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- [00:01]
Shannon Petty Peace
I've talked to families who said they spent $150 to go bowling with their kids on the weekend for a couple hours.
- [00:11]
Yasim Basugin
Hey, everybody. And welcome to here's the Scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasim Basugin. So today on the show, bowling is breaking the bank. What does Wall street have to do with it? Plus, a political organizer who helped bring a sexual assault allegation against Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner to light talks about how she's pushing for more politics. Up first, though, the sudden death of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham on Saturday night has added yet another twist to the midterms. So Graham was up for reelection in November after representing his state for 24 years in the Senate. His hometown pastor says the position defined him.
- [00:56]
Ryan Nobles
He loved his job and he loved America. And so, you know, we would talk about other things, but it always went back to America.
- [01:06]
Yasim Basugin
Now with Graham gone and Senator Mitch McConnell dealing with health issues, Republicans are grappling with their slim majority in Congress in an incredibly tense political moment. So I want to turn to NBC News chief Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles, who has been covering Senator Graham for years. Hey, Ryan.
- [01:24]
Ryan Nobles
Hey, Yaz. Thanks for having me.
- [01:26]
Yasim Basugin
It's good to have you. Senator Graham was elected to Congress back in 2002 to the Senate. Specifically, what would you say he will be most remembered for? What is his legacy?
- [01:37]
Ryan Nobles
I think overall, in the grand scheme of Lindsey Graham's career, the thing that will most be remembered was how he was at the center of everything. You talk about immigration, you talk about foreign conflicts, wars, budgets, spending showdowns, government shutdowns. Lindsey Graham always had an opinion, and he was always in the room where it happened. He found a way to have relationships with everyone in leadership, the most important members of the Senate, the most important members of the House, but also presidents. Obviously, we could talk ad nauseam about his relationship with Donald Trump, how complex that was. But he also had good relationships with Joe Biden. They had a deep, long friendship. He had a relationship with Barack Obama. He had a unique sense of how to get access to power, to develop a relationship with those in power and then to use that power toward his policy goals.
- [02:32]
Yasim Basugin
You mentioned former President Biden in his statement after Lindsey Graham's passing. He mentioned serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee alongside Lindsey Graham and talking about how they didn't necessarily agree on a lot of issues. They had a lot of shouting matches. And I'm paraphrasing some of the statement from the former president, but nonetheless reminding folks. Right. How much Lindsey Graham's presence meant, especially when it came to foreign policy. Lindsey Graham just returned from a trip to Ukraine. He was a staunch advocate for Israel, and he was advising, most recently the President on the war with Iran, the ongoing war with Iran. How is this going to affect the president's focus when it comes to some of these foreign policy issues that remain overseas?
- [03:19]
Ryan Nobles
I think it's important to keep in mind that Lindsey Graham's position as a foreign policy hawk, as someone who believed in American intervention, believed in using American military might across the world, that was for years a pretty standard and conventional Republican position. It is no longer a standard and conventional Republican position. In fact, that position is fading in the Republican Party in a big way. To Donald Trump was among the leaders in kind of stepping back from that idea of the United States being the policeman of the world. That was kind of a bedrock of Trump's America first policies. But it is because of the relationships of powerful players like Lindsey Graham that Donald Trump kind of looked at the situation in Iran in a different light than he did with some of these other foreign conflicts around the world and decided that Iran's threat was big enough that the United States needed to intervene.
- [04:12]
Yasim Basugin
The.
- [04:13]
Ryan Nobles
With Graham exiting the stage, you are losing a very passionate and powerful voice, someone that Donald Trump trusted when it came to this type of American foreign policy. I don't know how that is gonna impact the situation in Iran going forward because the United States already finds itself in a position where it's gotta deal with it. But I will say, for someone like Vice President J.D. vance, who comes from the other end of that spectrum, very much opposed to American intervention of this type, does he have a stronger voice now? Because he doesn't have with the same level of influence in those rooms anymore.
- [04:48]
Yasim Basugin
Let's talk about what's next here, because the midterms are coming up and Senator Lindsey Graham had won his primary. What does his death now mean for the midterms and the fight for Senate control for the Republicans?
