Brief: Graham Platner’s QAnon Moment

Summary

Conspirituality – Brief: Graham Platner’s QAnon Moment

Date: July 18, 2026
Hosts: Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker

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Episode Overview

In this Conspirituality Brief, Derek Beres and Julian Walker dissect the implosion of progressive Senate candidate Graham Platner, following his campaign suspension amidst allegations and scandals ranging from abusive behavior to evidence of Nazi sympathies. The hosts draw illuminating parallels between Platner’s rhetoric and conspiracy thinking, particularly the kind of "deep state" paranoia fueling QAnon, while exploring broader issues of vetting, political dynamics on the left, and the contradictions plaguing the progressive movement. The episode also contrasts the handling of Platner with the recent harassment of California State Senator Scott Wiener, showing how supposedly left-wing purity tests and weaponized conspiracy rhetoric often produce warped priorities and dangerous scapegoating.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Graham Platner’s Campaign Suspension: Conspiracy Rhetoric in the Spotlight

• [01:03] Graham Platner’s Farewell Video:
  Platner announces he's suspending his run for Maine’s Senate seat, claiming to be targeted by "entrenched political systems" and "corporate media" conspiring to destroy him.

  “We went toe to toe with one of the most entrenched political systems in the history of the world. And we won… And they are not going to let us have it. Not if it’s me.” – Graham Platner ([01:39])

• [02:31] Host Analysis:
  Derek Beres and Julian Walker contextualize Platner’s victim narrative as a classic "conspirituality" move: deflecting responsibility by invoking vast, shadowy forces.

  “It’s really something to hear that thread of conspiracy reasoning... But then it’s the corporate media that found a way to take me down.” – Julian Walker ([03:28])

• [04:16] On Victim Narratives and Weaponized Conspiracy:
  Both hosts note the prevalence of “self-victimy” language, likening it to QAnon tactics—alleging deep-state sabotage as a way to distract from very real misconduct (including sex abuse charges and Nazi tattoos).

  “What really jumped out at me...was how many people on social media [were] comparing this situation to QAnon-level conspiracy thinking. It was the Deep State verbiage in that suspension video.” – Derek Beres ([04:16])

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2. Graham Platner As a Candidate: Populism, Problematic History, and Poor Vetting

• [07:16] Platner’s Appeal and Endorsements:
  Julian Walker details Platner’s outsider populist persona, his progressive credentials, and top-tier endorsements (Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, Hassan Piker).

  “[He] seemed almost made to order for...how to win back white working-class voters with a left-leaning populist message.” – Julian Walker ([07:16])

• [08:35] Hasan Piker’s Endorsement and Doubts:
  Piker admits to being initially skeptical due to Platner’s Blackwater background and problematic Reddit posts, but at first decides “he might be a good dude.” ([08:35])

• [10:20] The Scandals Multiply:
  The hosts list red flags: Nazi tattoo, misogynistic and racist Reddit posts, allegations of abuse from former girlfriends, and inappropriate messages.

  “He said women should take some responsibility [for sexual assault] by not drinking excessively... He expressed support for Hamas’s military tactics...and he appeared to mock a teenage girl’s failed suicide attempt.” – Derek Beres ([10:20])

• [12:27] Left-Wing Excuses & Racial Blind Spots:
  Julian and Derek highlight how many pundits, especially white leftists, tried to rationalize Platner’s behavior as “relatable everyman redemption,” ignoring warnings and pushback from black and Jewish communities.

  “Racism can be overlooked if other policies are deemed progressive, even in the party where black people constitute the base.” – Nicole Hannah Jones (quoted by Julian Walker, [13:01])

• [14:15] “Defanging the White Left”:
  A segment criticizing the tendency among some white leftists to blame black politics for their own failures, referencing a viral HuffPost story and troubling comments from progressive organizers.

  “It really defangs the white left and puts us in impossible positions.” – William Lawrence (quoted, [14:15])

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3. The Vetting Catastrophe: Consultants, Nepotism & Conspiratorial Irony

• [16:33] The Lax Vetting Process:
  Wall Street Journal’s investigation reveals Platner was selected with almost no scrutiny—endorsed after a quick check of his donations and "working man" image.

  “We paid a nice firm a whole chunk of money and got some stuff back. Some of what you’ve seen on the news, we got back. Other stuff we didn’t.” – Daniel Moraf ([18:51])

• [19:02] Even the Consultants Have Conspiracy Baggage:
  Daniel Moraf, Platner’s architect, previously denied that hurricanes are real (“The government wants you to believe…”).

• [20:59] Amanda Nelson Calls Out Consultant Culture:
  Social commentator Amanda Nelson lambasts the expedited (three-day) vetting, the arrogance of “disruptor” men, and how this laziness produces public disasters.

