← The Tara Palmeri Show
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- [00:02]
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- [00:30]
Tara Palmeri
PALMERI SHOW hey, guys. Welcome to the Tara Palmeri show and the Red Letter. Thank you so much for joining me. So much breaking news, and that is why I'm dropping in right now. And it's on a story that I have covered closely. It is about the candidate for Senate in Maine, the Democratic candidate, Graham Platner. And his candidacy has been enshrouded in scandal from the start. But it has gotten much worse in the past 24 hours. Politico has a bombshell report from one of the women who has accused him of abusive relations, abusive behavior, this time alleging rape. And it has really, really rocked the race. We now have a number of leaders in the Democratic Party like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Hassan Piker guy, Ruben Gallego, Congressman Ro Khanna, they have all rescinded their endorsements. Bernie Sanders, the fact that he is calling on him to step down, I mean, that is pretty substantial. Uh, we're going to go over all of this and more, but first I want you to know that you can send your questions in at any time. It's really helpful, keeps the show moving and we can talk about, you know, what you want to know. I can give you my insight why this ended up happening the way that it did, what can happen next. But I really want to hear from you and as always, consider becoming a member of the Tara Palmeri Show. And you can go to the Red letter and read my exclusive reporting and get it straight to your to you. You can support independent journalism. You can see there's a barcode in the corner of the screen. I just wrote a piece about why the Graham Platner allegations didn't surprise me. And that's based on, you know, two decades, nearly two decades of independent, of being a journalist, investigative journalist, and my experience with speaking with victims of sexual abuse and how it actually works and how really, for every one woman that comes forward, there are usually five behind them who are, who fear doing the same. The way that the power structures work, the system, they are not incentivized to. And I'm going to go into more of that. But first, I Want to just talk about the, the breaking news right now. What is going on? So let's play the interview. It is with Lindsay. I'm. I want to get her name correctly. Sorry. Jenny. Rack a cot. Lindsay was another one of the women who accused him of disturbing behavior. But Jenny Rocket Cop 41, she told POLITICO that Flatner had grabbed her forcefully and that she remembered the specific moment when she realized, this is no longer my choice. So listen to Jenny for yourself. She is a former girlfriend alleging that in 2021, Platner entered her home intoxicated and forced her to have sex over repeated objections. Take a listen to her interview here.
- [03:54]
Jenny Racacott
He was heavily intoxicated, had intentions with me and wasn't listening when I said no.
- [04:00]
Interviewer
And you were saying, no, don't. No, don't. Over, over and over.
- [04:05]
Jenny Racacott
I remember, you know, obviously I've had to recall a lot of this. This is something that I tried for many years to forget. And so small details, you know, might get past me. But yes, I remember very specifically saying I'm not into this. I remember that. The most sort of saying that the, the most firmly I remember specifically him like grabbing at my chest and I like hit his hand and I said, don't touch me. And I remember that during the altercation.
- [04:36]
Interviewer
And then he kept going.
- [04:38]
Jenny Racacott
Yeah.
- [04:38]
Interviewer
I know that you have been very reluctant to tell this story. Very reluctant.
- [04:44]
Jenny Racacott
Yeah.
- [04:45]
Interviewer
I'm actually surprised you're here.
- [04:46]
Jenny Racacott
Thrown up three times today.
- [04:48]
Interviewer
Is that right?
- [04:49]
Jenny Racacott
Yeah.
- [04:50]
Interviewer
Why did you ultimately decide to do it? Why. Why come forward?
- [04:56]
Jenny Racacott
A few reasons. One of the biggest ones is that I think that there are a lot of men in this world relying on the silence of women.
- [05:11]
Tara Palmeri
That is a very powerful statement to end on. There are a lot of men in this world relying on the silence of women. Now we are going to go to Platner's response. He has his own video that he posted last night. In the meantime, he has said that he's weighing his decision whether he's going to stay in the race, even though most of the party leaders and figures in the party have told him to step down and he's canceled all his events. And so far the, the DSCC has stopped running. This is the Democratic Senatorial Committee. They have stopped running ads for him. But let's take a listen to his response.
