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The Majority Report with Sam Seder
3660 - Platner Smear Flops; The Screwworm Cometh w/ Jeet Heer
01:22:42
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- [00:00]
Sam Cedar
Hey folks, today's episode brought to you by my favorite sponsor, sunsetlakeseba day.com use the code. Left is best for 20% off. That means you get 20% off their smokables. Thanks for the Entourage effect, as it were. They also have pre rolls. They got Bud, they got Keef.
- [00:26]
Jeet Heer
It's laughing.
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Matt Leckie
Love the Entourage effect.
- [00:28]
Sam Cedar
He loves the Entourage effect for me. For those of us who don't travel with the same entourage, I like the Good Night oil and the goodnight gummies I've been hitting hard. The goodnight oil is CB Day and Seben, but the goodnight gummies, Seba Day, Seba N and a little thc just a tiny bit. They also have gummies with teh say without the other stuff to make you sleepy. But they've got lotions, they've got tinctures, they've got fudge and Seba Day coffee. They've got salve for your achy muscles. They've got lifted tea, which is fantastic. It is just what someone might imbibe if they were watching, let's say the NBA Finals and didn't want any type of Knicks success to find fall too hard. Plus sunsetlakeseba.com, you're buying your Saba Day directly from the farmers. No middlemen. And what farmers they are. They don't use pesticides, only integrated pest management. They take care of the land with regenerative farming practices and they are movement partners. They have donated tens of thousands of dollars over the years to things like refugee resettlement, Planned Parenthood, strike relief funds, carceral reform. The list goes on and on. Great bunch of guys and gals up at Sunset Lake. Seven a day and a great product. So get on it. Left is best. 20% off. Now time for the show the Majority Report with Sam Cedar where every day's casual Friday. That means Monday is casual. Monday, Tuesday casual Tuesday, Wednesday casual hump day, Thursday casual Thirs, that's what we call it. And Friday casual Shabbat. The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Friday, June 5, 2026. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five time award winning Majority Report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, usa. On the program today, Jeet here, national affairs correspondent for the Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast the Time of Monsters. Also on the program today, Senate Republicans passed a $70 billion reconciliation bill to fund ICE. More more money for ICE. Also on the program today, a very heavily anticipated New York Times report on Graham Platner falls flat as the paper now tries to defend itself from charges of launching a smear. Ro Khanna's amendment to the NDAA to strip out section 224, the melding of Israeli and US military development supply chains for fails. Also on the program, Russ vote Donald Trump. They did it. They stripped federal civil service for job protection as he looks to install unqualified cronies. Job numbers higher than expected. But wage growth weirdly slows again. The flesh eating new world screw worm outbreak is poised to cost farmers and consumers billions of dollars. This after a year after Doge cut preventative measures.
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Brian
Luckily, beef was already cheap anyway.
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Sam Cedar
Exactly. DoD decides to no longer recognize 170 plus religions supported by the military chaplain. Those are the fake ones. Social Security whistleblower reveals that Doge had a plan to label 2.7Americans dead. Meanwhile, ICE plans to stop reporting actual deaths of detainees in their custody. Seems bad as the AP reports that the Trump regime is reseparating dozens of children who were separated under the first Trump administration and then reunited under the Biden.
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Emma Vigeland
All this
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Sam Cedar
more on today's Majority Report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.
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Emma Vigeland
It is Casual Friday.
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Sam Cedar
Casual Friday. And obviously, like we should say, you know, I don't know if people hang out on Blue sky or Twitter at all. We do. And we were all anticipating because we're going to talk to Jeet about this Graham Platner thing. But just as like sort of the meta story of this, we were all sort of like obsessively checking to see when the story was going to drop because there was like sometime today's I've lost track of time. Sometime on Wednesday afternoon after the show, all of a sudden everybody on Twitter seemed to know about this story that was going to drop. And it was all the, the rumors were that it was about sexual assault and whatnot. And as if there was a coordinated campaign to get that story out there. We'll talk more about this later. So we're all waiting. And it was really more of the same in many respects that we already knew about Grant Platner. He had a bit of a drinking problem in the wake of his military service.
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Emma Vigeland
Yeah. And the only on the record accuser that has accused him of anything physical grabbing aggressively is a Republican operative. And we'll be getting into that more. But it was barely a footnote in the New York Times piece. It's not a footnote in this story.
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Matt Leckie
Seems kind of relevant that she did the ladies for Kavanaugh thing.
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Emma Vigeland
Yeah.
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Sam Cedar
Well, we will talk about that but there is a. You know, we'll get into it. The Platner was on Chris Hayes's program last night. And, you know, we will get into this, but we should just say, like, you know, that in many respects seemed to sort of like, at least dominate my attention over the past day. However, the other day we had. I can't remember his name. We had the director of the Democratizing of Foreign Policy Program, Ben Friedman. Right. To tell us about section 224 of the National Defense Authorization Act. This is one of those must vote for bills that end up coming up that they all vote for. And that's the way that it ends up generally ballooning. But there is a provision in there about four pages long that talk about essentially melding the US And Israeli military. Defense contracting, development, logistics. Essentially, like intertwining our military with the Israelis in such a way that we would no longer give them aid because they would be part of our own Borg. We would no longer.
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Emma Vigeland
It's a little on the nose, like, you know, we were just informally having this special relationship with the settler, colonial, genocidal state, but now we can make it official, Facebook official.
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Sam Cedar
Yeah, I mean, it would be. We no longer have to give them aid in the same way that we don't have to give different divisions of the Defense Department aid. It's just part of the budget. And Ro Khanna offered an amendment yesterday to strip that from the bill that apparently came out of the Armed Services Committee. Here it is.
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Ro Khanna
The American people are tired of the arrogance and insolence of Prime Minister Netanyahu telling America what we should do. The entire country of Israel has a GDP that is less than a single town in my district. Yet somehow Netanyahu thinks he could tell the American people what we should do. The person who's most upset with him right now is President Donald Trump. And everyone in America, whether you're a Republican, an Independent, or a Democrat, says that we need to tell Netanyahu that America calls the shots, not the prime minister of any other country. They want less cooperation and blank checks to Israel, not more. Only the United States Congress would dream up at this moment. Let's actually do more for Israel, not less. And that's what section 2024 does. It's a pretty simple thing. Should we do more for Israel than we already do, or should we do less? If you think we should do more for Israel, you should be against my amendment. If you think we should do less for Israel. At the time that he's arrogantly telling Donald Trump what to do then you should be for my amendment. Now let me just be clear. Mr. Netanyahu actually wrote to a member of Congress to put this section 224 into the bill.
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Emma Vigeland
That's important because Netanyahu has been going out publicly and saying, you know, we won't have to rely on US Military aid much longer in anticipation of this.
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Sam Cedar
You know, they supposedly wrote the language. I'm not he personally but it came from Israel in terms of like hey, as if, you know, you're headed out to the grocery store. Oh here's. Let me just give you the list of what we need.
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Emma Vigeland
Yes, yeah, Khan of mentioned that and it's incredible. It's also we should mention that this NDAA Trump initially wanted a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget. It's now just a meager $1.14 trillion. The year over year increases. I don't have it in front of me. But in the first two years of the Trump administration have been exponentially higher and the defense budget increases every year and is bipartisan and agreed upon. The American public is screaming from the top of their lungs to not deepen our relationship with Israel and yet we can't get support for something this flagrant from a majority of members of our Congress. There was a poll that came out in Pew recently. It's the same story across all of these reputable polls. 60% of Americans disapprove of our relationship with Israel currently. And it's higher in some other polls. So do we live in a democracy or do we live in a country that is beholden to a well funded lobby and a variety of different lobbies? But this one in particular over our foreign policy is, is dominating politics because it's insane. We're funding a genocide. And what's going on in Lebanon, it's not getting enough attention either. They're using Gaza tactics in the south of Lebanon as we speak.