  “They didn’t even talk to Graham Platner. They missed his Reddit posts... And every woman on earth, especially if you’ve ever worked in tech, knows this story, right? Some guy who parachutes into a process that we know works… Graham Platner is trash. He’s been trash. He stays trash. He’s trash now, today, tomorrow and forever.” – Amanda Nelson ([20:59])

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4. AIPAC Obsession, Foreign Influence & Progressive Hypocrisy

• [22:51] Blowing AIPAC Out of Proportion:
  Julian and Derek note the absurdity of anti-AIPAC single-mindedness on the left, especially when other lobbies (Big Pharma, Qatar) spend far more influencing US politics.

  “You may dislike AIPAC for a bunch of different ideological reasons, but this, blowing out of proportion... as if they are the... gorilla in the room... is really off.” – Julian Walker ([22:51])

• [23:57] “Dangerous Mono Focus”:
  Derek emphasizes a fixation on a single lobby as blinding, especially given the many other bigger and more complex influences at play.

  “There is so much other foreign money coming in that... skews our understanding of international and domestic politics. And I think that's really dangerous.” – Derek Beres ([23:57])

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5. DSA’s Demographic Problems & Identity Contradictions

• [24:54] DSA Not as Working Class or Diverse as It Claims:
  Platner is not DSA, but his strategists are. Data: 85% DSA membership is white, only 4% blue collar, highlighting a disconnect between rhetoric (“for the working class!”) and reality.

  “If that’s true, and your party is only 4% working class, a lot of people are going to rightfully call out that issue.” – Derek Beres ([29:28])

• Pew Study: Progressive Left Just 6% of Population:
  Julian discusses Pew’s “Beyond Red & Blue”—progressives are a sliver of the electorate, and overwhelmingly white/college educated; even leftist voices are often out of step with the working-class communities they claim to represent.

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6. The Scott Wiener Contrast: Harassment, Smears & Purity Tests

• [30:40] Who Is Scott Wiener?:
  Longtime San Francisco LGBT advocate and state senator, running for Congress, targeted by left-wing protesters over Gaza/Israel stance.

• [31:50–32:56] Targeted for Being Jewish, Not Just for Policy:
  Wiener’s events are disrupted, he’s harassed in public, and accused of having “Zionist handlers” and a “tainted bloodline.”

  “He’s also a gay man who… openly shared, ‘Hey, I’m on [PrEP] as a way of reducing stigma’… [But] he was surrounded, harassed, insulted, and essentially chased out… because of his stance on Israel and Gaza.” – Julian Walker ([31:50–32:35])

• [34:08] Establishment Dems and Jewish Groups Condemn Harassment:
  After harassment at Pride and a bar, establishment Democrats call out the intimidation as antisemitic, while some activists, including Hasan Piker, say Wiener “deserved it” and label him a “homo fascist.”

• [35:14] Smear Tactics Dilute Meaning of Fascism:
  Derek points out that Weiner is a deeply progressive legislator with no record of fascist tendencies, yet online commentary now uses harsh slurs for political disagreements.

  “You’re going to just basically dilute the word to being meaningless if you’re going to call... everyone a fascist just because they’re Jewish or because they support Israel.” – Derek Beres ([36:07])

• [38:39] Unpacking the Double Standard:
  While Platner was rationalized and protected until no longer possible, Wiener—who actually evolved on Gaza policy—was relentlessly attacked for not moving far or fast enough.

  “Graham Platner gets defended, protected, and his actions get rationalized... But Scott Wiener gets attacked, vilified, harassed, intimidated, and unfairly smeared... Those activists... should really have been carrying him around on their shoulders as an example of someone who came around to their points of view.” – Julian Walker ([38:39])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Graham Platner:
  “We did it the right way. We engaged in electoral politics. We motivated people. We banded together… And they are not going to let us have it. Not if it’s me.” ([01:39])

• Julian Walker:
  “You are using conspiracy theory reasoning when you assert a conspiracy without any real evidence that that's the reason for the thing that you're trying to explain it by.” ([05:47])

• Nicole Hannah Jones (via Julian Walker):
  “Racism can be overlooked if other policies are deemed progressive, even in the party where black people constitute the base... What do black people know about American electoral politics, right?” ([13:01])

• Amanda Nelson:
  “Men who think they’re being disruptors are actually just screwing over the rest of the country because they’re lazy. Graham Platner is trash... He’s trash now, today, tomorrow and forever.” ([20:59])

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Important Timestamps

• 01:03 – Platner’s suspension video and immediate analysis
• 03:28–05:47 – Deconstruction of Platner’s conspiracy/victim narrative
• 07:16 – Platner’s image, campaign, and endorsements unpacked
• 08:35–10:20 – Hasan Piker’s shifting support; list of Platner’s scandals
• 13:01–14:41 – Black thinkers’ and journalists’ critiques of progressive racial blindness
• 16:33–19:55 – Wall Street Journal vetting exposé; consultant's hurricane denial
• 20:59–22:18 – Amanda Nelson’s scathing critique of the consultant-driven vetting failure
• 24:54–29:28 – DSA’s demographic and class contradictions; Pew study context
• 30:40–37:36 – Scott Wiener story, from Pride harassment to purity testing and online hate
• 38:39 – Final contrast: why Platner was protected and Wiener was scapegoated

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Tone & Style

The hosts maintain their trademark blend of journalistic skepticism, wry humor, indignation at bad faith arguments, and a deep commitment to equity and good process. Their language is direct, sometimes biting, but always anchored in research, political history, and a commitment to cutting through both right- and left-wing misinformation. They foreground the dangers of reflexive conspiracy thinking, the failures of poor vetting, and the perils of performative progressivism.

