina does the exact same thing, goes coast to coast, also trips an Egyptian player in. In the box, and they don't get a call for that. So Israel could have just been satisfied with the Palestinians who were rooting for Egypt, being disappointed in how that unfolded. Instead, they have to kill the PR guy who's setting up the big screen TVs. It's just so. Just depraved, like there's no word for it.

[Ryan Grim]

I agree. And that's why they deserve regional air superiority.

[Sagar Enjeti]

That's the balance of power they're talking about. That's what they're doing with their balance

[Ryan Grim]

that America deserves and should backstop the region. Smart. Smart. Okay, let's get to Platner.

[Hoda Kotb]

Hey, I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. Okay. If you know me, you know this. I'm always searching for inspiration, for support, and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover all of that together. We're gonna have these meaningful conversations with the world most fascinating people. Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer, and that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartum depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety.

[Hoda Kotb]

Olympic champ Shawn Johnson revealed why she had no choice but to be a gymnast.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicated, intoxicating. To me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us. We just have to find it.

[Hoda Kotb]

Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

My first guest is Paris Hilton, Shakira, Luke and Yerin Samira E. Gracie.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I'm so excited. On a bouncy bed you have surprises, many surprises.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

Welcome to Suite 305, where the group chat comes to life.

[Hoda Kotb]

What up?

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

You're the only person I know that love loves. A yellow Starburst. It's lemonade. This is suite 305. Listen to suite 305 with Lele Pons as part of my Cultura Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jake Brennan]

I'm Jake Brennan, and on my podcast Disgraceland, I tell the stories behind music's biggest names, the moments that shape the haunted them and changed music history forever. Like how the story of the Foo Fighters and Dave Grohl isn't just about music. Imagine that you're in the biggest band on the planet, as Dave Grohl was in 1994 in Nirvana, and the phone rings and you learn that your singer, your friend, the reluctant voice of a generation, Kurt Cobain is dead. This is a story of fame, pressure, friendship, and the weight of fulfilling your destiny. Learn more about the moment everything changed. Disgraceland is part of the Exactly Right network. Listen to new episodes every Tuesday, bonus episodes Thursday, and rewinds on Sunday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner has still not resigned the nomination, but Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devin Murphy Anderson last night posted a video urging that he do so and telling him and his campaign that he will have no say in who is chosen to replace him or how that candidate will be picked. Let's roll a little bit of Murphy Anderson here, here.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

Hi everyone. I wanted to provide you all an update on the US Senate race here in Maine. As you know, the Maine Democratic Party has been working around the clock to develop a process to replace our U.S. senate nominee that is open, inclusive, transparent, and fair. The integrity of this process is just as important as the outcome, and we are committed to ensuring that Democrats across our state can have confidence in both.

[Donald Trump]

Both.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

Unfortunately, Graham Platner's team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like. We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner's team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the US Senate, nor in determining what this process looks like. We have also reiterated that Graham Platner must drop out of this race so that Democrats in Maine can focus on defeating Susan Collins Collins this November. We look forward to making this process public as soon as Graham Platner formally withdraws from this race.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And so the Platner campaign responded to this. And we can add this in post campaign official told Sahil Kapoor, quote, the Platner campaign has reached out to the party to try and understand what this process would look like. At no point has the campaign tried to, quote, put its finger on the scale. Over 150,000 Mainers voted for this movement and over 15,000 Mainers volunteered their time and energy to it. While Graham wouldn't want to be a part of the process, he would want to make sure the voters and volunteers make this decision, not the political establishment, unquote.

[Ryan Grim]

Can I say what it is? This is a coup.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Well, that. From the executive director to say we're not even going to answer their phone calls. They did win the nomination.

[Ryan Grim]

He won more votes. Look, can we just say I'm not some Platner fanboy.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I literally said, can vouch. Guy does not like Platner.

[Ryan Grim]

It's not that I hate Platner. I've always thought he's like a Brooklyn cosplaying leftist as some sort of working class. I think his background bears all of that out.

[Donald Trump]

Okay?

[Ryan Grim]

And so I'll save that itelity stuff for later, but to me, this is a principle matter. Like, this man won more votes in the Democratic primary than anyone in Maine history and the main Democratic Party. Who is that lady, by the way? I don't remember anybody voting for. For her across the state.

[Bibi Netanyahu]

Run for anything.

[Ryan Grim]

Did she run for anything? Look, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe she got voted. Like, I'm not familiar with that, with the bylaws of the main Democratic Party. I know that one person got more votes than anyone in the history of a main Democratic Party. And to say that he should have no say whatsoever in how the next person, if he were to replace, to step down, to replace him, is totally insane. Insane because. Because his volunteers, his people, his campaign are ultimately the ones who beat a sitting governor in the Democratic nomination, forced her out of the race. They beat the dscc. And then to say that if he's gonna step down, which he doesn't have to do, that he should have no say in the process. I mean, it is as anti Democratic as it possibly could be. Because Ryan, you and I both know they're gonna try various different ways to make this seem open in superdelegates or televised debates. Like nothing beats voting and they can't vote again. So it is by definition going to be an anti Democratic process.