- [05:54]
Jenny Racacott
Twitter.
- [05:55]
Tara Palmeri
Go roll the tape. Sounds like we don't have the response on Twitter yet, so. Oh, here we are.
- [06:08]
Graham Platner
Accusation of non consensual behavior is categorically false. Over the last 10 months, I have been Deeply humbled by the faith Mainers have put in me. You have welcomed me into your homes, into your places of work, into your restaurants, into your houses of worship. You have shown that a different kind of politics, one that puts the interests of people over corporations, is not just possible, but is inevitable. This movement, we have built the largest volunteer base in the history of Maine politics, the hundreds of thousands of grassroots donors and the supporters across the ideological spectrum. We were united in a love of maim, a belief that our politics must change, and a focus on defeating Susan Collins. So regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality it will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins. Those were the goals when we launched this campaign, and they remain my goals. Today, on June 9, 154,058 manors, the most in primary history, voted to reject a broken politics beholden to Washington and the donor class. They voted for hope, for change, to take back our economy, to take back our power, and to take back our Senate seat. Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me, and I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so. As Maine goes, so goes the nation. As always, thank you.
- [08:06]
Tara Palmeri
Yeah, so this is. You know, obviously, they. His team is saying that it's a. It's not a coincidence that it's coming a week before the deadline for Platner to drop out of the race and remove his name from the ballot. And there's some breaking news already. There has been a candidate who's come forward already, and his name is. I'll get you some more details on him. His name is Troy Jackson. He's the former former Maine State Senate president. He's filed exploratory committee paperwork with the Federal Election Commission just a few hours ago. And he had been running for governor of Maine, but lost the Democratic nomination last month. So that is the latest. Since then, the. Like I said, the DNC stopped running digital ads. The d. The Democratic Senatorial Commission threatened to hold funding if he stays in the race, and the main Democratic Party called on him to drop out. Okay. And now, by the way, this isn't based on just one woman's allegation of rape. He has had many problems, which I'm going to talk about the New York Times in June reported on three women, three of Platner's ex girlfriends who broadly described having volatile relationships with one with him. One alleged that he was, was once physically restraining her. He denied this. He does admit that he was far from a perfect boyfriend, citing his PTSD from military service. And this is exactly what 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. So, you know, there's three women, they all have stories of unsettling behavior. This is borderline abusive. Well, one of those three women who we just talked about, she, she came back and said, I haven't told the full story. She felt that the New York Times had in fact downplayed her story and her reporting. And you know, she, she said she needed to tell what happened. Her name is Jenny Racacott. We just talked about her. She's the one who, who accused him of non consensual sex or rape, as it is called. And she had an interesting tweet this morning which I found to be, as, as a reporter, something that, it's like really something I think about a lot, frankly. She said, I'm gonna, I'm gonna read it. I know it's called X, but I'll still call it Twitter forever. But I actually understand why Democrat leaders didn't take our stories seriously when the Times reported them in June, but are taking them seriously now. It was by design. The line most shared from the piece was the claim that the Times could not cooperate my story. Despite talking to two of my friends, I gave them the contact information for five friends they called. The two I clarified would not know about the abuse, but would be able to affirm our relationship. Timeline, events, etc. They simply did not call the other three. I also gave them the names of all my former roommates, remembered him stalking our row house, which was about five houses down from his, and waiting for me to return. I gave them screenshots of messages between these roommates and I discussing it. I gave them the names of other men I dated who might have remembered him following us around the hill and showing up on my stoop after we walked home from dates to confront us. I gave the emails to my landlord urgently ending my lease and moving to an apartment