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Conclusion

This episode is a trenchant examination of how left-wing circles can, through ad hoc shortcuts, weak vetting, and groupthink, end up enabling deeply flawed candidates while simultaneously eating their own over issues of dogmatic purity and overblown identity politics. Platner’s implosion and Wiener’s persecution are presented not as isolated failures, but as chapters in an ongoing story about the vulnerabilities of online-driven, influencer-boosted politics in an age of heightened conspiracy and identity warfare.

Listeners are left with urgent questions for progressive movements: How do you balance idealism with accountability? What happens when rhetoric outpaces reality? And who gets left behind—or unfairly targeted—in the name of ideological purity?

Transcript

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[Graham Platner]

I just want you to think about, like, what you would do as a regular person in a position where a much larger world, large forces were working against you personally to accuse you of the worst thing that a person could do. And it was not remotely true. I learned about this through press inquiries. With no time to truly respond, no time for investigations before a corporate media system and the political establishment got to act as judge, jury and executioner. I only have until July 13th until I am officially the nominee. This was the last week to try to get me off of the ballot, and that's why this is occurring. We went toe to toe with one of the most entrenched political systems in the history of the world. And we won. We did it the right way. We built a campaign. We engaged in electoral politics. We motivated people. We banded together. We did it the way that we were told. We are supposed to make change. And we won. And they are not going to let us have it. Not if it's me.

[Derek Barris]

That's a selection of moments From Graham Platner's 11 minute video in which he announced he's suspending his campaign for running for Senator from Maine. It features all the hallmarks of the type of conspiracy thinking we've covered on this podcast for years. But I want to point out one important fact before we move on. Progressive candidates have been doing quite well in elections this year, despite tons of pushback from certain media outlets, the right and many Democrats. Zoran Mamdani is mayor of New York City. Abdul Al Said is certainly getting a lot of criticism from all angles in his bid for Senator of Michigan, but I haven't heard any sort of claims of sexual abuse. So the selective use of our movement, which Platner seems to be making, feels a bit opportunistic, which we're going to unpack in this episode.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah, perhaps the defining difference between him and those other two candidates is that there are actually things in his past that can be used against him. So it's like, dude, yeah, that's an interesting selection of poor me kind of moments in that speech. It's really something to hear that thread of conspiracy reasoning that you're flagging. In a way, I think that's part of what you get when you choose someone who looks like he could be an everyman populist hero. He's going to say things in a moment like this along lines of, it's one of the most entrenched political systems in the history of the world and we beat it the right way, the way they told us we were supposed to, to make change. But then it's the corporate media that found a way to take me down. Right.

[Podcast Guest/Commentator]

Yeah.

[Derek Barris]

Many people have commented that it's a very self victimy video that he made, and it truly was. He took absolutely no responsibility and it seems to be a hallmark of his campaign overall. What really jumped out at me during this entire Platinum ordeal though, was how many people saw on social media comparing this situation to QAnon level conspiracy thinking. Something that hit home even more with Platners. It was the Deep State verbiage in that suspension video. And it's. It's not a perfect analogy. To be clear, QAnon was specific to global sex trafficking. The idea that these elites were all partaking in it outside of the Epstein files. This is pre Epstein, even though that had been happening for a long time. The underlying premise, though, is that a group of Deep State acts actors are actually responsible for the political machinations we're experiencing. And that has a familiar ring. And it's not that there aren't corporate actors influencing politics. We know how deeply embedded Elon Musk has been in the US Government. And recent reporting on Peter Thiel's secretive club drives this point home. But for Platner to assume those actors targeted him shows just how easy it is to weaponize such a sentiment when you want to distract from sex abuse charges and from Reddit posts and from a Nazi tattoo.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah, as always, we're not saying there are no conspiracies. We're saying you are using conspiracy theory reasoning when you assert a conspiracy without any real evidence that that's the reason for the thing that you're trying to explain it by and the self awareness sort of miscalc of how much to blame others in a moment like that, when you're bowing out. That's pretty stunning.

[Derek Barris]

Today we're going to look at Platner's campaign and by contrast, another recent incident, two instances of public harassment against Scott Weiner, the progressive state senator from California who recently won a primary to try to replace Nancy Pelosi, and how all of this intersects with the type of political rhetoric we're enduring this political cycle. As always, you're listening to Conspiracy Spirituality, where we investigate the intersections of conspiracy theories and spiritual influence to uncover cults, pseudoscience and authoritarian extremism. I'm Derek Barris.

[Julian Walker]

I'm Julian Walker.