[Sagar Enjeti]

They could do at least a caucus level situation. And what Platner seems to be saying here is, I'm not trying to force you to take who I want you to take. Now, if an establishment candidate was getting pushed out of the race, by the way, they would appoint an establishment replacement. There would be no controversy about it, no question about it. It would be done in 12 hours. But an establishment candidate is not getting pushed out of the race. Platner is. Platner is not even saying he is insisting on like Troy Jackson or Shana Bellows. What he is saying is that he wants to make sure that there is an inclusive process that as many Democrats who participated in the primary process are able to participate in. And that could be a convention in Portland that has many conventions in every county where there's a Democratic. Like, this is. This is easily something that can be, that can be put together. And so he's just asking. And this is within the power of the main Democratic Party to put together. It would be a kind of a shotgun thing. Probably be hard to pull off an entire primary whether you count every single vote. But you could do a caucus type situation. They could figure something out. And Platner's campaign is saying, what are you thinking? Because to your point, they don't want this to go into Janet Mills office.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Or her office.

[Ryan Grim]

Because it's just come out.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Smoke signal. Yeah. The voters rejected her.

[Bibi Netanyahu]

Right.

[Ryan Grim]

They explicitly did not vote for her. Like, you cannot do this. In my opinion. This is why. I mean, look, I think so much of Platner and a lot of the Democratic left, I don't know what is going on, but like, you know, their whole brand is fighting. This is the time to fight, guys. This is how you got steamrolled under Biden. And this is basically why you have no power. This is why Bernie dropped out of the race after Super Tuesday. Never fought and did anything. Allegedly. This is the time to stand up. Everybody just immediately was like, yeah, Platner's gotta go. But nobody demanded any sort of conditions. And the main Democratic Party said he's in no position to demand anything. I'm.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Well, he's literally in a position.

[Ryan Grim]

He literally is in a position to demand anything. It's like I really feel like I'm taking crazy pills, Ryan, because a lot of it, like from Mamdani to Bernie to any of the Rokhannas, all the movement leaders, everyone started with, he's gotta go without the next part. The next part should be. And the person who succeeds him should be as similar to him as possible. And they've given up all their leverage and now these people are right back in charge. I really think if you're anti establishment Democrat in Maine, you should be outraged by the way this is playing out.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Right. There are three kind of ways you can handle serious, huge allegations like that in the moment. One is to say, we need to wait for a couple of days here to get more information about this. I want to hear from all sides. Two is to say, okay, you know what, our guy is done. We're going to negotiate a surrender here. Let's work on the terms of what this surrender looks like. Three is just complete and total surrender. And they went with basically number three. So let's put up C2. So this is Bernie Sanders. He says he tweeted, I have spoken with Graham Platner about the best path forward for Maine. In light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside. Mayor Zoran Mamdani in New York was asked as well about whether or not Plattner should stay in the race. He has a lot of the same kind of consultants on his team as are with Platner and staffers. Let's roll C1 here. Given that you have a sort of

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

ascendant role in the Democratic Party, could

[Sagar Enjeti]

you talk about the main Senate race?

[Ryan Grim]

Do you think that Graham Platner should drop out of the race?

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

And do you have any intention of endorsing any candidates in competitive races outside of New York, Al Said, or anyone else?

[Ryan Grim]

No, I believe that it's time for him to drop out of the race. And when it comes to my own endorsements, I've made eight endorsements at the state and federal level. They've all been right here in New York City. I'm incredibly excited at the fact that they won their races. And that's where my focus is for now. You know, I think the focus of today should be to respond to the gravity of what so many of us have read. And I think that the only appropriate response is for the campaign to come to an end.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And we put up C5 here. This is from Dropsite News, Nathan Bernard. He interviewed a ton of volunteers for Graham Platner. And the overwhelming, almost universal consensus from them was that Platner either no longer should have a shot at staying in the race or no longer does have a shot in the race. And that either way, the upshot is the same. But they want Troy Jackson, who we were talking about earlier and talked about yesterday on the program. He's a logger who was the former state Senate president who ran for governor. Finished a very, there was a very close third. It was Hannah Pingree, Jenna Bellows and him as well. Nirav Shah had ran competitively as well. Meanwhile, Jared Goldin put up C6 here. Platner ran as an anti war candidate. Jared Goldin cast a deciding vote to kill a war powers resolution in the US House. Right as his thing was, he's the maverick in the conservative district who to his credit continued to get elected as a Democrat in a Trump leaning district. To his discredit, one of the ways he did it was by constantly voting for war. So to try to replace a guy whose energy clearly came from his passionate opposition to forever wars and two, the genocide in Gaza, with somebody who's passionately on the other side of that would be apparently maybe that's something that's okay with the main Democratic Party, but it's hard to believe that that's not just guaranteeing defeat in November.

