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Eye On Politics · Newsradio WGAN

• 0:00
  We of course have our Eye on Politics team with us right now.
• 0:02
  I think we're still working on getting Eric on though.
• 0:04
  We have Keith with us though. Keith, how are things?
• 0:07
  Good. How are you?
• 0:08
  Well, not too shabby. Appreciate you asking.
• 0:11
  While we wait for Eric to saunter into the program, as he
• 0:14
  occasionally does, let's talk a little bit about Graham
• 0:17
  Plattner. Yesterday, another story drops
• 0:19
  about old Reddit posts. These of course were deleted,
• 0:22
  but we now have, you know, a lot of people looking for stuff and
• 0:27
  they've found more. I don't even want to repeat the
• 0:30
  porta potty one. That one is pretty gross and not
• 0:34
  exactly PG for the audience out there right now.
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  If you got kids, hide your ears. The one about a soldier and
• 0:41
  deserving to die? Certainly not exactly the best
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  foot forward I think either for him.
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  My question for you though, Keith, is does any of this
• 0:48
  matter? I've heard some people make the
• 0:50
  argument that we are in a post post scandal world of sorts
• 0:54
  where, you know, this kind of thing just doesn't really have
• 0:57
  much of an effect at all anymore.
• 0:58
  I mean, that's obviously been true inside the Democratic
• 1:00
  primary, but now that we're moving on to the general, does
• 1:02
  that stay true? What's your take on all this?
• 1:06
  It it, it seems that it doesn't matter much.
• 1:09
  And I'm not sure it's like you're insinuating.
• 1:12
  I'm sure I'm not sure it's exclusive to this race and in
• 1:15
  Maine, it seems that people are now able to endure these kinds
• 1:19
  of scandals that just a few years ago I think would have
• 1:22
  destroyed a political campaign and probably a political career.
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  And you've certainly seen comebacks in a lot of ways.
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  But now you don't even have to have a comeback because it
• 1:30
  doesn't seem to to matter. Mark I'm I'm not sure.
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  I'm not sure that that any more of the Reddit disclosures are
• 1:40
  going to matter in this thing that seems to have been digested
• 1:44
  by most people and and moved on. If if there's something else
• 1:48
  surfaced, I have no idea that that it will that might that
• 1:52
  might change the thing. But it seems that people have
• 1:54
  made their opinions about Graham Plattner based on what he's
• 1:57
  posted on on on Reddit, and further disclosures probably
• 2:01
  aren't going to matter too much for this campaign.
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  Do you think, why is that, Keith?
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  I mean, what ultimately, how did this ultimately become the place
• 2:09
  that we're at? You know, it's an interesting
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  question. I, I, I don't know, like if you
• 2:17
  think about it, we've been dealing with this probably all
• 2:19
  the way back to the Clinton presidency and the disclosures
• 2:22
  around his issues with Monica Lewinsky and other and other
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  women. And he sort of endured that and
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  got through that, went through a couple of years of not at the
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  current president has certainly had his share of scandals and
• 2:34
  has gotten beyond beyond all of those.
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  And it's, and it's in the in the regular media and celebrities
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  and everything too. We seem to just become a nerd to
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  it as a, as a society. I'm all for forgiving people for
• 2:49
  transgressions of the of the past, but we certainly seem to
• 2:52
  have gotten to the point where we give almost everything new.
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  Cycle is very fast, things get forgotten very quickly.
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  I'm not sure the commercial ads are going to let us forget Grand
• 3:01
  Platner's issues very much because they seem to be all over
• 3:04
  the place. But we we certainly seem to have
• 3:07
  moved on as a society. All right.
• 3:09
  Eric Lusk, who is joining us now, is also here.
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  I had an opportunity to see Eric last night, and we chatted about
• 3:15
  this very briefly. Your thoughts, Eric Lusk, on the
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  latest Platner scandal. And more importantly, the
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  question I asked Keith was whether or not this stuff
• 3:23
  matters. Will it actually have an effect
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  on this race, Eric? Is Graham Platner part of the
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  new blue wave? So at, at at any rate, yeah,
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  it's it's going to be a problem for Graham Platner.
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  Because if I put Susan Collins up against Graham Plattner, one
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  person clearly has got a fair degree of integrity that she can
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  point to and say when it came to endorsing or not endorsing the
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  lower moments of Donald Trump's various campaigns and activities
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  and behaviors, Susan Collins was against it.