- [05:01]
Ryan Nobles
I think in the grand scheme of things, it probably matters little. You know, the Governor McMaster in South Carolina, it looks like he's going to appoint Graham's sister to serve out the balance of his term, which is an interesting choice and decision. Senator Graham was very close with his s. They basically raised her after both of their parents died at a relatively young age. But it also means that that is gonna be basically an open seat for the upcoming primary that'll take place in August, that she's gonna serve in a caretaker role, and that there'll be a new senator there. They're not gonna appoint someone who can then run from that perch. And so that could be a pretty wide open primary. There are a lot of potential candidates. The lieutenant governor, Everett, could be a candidate. There's a number of members of the House. Joe Wilson, Nancy Mace, Ralph Norman, put their hands up. But I think at the end of the day, what you're probably gonna end up seeing is Donald Trump come in at some point and saying, this is who I think the next senator should be. That person will win the primary relatively easy in August, and then they'll go on to win the general election because South Carolina is such a red state. So in terms of the balance of power, it's probably not gonna change things all that much. But in terms of the influence that South Carolina has and the impact that that seat had on the powers of government, that was an institution that Lindsey Graham built over more than 30 years in both the House and Senate. And you're just not gonna do that overnight. It's gonna take a long time for someone to develop that level of relevance.
- [06:31]
Yasim Basugin
All right, so amidst all this, we have been talking now for a few weeks about Senator Mitch McConnell, because there has been some mystery around his condition, his health, and he's been missing from Congress for a few weeks now. We have now gotten a statement from him, and his team has released a photo on his family's behalf that came out on Sunday after we learned of the death of Senator Lindsey Graham. What have we learned?
- [07:03]
Ryan Nobles
So what his office is telling us, and they released a statement in McConnell's voice, which is the first time we've heard any sort of a direct statement from him since he went into the hospital almost a month ago. And in that statement, they say a lot, first of all, that he did not have a heart attack, he did not have a stroke. Those were two of the major things that were speculated based on the paramedics calls, the video that CNN obtained that showed him being taken from the house, There was a lot of people that just were under the assumption that he had either a cardiac event or some sort of brain event. He says he was unconscious and that he fell. What's not really clear in the statement is whether the fall came before or after he was unconscious. And then he said, and this is the key thing that's. I think they're using to try and explain why he's been in the hospital for so long is that he contracted pneumonia while in the hospital and that they wanted to keep him under doctor's care during that period of time as he recovers from pneumonia, because pneumonia in an 80 year old could be a death sentence. And I think that all of that without any sort of, you know, if you're looking at that in a tunnel vision and you had no reason to question, it would all be a pretty plausible explanation. But the problem is that McConnell's office has been so v and so not transparent when it has come to his health. While they chose to take that route, the Internet has come in on the other side and filled the void with outrageous and fanciful conspiracy theories.
- [08:31]
Yasim Basugin
That and pictures, by the way, which I've seen.
- [08:34]
Ryan Nobles
Right, right. And what's happened is, and I don't know if this has happened with you, Yasmin, is that I've got what I would describe as normal people coming to me and asking me Whether or not McConnell's brain dead, whether or not McConnell, oh y. Is on life support. And there's just no evidence to that. But I think the level of his health and how long it's gonna take for him to get back and vote is the question that we still don't have answered. And I'll make just this last point. Yes, they can continue to say that he's actively involved in the work of the citizens of Kentucky and he's debating US Senate stuff and he's calling and taking calls and all that stuff. And there's no way for us to prove or disprove that what he is not doing, what he's been unable to do for more than a month, or it'll end up being more than a month, is cast a vote in the United States Senate. That is the most important job of a United States senator. So just by that definition alone, he's not doing what is expected of him as an elected official.
- [09:30]
Yasim Basugin
Ryan Nobles, thank you.
- [09:32]
Ryan Nobles
Thanks, Yasmin.
- [09:35]
Yasim Basugin
All right, we are going to take a very quick break, but when we come back, we are joined by the social media influencer Cheyenne Hunt, who helped bring forward sexual abuse allegations against two prominent Democratic candidates, including Graham Platner. That is next. And also while you're waiting for the next segment, why don't you just leave us a review and let us know how we're doing. We would really love your feedback. I'll see you on the other side. Join me, Cyndi Lauper with chef Michelle Bernstein and Dr. Panico to talk about psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. The potential connection and risk of developing permanent joint damage.