[Ryan Grim]

That's what I want to ask you. Am I overreacting? Like, does the current process point in the Troy Jackson path? Because could. But see, this is where, this is kind of why I think that the left is not. And you know, far be it from me to like give advice or whatever, you don't have to listen. But you know, the whole point was supposed to be we fight. That's why we go with Platner. That's why we're gonna abandon our woke shibboleths after the New York Times story and be like, no, we're sticking with our man. This is it, right? We're all in. Cause this is about fight. And then you not only do immediately give up, you ask for nothing. And you basically give the establishment the back which to bash your head in. Which if you're spending any time on Twitter right now, and you really should go monitor the accounts of all of the pro establishment people, Neera Tanden and Matt Iglesias and Josh Barrow and I'm not saying this in a disparaging way, they have a, you know, they have a more of a adversarial, more like centrist view of how the Democratic Party should be. They are using this moment to not only go after Platner, but everybody who Backed him.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

Right.

[Ryan Grim]

So Morris Katz and the. And I'm sorry if this is too inside baseball, but this stuff matters. They're currently using it to try and blacklist the. What is it? Fight agency, which found Platner. So they're like, see, these people have horrible judgment. Right? See, these people cannot be trusted. That's why I said not only is it a coup, it's a purge. It's a simultaneous effort by a lot of the establishment Democrats. And so when you immediately give up all your leverage now, you have nothing. Cuz Graham has both not fought back. Even though, I mean, again, the biggest indication to me that he's guilty is. Or at least guilty of something is he's like, okay, I haven't heard from him. Hands up. Yeah, you haven't heard from anything. He's canceled his events. He stopped all of his spending. He basically conceded from day one that he was like, we're gonna assess the future of our campaign. He's hanging out at his home doing nothing from what we can see right now. And then it's not just him, it's all the movement leaders that I listed. And you're basically allowing the establishment of to burn you. Which, you know, if it's 2020 after BLM, that's one thing, but it's today where you guys are actually winning primaries. You do have some leverage. And I, I see nothing. I think this is a shameful incident, honestly.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And they're even. They're even. I've noticed. Trying to use it against Abdul Al Said in Michigan.

[Ryan Grim]

I've noticed that too.

[Sagar Enjeti]

It's like, wait, hold on a second. What on earth?

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, he has not.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And also, good luck, Chinese, like Platner's name ID in Michigan is probably not very high. Like, this is inside stuff that, like, freaks like us are following pretty closely. But Abdullah Sayed, like, what are you doing? You're going after him just because he shares some politics with Platner? No, it's completely.

[Ryan Grim]

I got my own beef with Abdul, who, by the way, is hopefully coming on the show next week. We're talking a lot about property taxes.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Yes. I mean, I'm beefing with him over this too. I haven't argued with him, but I will would. Yeah, but we'll get into.

[Ryan Grim]

We'll save all that for later spoilers. So Abdul's been married for 20 years. It looks like he's two children. So, you know, good for him. I don't think this has anything to do with his behavior. Also, you know, plug for, you know, non traditional Sharia. If you don't drink, none of this will happen to you. That's just my personal plug. But you gotta look.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Not totally, but it reduces the likelihood.

[Ryan Grim]

Soft Sharia. If you live a soft Sharia lifestyle and you don't drink, you don't gamble and you don't run around and chase promiscuous Jewish lifestyles, you will not have people who have accusations against you. Who would have thought so Zoran, Mamdani and Abdulsi. You know, you got two Muslim guys and they live clean. This is what clean living can get you. But my general point here about the way that this is all playing out is it seems abundantly clear that the Democratic establishment is on a high. I have not seen them on in quite some time. Like they really, like the left was having an ascendant moment. They had had Zoron between Zoron and then those three New York City primaries. Oh, and Colorado. This was a big deal. This was a big, big, I would say two months. And now this was actually, in my opinion, the real testing ground. Because when in a blue seat, in a blue state, okay, congratulations. Knocking off a Republican swing senator in a swing ish state like Maine, which has consistently voted for, for Susan Collins to have a full blown, like non compromising in terms of the DSA ideology, to be able to win that state would have been a absolute earthquake in politics. Like again, it's one thing to beat a Democrat, it's a whole other thing to actually beat a Republican whenever you're running on that strategy. And that's why to give up all of that leverage and to basically hand it all back in a silver platter to the main Democratic Party. Who is setting these standards? I mean, you tell me, Ryan. I don't see a single prominent movement leader going after this main Democratic woman. Right. I haven't seen one be like, actually no, he's gonna have a say. Cause he seems so toxic. So I do think, I think it's a very dangerous moment, like for democracy. And especially if you. How could you, how could the number one lesson from Biden not be democracy is good? Actually, democracy is good. It is because the failure of that, that is what led to your devastating loss in November of 2024.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Let's talk a little bit about the way the press handled this. Let's do it. Yeah.