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Sam Cedar
And we should say now the Khana's amendment in the Armed Services Committee, I believe that was the Armed Services Committee failed. What was that? It was yes, and that failed. But the bill passed out of the committee will go to the floor. And at that point Massie has said that he will join with Khanna and attempt to strip that provision from the bill. So this fight is not over. The other day we put the names of all the people on the Armed Services Committee, I think it was into our description with a number and call them. But now's the time to start calling your congresspeople, whether they're Republican or Democrat. And tell them section 2 to 4 should be stripped from the bill.
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Emma Vigeland
Because I just want to add this one point to make this clear, because we already have an agreement with Israel. It's a memorandum of understanding, baseline until 2028. We give them nearly $4 billion a year, although since the genocide began, we have like, you know, tripled, quadrupled that in 2024. 12.5 billion we sent to Israel, at least formally. But what's scary about this is that once this ball gets rolling, once these contracts are signed, once Israeli weapons technology is integrated into US Military systems, it becomes very difficult to roll that back because the integration has already begun. So it's just important to point out that, like, this is how they cement their influence when they understand that there's a populist anger coming that could get in the way of that after the midterms and into 2028.
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Sam Cedar
Let's try and do this quickly before Jeet joins us, because it's going to be a story. You know, somebody asked me yesterday, like, what, what is the worst thing that you think is going on? Like, what's the, what's the thing that bothers you most about this era? And from my perspective, there's a lot of horrible things that Donald Trump is doing, ranging, you know, maybe top on that list is what we're doing to immigrants and the way that we're detaining them and creating this entire mechanism. Some of that much of that can be reversed. You know, there's a certain amount of inertia. But what's happening to our agencies, once you destroy these things, it's going to take literally at least a decade, it seems to me, of democratic rule at least, because when a new administration gets in there, even if it's, you know, if Emma was elected president in 2028, hopefully that's not going to be the case like her around here for a little longer. But in the event that that happens, there's only so much resources and bandwidth an administration has, and they're not going to be able to expend the energy to fix every single department. So what we're seeing between Doge and Russell vote and this attack on civil servants is going to resonate for years and years and years. And it's going to resonate in a way that most people, the vast majority of them, will not understand. It's a function of this. They're going to look at government failing to do things and just assume that's a problem with government as opposed to a direct relationship to this here Is Brooke what's her face from USDA Collins Rollins. And here she is testifying on the discovery of the flesh eating New World screw worm. This is a flesh eating bacteria that affects beef cattle and horrible way for cattle to die. But also at a time where we have a incredible shortage of US beef in part at least because of climate change, drought, climate change, drought, but also in part of our allowing for consolidation and antitrust violations take take place. This is going to cost farmers and people billions of dollars and it's going to further my guess is concentrate the beef industry. But listen to what says because it's lies.
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Brooke Rollins
Take a moment Mr. Chairman to talk about the screwworm detection. And of course we can dive in with any of you in your Q and A. Yesterday we received confirmation for the presence for the first time in 45 years the presence of a new world screwworm case within the United States. And with the exception of a couple in Florida and others in the last number of years we found that and was confirmed in a three week old calf in La Priore, Texas. While this development is a serious threat to our livestock and wildlife, it hasn't caught us off guard. We were ready and prepared under the last administration. And after having the Darien Gap, which is the biological barrier between South America and Central America which held the screwworm at bay since the 1960s, that barrier and gap crumbled under the last administration.
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Sam Cedar
Okay, do you notice how she said we had advance warning of this? This is important. First off, put up image number three. This is from Agris
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Brian
Agrippulse.
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Sam Cedar
Agripulse. They do reporting on agriculture. This is back in the. This. I'm sorry, yeah. Number three. This is from back in the winter of 2025. Bird flu screw worm monitoring among foreign aid programs killed by Trump. Look at number two, Devex. This is a. This is a. Basically an industry journal for NGOs that came out of the Harvard Kennedy USAID cuts. A spell bleak for zootonic disease control if you scroll down. When it comes to international coordination, particularly among lower income countries. Among the most worrying signals is how US aid cuts are playing out within the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The agency helped countries coordinate boost their capacity to reduce the national, regional and global spread of animal diseases. US is the largest contributor to the budget comprising 14% of total resources in 2024. Why might we do that? Might we have more stakes, as it were, no pun intended, in the game. But earlier this year FAA received termination notices for more than 100 US funded programs valued at approximately 3,382 million dollars. Literally the cost of maybe half a day in our Iran project. Keep going, keep that up. Because the health security program which monitors and prevents the spread of trans boundary animal diseases such as bird flu and New World screwworm. Meanwhile, Brooke Rollins says that we had no idea, you know, we were on top of this like this. From NBC News. The case is the first confirmed detection of New World Screworm in Texas since 1966. It's the only confirmed case identified in the country so far. Rollins said it follows months of warnings from US and Texas agricultural officials and cattle industry leaders as the pest steadily moved north through Mexico toward the American border for months. The screw worm has advanced rapidly through Mexico in spite of the USDA's existing game plan. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said. Sid Miller, of course, a huge social justice warrior out of Texas. No, I'm sorry, he's a Republican. Adding that instead of using every available tool, USDA moved too slowly and relied solely on a partial solution that takes years to fully implement. Well, that's probably because all of the monitoring systems and all of the systems that were to contain this thing had been cut. Miller called on President Trump to take direct control of the government's response. Good luck, buddy.
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Emma Vigeland
I'm so hands on.
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Jeet Heer
Oh yes.
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Sam Cedar
Oh, that's my attempt definitely stop programming my birthday party to get to the screw worm. So this is, you know, gonna be just another disaster. And you know who's gonna pay the price on this, right? It's gonna be basically people. This is just going to make our K shaped economy more and more Little k. Yes.
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Emma Vigeland
The 85% of US beef that's owned by four companies is going to rise because you're going to have companies that get folded in and there will be an even further takeover. Cattle herd smallest in 75 years. It's just going to get worse.
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Sam Cedar
Just one more highlight of things that you probably would never otherwise think about but will make a differ. And you know, very few people in the media are gonna put it together and nobody's gonna be campaigning on the screw worm down in Texas. Although I don't know. I mean, luckily maybe Talarico might.
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Emma Vigeland
Talarico jump on this. Jump on this here. I mean I've heard in that race that Texans like meat. I don't know if you've heard about this. Americans definitely like hamburgers. That's a big thing. Trump likes them too, but I don't think he's affected by the prices.
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Brian
Tul Rico's vegan so he won't want to kill the screw worm either.
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Sam Cedar
Folks, in a moment we're going to be talking to Jeet here, national affairs correspondent for the nation, host of the weekly nation podcast, the Time of Monsters. Do you know that Fast growing trees is America's largest and most trusted online nursery with thousands of trees and over 2 million happy customers? I did. I knew that. I've bought many, many trees from fast growing trees over the years. Apple trees, pawpaw trees. Got a lot of good feedback on my pawpaw tree rant the other day when I was talking about fast growing trees.
- [24:32]
Emma Vigeland
A lot of good feedback.
- [24:34]
Jeet Heer
Oh yeah,
- [24:37]
Brian
everybody's talking about it.