- [10:18]
Cyndi Lauper
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- [11:04]
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- [11:16]
Shannon Petty Peace
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- [11:20]
Luiso Martabia
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- [11:24]
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- [11:37]
Yasim Basugin
And we are back with here's the scoop from NBC News. So Maine Democrats are now racing towards this July 27 deadline to nominate a Senate candidate to replace Grant Platner. Platner officially ended his campaign on Friday after a woman that he once dated, Jenny Racicot, accused him of sexual assault. Platner denies that allegation. One person who helped Racicot go public with her story was attorney and social media influencer Cheyenne Hunt, and it wasn't her first time. Hunt also helped amplify sexual assault allegations against former Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell. Swalwell has called Dahl's allegations false. Now Hunt is the founder of an advocacy group called Reckoning Action, calling themselves part of the next generation MeToo movement. So what does Hunt want to see come out of the search for a new candidate in Maine? And is there more that needs to be done to ensure accountability behind the scenes? For this, I want to bring in Cheyenne Hunt. Hi Cheyenne.
- [12:40]
Cheyenne Hunt
Hi.
- [12:41]
Yasim Basugin
I want to start with Graham Platner, if we can. This was a bit of an evolution for you, to say the least. You initially actually endorsed Graham Platner last fall when you were executive director of Gen Z for Change. It's an advocacy organization. And there were at the time, Shannon, a lot of controversies around his past right at this point, including Reddit posts from 2013 where he downplayed the challenges for military members reporting Sexual assault. At the time, though, you chose not to revoke your endorsement until several women who dated Platner accused him of this, quote unquote, toxic and unsettling behavior. In this New York Times piece that came out, why was that a red line versus the other things we had already known about Graham Platner? In the lead up, I think the
- [13:29]
Cheyenne Hunt
Platner campaign was trying to push this narrative that he was a changed man and that this was somebody who maybe had a troubled past but had gone on some kind of journey of, you know, reparations and had somehow reformed himself, his behavior. And I think a lot of us want to give grace to others and to believe in the possibility of self improvement, of growth, of change. But the New York Times article made clear that this wasn't just a set of, you know, problematic posts online. This was a worldview about women and what they deserve and a willingness to act that out in a way that was demonstrable. Physical violence. What was in that article itself was quite severe and for me was a red line and made clear that this was a pattern of disrespecting women and that that was enough of a red flag to pull my support.
- [14:29]
Yasim Basugin
So important to note here, as I have to say, Graham Plutner has denied the allegations so far made against him. So, Cheyenne, there was this New York Times piece, obviously that came out. We talked about it, and Jenny Racicot was named in this piece, but the degree to which her story was talked about did not come out right. And then the political piece came out, more with the details of what actually took place with Jenny, and you help bring that story to light. What happened there?
- [14:56]
Cheyenne Hunt
So when Jenny first made contact with the New York Times, actually they made contact with her. So let's be accurate there. They reached out to her. Her boundary was pretty clear that she never wanted to come out named on the record. If the story of sexual violence was going to be told in full, that felt like a violation to her. If you read the piece, it says he showed up to her house uninvited, drunk, and she declined to elaborate on what happened next. I don't think that that landed in the way that she intended and that, you know, clearly people still weren't getting the full extent of what Platner was capable of. So we were connected to Jenny by organizers on the ground in Maine who handed our information over to her and, you know, let her know that we had resources for survivors. She reached out and ultimately in that process, you know, we. We discussed what she might be comfortable with and how she could leave this experience feeling the most at peace. And. And for her, it was making sure that he was not able to garner any additional power that he could use to harm other women and that people knew who he was when they were making their decision, that Maine voters knew exactly who he was. And so eventually she came to the point where she was comfortable going on the record and, you know, very bravely, even on camera, detailing what happened that night.
- [16:21]
Yasim Basugin
You know, this brings us to a point in which you and I talked about earlier on in this conversation about Grace, right, that you were willing to give Graham Platner grace until the New York Times piece came out. And I think one of the things that really excited voters about Graham Platner initially, and I'm sure including you, but I'm not going to speak for you, obviously, is the fact that he was like a political outsider. Right? That is how he framed himself. Right. He had this new energy. He was just this oyster farmer, right. He was unknown up until now. He'd been plucked out, and here he was. How do you balance, right, the need for the desire for new energy, Right. New people, new leadership with people that might be bringing this, like, personal baggage, right. That might have things in their past that may not be up to. To par with how we want our leadership to represent us on the political stage.
- [17:19]
Cheyenne Hunt
Well, I don't want to be overly simplistic about this, but the truth is we have a vetting standard in politics for a reason. Let's vet them. Like, there's been so many stories about how rushed and inadequate the vetting process of Platner was. I think there's going to be more process stories that come out in the next couple of weeks exposing who knew what when. But the truth, I think already is clear that there were many red flags that were turned up very early on with this candidate, and it wasn't a deal breaker for the people who continued to champion that campaign and for the folks who knew inside the campaign early on that this was going to come up. And I think we've seen folks who are, you know, ambitious political operatives who walked away from this campaign and washed their hands of it for good reason. And that lack of vetting is one of those reasons.