across town, and diary entries talking about it all time marked. I told them that during premarital counseling I had spoken to my ex fiance about the abuse because I had to explain to him why I reacted with such terror anytime he lost his time temper. They said, oh no, we don't need to bother him or my priest. Besides, I had already written about it in a diary, in detail. As the weeks dragged on, I stopped trying to give them evidence because the amount of time I had already given them seemed to overwhelm them. And I thought it meant they clearly had more than enough evidence to veri more than enough to verify my claim. My, my friends might not have known the detail of the abuse, but they affirmed that yes, I had told told him that he was abusive long before he ran for Senate. Besides, they assured my part in the reporting would be small. I thought my details would only serve to affirm Jenny and the other anonymous women. Jenny and I, having never met or spoken, both shared with these reporters terrifying similar accounts of intimate partner violence, coercive control, and cycles of abuse and love bombing. The third unnamed woman in the story did as well. But tell me again how they could not cooperate. So this is a problem in journalism. Women, the stories of their abuse, they're very difficult to confirm, and for so many reasons. Their stories are not told because they are so difficult to confirm, because they're forced to go on the record to talk about their abuse, because the standards are just so high. And the stanzers are the standards department of these newspapers who don't want to get sued, right? And so they create these impossible barriers that make so many stories almost impossible to report, frankly. And that's why when I saw the Platner allegations, I assumed that it was much worse than what the New York Times reported. Because in my experience as a journalist, this is what I kept seeing over and over and over again. I wrote about this in the Red Letter. It's not this story, which I will talk about, but the one I posted last night. Why the Graham Platner allegations didn't surprise me. So when I was 25 years old, I had my first opportunity to write about a case of sexual abuse. And I know I use the word opportunity and that's a little grim to be talking, but very grim to be talking about how deeply disturbing this is. But this is the kind of consequential work I've always wanted to do as a journalist. I wanted to do stories that would result in real change, expose power structures, inequity, and tell the stories of those who are forgotten. And that's often people who are accused of sexual abuse. My producer, Abby, is showing a picture of me in the newsroom when I was 25. And I got a call one day from a lawyer who said that his daughter had. His friend's daughter had been raped on Columbia's campus. And it wasn't just her. It was two other girls who were alleging the same. From the same man on campus, another student. And the. They felt that the school did not. That. That the school should have expelled him, that there should have been a more adequate process. They felt like the power structures were favoring this young man who was an athlete. It was really hard at the time to get the New York Post right about the story. And the truth is, at that time, it was pre. Me too. We're talking about 2013. And women did not feel comfortable coming out and telling their stories. The. The fear. I mean, these girls would have had to. They were literally juniors in college, and they would have had to go up against a university, an Ivy League university, to tell their stories. They could be ostracized before they even start their young lives and careers for speaking out. And so I knew how difficult it was going to be to get these girls to go on the record. I also knew about the legal challenges of putting a young man, you know, in a. In a New York Post, in the. In a newspaper, in one of the top 10 newspapers in the world. And I knew that it wasn't the type of story the New York Post normally did, but I printed it. I got it in the New York Post, and I think we could scroll up and it was exclusive, and there's a story. But there is one thing about this story. Not a single person's name was on the record at the time. Not three girls and not the accuser. It was really mostly about the school and the way that they handle it and the unhappiness of the families with how they handled it and their lack of rigorous, I guess you could say, investigation. Thought about maybe the fact that my. My editor was a Harvard grad, that maybe that was partially why he let me run the story, because it was just so atypical of the New York Post and the type of story that they would normally do. But I really believed in it.
- [17:06]
Interviewer
It was.