- [24:39]
Sam Cedar
A lot of people have been talking about it. A lot of people write me going, wait till you get your first pawpaw, Sam. You're gonna love it. And I am very excited. I honestly like, I'm already starting to like, dig into, you know, my retirement plans. Having a pawpaw vineyard somewhere. I don't know, an American pawpaw vineyard. It's, it's. There's a lot of logistic questions, but I know where I'm gonna get my trees if I do it. I've figured that part out. Fast growing trees has all the plants in your yard or your home needs. I also just bought a something. I can't remember what it is, but a plant that is cat safe on fast growing trees, that's going to be exciting. I'm probably going to kill it, but it's definitely going to arrive healthy and then it's just going to wait for a couple of months for me to do my magic. I'm not so great with the indoor plants, but with fast growing trees you can get fruit trees, you can get privacy trees, you can get flowering trees, you get shrubs, like I said, you can get house plants, cat friendly ones if you want. All grown with care and guaranteed to arrive healthy. It's like your local nursery, but anywhere you live with more plants you're going to find anywhere else. Doesn't matter what you're looking for. Fast growing trees can help you. They'll tell you about what zone you live in. They'll tell you what are good. If you're looking for low shade, high shade area, maybe your soil, whatever your lifestyle. Like a plant that maybe only needs to be watered indoors every, I don't know, six months. They haven't quite developed that yet, but that's where I'm at. Fast growing trees makes it easy to get your dream yard. You just click order grow. You get healthy, thriving plants delivered to your door. With their alive and thrived guarantee which is a guarantee promises that they will last for months. Plus get ongoing support from trained plant experts who can help you plan your landscape. Like I said, right now they have great deals on planting essentials, up to half off on select plants and the Majority report audience gets 20% off your first purchase when using the code Majority at checkout that's an additional 20% off. Better plants and better growing at fast growing trees.com using the code majority at checkout fast growing trees.com code is majority now is the perfect time to plant. Let's grow together. Use Majority to save today. Offer valid for limited time terms and conditions may apply. Also, the other day I was complaining about I don't necessarily eat well at times of stress, don't necessarily get all the exercise. Maybe I'm suffering for some nutrients. In the past I've had a problem with vitamin D. Well, that stopped for me a couple years ago because I get my key nutrients from a daily multivitamin called Ritual, which is sent to me on a monthly basis. Which means that I never forget. Now, after I finished that first bottle of my multivitamin, to keep taking it. Because ritual reminds me. And the other thing I love about ritual is it's very easy on the stomach. So if you remember to take it and you haven't eaten, you don't have to go, oh, I gotta wait till I eat and then forget to take it. You eat it, you take it when you remember. I'm sure there's a more sophisticated way to go about this, but my brain is too scattered to be able to come up with something like that. But the other great thing about Ritual is they are vegan. James Delarico could take it. GMO freed and tested for heavy metals and common allergens. That's the other thing. Like they are very transparent about where their ingredients, their vitamins come from. They are made traceable. They have 10 key nutrients, including omega 3 DHA, which supports your brain health, supports your heart health, vitamin D to support your muscle and immune function. Instead of striving for perfect health, aim for supporting foundational health. Save 25% on your first month at ritual.com majority that's ritual.com majority for 25% off your first health we will put the description in the pot. Or I should say the links in the podcast and YouTube description. Quick break. Jeet here, National affairs correspondent for the nation and host of the nation's podcast the Time of Monsters. Sa.
- [29:46]
Jeet Heer
Foreign.
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Sam Cedar
We are back. Sam Cedar, Emma Vigland on the Majority Report. It is a pleasure to welcome to the program Nation magazine's national affairs correspondent and host of their podcast the Time of Monsters. Jeet here. Jeet, always a pleasure. You beat Hassan Piker.
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Jeet Heer
Wait, sorry, what was that? Hasan Piper.
- [30:21]
Sam Cedar
We're dubbing, we're dubbing your audio figures in everybody. Exactly. Jeet, welcome back to the program. I don't know about you, but Emma and I, everybody in the office has been sort of like abnormally keyed in on waiting for a New York Times story to drop. Let's just like start from the very beginning of like, did you notice like we did a, A lot of people seem to be, seem to have knowledge of what was supposedly in this story and we're anticipating it like in a way that I haven't really seen before.
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Jeet Heer
Yeah, no, no, there were like a lot of people doing, I guess what the kids call it today is vague posting. They're like, oh, something is coming out the New York Times, which would be of interest to people in Maine. You know, could involve like very serious accusations and interesting also like the spectrum of people who are like doing this vague posting which included a lot of quite right wing people and to the extent there's a difference, a lot of centrist liberals who all seem to be connected with Neera Tanden in some way
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Emma Vigeland
and Israel, don't forget a lot of them are Zionists. I mean it's, it was, it was a Zionist centrist and a right wing kind of coalition.
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Jeet Heer
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Sam Cedar
I mean it's also like Venn diagram wise, you're looking at basically a total eclipse.
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Jeet Heer
That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I mean it did seem like there was a bunch of people with a very distinct political profile who all seemed to know that something was coming out in the New York Times. And actually like some of the tweets I saw, I can't quote them verbatim but like, you know, like I was expecting like, you know, the new volume of the Marquis de Saad's the Sodom and Gomorrah, like, you know, like stuff involving animals and like total depravity. So I have to say, you know, like, it's like going to see back rooms are obsession. Like a lot of build up. But for me personally, thumbs down disappointing.
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Sam Cedar
Well, we could talk about that because Stall dragged me to backrooms.
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Jeet Heer
Convertible is actually like being, I mean I cannot emphasize enough like the people who are hinting that this is going to be like a blockbuster were like hitting us like, like something like completely incredibly like, horrific is good. That is going to, like, the earth will shake.
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Sam Cedar
That was going to involve, like, intense violence or sexual assault or something like this. And maybe, like, we're getting ahead of ourselves a little bit here, but. Well, let's circle back to that, because I'm. That, to me, is also sort of fascinating. Like, where did that come from? Because there is nothing remotely like it in this. I mean, you know, something like there's none of that even remotely alleged. Let's say in this piece the headline is, several women who dated Graham Platner recall unsettling behavior. Now, they didn't all use unsettling, really. I think only one of the. Of the six women they quoted use unsettling. Three women had some negative things to say, but also some positive things to say. The other three women had all basically positive things to say, and they supposedly interviewed dozens of people. So they may have even left off other women who said positive things. Yeah, it's hard to believe that they would have left off women who said negative things, because that's the whole point of the story.
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Jeet Heer
Yeah, I. I have to say, like, you know, if I were, like, the New York Times did a deep dive into my exes, I'm not so sure that, you know, you'd be able to get as good a track record as, you know, Grab Platter seem to, like, have where, like, you know, there's one particular person who, you know, we can get into, you know, like, that's very angry. And others, you know, like, the more typical ambiguous disappointment from a failed relationship. And then three, you thought, like, this is a great guy. That's actually right.
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Emma Vigeland
The ones who weren't a Republican operative. And I. And I just, like, I have to
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Sam Cedar
just please go, because you've been like,
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Emma Vigeland
I've been on top of this. Okay. So, you know, this is. I, as a woman, I'll use that card. Now, I take claims like this incredibly seriously. But I'm also quite supportive, of course, of Graham Platner's candidacy, especially when we're talking about versus Susan Collins. Okay. But also because his politics are politics that I largely disagree with or agree with in the Times. This is just unheard of to me. Here, I'll just read this quote. Mr. Platner strongly disputes any claims of physical intimidation or altercations. His campaign said the Times could not independently corroborate Ms. Fifield's account of the altercations. Now, that's what a tabloid would do. The New York Times is supposed to be able to corroborate Claims before they publish a piece with her one sided claim about his treatment of her. Especially when we find out who this individual is. She is a longtime Republican operative. In fact, in 2018. Let's put this up here. The New York Post. She was featured in the New York Post. Lindsey Fifield. She's one of the two millennial women who co founded the group Ladies for Kavanaugh to show their support for the nominee when they felt that view was being left out of the public discourse. Their day jobs were are in conservative politics. Stepman, that's the other woman at Independent Women's Forum. And we'll get back to the Independent Women's Forum in a second. And Fifield at the Heritage foundation, their pro Kavanaugh group was formed on their own time. This is a quote from the woman who accused Platner here. In the wake of the baseless 11th hour accusations orchestrated to stop Kavanaugh's confirmation, we couldn't stay silent anymore. Okay, now you hear about that Independent Women's Forum.