[Hoda Kotb]

Hey, I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. Okay. If you know me, you know this. I'm always searching for inspiration, for support and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover all of that together. We're going to have these meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people. Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer, and that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartum depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety.

[Hoda Kotb]

Olympic champ Shawn Johnson revealed why she had no choice but to be a gymnast.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us. We just have to find it.

[Hoda Kotb]

Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

My first guest is Paris Hilton, Shakira, Luke and Yerin Samira E. Gracie.

[Ryan Grim]

I'm so excited on the bouncy, but

[Sagar Enjeti]

you have surprises, many surprises.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

Welcome to Suite 305 where the group chat comes to life.

[Hoda Kotb]

What up?

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

You're the only person I know that love loves A yellow Starburst. It's lemonade. This is suite 305. Listen to suite 305 with Lele Pons as part of my Cultura Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jake Brennan]

I'm Jake Brennan, and on the Disgraceland podcast I explore the wild lives of rock stars and unbelievable true crime stories from music. Music history. These are the stories you haven't heard, the kind you'll end up telling someone else. Like the time Paul McCartney spent in one of the world's most notorious prisons. Imagine that you're Paul McCartney. It's 1980, you're an ex Beatle, and you're doing time in one of Japan's worst prisons right there alongside Yakuza gangsters. And for a ridiculous charge or the bizarre crime Lady Gaga is accused of. Who is the artist Lady Gaga is being accused of doing the unthinkable to after allegedly stealing her music in style to become famous. And what about that time Blondie's Debbie Harry escaped a serial killer? The man who had given her that ride she barely escaped from was Ted Bundy. Listen to Disgraceland on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Politico and CNN omitted a key detail from its reporting around the Graham Platner sexual assault allegations. We have learned. Let's Take a listen to how Jenny Racicot, the accuser of Graham Platner, described how the evening began in her interview with Jake Tapper on cnn.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

It was a night where him and I were texting back and forth and he had taken something that I said as. As an invitation, and that's not how I meant it. And I quickly clarified. And he sent a message back indicating that he would come over. And I said, no, don't come over. Like, I'm not in the mood. Don't come over. And I was more stern with that message. And then I didn't hear back from him. So I thought that that meant he got the message or gave up on it or whatnot.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Okay, Sagar. So there was no follow up from Jake Tapper. If you listen closely there, that she said, we were texting back and forth and he took something that I said as an invitation to come over. They'd been dating off and on for about two years at this point. The follow up from a normal person at that point is, what did you say? What'd you say? Right, like, what was the thing that you said to him that he misunderstood? Now let's take a look at how Politico reported this. This is D8. This is how Politico first reported. So Razakote told Politico she connected with Platner on the dating app Bumble in 2019 and had consensual relations with him prior to the night he allegedly assaulted that night in late 2021. She said she had exchanged text messages with him and told him not to come over, saying she wasn't in the mood for company. Later that evening, she said she realized when she heard a sound on the stairs that he had let himself into her house, which was unlocked. Platner came up the stairs, Racicot said, to where she was on a couch. He got on top of her and kept grabbing her, she said, while she repeatedly told him to stop and that she wasn't interested. So Sager, you read that and most people in Washington who read that, they're like, that sounds like he broke in to the house uninvited and then began a violent assault of her. Nowhere does Politico mention what she mentioned to CNN there, that she had said something in the text message exchanges that he mistook as an invitation. They just say, and elsewhere in the article, they say he was, quote, uninvited. It turns out, and we have learned that Politico definitively at the time of publication, knew precisely what Jenny had texted to Graham that He, according to her, mistook as an invitation to come over. And we know this because the Washington Post also interviewed Jenny Racicut. And Jenny told the Washington Post, because she's being honest. She's laying out all of the details, which is how it should be. You lay out all the details, and then you let the readers, the public, the voters say, okay, we have all the different facts. Here's how we interpret this scenario. So good for her for being transparent.

[Ryan Grim]

I totally agree with you. And I want to say that up at the top, this is in no way an attack on her. This is about how I believe that the media has handled this story.

[Sagar Enjeti]

She was tricked. She was tricked.

[Ryan Grim]

She was truthful from the beginning about this.

[Sagar Enjeti]

She doesn't have the text messages anymore. Platner apparently doesn't have the text messages anymore. So we're going by her memory of what they are, and to her credit, she divulged the details of the text messages from that evening. And to the. So she divulged it to the Washington Post. The Washington Post reaches out to the Platner campaign for comment. Good for the Washington Post. And in their request for comment, they mention that Jenny had been texting him, talking about a massage earlier. And so the Platter campaign sees this, and they go back to Politico and they say, well, apparently there's some more context here about the back and forth. Do you know about these text messages? The reporter then exchanges messages with the Platner campaign. Those messages have been now circulating in Maine politics, in Maine political circles. I obtained a copy of those. I was able to authenticate them with sources of. With knowledge of them. And here is what the Politico reporter said to the campaign. Jenny Rascott had been, quote, texting Platner about needing her glute massaged. That detail didn't make our story right. Glute massage. So within about a half an hour of getting this glute massage text, Platner is in the house.