- [18:11]
Yasim Basugin
And by the way, it's not just an issue for new faces, right? You well know this. You help publicize allegations against Eric Swalwell, which effectively ended his campaign for governor of California. Swalwell has been a huge part of the institution, the system. I had had him on my numerous times when I was on MSNBC. We're almost 10 years since the big Me Too movement wave. What can Reckoning Action do differently this time? So not only do you help bring these stories to light and bring these women to light, help protect them going forward, but also keep it going.
- [18:43]
Cheyenne Hunt
I would flip the premise of the question because I think the truth is when you are challenging structures of power and you're hoping to take agency from a misogynistic institution that has been able to get away with violence against women and act with impunity for generations, and you say enough is enough, there will be a backlash to that. It's inevitable. And if there isn't, we're probably not shaking it up enough. We're probably not making the difference that we set out to make. And our work moving forward with Epstein survivors to push for accountability there, our work with, you know, the Republicans who have continuously taken votes to keep those secrets, that's going to be something where we know for sure there's going to be backlash. There's been an incredible amount of backlash to the work we've done on Graham Platner in Maine and folks who aren't particularly pleased that we brought this forward. But the truth is our goal is no predators in power, period. And we need to change the story we're telling about American women. That's going to be controversial.
- [19:39]
Yasim Basugin
I do have to also say, and you full well know this as an attorney, Eric Swalwell also denies the allegations against him. Cheyenne Hunt. Thank you.
- [19:48]
Cheyenne Hunt
Thank you.
- [19:50]
Yasim Basugin
All right, Strikes, spares and gutterballs. They are costing a lot more these days. We're going to explain after a very quick break.
- [20:01]
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Ryan Nobles
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- [20:36]
Shannon Petty Peace
I thought it was safe.
- [20:37]
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- [21:05]
Ryan Nobles
This is Telemundo de Portes.
- [21:06]
Luiso Martabia
Luiso Martabia.
- [21:07]
Ryan Nobles
Wondering who you should root for at FIFA World Cup 2026? Listen to my new favorite footballista wherever you listen to podcast.
- [21:20]
Yasim Basugin
And we are back with here's the scoop from NBC News. So whether you're still using bumpers or you're throwing strikes, bowling has been a staple for families on those hot summer days. And even with the lane fees and those funny stripy shoes that don't smell very good, let's be honest, bowling was still pretty cheap. But that actually might be changing and not just because of inflation. Our senior policy reporter Shannon Petty Peace has been looking into this as part of her series Unaffordable America. And she joins me now to talk about it. Hi, Shannon.
- [21:53]
Shannon Petty Peace
Hey, Yasmin.
- [21:55]
Yasim Basugin
So bowling, it's been like this thing that everybody used to be able to do. It was super cheap. Families of four, five, six go and bowl. But now it seems like that is changing. And you've been looking into a company called Lucky Strike Entertainment. What's going on here?
- [22:09]
Shannon Petty Peace
Yeah, I mean, bowling is kind of this classic iconic middle class working man's activity when we think of in our own lives, when we think of in pop culture. But increasingly, people have brought up to me that they felt like bowling was becoming unaffordable. I've talked to families who said they spent $150 to go bowling with their kids on the weekend for a couple hours. And I heard from, you know, people who are just sort of avid recreational bowlers. They used to maybe go bowl for an hour after work. They said it used to cost them maybe $10 to bowl a few games. Now it can cost them 20, $25 every time they want to go. And when I started looking into this question of why has bowling become unaffordable in some areas, it led me to this company, Lucky Strike. And they are a private equity backed Wall street corporation. And they have been buying up bowling alleys across America, small mom and pop operations, some larger bowling chains to the point where they now 1 in 10 bowling alleys in America. And when they come in, they make these bowling alleys sort of a more upscale environment. They put in a lot of money in renovations. In some instances. They give it sort of a nightclub vibe. They have dim lights. They put in big screen televisions. It's supposed to lure in, you know, birthday parties, corporate events, more casual bowlers.
- [23:36]
Yasim Basugin
What is the actual impact this is having, as you mentioned, 1 in 10 bowling alleys are owned by Lucky Strike.
- [23:43]
Shannon Petty Peace
So one area we zeroed in on was Wichita. There were four like main bowling centers within the city of Wichita up until about 2022. Lucky Strike came in and bought three of those bowling alleys from a family that had owned them for Mears.