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Sam Cedar
She's, that's we should say she's used that construction of I couldn't stay silent anymore. Also in the New York Times piece.
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Jeet Heer
Yes.
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Emma Vigeland
So this Independent Women's Forum. Can you just show my caption for a second here? Because it explains who this person is. This is in 2020. Let's fast forward to this clip because now Fifield, at the time she was at the Heritage foundation, but in this current moment, she is a fellow at the Independent Women's Forum. They seem to be circling around Kavanaugh a lot. And not just Kavanaugh, but the key vote in that confirmation for Kavanaugh, which was Susan Collins. Now listen to the chair of this group, which this woman is a current fellow at, bragging about how they basically scripted Collins's remarks when she was justifying to the public how she was going to support Kavanaugh. Here it is.
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Chair of Independent Women's Forum
I will tell you, I'm extraordinarily proud of iwf. It's not well known, but after Jeff Flake got caught in the elevator, a moment I think none of us will ever forget. Absolutely paralyzed by the activist asking him questions and not knowing what to say. We were approached and they said, can you tell us how to talk about supporting Kavanaugh without alienating the MeToo movement? We wrote a memo. It was used by a lot of members of the Senate and the House and Fox News and elsewhere. But most important is Susan Collins told me that without that memo, she could not have seen how to support him. And if you look at her speech that she gave on the Senate floor. It is entirely the playing out and architecture of how we said to structure the argument and what to say and how to say it, which is just so gratifying.
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Jeet Heer
We're watching.
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Chair of Independent Women's Forum
That's ours.
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Sam Cedar
So gratifying.
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Emma Vigeland
That's ours. Okay, so that's the group where this woman, which it was like a footnote in the New York Times, the only woman who's accusing him of anything physical at all, which is intense. Grabbing hard enough to leave marks is what she said. And also locking her in a room when they were in the middle of an argument. She felt intimidated by him. And the Times, as I just read, could not independently corroborate it based on what they found, and yet they still printed it anyway. And I just have to say one
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Jeet Heer
more thing to that, because I actually think they rewrote the story and be good if we could get the more recent version, because they've actually strengthened their. The assertion that they could not corroborate it. They've actually reworded that to make.
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Emma Vigeland
Okay, great.
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Jeet Heer
More clear than in the original story that this is something that we have one person saying it and there is no other evidence that we can.
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Emma Vigeland
Okay, Matt's pulling that up now. But I have to put this out there because this is really important. This isn't just us, because we like Platner's candidacy and we support his candidacy on this front. I heard, I've been told from a longtime New York Times reporter yesterday, who gave me permission to share this, that many others at the Times, including this person who I spoke with, have said that this. And they know internally that this is a gross hit piece and beneath their reporting standards. And to hear that from somebody who's a longtime New York Times reporter and say that their colleagues also are in agreement on this, I think says everything.
- [40:26]
Jeet Heer
Yeah, no, I mean, it's a remarkable thing. And we can, you know, I don't necessarily think we have to go to great detail, but the reporter or one of the co writers of this piece, it has two bylines, kind of has a record of writing hit pieces, particularly against Memdani. So I think there's both the questionship of the authorship and then also the primary source for the only serious allegations in this article. You know, it. Absolutely. And even at that, they could. They had to put in the proviso that they could not like corroborate it. So it seems like a really stunning example of character assassination. And, you know, like, I think it was a Rick Wilson Basically said, you know, like, I'm someone who specializes in Republican GOP smear campaigns in the past. I know one when I see one. So I think we have the authority of Rick Wilson on this. That should count for something.
- [41:44]
Sam Cedar
There's a couple of things about this that, you know, when Platner said there's nothing else coming out, he said that in a couple of contexts because, you know, people are very concerned. I think people are. You have a couple of different sort of, like, types of concern associated with this. Some people are concerned that there's going to be evidence that is consistent with the idea that, you know, that he's a Nazi. And there is obviously none of that outside of the. The tattoo, which is, you know, I mean, I have people who have tattoos. Like, people there. People get tattoos. And then, you know, there was concern that there would be more damaging stuff that was, you know, like the rumors that were flying on Twitter that, you know, that would be just sort of, like, really make it impossible to be supportive of somebody and create some type of crisis before the primary. And, like, this is somebody we got to pull back. But when he said. Went out and said, you know, there's no more information coming out, I know what my life is like. One of the things that I find encouraging about this is that this is consistent with that. Like, the information that he drank too much, that he, you know, went through a very dark period. This is. We knew all this much of this stuff was out there. The stuff about what goes on in his marriage is also seems to me exactly something that you would not anticipate being coming out because it's between you and your wife. And all you've told about is the campaign. You never thought, like, one of the campaign people would be working to leak this information. That's private information. I think most people, I think, are like, maybe the guy. The guy's, you know, you know, sort of a jerk, but he's working it out with his wife. And that's between two, you know, adults in their marriage. And she. She, you know, it's not like she found out because of the campaign back
- [44:02]
Jeet Heer
here, because I think Platner, the one reason why, like, even according to the most recent polls, even according to, like, a poll from somebody who's like a GOP pollster with Susan Collins, like, it's actually. That poll actually showed him, like, improving by 1% as against what he's doing earlier by that same pollster. The reason why Platinum has remained viable is that he actually has, like, a pretty compelling narrative which is that, you know, like, I was young, I was patriotic, I, you know, went into the military service. I, you know, suffered a lot of post traumatic stress disorder, you know, did a lot of drinking, did a lot of foolish things, which, you know, the tattoos are consistent with. And this is like, you know, like, it's not a unique experience. Like, I think, you know, America is a heavily militarized culture because we have people like, you know, Susan Collins at Donald Trump who are constantly sending Americans off the war. And one of the consequences of the war is you get a lot of very messed up people. And Platner's story is consistent with that and consistent with also someone who is trying to work this out and is trying to improve himself. And consistent with like taking a more anti establishment, anti system politics so that other people don't have to suffer what he did. So I think, like, on all that level, like, it's a, it's a pretty compelling story. And you know, like, there's stuff about, you know, like, I'll be frank, I've never been like, you know, ride or die with platinum because, you know, like, the Blackwater stuff has always given me caution. But having said that, like, if one takes it as he's presenting it, you know, like, I had these things that happened to me and there was a lot of damage done and I did things that I shouldn't have, but I know that they were wrong and I'm improving, like, you know, just as a human story, it's very compelling.
- [45:59]
Emma Vigeland
And if like, it's also, it's consistent. The argument that they're using against him is consistent with that Susan Collins exchange with the reporter that we played where she abdicates, as you said on Twitter, Sam, responsibility for her vote and support for the Iraq war, and basically says, yeah, well, he decided to sign up, he should have known better. And everything you're saying about the PTSD that he face, the culture of misogyny and violence that is in the military, that is encouraged and by the way, by Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump is now saying, this is our policy, we're going to purge the military of all wokeness and women and black people or whatever so that we can have more of this kind of culture, that the idea that Susan Collins and the rest of this media class is turning around and using his experiences with his mental health struggles against him. It's so much more convenient for these people that have supported the war machine that has ruined the lives of so many young people in this country for them to blame him individually, then look internally at their own support for that system. Like this. All of the, the, the, the behavior that is described is entirely consistent with ptsd. And so, you know, I just don't think this works. I don't think it works because I think people want to look at things more systemically.