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  Now the voters are going to be able to contrast the two.
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  And I think it is going to make a difference.
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  There is a very clear yuck factor to Graham Plattner and
• 4:22
  he's going to be famous for years.
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  I, I, you know, James Watt of the Reagan administration was
• 4:28
  famous for decades after Reagan had said goodbye to James Watt.
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  And I think watching Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries come
• 4:40
  out in support of Graham Plattner is going to be a lot of
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  fun. They're, they're going to be a
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  long time living this one down. So it is going to be an issue.
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  There are a lot of unenrolled, AKA independent voters who are
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  going to say they don't want a part of what Graham Plattner is
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  putting forward. And they're going to stick with
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  Susan Collins, who is a known entity, known quantity, and is
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  probably the fifth most powerful person in Washington, DC right
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  now thanks to being the head of appropriations.
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  I think Mainers are going to pass on the yuck factor.
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  So how do you currently handicap the race right now?
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  Back to you, Keith, for a second.
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  I mean, set aside the scandals and whatnot.
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  Just give me the overall impression of where things stand
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  right now. I mean, if you're looking at
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  this general election and you see Platner versus Collins, I
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  know that there's been very, very limited polling.
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  There's been some a little bit, but not too much.
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  There's vibes tests all over the place.
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  Your thoughts on where things actually stand for real?
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  I think it's, I think it's neck and neck and basically a horse
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  race tie right now. The, the, the Platiner has
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  certainly tapped into, I think the anger that exists out in the
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  country on both sides of the political spectrum were in
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  Maine, really all three sides of the political spectrum.
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  I think a real anger at the establishment and the elite,
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  real anger at billionaires, at AI, at a number of other things.
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  He's tapped out in that and, and, and despite his things, his
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  issues, I think that message is resonating across the political
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  spectrum in a real way and gives him a, a real chance to overcome
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  some of the challenges that are in his, in his campaign.
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  I differ with Eric in that. I think, I think his messaging
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  has tapped into a real thing and I think it's, it's, it's brought
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  him up to par. I also think there's tremendous
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  desire for change, certainly amongst Democrats and I think
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  well into the independent sector as well.
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  Trump's popularity is very low. That's going to drag Susan
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  Collins down despite her, her reputation, tremendous
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  enthusiasm on the Democratic side to want to, to, to vote
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  here. And I think this race is going
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  to be very close and going to be neck and neck right up until the
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  end. And I, I think that's, I think
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  that's where we start. It's going to be a long 5 1/2
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  months here before election. Day.
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  Yeah, no kidding. It is Eric Lusk.
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  Your your state of race. You know, give me the state of
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  the race address. Susan Collins wins somewhere
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  between 8 and 15%. Sorry, but somewhere between 8
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  and 15 points. Is that currently true, Eric, or
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  is that your? Is that your end prediction?
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  Like are they both the same? Somewhere she's going to win the
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  race, somewhere between 8 and 15 points.
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  What do you think it is today? Like if you were to, you know,
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  say you're gay, everybody's going to vote today, What do you
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  is it that? Is it that much of A lead or is
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  that something that you think is going to emerge as more time
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  goes by? I I think if you held the
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  election today, which is obviously impossible because of
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  early voting and absentee voting, but if you held the
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  election today, she would win by 10 points.
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  OK there. You go and explain it.
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  Go ahead. This would not be the first time
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  that you have the left stream media making up what the poll
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  results look like. And when we go back to 2016,
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  when we go back to 2024, you have all of these pundits, all
• 8:16
  of the intelligentsia on the left who were surprised when
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  they wind up getting it wrong. And we can go back to 1994 when
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  the Republicans swept the House, took the Senate.
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  And I think out of 20 Sunday talk show hosts or pundits who
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  came on The Who would come on Sundays, one out of the 20
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  actually got it right. The the Republicans were going
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  to take the House and the Senate.
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  If you're watching CBS, if you're watching CNN, if you're
• 8:53
  reading, and I'm not sure many people do anymore, but if you're
• 8:58
  reading the Portland Press Herald, they usually are going
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  to get it wrong. Their polling is usually going
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  to reflect the bias. And I don't think what you're
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  getting out of the left stream media is actually going to be
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  the the final outcome. We're speaking with our eye on
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  Politics team and Keith and Eric are both with us here today.
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  Going back to you, Keith, for a second here.