- [17:07]
Tara Palmeri
It spoke to my core as a journalist who wanted to expose abuses of power, as a muckraker. And I had to go to campus and I had to try to talk to this young man, and I had to earn the trust of these girls who were frightened and already gone through such horrific experiences at such a young age. And that was my first experience with It. But I knew that that was the path I was supposed to go on in my career. Well, one of those girls, Emma Suka. Emma Sukowski. It might be Sukowitz. Excuse me. She became a sensation, an overnight sensation. She was so angry that even after the New York Post story came out that nothing happened. The school still didn't take her case seriously. She decided to go on the record in a YouTube video, actually, and she told the world what happened. And then the school still didn't do anything. So she went even further and she carried her mattress around campus and she's now known as Mattress Girl to some. But she started a revolution before even me too. And so that was my first step in the process that I am in now. And as you know, as so many of you know, I traveled all over the country with Virginia Giuffre and I've been working on the Jeffrey Epstein story since 2019. And that is why when I saw what happened with, with Graham Platner and I heard these stories, I thought to myself, there has got to be more. Sure, yes. Horrific. He has a, he had a tattoo that he got in cross Croatia that has a Nazi symbol in it. Okay, that's, that's troubling enough, right? He had written on, on Reddit that women who get drunk sort of should just accept that they're being raped. Right? I mean, this is, this is insane. Here, here's what he says. How about people take some responsibility for themselves and not get so effed up that they wind up having sex with someone they didn't mean to. Men and women, you make a choice to consume enough of a substance to let lose your self control. So if you don't want to be in a comprise compromising situation, act like an adult for f sake. So basically blaming the victim, which is insanity. And you know, there was more. There were women who said that when he was married, he was still, you know, on these various dating sites, he's in a texting scandal with other people. It's just messy. There were so many red flags around this man, but the Democratic Party stood by him. Even though their greatest contrast right now is that they are the party of morals. Right? I mean, that is their contrast with President Trump and the Republican Party that has been in lockstep behind him. President Trump has been accused by, you know, over two dozen women of sexual abuse and harassment. So this is there they are the party that was willing to give up everything it stood for to back grand platter. And I said, is it really worth it? Are you willing to give that up, you know, And I think with Graham Platner, I think for him it was hard for them because they don't get candidates like this every day. Right? He is a veteran. He doesn't look like your typical Democrat. Right? Doesn't look like a coastal elite tattooed. He's an oyster farmer. He's got like that look from central casting. In fact, a bunch of Democratic operatives actually found him and he was running against Janet Mills, who was the former governor of. No, sorry, is the governor of Maine. And she does win in a purple state, which is impressive. But she's in her 70s. And as we know, this party has spent way too much time in the wrong generation trying to keep, keep the old guard alive. So they finally find this guy who they can cast like central casting. It's exactly what President Trump does. And that's what they learned. But he's. It's not everything is what it seems. Not everything is what it seems. And you know, I talked to a lot of people, a lot of Democratic operatives about it. And by the way, even just asking the question, just asking that, like, at what point does a political party decide winning matters more than the principles it claims for? I mean, I was attacked. I was called a. I was accused of taking money from apac, running a swift boat campaign, serving a propaganda, accepting money from foreign governments, and my personal favorite being called a walking mortadella. I don't really understand that. But as you know, my dog's name is Pancetta. But you guys all know I'm not for sale. Actually, I'm. I am in business because of all of you. So thank you all for being here with me and supporting me. This is a membership run show. We have some ads occasionally, but it's really you guys that keep me going because I am not for sale. But obviously you can continue to support me by becoming, becoming subscribers, joining membership on YouTube if that's where you are. And if you are on substack, you can become a subscriber and paid subscribers. Great, because, you know, it keeps me in business. But yeah, he was discovered by Democratic operatives. They loved his profile. He was cast. And you know, the problem is, is that authenticity isn't a costume. Okay, so even the details around him started to unravel. He wasn't this like scrappy working class guy. Although to him, working class is someone who works because, you know, he went to an elite boarding school, Hotchkiss, cost about $80,000 a year. He received a substantial mortgage from his attorney father. And yeah, he's, he's not exactly what they had said. And so, you know, this is a, you know, for so many years, Democrats have, have argued that politics isn't about winning elections, about character and accountability is about standards. And now many of them, they were willing to look the other way, but this is a case in which you can't. The other problem too is that Platner, he wasn't running away with the race. Yes, he won 70% of the vote in the primary, Democratic primary, but he was basically neck and neck with Susan Collins, who actually should be an easy seat for Democrats to win. And Susan