[Derek Barris]

You can find us on Instagram and threads at Conspirituality Pod as well as individually on Blue Sky. And you can access all of our episodes ad free, plus our Monday bonus episodes on [e-mail] conspirituality. You can also access our Monday bonus episodes via Apple subscription. As independent media creators, we really appreciate your support.

[Julian Walker]

So look, Derek, I mean, I think the thing that has to be said is that Platner is talented, right? He got a lot of people excited about his candidacy, about his story. The way he presented himself for a Democratic party struggling against the stereotype of being inauthentic and boring and fake and being like these careful establishment bureaucrats, this white guy seemed almost made to order for, let's face it, how to win back white working class voters with a left leaning populist message. And to that end, he ran a really progressive campaign. He focused on universal health care, labor protections, housing affordability and aggressive anti corruption reforms. You know, tax the rich, protect the environment, and of course, let's get out of these endless foreign wars and stop sending money and bombs to Israel. His most high profile endorsements came from Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and then other senators like Ed Markey from Massachusetts and Ruben Gallego from Arizona were also on board along with California Rep. Rohana. So you know, he got a lot of people thinking he was the next big thing. Hugely popular leftist millennial social media streamer and budding political kingmaker Hassan Piker was also all in for a while. He had this to say about eight months ago.

[Hasan Piker]

The thing that I want about Graham Platner is that his previous work for Blackwater obviously made me a little bit skeptical, not even a little bit very skeptical of his background. But I'm going To be honest with you, some of the stuff that I saw from him at Peak woke 2020. Some of the shit that he was saying back then kind of made me feel like he might be a good dude. The highlights here are main Senate hopeful Grand planner once called himself a communist, dismissed all police's and said rural white Americans actually are racist and stupid according to deleted social media posts reviewed by CNSK File My fucking goat. Listen 2018 Blackwater stint, numerous f ing tours. Very suspicious, but this very good. I am not defending his career in the military, I am not defending him as a defense contractor. But this, this I do defend.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah, I'm not defending him but I'm going to let all of that stuff slide which is so to his political orientation because of some of the Reddit activity which actually a lot of people were flagging as problematic for Hasan. It's not a bug, it's a feature. And like most who stood by Platner through the earlier wave of controversies, Piker then would withdraw his endorsement after the recent allegations in the last last ten days or so. This included the early stuff, the reveal of the Totenkopf nasty tattoo, the Reddit posts that you're about to get into Derek as well as three former girlfriend having come forward saying he was toxic, threatening and demeaning and one of those actually saying he was physically abusive and then also the exposure of him sexting other women during his marriage. So all of that was like, oh you know, boys will be boys.

[Derek Barris]

Yeah, there were, there were many, many flags and you ran down some of the politicians and pundits. I believe Pod Save America was also all in. I believe the Bulwark was also in and some have been critical. Roana came out very early and said, you know, we got to get him out of here. You know, other people tried to defend. I've seen a ton of pushback from black and Jewish thinkers on social media and that goes for as long as his he's been in the race. To be clear, that's not some new conversion that happened. The consistent theme revolved around a certain wariness about this type of candidate. It's like here we go again. We're going to overlook that for the angry white man. And just to put it into a little bit more perspective, last October CNN uncovered around 2,000 Reddit posts that Platner wrote between 2009 and 2021. And here are some of the topics. Many rural, rural white Americans are actually racist and unintelligent. Platner used variations of a slur for intellectually disabled people. At least 18 times he made dismissive comments about sexual assault in the military. He said women should take some responsibility for being sexually assaulted by not drinking excessively so they won't be raped. That's, that's always a classic from the manosphere. He expressed support for Hamas's military tactics. He appeared to mock a teenage girl's failed suicide attempt that was uncovered just in June. So that's a newer one. He said he was around on the Internet and then he leaned on trauma that he experienced in Iran and Afghanistan. Now, overall, I agree with all of the pushback. And I'm not just talking about recently. I'm talking about going back. Nazi tats and racist ableist misogynistic shit posts cannot be okay for a white dude in a nation that crucified a black man for wearing a tan suit.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah, and I think, you know, along the same lines of what I've been saying, it's important to point out that many pundits on the left then waved this away. And, and I think some of the calculation was like, o, oh, this, this could play as a relatable everyman redemption story.

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[Julian Walker]

He's come around. Or, or maybe these are just right wing attempts to smear him unfairly because he's such a charismatic and, and progressive candidate.

[Podcast Guest/Commentator]

Yeah.

[Derek Barris]

So here's a little bit of the more recent pushback. Here's a quote from Nicole Hannah Jones, who is the creator of the 1619 project.

[Julian Walker]

Platner's late fall is just another example of the widespread acceptance of racism across the political spectrum. Racism can be overlooked if other policies are deemed progressive, even in the party where black people constitute the base. Had racism been disqualifying, the Democratic Party would not be in this position four months before the election. But I digress. What do black people know about American electoral politics? Right.

[Podcast Guest/Commentator]

Yeah, right.