[Ryan Grim]

Now, she says she followed up, no,

[Sagar Enjeti]

no, no, don't come. Don't come.

[Ryan Grim]

And don't come.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Because he texted back. So he's wasted. Clearly, he gets this message, I need, you know, I need my glute massaged, right? He comes over and he's texts back, I'm coming over. And she's like, wait, wait, don't come over. She says, don't come over. Don't come over. This is Maine. He's not taking the subway. Like, so he's drunk driving, drunkenly drunk driving, drunkenly driving over There.

[Ryan Grim]

Yes.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Comes into the house and then it gives. And then she says he's grabbing her on the couch. Where is he?

[Ryan Grim]

She's saying no.

[Bibi Netanyahu]

Right.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Where's he grabbing her? Is he like, immediately starting the glute massage or whatever?

[Bibi Netanyahu]

Right.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Anyway, the Washington Post, to its credit, included a version of the detail we could put up. Washington Post D7 one night in November or December 2021. She said she texted him to say that she could use a massage. She said she did not intend it as an invitation, but he interpreted it that way, immediately replying to say he would come right over. She said she wrote back twice telling him not to. The Post was not able to review the alleged messages or independently verify them. Racicot said she later deleted them soon after the incident. They didn't post didn't include the glue part, but did mention the massage to their credit. But. But because the Politico published first. Nobody. I didn't even know the Washington Post reported on this.

[Ryan Grim]

Exactly. And I think that's why this is important. So there's the most important part. And let's just zoom out because this does potentially explain why a drunken Platner enters the home.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Right.

[Ryan Grim]

It stops there because that's where the rest of the evening and her account of the evening, it no longer accounts for. But it does explain a detail. And I think what was key to the understanding generally that all of us had was that it did genuinely appear as if Platner had been told explicitly not to come over there, understood that to be the case, broke into the home, effectively entering a home unannounced, and which, whether it's unlocked or not, is a full blown crime. I mean, and I do think that that's part of why we need to assess this very seriously. The very definition of what Jenny has alleged here is a full blown gross sexual assault class A felony in the state of Maine with the statute of limitations for 20 years. That's what she is alleging. Which carries a significant prison sentence for like decades, potentially in prison. And that is my understanding of how I need to evaluate what is being alleged here. I want to make that clear now. If I were then to submit to due process or any something like that in a trial, and I saw something like that, it would significantly change again, my understanding of how the event were to begin. This does not in any way say that she is lying about what then transcribed. Also, we should not take away agency from Platner, who is wasted out of his mind. Five years ago, mind, you know, not 20 years ago, five years ago, absolutely blacked out drunk and then clearly in a position where he has had been in several of the these types of encounters which have been described from Lindsey Fifield to others women or ex girlfriends who have talked to the media. He put himself and had terrible judgment, terrible behavior and put himself in a situation where something like this could happen, which was obviously very traumatizing to Jenny herself in terms of her understanding the Facebook messages about consensually careless. That's why I think this is a media story, because I think that the irresponsibility of not reporting that led to an understanding of how the event transpired, which is not fulsome with the general reality. And maybe it seems like you and I are splitting hairs, but the reason why I think it's really important and when you learn this, it really struck me is it really reminded me of how a lot of the MeToo cases in 2017 and 2018 transpired in which it was very obvious it was purely on the word of one person. You could have contravening evidence of what obviously was a complicated encounter or something where look, there's genuine misunderstanding or a different takeaway and which people's lives got totally ruined. And I do think that in this case, like with Platner, look, it looks like he's on the track to resign. And when he does, from what we know about his finances, if his rich parents don't bail him out, he has no money and he will be branded, let's call it what it is, a rapist for all time. And that is kind of what we're talking about beyond the political implications. But the character of the person, I don't think he has particularly good character personally in terms of the way that he's acted here. But politics is not a character context. Were this really then if it was, it wouldn't be good.

[Sagar Enjeti]

We wouldn't have Trump as president.

[Ryan Grim]

I say all of this only to say that the way that CNN did not follow up that question and Politico did not include that detail that is willful in trying to craft a narrative. That's not what we're supposed to do.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Right.

[Ryan Grim]

That's why. And that's part of why I appreciate the show. We talk back and forth, we add different context, detail, understanding. And for them, by printing it the way they did, I mean as a journalist, I think the ultimate job is to always include as much understanding in an event as possible, possible. Especially one that just something like this, Jenny is alleging a full blown felony punishable by, you know, a decade or plus, or whatever in prison that merits a serious understanding of how we're going to put in all the detail as much as possible as if then we're go to trial. Since they knew the direct implications of their story at the time that they wrote it, they knew exactly the. What it would. How it would unfold.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And what's so interesting is that, like we were saying earlier, credit to Jenny for volunteering this information.