Collins, as you all know, is a Republican member of the Senate and she's extremely vulnerable. This was a great pickup seat for the Democrats. So, you know, you got to ask yourself, how did the Democrats end up in a position where Platner was the best available option? And what have they been doing in the meantime as all, all of these, these, these issues surface up? I mean, even his, one of his campaign aids, when she tried to leave, they offered her, his former political director, they offered her an NDA of $15,000 to never repeat the things that they discussed because things that she saw, she said, were impossible to ignore. That's her Genev McDonald. I mean, clearly the Democratic Party knew that this person was troubled, that this was not a great candidate. And so, yeah, and as we've talked about a lot on this channel, that Washington is a place filled with temptation. And, you know, I totally understand ptsd, especially for someone who has, you know, toured in the Middle east multiple times, as Platner has, he's a, he was a Marine, that it can be really difficult. And yes, many people turn to drinking and that can lead to violent behavior. And we give grace, like Americans, we love a comeback story. But you know, this. Should we be giving grace to a person who's about to take one of the most powerful positions in the country to head to Washington to represent us? You know, to deal, to have more alcohol, more power lobbyists, people telling them they're right at all times. It's funny, Steve Schmidt, who many of you know from the warning, he's a, he's a friend of the show. He said, if you can't control yourself in rural Maine in your L.L. bean town, it's going to be hard in Washington. Wait till you see the ladies in their evening gowns. I think he's right. And then, you know, a Democratic operative said the same thing to me. Like, how, how did we, how is my only choice a 70 something candidate, Governor Janet Mills, or a crazy person to take on arguably the most vulnerable senator in the country. That's a systematic Democratic problem. And here we are with a week to go before his name can be taken off the ballot. The Republicans would be thrilled. And I said, there's gonna. I just had a feeling there would be more. Having worked on cases, having worked on stories, on investigations that involve vulnerable people. Survivors. Victims. I mean, they are. They're traumatized. They have so much to lose by coming out and telling their stories. They have to reopen the wound to tell you the story. They have to trust you. That's the hardest part is getting these women to trust you, because once they come out and tell their stories, their lives are never the same. And what do they often get? Nothing. They get mocked. They get. They are remembered as the woman who tried to come up against power or the man and to be shut down. I mean, look at Christine Blasey Ford, what happened to her, and so many others. And the risk is just so great. And some people, they're struggling to even tell themselves, because people assume that after you're assaulted, the first thing you do is you run to the police or a reporter, or you go and tell everyone. You know, usually the first time people are assaulted or you go to a doctor, they're trying to tell themselves that everything was normal, it was okay. They're disassociating. They're in a panic phase, the panic mode. And they don't do rational things. And so it can be hard to collect evidence. And that's what reporters want and. And do. And, you know, I've been there. I. I've covered the Epstein story for a very long time. I've spent hours and hours and hours with survivors sitting across from them and, you know, asking them to tell me these. These horrific details, asking them questions. No one should ask another person about the worst experiences of their lives.
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Graham Platner
And.
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Tara Palmeri
And then, you know, they. They choose sometimes to never. Never want to be published again. And. And I don't. I mean, or they don't want to publish it, and I. And they decide they don't want it out there. And I have to respect that. I mean, this is unlike any other type of reporting, and political reporters aren't necessarily equipped for this. Political reporters are used to combat. They're not necessarily equipped for empathy. And so that's what makes it even more difficult. And that's why I think, you know, we really have to think as. As. As journalists is partially why I've created independent media. I think we have to think about the way we report how high these standards are to tell these stories. The Eric Swalwell story would have never been told if not for the Democratic activist, Cheyenne Hunt. Journalists knew about Eric Swalwell, but it was Cheyenne Hunt who started publishing the stories of Women Without Fear. And she was the one who managed to make this happen because their media companies are afraid. This, the bar is too high. You have to literally prove. You have to go beyond even what some, I think the court of law would, would, would, would prove. So that is, that is where, where I stand on why. I had a feeling when I had heard about those three instances that there was more. And I've been there. I've been there with many survivors who have only told me part of their story on the record, and I've kept a lot of it off the record. People wonder, why did the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein not say the names of the men who assaulted them? Because they're afraid. Because they know that they are going up against power. It is easier to talk about a dead man, Jeffrey Epstein, than it is to talk about a man who is still alive, who has billions of dollars, a man who is, you know, who's still able to ruin their reputation, someone who's celebrated. That's so difficult. That requires a level of bravery that