[Derek Barris]

Nothing. They know nothing. Which of course is an argument that some white leftists have been making. A lot of the other arguments I'm reading are really straightforward. Black people know a hell of a lot about politics because their survival depends on it. They're rightfully suspicious of populist white politicians who ignore race when committed to the idea that all the problems in the world are really class problems, which is a topic I discussed recently on my Conspirituality Book Club episode on Eddie Glaude Jr's book America usa. A few days after that dropped, the Huffington Post dug up a 2024 podcast where sunrise Movement co founder William Lawrence said the following.

[Julian Walker]

The extent to which the older generation of black political leadership are such a pillar frankly for establishment capitalist imperialist American power through their role as this kind of traditionalist establishment is to pillar of the Democratic party. It's a big problem. It's a big problem for left politics in this country and it gets us every single time. It really defang the white left and puts us in impossible positions.

[Derek Barris]

Really defangs the white left. I mean that HuffPo, they, that was what they used in their headline. It's just such a stunning term but not really surprising. And, and some leftists immediately rushed out saying it was taken out of context. Just like critics who say that punching left at Hassan Piker is unfair. Now Lawrence was talking to an actual black man is their argument. Curie, Peterson Smith and they discussing black liberation on the episode. So see, it's not racist to say old black people are stealing the white left's juice. There was a black man on the podcast.

[Hasan Piker]

Yeah.

[Julian Walker]

That's a relief. That's a relief.

[Derek Barris]

The overwhelming criticism I've seen is about a part of the left's mono focus on Israel. Many of the thinkers I follow agree that the genocide is a big fucking problem and needs to end. But the lack of focus on domestic issues like the gutting of the Voting Rights act recently should also be something the left is screaming about daily. But it's not happening. Instead, activists are sharing posts by the notoriously unreliable APAC tracker, wagging fingers at any politician or candidate that's candidates that's taken, any money that's touched any Jewish organizations. Lawyer and political commentator Elizabeth Booker Houston frames this well.

[Julian Walker]

Why are people discussing AIPAC as a metric for selecting a Democratic candidate in Maine? AIPAC is already funding Republican Susan Collins. They didn't even fund Janet Mills. They didn't fund Platner either. Both of those candidates ended up being terrible for different reasons. AIPAC may be a problem in other Democratic races, but it's not a factor in this one. This reductive approach is how we got Platner in the first place.

[Derek Barris]

Yeah, there's a lot of reductive approaches that we know we really need to be discussing because it is the wedge. And we'll get back to this in a few minutes when discussing Scott Weiner. But we have to turn to the question of Platner's vetting. He was pitched as a working class hero that rose from the underbelly of Maine to become a political champion. The story was always in question, though a lot more about his rise has come to light in recent weeks. On June 7, the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled these people handpicked Graham Platner. He's now Democrats biggest risk. It was. I mean, the Wall Street Journal is very conservative to be clear. So it makes sense that a lot of people on the left missed it or just rolled their eyes. I admit I do so when they publish these near daily op EDS about Zoram Mumdani being the devil. That said, the Journal is also a really credible and strong investigative outlet. And in this piece, Aaron Zittner traveled to Maine to talk to the group of independent consultants who chose Platner and elevated him in this race. And I should note the third advisor is not interviewed here. His name is Morris Katz. He is one of Mamdani's top advisors today. And recently people, a lot of people called for him being kicked out. But the New York City mayor said he's sticking around even after the Platner implosion. Let's listen to part of the talk with the other two though. And their names are Daniel Moraf and Leon Fan.

[Podcast Guest/Commentator]

Well, so I mean we went through thousands and thousands of prospects. We, you know, through a number of means, you know, assessed just a huge amount of people. Then, you know, Liam pulled up this video of this guy with an oyster farm.

[Graham Platner]

My name is Graham Platner and I live in Sullivan, Maine. The owner of Frenchman Bay Oyster company.

[Podcast Guest/Commentator]

And then she pulled up his FEC history and saw, you know, the money he'd given to Bernie Sanders and you know, some other people. That was enough information to know that we had the best prospect that we'd maybe ever seen at this point.

[Julian Walker]

You hadn't vetted Graham Platner. You hadn't done a full scrub of who he is. How did you go about vetting him and why did you?

[Podcast Guest/Commentator]

We paid. Yeah, we paid a. We paid a nice firm a whole chunk of money and got some stuff back. Some of what you've seen on the news, we got back. Other stuff we didn't.

[Derek Barris]

Now Julian, we both saw this came out after we worked on this script. It just came out recently. But someone dug up Daniel Moraf, a video from when he was in college when a hurricane was about to hit. And him saying hurricanes aren't real.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah, the media wants you to believe that a hurricane is coming. The government wants you to believe.

[Derek Barris]

The government wants you to believe. So, so this isn't like an isolated incident and this dude has risen to being, you know, an advisor for serious politicians. The hurricanes are a real guy.

[Carvana Customer]

Yeah.

[Julian Walker]

And the same lack of self awareness I was commenting on with Platner is evident here where these two are just giggling about the fact that their vetting process was so flimsy. And I feel terrible for them because these clips have gone viral. And I think this guy is probably taking, you know, a huge amount of bullying and mocking because of his odd kind of speech pattern as well.