- [47:25]
Jeet Heer
The sort of GOP operative who's the main source of this also seems to be the main source of the tattoo story.
- [47:30]
Emma Vigeland
Well, yes.
- [47:31]
Sam Cedar
Okay, so let's, I wanna, I, I
- [47:34]
Jeet Heer
don't want to emphasize, like, it's not just Republican women. Like, she had Closet podcast with Bethany.
- [47:41]
Sam Cedar
Okay, gee, this is exactly where I wanted to go. Hold on one second. Let's play this clip. Let's play this clip from Chris Hayes. Platner went on Chris Hayes's program last night. It was an extended interview. I would encourage everybody to watch it because Hayes really goes in on him. This was not a softball interview. And I think Platner answered every question very directly. And so I think this is very important for people to see the whole thing. But here's the beginning, and it speaks directly to, to the tattoo, where the original tattoo story came from, because people should remember. Well, play the clip first.
- [48:26]
Chris Hayes
This is from the Times. Mr. Platner could be rough with her, Ms. Fifield said, particularly when they were drinking, leaving her shaken and sometimes afraid. In the interviews, she grappled with how to process her experiences. She was quick to note, he never hit me. He never punched me. She said he regularly grabbed her by the shoulders, sometimes hard enough to leave marks. On one occasion, yanked her out of a cab by her wrist after an argument when she wanted to stay in the car. During one argument, she recalled, he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom, and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn't get out, telling her to remain there until she was calm. Eventually, Ms. Fifield said, she fell asleep and left the next morning. It hurt, she said. But she added, it didn't cause any injury. It didn't break my arm.
- [49:02]
Sam Cedar
Did that happen?
- [49:05]
Graham Platner
No, it did not. There are some allegations in this piece that I just want to be kind of unequivocal about are simply not true. Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was, these are the statements of someone who's politically motivated. In this piece, there's a lot about my struggling not being a good boyfriend, certainly self medicating with alcohol, and I've been very upfront since the beginning of this campaign. That was a pretty dark period of my life. After I came back from my combat service. And that's what that Combat certain. That's what that kind of life looks like. And, and so there are things in this that I absolutely will take responsibility for and have been speaking about openly for months now. But those serious allegations are just not true.
- [49:55]
Sam Cedar
Okay, so here is Bethany Mandel confirming exactly what Jeet said, that the original story about him knowing about the tattoo, which was in, I think in the. Was in the forward. Where. Where was they?
- [50:14]
Emma Vigeland
It was in Jewish Insider, and they did not disclose in their piece that she was a Republican operative.
- [50:21]
Sam Cedar
It was a. It was one anonymous source who said, oh, he knew what it was. And here is that put up that tweet. And here's where Bethany Mandel, like, I
- [50:35]
Emma Vigeland
think good friend of this individual, inadvertently.
- [50:39]
Matt Leckie
Mandel is a nasty person in her own right. We don't have time to get into that.
- [50:43]
Jeet Heer
But.
- [50:43]
Sam Cedar
Yes, but inadvertently reveals in a, you know, trying to go at it with Michael Tracy, bless his heart. Bethany Mandel says Lindsay is loved, respected and trusted by everyone in town who has the pleasure to know her. It's telling that Michael fans finds this concept confusing. She came forward with the Totenkampf many months ago, naively believing that a Nazi tattoo would be disqualifying. Unfortunately, that was not a bridge too far. Much to our dismay. Now, first off, are we really to believe that a Republican operative thinks a Nazi tattoo is disqualifying? Like, how many people
- [51:26]
Jeet Heer
specifically wrote an article saying that we need to befriend Nazis and that is the best way to deal with the problem of the far right?
- [51:35]
Emma Vigeland
Yes.
- [51:36]
Jeet Heer
So I absolutely do not think that she has an issue with the tattoo.
- [51:43]
Sam Cedar
But she's been on this beat for a while, apparently, in trying to tell reporters who would listen. And only one outfit was willing to.
- [51:55]
Emma Vigeland
CNN too.
- [51:57]
Jeet Heer
I think CNN later picked it up.
- [51:58]
Sam Cedar
Okay.
- [51:59]
Jeet Heer
But. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [52:00]
Emma Vigeland
And still shoddy from cnn.
- [52:02]
Sam Cedar
Yep. And. And, and so this woman was. Was the one who supposedly, you know, said that he knew what the tattoo was. And I don't know, like, gee, let me ask you this, because I want to move to the War Powers Resolution and some other sort of more substantive stuff. But this is obviously a big deal because Tuesday is the main primary and there's still, you know, I mean, if Grand Platinum was a dropout after Tuesday, for whatever reason, the party would then just appoint somebody. And it sort of feels like that's what's still going on. Like the party wants to appoint somebody.
- [52:40]
Jeet Heer
Yeah. It's kind of curious because, I mean, if the, you know, like, let's say, you know, one thinks that, you know, all this stuff is just too much. You, you don't want somebody, you know, who's potentially risky the way there is. You have to have a plan B. Well, you know, like first of all, they already had a plan B, which like Chuck Schumer and all the establishment support. It was Janet Mills and she's still on the ballot. And she had an anonymous source talk to like CNN said, you know, Janet Mills is, you know, still on the ballot. So this is your plan B. Somebody who's like not willing to campaign and, and has some friend, like announce that she's still alive. That does not inspire confidence in me. Does not inspire like the idea that like this is the person who's going to take down Susan Collins. Like it would be, you know, if the Democratic establishment, like, willing to offer someone halfway plausible, you know, like I might think, like, well, you know, like Platinum is not the one. But like, it's quite remarkable to me that they are, you know, their plan B is someone who's not even willing at this date to campaign. Like, that's, that's amazing.
- [53:52]
Sam Cedar
Amazing.
- [53:53]
Jeet Heer
They just wanna, they just want this on a platter. They just want the voters out of the system. They just want to be able to say, you know, this is our nominee, love it or lump it. I know, just like Mills had driven. And the thing is on democracy, than anything one could accuse Platter of, she
- [54:14]
Sam Cedar
was the plan A. And she and Schumer big footed all other candidates, from what I understand from people in Maine, that there were other people considering a run back, you know, at the beginning of 2025. And Schumer and Mills kept them out, said, you're not gonna aim fundraising, don't go up against the Democratic establishment. And so that's why we got a bunch of people running for governor on the Democratic ticket. Like that's not a coincidence. And, but, but what's weird to me is like, why now? Because if I'm the Republicans, like, if this is all I got, but even if I have more, why am I even waiting? Why am I not waiting until after the primary? Because we're listening. The bottom line is we're five months out. And this story, it really is a non story. In fact, like people are already talking about the story itself being the story as opposed to the substance of the story. You're five months out and Graham Platner is still like, if he runs like he ran during the primary, he is going to be visiting places in Maine three or four times more than Susan Collins. And like, people are going to have like an upfront look at him and every time he does that, he picks up more support. This feels like a desperate ploy to get him out of the race as opposed to, you know, we're going to fight the actual campaign against Collins. Like, that's what it feels like to me. Like, this seems more desperate than. Because it just. The timing doesn't make sense.
- [56:07]
Jeet Heer
No, I. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Except the sense that, like, I think there's a bipartisan, you know, alliance of sort of, you know, centrist establishment, heavily pro Israel people who just do not want Platner running at all. Right. And I think that if they. And you know, like, they have constantly tried to throw dirt at him and they've constantly. And this is why, you know, going back to the tweets that were going out, they're hinting like, at much more like serious, like, you know, like real crimes which they are not able to substantiate. And so to me, like, it's almost like one shouldn't credit them so much as strategic with them when the best Mandel thing. Like, it's like that they're constantly trying. They're trying to see what they can come up with to take this guy down. And like, like I said, like, I have my own, like, you know, sort of doubts about Platner, but like, I'm being negatively polarized to think like, well, if all these people, you know, everyone from Bethany Modell to Neera Tandem, like, hate this guy so much, then like, you know, like, you know, maybe there's something to him and that's the way anti system politics works. I mean, this is actually why I think, like, you know, a lot of the stuff against Trump didn't work. A lot of stuff against Marion Barry didn't work. Because if. If you're seen as like, I'm the person that's going to stand up to the establishment, then the fact that they keep on trying to come up with these cockamamie stories, like, just like reinforces your status as the. I'm the guy that's fighting the man.