really, a victim, anyone should not be forced to do. But of course, we have to do the journalistic process. We have to assume innocence. We have to do rigorous journalism, allow the other side to tell their story, to treat it just as seriously. But there needs to be something fundamentally changed in how we do this type of reporting. People need to be heard. We shouldn't make it so that it is impossible. But I remember when I was a kid and I obviously watched a lot of 60 minutes and 48 hours and all the news magazine shows, Dateline, and I remembered that victims of sexual abuse that they would always come out with of distortions, their faces, their. The sound of their voices. It was scary. And it. It actually amplified the shame, the shame of abuse. It made it even worse. You didn't want to associate as that person who couldn't show their face, that victim who is struggling so much they couldn't show their face. And we know that one in four women is sexually abused, and we know there are so many other men will never speak about it because of all of the shame and children that are abused. So it's like this is so endemic to society and it's just something we don't talk about. And I think we need to change the report on it. You know, I've been talking about this for a while now and I want to take some of your questions. I know you've been chiming in all along. I also would love to, you know, obviously give you an opportunity to. Yeah. Throw in your questions. Of course you can support my work by becoming a member of the YouTube channel, becoming a subscriber on Substack. That barcode in the corner will take you to Substack. You can read my lead, my latest piece, which is why I had a feeling basically why, why the Graham Platner allegations didn't surprise me. And even though I took a lot of heat a month ago for calling this out in my piece before that, what happened when I asked about Graham Platner? I, I think I was asking the right questions. And here we are. I had a feeling we weren't at the. It wasn't the end of the story. It's silence is the beginning. All right, I'm going to take some questions from you guys. Jesus. Acosta asks what happens if he doesn't drop out? How many voters will stay home and not vote at all? If not vote for Platter. I mean, obviously that's what Republicans are opening. He, he still got 70% of Democratic primary voters. But Maine is a purple state. You have to convince people who are voting Republican for a more moderate member of the Senate, even though she did obviously vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh and you know, she's, she votes with Trump frequently. Susan Collins is often a sticking point. You're trying to convince people in a purple state to come out and vote for a man that is so scandal scarred, it's a huge advantage to Susan Collins. Get another question up there. Oh, actually I'm getting some, I'm getting some questions from Substack. Tara, why? Oh, let's see. Let me see what you guys. Tara, why did the House vote 357 to 265 to steal the harassment records of members? Why can we not get them leaked? It's a really good question. I don't understand why public officials, civil servants, who. We pay their, we pay their. We pay for them to work. I mean they work for us. Right? Like that's where our tax payer money goes. They are def, by definition civil servants. And so shouldn't we have the right to decide how, you know, they're scrutinized and they be held to a higher standards? They represent us too. They're not only paid by us, but they also represent us. And they seem to have, you know, an HR process that I don't even think a corporation would have in terms of its secrecy. So, yeah, I think it's, I think none of them should be able to have NDAs. I think that this should all be public. We need to clean up Washington. People in power have become drunk with power and we don't need to send more of them to Washington. Another question up there. How do you think Platner should drop out of the race? I'm not going to say whether Trump, Platner should drop out of the race or not. I'm going to give you the information and you guys should decide. I can tell you that a lot of them, I think I can tell you that it's going to be really hard for him to keep going when you've lost the heroes of the republic, the Democratic Party like Bernie Sanders, Hassan Piker and the establishment like Chuck Schumer. And the DNC won't run ads for you. And you, you know, the state has told you to drop out. It's going to be nearly impossible for you to keep going. He's weighing his decision, but I would bet that we hear by the end of the day that he's out of the race. Why should it be a surprise for Bernie to call him. Call for him to drop out? Given it is a serious allegation, I don't think it should be a surprise. But why did they not call for him to drop out sooner? That is the real question. Getting your questions, Tara. Why are people like Kevin McCarthy saying the GOP never votes for people with these kinds of scandals? Roy Moore, Brett Kavanaugh, Trump, Herschel Walker, Max Miller. I mean, even now it. That's absurd. Corey Mills. No, it's a problem on both sides of the aisle, but they've lost some moral high ground. The president of the United States has been accused of how many women of sexual assault? I don't even know why they can. That argument is completely moot and I think they know it themselves. But for some reason. Yeah, I. That's absurd. That is absurd. Natalie Brown, are we sure he is not a planned a Republican in Democratic clothing? Yeah, I don't think so. He actually was picked by Democratic operatives, so I'm going to say no to that one. They actually thought, oh my God, they, they used Trump's idea of central cast. But what happens when you get central casting? Got a lot of people that don't exactly fit what they were hoping for. Okay, let's see. I'm going to see if there are any questions from Substack.