[Ryan Grim]

I totally agree.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Perhaps she thought that maybe Platner still had the text messages, but either way, she.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, she did not hide anything.

[Sagar Enjeti]

She did not hide this at all. It is the media that decided that this was not a relevant detail to share. And like you said, none of what we're saying here is intended to say, oh, well, everything afterwards is justified. No, of course not. The question is, is, is it a relevant detail that should have been shared with readers so that as they are analyzing how they feel about the situation, they can take it all into context? Does it give you any clues into how Graham Platner was interpreting whether or not there was. There was consent, whether or not he was invited over? I don't. Politico affirmatively wrote in its article that he was uninvited.

[Donald Trump]

Right.

[Sagar Enjeti]

You could say he was disinvited by the subsequent text messages. Uninvited is false. Like, it is just flat out false. There was an invitation.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah. And that is the key. And that adds even more to this interview, which. Never thought I would say this. A decent job of questioning here of Mika Pruszynski and Adam Wren, who's one of the orders.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Real quick before we.

[Bibi Netanyahu]

Oh, yeah.

[Sagar Enjeti]

So I asked Jake Tapper if he's aware, if he knew I asked, why didn't you do a follow up on that? But more importantly, did you ask her off camera, did you know that she had said I need my glute massaged in the text message? That that was the thing that he, quote, unquote, mistook as an invitation. He did not respond.

[Ryan Grim]

Okay.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I asked Politico for comment. They are saying that they're working on a response. When that response comes in, we'll put it in the newsletter and we'll put it in the notes underneath here. If it comes in before we finish taping the program, we'll put it up.

[Hoda Kotb]

Hey, I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. Okay. If you know me, you know this. I'm always searching for inspiration, for support, and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets you us uncover all of that together, we're going to have these meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people. Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer, and that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartum depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety.

[Hoda Kotb]

Olympic champ Shawn Johnson revealed revealed why she had no choice but to be a gymnast.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us. We just have to find it.

[Hoda Kotb]

Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

My first guest is Paris Hilton, Shakira, Luke and Yerin Samira y Gracie.

[Ryan Grim]

I'm so excited on the bounc bad

[Sagar Enjeti]

you have surprises, many surprises.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

Welcome to Suite 305 where the group chat comes to life.

[Donald Trump]

What up?

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

You're the only person I know that love loves a yellow Starburst. It's lemonade. This is Sweet 305. Listen to Sweet 305 with Lele Pons as part of my Cultura podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jake Brennan]

I'm Jake Brennan, and on the Disgraceland podcast, I explore the wild lives of rock stars and unbelievable true crime stories from music history. These are the stories you haven't heard, the kind you'll end up telling someone else. Like the time Paul McCartney spent in one of the world's most notorious prisons. Imagine that you're Paul McCartney. It's 1980, you're an ex Beatle, and you're doing time in one of Japan's worst prisons right there alongside Yakuza gangsters. And for a ridiculous charge or the bizarre crime Lady Gaga is accused of, who is the artist Lady Gaga is being accused of doing the unthinkable to after allegedly stealing her music in style to become famous. And what about that time blondie's Debbie Harry escaped a serial killer? The man who had given her that ride she barely escaped from was Ted Bundy. Listen to Disgraceland on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ryan Grim]

Let's get to Mika Brzezinski here talking about or, sorry, pressing Adam Wren, one of the reporters who was on this story. Let's take a listen.

[Hoda Kotb]

What aspects of this story brought it to the level of publishable.

[H]

Yeah, you're correct here, Mika. There. There is no police report in this case. We spent a lot of time talking to Jenn, you know, asking her for corroborating evidence. She shared that she had confided into a number of people, including her therapist, in almost real time. And we reviewed email exchanges between she and her therapist, referring to what she called this sexual assault and her therapist sort of acknowledging that this is. This had happened to her. We talked to people who she confided in in the months after this happened. We asked her why she didn't file a police report. And she described sort of the insular nature of where she lives in her corner of Maine that she shares with Graham Platner. And she debated sort of how to handle this. And we found ultimately the number of cooperating pieces of evidence to. To support her story in a way that we could report it.

[Hoda Kotb]

So what are some of those corroborating pieces of evidence? So you've got conversations with her therapist and people who she confided in any. Any conversations with Graham Platner at the time of it, where she said. Because apparently as part of this story, she says she even confirmed to him that this was not consent. Do you have that. What do you have that actually connects this literally, Graham Plotner, to raping this victim?

[H]

Yeah, she reached out to him the day after via Instagram and essentially told him that she didn't want to hear from again. She told him that morning as well. And, you know, we. We looked at messages that she had sent to others in the months after this happened through.

[Ryan Grim]

But you were able to see those dms.