- [57:39]
Emma Vigeland
And I know that we have to move on, but I just have to say in this, if we're for all of the talk about how the Democratic Party needs to win back young and how they've lost young men and how the excesses of Woke 1.0 included like this over cancelization and then no, no opportunity for people to redeem themselves, then the fact that this is the tactic that's being used by the Democratic establishment to quadruple down on what was really not a good political orientation, regardless of whether or not it was fair to attribute that to the Democratic Party. And there were a lot of people who had, you know, good intentions, of course, when MeToo was happening and we had to listen to women, of course. But, like, if the Democratic Party acknowledges that perhaps, you know, there were some messaging issues at that time period, the fact that they are using those exact same tactics against Platner for things that are shaky accusations in and of themselves and don't involve sexual assault, for example, is, like, better for him probably in the long run, because that is the exact kind of orientation that has not helped the Democrats politically.
- [58:56]
Jeet Heer
Yeah, no, I think that's right. In this case, the very shaky. The shakiness to me is a primary. Like, I think there are cases of, like, a politician who, you know, like, I broadly like agreed with Al Franken being one, where, like, thought about, well, it's better, you know, not to go forward with this. But I mean, I don't. I don't think with Fonder. Like, like, I'm actually shocked that, like, you know, like, just how shoddy this particular story is. Like, it is really, like, on a whole different level. Yeah. And so, yeah, I think that's all that can be, like, to me, that sort of primary. And then I guess the more politically interesting thing is the coalition, this coalition of centrist Democrats with people who are like, really, like, in the case of Mandel, people, like, openly gloat. Like, you know, I wish we could drop a nuke on Gaza, but it would spread some radiation into Israel, which is what she tweeted. Like, you know, this alliance between centrist Democrats with people like that.
- [59:59]
Emma Vigeland
Yeah, it's a Zionist smear campaign. This is a Zionist right wing smear campaign. We didn't even get into one of the authors of the piece and what her past history is with pro Israel groups and the fact that her parents literally live, I think, in high school. Yeah, yeah. I wonder if that influenced her and her past coverage of Zoran Mamdani as well, by the way, at the New York Times.
- [60:22]
Jeet Heer
Yeah, yeah.
- [60:23]
Sam Cedar
You would imagine the Times would say, like, we got to make sure that we're not accused of bias in this instance and. Nope, nope.
- [60:34]
Jeet Heer
I mean, like, to go back, I mean, this is a bit of a historical thing, but, you know, one of the leaders of the American far right and, you know, the far right in Israel, Rabbi Meir Kahan, like, you know, There's a fascinating story in the American Prospect about how in the 60s it came out that he was leading this double life of having an affair with a woman who got pregnant. He was pretending to be this other guy named Michael King, and then she committed suicide, you know, driven by his bad behavior. And the Times had that story and they decided to, like Abe Rosenthal, the editor said, like, you know, we can't run this. Like. Like, it'll encourage anti Semitism. So, like, I see, like, you know, like, it's a very bad situation. The Times is like, you know, so willing to let this sort of politics guide their coverage. It's not very.
- [61:25]
Sam Cedar
Yeah, it's shocking. I mean, I don't know if it's shocking. I mean, it's shockingly consistent from them,
- [61:32]
Jeet Heer
let's put it that way. There's a long history of this.
- [61:35]
Sam Cedar
All right, let's turn to the War Powers act, because Congress had. Mike Johnson had essentially dismissed Congress two weeks ago in an attempt to avoid this vote that they took two nights ago. I guess it was Wednesday night. Wednesday night, yes. And the House, the War Powers Resolution passed in the House, a version had passed in the Senate. I guess it was like two weeks ago or three weeks ago. And I think it's going to have to go back to the Senate. But there's no reason to believe, particularly like, you know, now that Cornyn lost, too, that it's not going to pass in the. In the Senate. I know you just came out with a piece. I haven't had a chance to read that, but what's your sense of this? It was reported with such little fanfare that no one seems to think that it's actually, like, relevant.
- [62:41]
Jeet Heer
Yeah, well, I mean, here's the thing, though. Under the War Resolutions act, they have something that's called. Called sort of a concurrence or a legislative veto, which means that you just have to have the House and the Senate vote for something and that this then becomes. Goes into effect. And it's consistent with the Constitution because the Constitution says that only Congress has the right to declare war. And so obviously it doesn't make sense that if Congress says no war, that the president has a veto over, you know, something that is a power of Congress. But having said that, the Supreme Court, it's a little bit weedy. But in a 1983 decision, INS vs Chadha, they said legislative vetoes can't apply. They really empowered the imperial presidency. But there's a lot of questions as to whether Chadha applies to the War Resolutions Act. And even Lewis Powell, who had voted for Chadha in his decision, said it doesn't. So it's actually a real constitutional crisis. But I mean, I think the broader issue is, like, it's as clear as clear can be in the Constitution that only Congress can declare war. But we have this crazy system where the, you know, the president often declares war and then Congress, after the fact, has to restrain him. So I think it's a real, like, constitutional crisis. And this is why, you know, J.D. van said war powers resolution is fake and unconstitutional. And my worry is that it's going to go to the Supreme Court and they're going to just eviscerate what little check there is. But I think it's a battle worth having. Like, I think it's actually worth getting everybody on the record. Like, we actually, like, believe what the Constitution says, or are we just going to have, like, be like, late imperial Rome of, like, the emperor can do whatever he wants, and we could be
- [64:32]
Sam Cedar
a month away from that kind of decision from the Supreme Court, it seems to me. Right. I mean, the Senate's going to take this up at one point. I think it's a privileged bill, so someone's going to introduce it, if they haven't already.
- [64:44]
Jeet Heer
Yeah, no, the Senate has to decide in the next two and a half weeks under, like, the War Resolutions Act. So it's going to go to the Senate. I think, as you're right, it'll probably pass. I think maybe the Supreme Court will just bunt on this and say, we're not going to take up this issue. Because, I mean, the question is, like, how do you. Like, you will have Congress basically saying, you know, we're exercising our constitutional power. You have to end this war. But then the question becomes, will the courts allow them to enforce that? I will say, like, you know, in the early 70s, Warren, I think it was Justice Black actually enforced the congressional statement on Cambodia. He ended the bombing of Cambodia, saying, like, you know, like. But I don't. But it's a very different court, you know, like, so, so, so. But I do think that the constitutional issue of presidential power is absolutely at a head. And I think it is a crisis. And I think, like, people like, you know, Roy Khanna, who are, like, pushing this, you know, would do well to like, actually, like, like, let's, let's make this, like, you know, like, this is a fundamental issue that really goes to the heart of the system. And, like, you're allowing Trump to wage all these wars, not just with Iran, but, you know, like, in the Caribbean. Like, like, I think it's, it's, it's like flagrantly unconstitutional and it's worth having this fight.
- [66:04]
Sam Cedar
The stuff we've done in the Caribbean, I don't, I don't know how you characterize it. Other than murder.
- [66:08]
Jeet Heer
Yeah, yeah.