- [23:58]
Yasim Basugin
Right.
- [23:59]
Shannon Petty Peace
I ended up talking to a lot of bowlers in the Wichita area about what happened since then.
- [24:05]
Cheyenne Hunt
I've noticed the prices have kind of
- [24:06]
Luiso Martabia
jumped a little bit.
- [24:07]
Shannon Petty Peace
The food used to be awesome, the food is now awful. It's four times as much money as
- [24:14]
Cheyenne Hunt
it used to be.
- [24:15]
Yasim Basugin
So for the casual bowler in particular,
- [24:17]
Ryan Nobles
it's much more cost prohibitive.
- [24:21]
Shannon Petty Peace
They just have really every single thing that you can do to cut costs, they've done. One guy I talked to even complained about the price of jello shots going up, which sounds silly.
- [24:32]
Yasim Basugin
I mean, but it was a league
- [24:35]
Shannon Petty Peace
tradition wherein if the center pin was left standing, you had to buy a round of jello shots for everyone in the league. So like these fun little league traditions that they used to have all of a sudden changed. And you know, for these league bowlers I talked to. One thing I was kind of struck by is that in this world where we're all on our phones and people complain about feeling disconnected and isolated, the bowling league, you know, although they have shrunk and it's not what it used to be in the 80s, it's a community, it is this community outlet. So it's losing that as well as just this affordability aspect.
- [25:08]
Yasim Basugin
It's also interesting amidst all this, Shannon, because some bowlers have filed a class action lawsuit arguing that consolidation is anti competitive.
- [25:17]
Shannon Petty Peace
So I mean, there's a whole policy side of this as well too because there, you know, there are regulations and laws in this country that are supposed to prevent a company from taking control of an industry, raising prices and pushing out all the, you know, once they've pushed out all the competitors. You know, I'm not saying that's necessarily what's happening here, but that is what this lawsuit is alleging. And I talked to a former FTC official who is in charge of reviewing all these deals and he said that, you know, over the past few years there has been this trend of private equity backed companies coming in and buying up small businesses, whether it's bowling alleys, RV parks, the list goes on and on. And those deals kind of fly under the radar of federal regulators because they are focused on the big, big mega deals, the hundred million dollar plus, the billion dollar acquisitions. That's where their focus is. And you know, there is, you know, experts say this whole area of our economy that sort of getting consolidated and gobbled up by larger and larger corporations that regulators aren't paying attention to.
- [26:25]
Yasim Basugin
And by the way, the response from Lucky Strike, they have moved to dismiss the case. In a legal filing, it said the improvements it was making at bowling alleys and investments in its marketing would actually increase competition. But it does seem like this Consol consolidation is happening across the board with a lot of these small businesses. I cannot tell you how many business school grads I've talked to who have wanted to get into the business of, for instance, buying up a bunch of dry cleaners to consolidate and then be bought off by, by private equity. It's kind of the way of the world, it seems, these days.
- [26:52]
Shannon Petty Peace
And I will say, you know, Lucky Strike also said in a statement that, you know, they do offer specials during certain hours to try and offer bowling at a lower rate and more affordable rates. So Sunday, you know, from 11 to 1 you can come in and get a pretty good deal or late nights during the week you can get good deal. So they do offer specials like that. The company does do a lot of marketing, so there's a potential that they can bring people into the sport. But I talked to some independent bowling alley owners as well, and they said that the business of running a bowling alley is not easy these days. They have been faced with rising costs like everyone else. Property taxes, utilities, insurance, food costs for, you know, the snack bar at the bowling alley, all of those things are putting pressure on them. While their customer base isn't necessarily flush with cash to start paying higher prices. And so the bowling alley owners are being squeezed, too. It does raise a question of, you know, what does the future of this sport look like and how much longer is it going to be that iconic middle class activity?
- [27:57]
Yasim Basugin
Shannon Petty, Peace. Thank you.
- [27:59]
Shannon Petty Peace
Thanks, Yasmin.
- [28:03]
Yasim Basugin
That is going to do it for us. Here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Vesugin. We'll be back tomorrow with whatever the day may bring. And if you like what you heard, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And you can also subscribe to our daily newsletter, the Inside Scoop. It is a deeper dive on the main stories of the day that comes out every weeknight straight to your inbox. You can sign up for the Inside Scoop as part of our paid subscription@nbcnews.com we'll see you tomorrow.
- [28:38]
Luiso Martabia
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