[H]

She tried to recover those dms. We did not. We were not able to. To review those dms, but she described them to us. We also, long before he was a public, before he was a political candidate, we saw her essentially explain to others that he was, quote, in her words, consensually careless.

[Ryan Grim]

So I do think that that interview is important because, you know, and, you know, cut me off if I'm sharing too much. But when you shared before the story came out, one of the key details where I was like, wow, this is devastating, is you told me the therapist verified her comments and that didn't happen.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Right.

[Ryan Grim]

That wasn't in the story. That's pretty.

[Sagar Enjeti]

That was the room. That was the rumor.

[Ryan Grim]

That was the rumor that was going around was that the therapist could verify that at a time before he ran for office that he. She could verify her allegation. And that's not what happened. And they reviewed emails, you know, between her telling the therapist that it happened in June. In June.

[Sagar Enjeti]

June of this year.

[Ryan Grim]

In June of this year, after she

[Sagar Enjeti]

started working with Chef.

[Ryan Grim]

They did talk to a friend, ex, boyfriend, who backed up her story. So that, you know, that's there. And the Facebook message is there, too. But I don't know. I mean, the therapist detail was kind of important.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And I can read from the political article. So this is about the. This is the Politico describing the therapist. Razico showed Politico recent emails with her therapist. They say recent. My understanding is this was June, like, you know, weeks ago. In which Racicot explained she was talking to the media about her relationship with Platner and the SA R using an abbreviation for in the message. Racicot was not ready to go public. Public and was seeking help corroborating her account. In conversations she was having with reporters on condition of anonymity, her therapist responded that Racicot shouldn't have to speak publicly about a traumatic incident in order to be believed. Without referencing details of any particular incident. The therapist, who Politico agreed not to name at her request, declined to comment when reached on Monday. So if you hear Adam Wren from Politico discussing it, the therapist confirmed that they discussed it.

[Ryan Grim]

That's not what they wrote.

[Sagar Enjeti]

But they should have written that in their article.

[Ryan Grim]

Exactly. So he is saying something which did not appear in their story, which is why I think, again, this is where the rumor mill actually got past what was written. Cause when I read that, and I'm assuming the editors, you know, something like this, you go through with a fine tooth comb because your ass is getting sued if you get a single detail wrong.

[Sagar Enjeti]

So she wrote, basically, do you remember me sharing these details with you? And the therapist wrote back with a general comment on how women should be believed and she should be believed. And she, you know, she should be, you know, applauded for her. That's not confirming. And. But. And they didn't. They don't report it in their article as confirming, but then they say in interviews that they did that, which is, again, people like, we're in an era where people are losing trust in media and. And what are we doing?

[Ryan Grim]

That's why I finally want to do D5. Let's do D5 here and put it up here on the screen. This is from Lindsey Fifield, who you'll recall, she was the conservative activist who originally was one of the people named in the New York Times story. And I actually think it's very worth reading what she says here. She says I actually understand why Democratic leaders didn't take our story seriously when the Times reported them in June, but are taking them seriously now. It was by design. The line most shared from my piece was the claim that Times could quote not corroborate my story. Despite talking to two of my friends, I gave them contact information for five friends they called the two who I clarified not to know about the abuse but they would be able to affirm our relationship, timeline, events, etc. They simply did not call the other three. I also gave the names of all my former roommates who remembered him stalking our row house, which was five row houses down from his and waiting for me to return. I gave them screenshots of messages between these roommates and I discussing it. I gave them the names of other men I dated who might have remembered him following us around the hill, showing up on my stoop where we walked home from days to confront us. I gave them emails to my landlord urgently ending my lease and moving to an apartment across town and diary entries talking about it all time marked. I told them during premarital counseling I had spoken to my ex fiance about the abuse because I had to explain to him why I reacted with terror anytime he lost his temper. They said oh no, we don't need to bother him or my premiere. Besides, I had written about in my diary. As the weeks dragged on, I stopped trying to give them evidence because the amount I'd already given them seemed to overwhelm them and I thought it meant that they had clearly more enough to verify my every claim. My friends might not have known the details, but they affirmed that yes, I had told them he was abusive. Besides, they assured my part in the reporting would be small. I thought my details would only serve to affirm Jenny and the other anonymous woman. Jenny and I having never met or spoken, both shared with these reporters terrifyingly similar details of intimate partner violence, coercive control and cycles of abuse. The third unnamed woman did as well, but tell me again how they could not corroborate. So there are two things that actually happen here is it's very clear they told her she would be a small part of the story. She ends up being, in my opinion, in the flagship part of the story, right? Similarly, she actually did provide them a decent amount of evidence and this is speculation on my part part. If by telling her that she's gonna be a small part of the story, they probably did the same thing to Jenny. And Jenny is her entire reason for coming forward with this allegation now is that she says she was furious at the way the reaction happened to the New York Times story which elevated Lindsey Fifield's allegation and the dismissal generally of her because of her previous role as a conservative activist. And so, so the spiral here is that if the Times had just done its job, if they had reported what she says here. By the way, Jenny also says I told the Times all of this off the record and if they had gotten her to expound on that and get

[Sagar Enjeti]

her on the record and properly get

[Ryan Grim]

her on the record and put all of this in a fulsome story, this could have all been done before the primary and then none of this would be happening in some weird, you know, extra democratic way where he's got to drop out and then they're going to have to put him. This could happen before the primary. Right. The voters would have had the information, new candidates, Troy or whatever could have declared. People would have actually had a chance to vote. And so I think that the two primary villains here, New York Times for the way they handled this and then CNN and Politico, all three of those because they did not present.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And Graham for being a dolphin.