- [66:09]
Sam Cedar
I mean, it's not war. We're just randomly bombing ships that even if we stipulate what the justification, what, why the administration says they're doing it because there's drugs on board, that's still, that's not war and it's not legal and it's, it's murder. We're just have a state sanctioned murder
- [66:33]
Jeet Heer
program, essentially, which the Pentagon itself is worried about. I mean, I think, you know, a lot of the leaks coming from the Pentagon were from the idea that, you know, like, you know, like this stuff is murder and like, you know, Trump's out of office. You know, like we're going to be held liable, like the military commanders who did the double tap are going to be held liable. And I think it's a hard fight. I mean, I think there's a lot of Democrats that will not want to have this fight. I think it's an absolutely crucial fight to have. I don't actually see how you can have a smaller republic, democratic regime where a president has that sort of unchecked power.
- [67:12]
Sam Cedar
Jeet here we will link to your piece on the War Powers act because this could be the, I mean, the, the maybe the latest version of the Supreme Court basically saying we're gonna just have, we just have a king. I mean, you know, that's, and they may, they may end up doing it with like a, you know, a shadow docket type of thing. They may not even touch the case. I mean, it would be a shadow docket. We're not accepting the case. This is a political matter and that's where we'll be. And meanwhile, Donald Trump, and you wrote about this too, that Donald Trump is like having a tough time with his birthday party, America's 250th. Let's talk about this just for one second because he's now like, the reporting is now that he is basically done with the Iran ward, not done waging it, just done engaging with it because all he cares about is who's going to be performing at his 250. I mean, like, this is like not a joke. I mean, it's a joke. It's real. And you know, and let me just say, because I want to hear your take on this, but I am old enough to remember the 200th birthday. And as a kid, I was a kid. I was nine years old, I think it was. And I remember, like, the bicentennial train coming, and I remember, like, in the. In the tall ships and, you know, like, look, you know, at nine years old, I wasn't as sort of like, jaded and curmudgeonly and skeptical as I am now. I mean, slightly, but not. And, I mean, I remember that from a civic pride standpoint, it meant something. You know, I got to see the Constitution, you know, and, like, none of this is just like. Like, I mean, I'm just thinking in terms of the kids. Like, I don't even want to tell my kid, like, you know, it's the 250. Like. No.
- [69:31]
Jeet Heer
Well, we kind of had, like, a big issue with this because we actually, the nation is going to have a 250th anniversary issue. But we were planning it out, like, you know, like, you know, like, it's hard to think of, like, a positive celebration of the American project because, unfortunately, Trump is president, and, like, Gerald Ford was president in 1976, but they did the proper thing, which, you know, like a normal functioning country does, which they had a bipartisan commission. They came up with all these patriotic things of, like, big parades that we could have. And this actually, what had already been planned, like, in 2016, when Obama was president, they, your Congress passed, like, a whole raft of things to how we're going to celebrate the 250th anniversary. But then Trump, being Trump, created, like, this alternative organization which is corrupt, which has, like, private donors funneling money and which has, like, you know, like, all these, like, has been bans that was even, you know, once they realized that they were being used by Trump, most of them bailed out. So he turned everything into a travesty. I mean, like, it is. I mean, maybe it's like, a redeeming factor that, like, he's so caught up in his own vanity and wanting to, like, turn Washington, D.C. into a giant Trump Tower with his name flashed over everywhere, which is, you know, a. It's disgusting and garish and a travesty, but also, like, less destructive than, like, you know, amping up the war in Iran or whatever. But still, I don't know. I mean, there's a. Probably a serious reckoning with patriotism. I mean, I'm a little bit. I mean, I do actually think that, like, nationalism, national pride has, like, a value, like, you should actually be proud of, you know, the great things your country did as well, as also being trying to rectify the crimes that your country has committed. But, you know, like, Trump has like, it is remarkable. He has like kind of killed any sort of patriots of. And then that this rally that's going to happen now, you know, the July 4th rally that's they're going to have in Washington. It's going to be a Trump rally, like talking for four hours, you know, about how great he is and like, you know, all the real estate deals that he made, maybe like illegally using Village People music. So, like, they're gonna have to.
- [71:57]
Sam Cedar
They're gonna have to give a day off to a whole raft of federal workers so that they can attack the Capitol again. Because half those Jan Sixers have been hired by the administration.
- [72:08]
Jeet Heer
That might actually be it. Like, because I think in the bicentennial they had people reenact the Boston Tea Party. So maybe that is the fitting conclusion. Sick travesty. Like, let's reenact January six. I mean, that is what the country has come to. But, you know, part of me thinks also, like, it's worth, you know, just like facing this squarely, like the worst truth is better than the best lie. So, you know, we're getting the worst truth.
- [72:38]
Sam Cedar
Jeed here. National affairs correspondent for the Nation magazine, host of the podcast the Time of Monsters. Thanks so much for your time. Really appreciate it.
- [72:49]
Jeet Heer
Always great to be on. And also I give props to Emma, who's been doing everything we talk about Grand Flatler. She's doing the gumshoe reporting.
- [72:59]
Emma Vigeland
I don't know about that, but I'm just posting online because the Knicks weren't playing last night. So I gotta get my blood pressure up another way.
- [73:10]
Jeet Heer
Okay, thanks.
- [73:12]
Sam Cedar
Cheat. Yeah, folks, that does it for the free half of the program. I gotta say, the IMs are lighting up. Some people are starting to realize how old I am.
- [73:26]
Brian
Is it also are they lighting up because G implied that Brett Michaels from Poison is. Has been.
- [73:35]
Matt Leckie
I think that's just you, Brian.
- [73:37]
Sam Cedar
Brian is livid. Is it the other person they have on there? Is it. Is it Ice? Who? Or is it Vanilla Ice? Vanilla Ice, Yeah.
- [73:49]
Brian
Another extremely relevant current artist.
- [73:54]
Sam Cedar
Were we able to score Vanilla Ice?
- [73:57]
Emma Vigeland
You know what's so funny is if you were to.
- [74:00]
Sam Cedar
You're kidding. Oh, my God.
- [74:03]
Emma Vigeland
If you were to ask me where what band Bret Michaels was in, I wouldn't be able to.
- [74:09]
Brian
I know. I know it from a reality tv,
- [74:11]
Emma Vigeland
but I know him from. From the reality TV show that he
- [74:14]
Sam Cedar
did because I could have probably said
- [74:15]
Matt Leckie
Poison, but I don't Know a Poison song. What's it. What's Poison?
- [74:18]
Brian
Every rose has its thorn.
- [74:20]
Sam Cedar
Yeah.
- [74:20]
Matt Leckie
I mean, I know that's a song, but I'm sorry that in 2026, no one's playing.
- [74:23]
Emma Vigeland
I mean, that era of rock is horrendous.
- [74:27]
Brian
I need everybody to understand that I was kidding, and I've never liked Poison because I'm starting to panic.
- [74:32]
Emma Vigeland
Yeah. No, no.
- [74:33]
Sam Cedar
All right, Brian.
- [74:34]
Emma Vigeland
The poison, 1980s American rock. I feel like rough time, Rough time
- [74:41]
Brian
When I'm not wearing a hat, I tease my hair out.
- [74:43]
Sam Cedar
Real big back combs.
- [74:45]
Brian
And I wear a scarf and a leotard.
- [74:48]
Matt Leckie
Deep V neck.
- [74:50]
Sam Cedar
Oh.
- [74:50]
Emma Vigeland
You know why Brett Michaels will 100% be the guy? He's been on Celebrity Apprentice.
- [74:54]
Sam Cedar
No, he backed out. He canceled.
- [74:56]
Emma Vigeland
Oh, he canceled.
- [74:57]
Jeet Heer
Yeah.
- [74:57]
Ro Khanna
Yeah.
- [74:57]
Jeet Heer
He's okay.