[Derek Barris]

He has this vocal fry and I've seen a lot of. On that. I, I wouldn't personally focus on that. I would focus on saying hurricanes aren't real. And I would focus on someone who, who, you know, just appears to have vetted a candidate because they donated to Bernie Sanders and because he has this deep bass voice and he's, you know, he just seems like a working man, even though he comes from a privileged upbringing. How many times are we going to see that on. In these leftist spaces where they. They just look overlook so much because the person says the right words. And I mean, this whole thing. What a cont. Normal, deep state secret society behind the scenes, drinking whiskey and smoking cigars, choosing candidates conspiracies that we're accustomed to. Frankly, I. I never realized though the truth could be so dumb.

[Podcast Guest/Commentator]

Yeah.

[Derek Barris]

Now here's amateur historian and political content creator and Amanda Nelson. She's one of my favorite social media followers. She. She doesn't mince words. She's offering her take on these consultants that we just played their performance.

[Meta Glasses Advertiser]

I'm not saying all of this about Graham Plat. It's like a smear campaign from the Republicans. This was our fault. Graham Platner is a piece of shit. He was not vetted. He was put into this race by a consultant who absolutely skipped the vetting process. Vetting a candidate takes weeks and a lot of money. A lot of money. They talk to everyone that candidate has ever known, especially when you're at the level like the Senate. The consultant who put Graham Platner in this race, Grace, did an expedited vetting process that took three days. They didn't even talk to Graham Platner. They missed his Reddit posts. They missed all the text messages that he sent to women who were not his wife. They missed his abusive relationships from his past. They missed that he sexually assaulted someone. And every woman on earth, especially if you've ever worked in tech, knows this story, right? Some guy who parachutes into a process that we know works and that is probably necessary theory to disrupt it because he's so much smarter. How many times have men who think they're being disruptors are actually just screwing over the rest of the country because they're lazy. Graham Platner is trash. He's been trash. He stays trash. He's trash now, today, tomorrow and forever.

[Julian Walker]

I really enjoy her as well. And she pulled zero punches.

[Derek Barris]

Before we move on to talk about the politics, I just want to, you know, I don't want to overlook what she says about men and women in meetings because there's research on this where women suggest ideas and then the boss, or even not a boss, a subordinate man will then repeat it and he's given the credit. Like this is a deeply researched workplace, you know, repeating factor that happens over and over again. And, and I would, I would say she's spot on with that observation in this circumstance.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah, I mean, you know, a little bit ago we were, we were talking about APAC as well and I wanted to just, just add this in here, which is that there's a hyper focus on AIPAC at the moment in terms of this particular sector of the left that we're talking about. And if you look up the figures, AIPAC spends somewhere between 3 and 5 million a year. And it's coming from inside the U.S. it is an American lobbying organization. Qatar spends somewhere between three and six times that debt coming from the outside in lobbying. And they spend like a billion dollars a year on universities. They are the single biggest donor in the world to our university system. So I mean, you may dislike AIPAC for a bunch of different ideological reasons, but this, this blowing out of proportion as if they are the, you know, 300 pound gorilla or 900 pound gorilla in the room that's really controlling everything. Especially is, it's, it's really off.

[Derek Barris]

I think it's fair to criticize any lobby. My personal position is I think lobbies should just be out of D.C. i agree. The way that money influences politics. The biggest lobby in D.C. is something I talk about often. I talked about it on my most recent bonus on Monday. It's the pharmaceutical lobby. I absolutely want it out. RK Jr said he wanted it out, but he's made no moves actually doing that. And, and I just think it's fair, I think it's fair to criticize. But what we're talking about is this mono focus on this one lobby as if it's deciding all of us politics because there is a part of the left that's doing that right now. And as you just highlighted, there is so much other foreign money coming in that's influencing not just elections, but our perception of other countries that just completely skews our understanding of international and Domestic politics. And I think that's really dangerous. Dangerous.

[Julian Walker]

Yep. All right, so let's talk a little bit about the dsa. It's important to note that Graham Platner is not a DSA member, but his chief strategist, Daniel Maroff, who we've, we've heard from a little bit ago regarding his questionable vetting process. He's a former organizer and leader within the dsa. He's worked on campaigns for people like PA Rep. Summer Lee. And also another former DSA member who aligns with fellow Reps. Ocasio Cortez and Ilhan Omer, as well as Senate candidate Dan Osborne, who's a prominent former labor union leader now, as it turns out, more was actually fired from the Summer Lee campaign in 2022 over his own sexual harassment complaints. And then he was fired from Osborne's campaign last week over the Platner scandal. And as you mentioned, Derek, Morris Katz, who, through his Fight agency, that's the name of it, Fight F I G H T All caps, actually works in partnership with Moraf, as you pointed out. And, and he's a top advisor to Zoran Mamdani. Moraf is also well known for his work, actually. Sorry. Morris Katz is also well known for his work on the Platner and John Federman campaigns. Another one that kind of went sideways.