[Ryan Grim]

Well. Oh yeah, right. So you know, sorry, when I say primary villain, I'm talking about the process. I'm not.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Right, right. Yes, I know, I know.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, Graham, I mean again, I said it before in our previous blog. Take it as a lesson, guys. Clean living, clean living will get you a clean life. And if you want to run for office, you shouldn't be acting like this. And that's final thing. I said it yesterday. That's why I think he's loathsome because he told people nothing else is coming. And you were rolling around like this four, five years ago, maybe even 10, 15 years ago. Like Lindsey Fifield said, there could be

[Sagar Enjeti]

more that we didn't talk about.

[Ryan Grim]

There could be more that we didn't talk about. And people stuck their necks out for you. How many millions of dollars did he raise? Millions. People donated their hard earned money to you and you fucked them over, man, you really did. And he's got to live with that, you know, not with just what he did to these women. He betrayed all these supporters trust and

[Sagar Enjeti]

I don't know if he even remembers this text message exchange. And I, I reached out to him for comment, haven't heard back. So I don't even know. And as far as people I've talked to like him, he may not even know about the existence of these text Messages, the gloop thing. Because he was. Seems like he was blacked out. You know, according to Jenny, the next morning, he rolled over and put his arm around her, and she's like, what are you doing? Like, do you not remember what happened last night? And he's know. She's like. And she's like, get out.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

Yeah.

[Ryan Grim]

And. And, yeah. I mean, his. His handling of all of it is awful. He never responded, allegedly. You know, according to her, he never responded to her message being like, dude, you raped.

[Sagar Enjeti]

That was. And that was a thing.

[Ryan Grim]

Come on.

[Sagar Enjeti]

That was a thing that he's knocked for over and over, is ghosting, like, ghost these women.

[Ryan Grim]

He's drunk, you know, totally out of control, manic depressive, which.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And he acknowledges that even five years ago, he. That was. And he was gradually.

[Ryan Grim]

And that's my final thing where people are like, how could you have known and have known this? I'm not blaming you or. Or anybody, but, you know, the tattoo, the adrenaline junkie behavior, the black water and all of that. It's a type. It's an archetype, which anybody who's ever interacted with people in the military, they know. They know. Well, some people liked him for that, and I understand that. But it does come with a significant downside for anybody who, you know, is. Is like this. And then so, you know, look, if you want to be a public servant, part of that is you need. You not only have to withstand scrutiny, but you need good character. You need good judgment. And I don't think I would have said that five years ago. I don't think the character in judgment or, sorry, character especially, was all that, was all that important to judgment. But I've actually changed my opinion quite

[Bibi Netanyahu]

a bit on that.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And as Bom Donnie showed, if you're gonna take on the man, oh, man,

[Ryan Grim]

you gotta be squeaky clean completely. No skeletons or any of that in the closet. Cause you're right. If you're the man again, you can have plenty of skeletons in there. They don't care. But if you're not, you know, look, and that's not an endorsement of the way that the situation is. It is kind of unfair, considering how many disgusting cretins are here in Washington probably who have done the exact same thing.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Class cannot count in such behavior.

[Ryan Grim]

Great point.

[Hoda Kotb]

Joy is essential, and it's also elusive. But now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, how to Kotbi if you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid, uplifting and moving on air chats. Open your free iHeartRadio app search Joy 101 and listen now. Joy 101 with Hoda Kotfi is presented by CBS.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

My first guest is Paris Hilton. Shakira, Luke and Yerim have surprises. Many surprises. Welcome to the Sweet 305 podcast where the goob check comes to life.

[Hoda Kotb]

What up?

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

You're the only person I know that loves a yellow Starburst. It's lemonade. This is Sweet305. Here, oversharing is encouraged. Listen to Sweet305 with Lele Pons on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jake Brennan]

I'm Jake Brennan and on the Disgraceland podcast I explore the wild lies of rock stars and unbelievable true crime stories. Stories from music history. These are the stories you haven't heard, the kind you'll end up telling someone else. Like the time Paul McCartney spent in a notorious prison. Or the bizarre crime Lady Gaga is accused of. Or that time Blondie's Debbie Harry escaped Ted Bundy. Listen to Disgraceland on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Host (possibly Jake or a generic host)]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.