- [74:57]
Brian
I got a statement being like, I didn't realize how partisan this was.
- [75:02]
Emma Vigeland
Holy moly. He can't even get him.
- [75:04]
Brian
No, that's a real example of somebody who withdrew.
- [75:06]
Emma Vigeland
I thought we were just joshing.
- [75:09]
Sam Cedar
What's fascinating is that, like, the. There's. Nobody's afraid of the backlash from the, like, rock solid Trump supporters.
- [75:21]
Matt Leckie
Yeah.
- [75:22]
Sam Cedar
In a way that we sort of saw the first time around. Like, you know, like, culturally speaking, Trump has lost this battle. They're taking his name off of the. The Kennedy center, incidentally, apparently sent him
- [75:36]
Brian
into a wild tirade rage.
- [75:40]
Sam Cedar
And the thing is, what's also great about this is that they got the corridor, and it was like the employees there. I feel like it was like they got the corridor, and they're like, I'm working overtime tonight. I'll be down there with my ladder and, you know, my pry bar. And they're pulled that sign down, like, so quickly that it was, like, amazing. I think they put everything, all the Trump stuff onto the Kennedy Center. They used Velcro, and they're just, like, pulling it right off now. But. Oh, people are really criticizing you about poison. You better.
- [76:17]
Emma Vigeland
I don't. I don't like. Yeah, hair metal and that era of.
- [76:21]
Brian
I'm sure they're criticizing me, not you.
- [76:23]
Sam Cedar
No, they're criticizing Brian for liking it.
- [76:26]
Matt Leckie
Embarrassing.
- [76:27]
Emma Vigeland
It is so embarrassing, honestly.
- [76:29]
Matt Leckie
Go let him know on Instagram how much you think it's embarrassing that he loves Poison.
- [76:34]
Brian
And just like what Nickel said, every rose does have its.
- [76:41]
Jeet Heer
Such a strong metaphor.
- [76:42]
Emma Vigeland
Wow. The poet of our time. Do you know that he was born in Butler, Pennsylvania?
- [76:50]
Sam Cedar
Oh,
- [76:53]
Brian
so maybe that's why he didn't cancel.
- [76:58]
Matt Leckie
Oh, I just realized what that means.
- [77:00]
Emma Vigeland
Traitor. Traitor.
- [77:03]
Matt Leckie
It goes so deep.
- [77:04]
Emma Vigeland
You know no known known Iranian known Iranian sleeper cell. Brett Michaels.
- [77:14]
Sam Cedar
All right, folks, it's your support that makes this show possible. You can become a member@jointhemajorityreport.com when you do, you not only get the free show free of commercials, you also get the fun half. So join themjorityreport.com keep this show thriving and surviving which is my second favorite poison. Also just coffee.co op fair trade coffee, hot chocolate. Use the coupon code majority get 10% off. You can buy the majority report blend. Matt, what's happening in the Matt Leckian media universe? Yeah.
- [77:57]
Matt Leckie
Coming up here for the show, new Jacobin show, David Griscom and I, Bernie's AI sovereign wealth fund idea. And an interesting question from Caitlin Collins which reminds us of the McMorrow thing where she said you really want Republicans to be in charge of having a stake in these companies? And the answer is yes, because otherwise it's just up to investors.
- [78:19]
Sam Cedar
Otherwise it's just up to Republican investors as opposed to like, like democratically, theoretically democratically accountable with zero public mission. Yeah, exactly.
- [78:30]
Matt Leckie
Yep. So we talk about that. That's coming up.
- [78:33]
Jeet Heer
Jackman show.
- [78:34]
Matt Leckie
Subscribe to the Jackman show on YouTube at Jackman Mag.
- [78:38]
Sam Cedar
Folks, also, don't forget the AM Quickie. Get your day's news in email digest form about five minute read every day. We've got two great work writers who work on the the AM Quickie, Corey Pine, Whitney Wimbish. You may have seen Corey work in the past. He's been in all the lefty spaces and Whitney is just killing it over at the American Prospect. Cannot recommend the stuff that she's been writing more. But every day one of them puts the news of the day in a basically a five minute digest. Amquickie.com in your email box 9am every morning. Check it out. Am quickie.com also see you in the fun.
- [79:34]
Jeet Heer
Half.
- [79:40]
Sam Cedar
Left is best. Jamie and I may have a disagreement.
- [79:45]
Emma Vigeland
Yeah, you can't just say whatever you want about people just because you're rich.
- [79:49]
Sam Cedar
I have an absolute right to mock them on YouTube. He's up there buggy whipping. He's the boss. I am not your employer.
- [79:55]
Jeet Heer
You know, I'm tired of the negativity.
- [79:57]
Sam Cedar
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. You're nervous. You're a little bit upset. You're riled up.
- [80:02]
Brian
Yeah, maybe you should rethink your defense of that, you idiots.
- [80:05]
Sam Cedar
We're just going to get rid of you.
- [80:07]
Brian
All right?
- [80:08]
Sam Cedar
But dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude you want to smoke this joint? Yes. Do you feel like you are a dinosaur? Good. Exactly. I'm happy now. It's a win, win. It's a win, win, win.
- [80:27]
Emma Vigeland
Oh, hell yeah.
- [80:28]
Sam Cedar
Now listen to me. 2, 3, 4, 5 times 8479-065014-57238, 56, 271 half. 5, 8. 3.9 billion. Wow. He. He's the ultimate math nerd. Don't you see? Why don't you get a real job instead of stealing vitriol and hatred? You left wing Limbaugh. Everybody's taking their dumb juice today. Come on, Sammy, Dance, dance, dance. Grandpa, I had my first post coital
- [81:04]
Jeet Heer
scene with a woman.
- [81:06]
Sam Cedar
I'm hoping to add more moves to my repertoire. All I have is the dip and the swirl.
- [81:09]
Jeet Heer
Fine. We can double.
- [81:11]
Sam Cedar
Yes. This is a perfect moment. No, wait. What? You make under a million dollars a year. You're scum. You're nothing.
- [81:17]
Ro Khanna
Excuse me.
- [81:18]
Sam Cedar
You. You fucking liberal elite. I think you belong in jail.
- [81:23]
Jeet Heer
Thank you for saying that, Sam. You're a horrible, despicable person.
- [81:27]
Sam Cedar
All right, gonna take a quick break. I want to take a moment to talk to some of the libertarians out there. Take whatever vehicle you want to drive to the library. What you're talking about is jibber jab.
- [81:40]
Emma Vigeland
Classic. I'm feeling more chill already. Good.
- [81:44]
Sam Cedar
Donald Trump can kiss all of our asses.
- [81:49]
Brian
Hey, Sam.
- [81:50]
Jeet Heer
Hey, Andy.
- [81:51]
Sam Cedar
You guys ready to do some evil? Hitler was such an idiot. That guy might be a Nazi.
- [81:57]
Emma Vigeland
Agree.
- [81:58]
Sam Cedar
No.
- [81:59]
Ro Khanna
Death to America.
- [82:02]
Sam Cedar
You.
- [82:04]
Jeet Heer
Yes.
- [82:06]
Chair of Independent Women's Forum
Wow.
- [82:08]
Sam Cedar
Wow. That's weird.
- [82:10]
Jeet Heer
No way.
- [82:12]
Sam Cedar
Unbelievable. This guy's got a really good hook. Throw our hands.
- [82:20]
Jeet Heer
Wow.
- [82:23]
Sam Cedar
But Sam, I gotta get off. No worries.
- [82:25]
Jeet Heer
Let's, let's.
- [82:25]
Sam Cedar
I want to just flesh this out a little bit. I mean, look, it's a free speech issue. If you don't like me. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Shut up. Thank you for calling in to the majority report. Sam will be with you shortly.