[Derek Barris]

I've seen that comparison since Platner got in from the black thinkers I follow. It's like, this is another Fetterman. This is, you're going to see the same thing if he's elected. So they were, they were calling out that for a long time. So that parall parallel right there makes a lot of sense.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah. The DSA connection is interesting in the context, I think, of what made us want to explore this topic, Derek, because you've been pointing out how a lot of black voices on the left have expressed frustration with how low the bar seems to be for white dudes. I've also been tracking a related phenomenon for a while, per the really excellent Deep Long Term Political Survey project from Pew Research, which is called Beyond Red and Blue. And it really seeks to get into the nuances of what they identify as nine segments of the American political spectrum, hence beyond red and blue. It's like there's actually a lot of different positions here. One finding there is that the progressive left, who I count myself among, and I know you do too, actually makes up just 6% of the population, roughly, which stunned me the first time I saw that. I thought it'd be much bigger. But in contrast to its agenda. So the progressive agenda around issues like racial justice and racial equity. This group actually turns out to be overwhelmingly white and college educated. In fact, the only group more white than progressives in these Pew findings is the most far right group, which they call the faith and flag conservatives. This is a huge issue for the Democratic Party because the progressive voices that are gaining more traction, even if some of them are people of color, are still significantly to the left of the black and Latino folks, as well as working class whites that they claim to be representing and advocating for, who over the last three general elections, have increasingly each time, turned toward Trump. Now, this is reflected in DSA membership as well. The party that represents the interests of the working class, that behind closed doors, as we've seen from various pieces of media, uses rhetoric of class warfare and revolutions seizing the means of production. Zoran Mamdani actually said in one of those zoom calls, and that stands most strongly for social justice does, does have these charismatic candidates of color. But its membership is also overwhelmingly white and moneyed. The most recent data, which is from their 2021 Member Survey Executive Report, shows that their membership is 85% white. And, and that's gone down over the years. It used to be closer to in the 90s. It's 5% Asian, 4% black, and 2% Middle Eastern. And the professions that members are involved in are listed as, as just 4% blue collar, but 10% teacher, scholar, or academic, 13% white collar, 9% students. And the largest group, it's 15% who are unemployed, disabled, or retired. So I sort of read that as, you know, people who have some time on their hands who want to get involved in politics and maybe don't have to worry as much about working. One of the first things about Mamdani's primary victory back when that happened, Derek, that you noticed as a former New Yorker, was how these demographics also mapped out in terms of who was voting for him. Right.

[Derek Barris]

I was very interested in that. So I looked at the very granular map and a lot of working class neighborhoods went for Cuomo, and some went for Mamdani for sure. But predominantly Manhattan went for Mamdani. And in the outer boroughs, you had, people were going for Cuomo predominantly. And it's, it is something. And I've talked to good faith people further left of me who are more involved in DSA politics who say, yeah, that we know this is a problem, but I, I do think you have to step back and question if your platform is predominantly appealing to white educated people, which I Am I admit that. You know what, what are you missing here about the working class and how do you rectify it? And if you're going to say, I mean, the new DSA platform just came out this week and it is just front and center, it's a big fist as a graphic, and it says, we are for the working class. If that's tr. Your party is only 4% working class, a lot of people are going to rightfully call out that, that issue, and you have to be ready to address it and to, to reach out and make amends and to try to fix it.

[Julian Walker]

Yeah, it's, it's a tricky position to be in. So I want to contrast what we've been talking about by way of closing here with Graham Platner. I want to contrast that with the other big story from, like, the last couple weeks that you and I both noticed, which was Scott Weiner. And this is a guy who's been in San Francisco politics since 2010, when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of supervisors. In 2016, he was elected to the California State Senate. He's currently running for Congress. And back in 2024, pro Palestine protesters disrupted a kids Halloween pumpkin carving event that he was hosting. And afterwards, in public statements about this, he reiterated that he supported the two state solutions solution, which is something that's, that's very sort of out of vogue, especially on the left. And he complained that he was being targeted because he was Jewish. Like, this doesn't happen to other politicians who have a similar position on Israel in, like, local San Francisco politics. Now, he's also a gay man who has shared his use of PrEP, which is that pre exposure drug that reduces HIV risk. So he's openly shared, hey, I'm on this as a way of reducing stigma as part of his activism and politics in the, in the part of the country he's in. He's been very active in LGBTQ circles. He's participated in lots of Pride rallies and so on this past June 26, he attended the annual San Francisco Trans March. This is something he's done for the last 22 years. But when he arrived, he was surrounded, harassed, insulted, and essentially chased out of Dolores park by the activists who were telling him he wasn't welcome because of his stance on Israel and Gaza. And they berated him, saying that he has Zionist handlers. He later alleged that one of those same activists also previously stalked him in an airport and made comments about him having a tainted bloodline.

[Derek Barris]

I saw some commenters, too, when he posted about Being at the Trans March, saying, you were just doing that to distract us. And again, he's been at every single one since the first one in 2004. And I just. I really wish people would do the basic level of research before just shooting their mouth off on social media, but I know, I know I ask a lot.