- [36:53]
Jenny Racacott
Foreign.
- [37:03]
Tara Palmeri
Has the women's allegations been looked into? Ryan asks. Women lie to Ryan. Burton asked that one. They have actually, she complained. If you listen to my earlier reporting, she sent out an ex saying that she felt that she had provided a lot of substantive evidence to back up her claims, but that the New York Times instead said that they couldn't corroborate it. And that's why she went to Politico because she felt like her story wasn't heard and that the gravity of the story, that it really. That the story didn't have enough gravity because she didn't tell the full story of how she said that she was. She had non consensual sex with him when he broke into her home, went up her stairs and forced her to have sex with him. But she said that she didn't feel like the New York Times had accurately reported that because they had not actually followed up with her reporting. So she goes to Politico and told them the story. Who knows if they had done it that way, if the story would have been different. But yeah, I had a feeling there would either be more people or that that these women weren't telling the full story because again, telling the full story is terrifying. What the F is walking Mortadella and will you TM it? I don't. You know what? I'm gonna TM it because my dog, famous pancetta. So there's definitely this little like Italian meat thing going on and I should make my own meats. I should have red letter meat. Red meat. Yeah. No, it is pretty funny. I think it may have been a bot that did that, but I did. I was on the other end of attacks and people are still writing on my wall that I'm a Zionist, that I'm taking money from foreign governments. This has nothing to do with that. I can't be bought. That is not my. That is not my thing. You guys are keeping me in business. You being here, telling your friends, becoming subscribers, joining with paid memberships and you know, that is how I'm here. It's not any other way. But to so many people who see this as an existential race because it does mean control of the Senate. And frankly, the party should have seen it as an existential rates and probably knew what was going on and should have figured this out. They had choose to vilify anyone who says, hey, hang on a second. Is this really what you want to stand for? Mission comes first Says who are the people who decided to Vet this guy. I don't really know how that process works. But do you know how the vetting process works? Well, the party, they should be involved in some way in, in trying to establish whether a candidate has viability. Right. This is before they become a nominee. But that is part of the process is to try to see if there are any other ghosts in the closet. Right. Skeletons in the closet, as they say. What, what's going to come out. And that's a really big part of the process. But also, if Graham Platner is the guy you want, you like his style, you like his vibe, why isn't there a bench of Democrats in Maine that are grand platters already, but grand platners that are authentically grand platters, not some guy that you picked to become a grand planner that has all of this baggage, you know, why isn't the party doing more to actually recruit to build the local level? And I'm not saying go straight to Senate. I mean, he's, he doesn't have a political career, which obviously you don't need to have anymore. But what are they doing to actually create a bench? And that is problem. Democratic Party really has no bench. Jacob Taylor says, I'm a chef. Summit red letter charcuterie would sell great in northern Norway. Yes, Red meat. I would love your thoughts on that. The branding of my meat. Although Donald Trump has steaks too, and I think that's a little weird. So I think I might have to draw the line on charcuterie. Cindy from Subsack says, I'm just curious if DNA testing was available when you did the first story on the mattress girl. I, I recall they did go to the police, but maybe not the night of the, of the attack. You can actually go back and read the story. I do think, you know, I have to go back and read it myself in a more detailed way. And I'm not sure that we went into all of that, but DNA testing, again, a lot of women, there's so much shame around this type of crime that they don't go to the police right away. And being the way that you're managed and handled inside of a hospital and inside of a police station is very re. Traumatizing in itself. It's. Yeah, it's a terrifying thing. And, and in the case of, of the woman who just came forward, I mean, she obviously is rape. It was non consensual and she was at that point thinking of like, what happens if I end up pregnant with this child? Because obviously there was no protection used in that Case. Here we have some more. Let's see. And Jacob Taylor has another interesting question statement. The establishment didn't want him. It. It is an indictment on Schumer and Gillibrand. Yeah, we don't want to be doing Trump stakes. We have reindeer. No, it is true that the establishment did not like him. They probably saw that. But