[Julian Walker]

Now, the transmarch incident that I just described, which. Which included people really getting in his face, and I think one guy even, like, you know, physically making contact with him. That followed something that had happened just two days before, where Weiner and his staff were aggressively cornered, literally, like, pushed up against the wall, you can see in the videos, by a man who berated them and demanded that they say, free Palestine. And they were in this Mission District bar to. To watch the World cup and just sort of dealing with this guy, aggressive towards them. And videos of both this and the transmarch event circulated widely on social media. And this was all in the wake of Weiner having won his primary in early June to run for Congress. As you mentioned, Derek, now, during the debate phase of that primary process, he stopped short of calling Israel's actions in Gaza a genocide. That's what this is all about. And instead he used other phrases like it's a moral stainless steel, and these are catastrophic levels of death. But then back in January, back on January 11, after that debate performance, he changed his mind and he issued an official statement in which he clarified his hesitance, saying it was due to past associations with the Holocaust, but then saying to me, this is a quote. The Israeli government has tried to destroy Gaza and to push Palestinians out. Out. And that qualifies as a genocide. And he also said he would vote against US Funding for offensive weaponry. Now, in response to him being harassed, establishment Democratic Party and Jewish advocacy groups have condemned it and called it harassment and intimidation, and some have said it's anti Semitic. The transmarch organizers, though, downplayed it, and they said it was about the choices he's made in his political career and that many working class LGBTQ people do not feel that he represents their interest interests. As far as I can tell, the DSA's leadership has made no comment on this. I guess they're not really required to. But Hassan Piker has said that Wiener deserved it. And as you noted a while ago, Derek, this is the same Hassan Piker who referred to Wiener as a homo fascist after he won his primary back in June.

[Derek Barris]

And that was in June. And again, just to make this clear, it was in January that he said it was a Genocide. And he would vote vote against offensive weaponry. Of course some people are mad that he wouldn't, that some people just want all funding Israel cut off and they say that's the bar, so he doesn't pass it. But specific to that term, I wrote a piece about piker on this in the homo fascist term. And I went through and looked and Scott Wiener is a very progressive candidate. He has been a fan of yimby, meaning let's build in San Francisco, you know, rehabs, affordable housing everywhere, put it in as many places as possible. He was the first California senator to write an AI safety bill. I mean you might not agree with everything he does and that's fine, that's any politician. But the use of the term homo fascist, which is this very like insular idea in this small community that, that people are relying on them being gay to then go and then express fascist tendencies anywhere. I challenge, I challenged in the article in the comments that people came after me about. And I challenge anyone to go and look at his actual legislative record and put record and point out anything that qualifies as fascism because that's, that's a very strong term you're making on someone. I mean even at the level of the US government there's debates about whether it's authoritarian or fascism. And I, I'm not interested in that right now. But if you're going to just basically dilute the word to a being meaningless if you're going to call any everyone a fascist just because they're Jewish or because they support Israel and to call someone who you can read their track record and has mostly been on the left on so many issues I think is really irresponsible. And again, it just goes to show how little people want to engage in the day to day struggle of what being a politician requires. And if the whole point of this is to move candidates left, which is what leftists say, they want people to vote in their interests. And if he comes out and says I'm going to vote in your interest on this topic and then to do that to him anyway, it just makes me really question what you're actually concerned with about this person.

[Podcast Guest/Commentator]

Yeah.

[Julian Walker]

And that, that homo fascist stuff was part of a rant that Hassan pike was on because the candidate he had endorsed for that race had not won. And so he was just going after Scott Wiener not even for supporting Israel. Right. For, for not ha. Not going far enough in his condemnation until five months ago.

[Derek Barris]

Yeah. And he supported Chakrabati, who is worth Something like $168 million from being early in Silicon Valley. Valley. And again, an example of a guy who says the left, the right, leftist things, but then look at his actual life and it differs. And now he's spending millions of dollars to help to get Wiener, his candidate, involved. I think her name is Connie Chan. I could be wrong, so I apologize. But now he's, he's devoted millions of dollars to defeating Wiener. I don't know where Piker stands on that, to be clear, but I, I just have to keep questioning some of the candidates that Piker is getting behind here and the way that he, he's. He's treating their opponents.

[Julian Walker]

So I, I don't want to make too much of it because this is, this is not like, emblematic of our entire political process. But there is a contrast here that I think is important for those of us who are left of center to sort of make sense of. Graham Platner gets defended, protected, and his actions get rationalized until it becomes impossible to not cut ties with him because it gets so bad. But Scott Wiener gets attacked, vilified, harassed, intimidated, and unfairly smeared. And in fact, it's sort of misinformation. Why? Because Platner said the perfect things about Israel and Gaza, and Weiner had this more nuanced position that then evolved long before the primary election actually happened. And honestly, to me, it's ironic because those activists in Dolores park should really have been carrying him around on their shoulders as an example of someone who came around to their points of view as a result of their activism, in part. And isn't that what they want?