what was the establishment doing in the meantime to offer up another candidate who wasn't Janet Mills? That was the establishment candidate. Janet Mills is the governor of Maine. And not to take away from her because she's obviously a shrewd politician to be winning an apparent purple state. But she is 78 years old. Really? We're gonna give her six more years. Look at what's going on with Mitch McConnell. They're saying he's not well. And. And the idea the establishment's best offer was a woman who's 78 years old. The reason that Graham Platner was so great was because he was young, he was fresh, he was authentic. The word that everybody loves. But no, not all that is what it seems. Term limits. Natalie Brown says bingo. Wasn't it ironic that Trump got the red card overturned and USA lost to Belgium while you and Abby should disparage herself to England versus Norway and ask the fans what they think of the lunatic? Okay, so if. First of all, it is crazy, but Belgium is a world class team. I actually lived in Brussels for two years. I was a foreign correspondent there. I helped launch Politico in Europe when I was in my 20s. And Europe is life. Football, I mean, sorry, soccer is life in Europe. It's football. Right. We don't really have a soccer culture here. Did we really think that we were going to beat a European team? Come on, all the talent. We have a huge country with a ton of talent, but soccer is not our. It's not our sport. Maybe one day. I hope so. I think it's safer than football, frankly. But yeah, it's a bit of. That's American arrogance to think we could just like jump on the field and try to take it from the Europeans that have their own Euro Cups. And they have. And by the way, Abby is British, but a British American, so we know who she's. Who she's gunning for. And as someone who lived in Belgium for a few years, I will obviously be rooting for them. But then I also studied in Spain for a few months of my life. So very conflicted. But I think I'm going to help. I think I'm going to stand by the Belgians because They have such a dysfunctional country and I think they could really use a win. So. All right, we're back to Jake Jacob again getting us back on track on the real story. What kind of steps are realistic to stop these kinds of candidates being put forward, accusations being covered in Congress? Realistically they we need to pressure our members to make it illegal to sign a non disclosure agreement. You have to make it, you should have to, you should have to disclose before you even run for Congress whether you have signed a non disclosure agreement. House Ethics should be committee needs to be way more transparent than it is right now and we need to hold our candidates to a higher bar. We need to get the politicians, we need to get the political operatives out of it and we need to start looking for grassroots people who are involved in their community, not plucking people out of thin air that look cool because they're a marine and an oyster man. All right guys, I think we're going to wind down soon. Joshua Friday. Hey Josh. Josh is on the team. He's got a question. The fact that DSA did not endorse that the Democratic Socialists of America did not endorse Platner help the do the Democratic socialist rep in this case or will that not matter to voters who recently showed support towards DSA candidates? I don't know that people think about who endorses that deeply, but I could be wrong. I don't, I maybe they do, maybe they don't. I think, I think people are kind of over parties but I, that could be me projecting but that's in my and my general scrutiny of politics and organized politicking. But thank you guys for joining. As always, you can hit the subscribe button. That is how you support the show. You can become a member on my YouTube channel. We're going to set up Hulk membership offerings. We'll be able to do events, we'll be doing all sorts of great things. More integration into the channel. I want more of you guys in the lives. I want to have this be more of a conversation about breaking news. And if you're on substack, please hit the subscribe button. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to the Red Letter. As I have been saying, I am not for sale. I can't be bought. No foreign governments, no political parties. Independence, me working for you. Meaning regardless of some days the Republicans hate me, some days the Democrats hate me. But I'll keep it straight and you can go to the QR code to go to my substack. That's where you can read my reporting, all of my essays. You can get my exclusive breaking news straight to your inbox. And yeah, all of your support means everything to me. So thank you for becoming members and subscribers. And thank you to my team, Joshua Friday, who's new, and Abby Baker, who you all know. And of course, my managers, Dan Rosen and Nicole Staple and Adam Stewart on the graphics. Thank all of you, too. Okay, have a great day. We'll stay tuned and keep your eyes peeled. I have a feeling there'll be more news out of Maine.
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