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  I'm going to stick in main politics for a bit because
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  yesterday was the it's three weeks countdown before we hit
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  primary day. I've talked to a few candidates
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  on actually both sides of the aisle and I've asked this sort
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  of, you know, water cooler question like you ready for this
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  to be over yet? And I mean, to a person, they're
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  all like, Oh, my God, yes, this is any day now.
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  Please make it end. I think we've come to the end
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  for sure in terms of people's psychology about it.
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  My, my curiosity, though, Keith, is especially in the Democratic
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  Party. What do you think the current
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  winds are blowing to say? You know, I've had a lot of
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  people asking me what I think is happening over there.
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  I don't have the slightest bloody idea.
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  But it looked to me kind of like Shaw and Bellows tend to be the
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  ones that you think are dueling it out a little bit.
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  How do you view it? What do you hear?
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  What do you see? Yeah.
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  Well, first of all, I listened to all your interviews last week
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  and I thought you did a great job.
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  So that was that was that was awesome.
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  I think what you're trying to see here again, we've talked
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  about this for the last couple weeks and I also can't handicap
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  this race again. I think there's all kinds of,
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  there are all kinds of, of, of, of factors here that make it
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  very, very hard to handicap this race.
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  Everything from ranked choice voting to independents being
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  able to vote in the elections. And, and I think, you know, not
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  a ton of differentiation between the Democratic candidates here.
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  Their policies are quite similar on things they didn't see.
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  I didn't, I do think you saw some people try and break out a
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  little bit this week to try and differentiate, differentiate
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  themselves this this week. I think, I think Angus King is
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  trying to position himself as a little bit of a of, of not a
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  career politician and having bringing something else to the
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  race and maybe having a little bit more independent streak.
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  Certainly the governor came out and endorsed Hannah Pingree
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  yesterday. You know, I don't think that was
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  a surprise and it worked for the governor for many, many years
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  and was a good, was a close confident.
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  I think Troy has Troy Jackson has tried to put himself out
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  there you, you know, much more as the playing on the campaign
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  theme that has but he's really amplified the working class kind
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  of thing that he's going to take on the establishment and do
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  that. Shanna Bello's most recent ads,
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  you know, I think are trying to sort of show her as, you know,
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  the person who's most willing to stand up to to to Trump.
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  And I think Doctor Shaw's been out there, you know, over and
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  over with a consistent message around you, you know, some bold
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  policy statements. And he showed up, I think on CNN
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  and things to comment and remind people on, on the leadership
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  that he took during the, during the pandemic, showing up common
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  commenting on hantavirus and the, and the, you know, Ebola
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  kind of issues now. So I I think they're all trying
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  to do something to differentiate themselves.
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  But I still think you have five people in swim lanes largely
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  tied here trying to push on. I do not know who's going to
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  prevail in this race. But I do think what you will see
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  differently perhaps on the than on the Republican side is
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  whoever wins on the Democratic side, there will be a quick
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  coalescing of the party around whoever the victor is.
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  And maybe we won't have quite as much of that on the Republican
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  side. Well, let me ask you, Eric Lusk,
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  that very question. 7 people instead of five to deal with
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  here. And you know, there's one of the
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  interesting questions about this for a lot of voters is whether
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  or not they rank and whether or not those ranks are going to
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  matter in the end and all that fun stuff.
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  Question for you, Eric, is what you think is happening over
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  there And you know, the inside baseball track, you know, who
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  has the advantage is do you see late Breakers?
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  Do you see, see and hear people making decisions?
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  Your thoughts? If we're speaking about the
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  Democrat primary, I I'm surprised to be saying it looks
• 13:02
  like Nurib Shah is going to win it.
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  It looks as if the Democrat Party wants to throw out the
• 13:10
  establishment, which means that a Hannah Pingree is not going to
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  do particularly well. And as much as he sounds
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  reasonable when you have him on the radio, Angus King, the third
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  is probably not going to be able to breakthrough on this
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  particular lap around the block. He may do well in 2000 and wow,
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  2030, but I don't think he's going to breakthrough now.
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  It looks like Shaw is probably going to, thanks to rank choice,
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  pull it out in the in the Democrat primary.
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  And if you'd had the primary a month ago, if you had the
• 13:50
  primary election a month ago, you might have thought on the
• 13:54
  Republican side that Bobby Charles was going to run away
• 13:59
  with it. It doesn't look that way now.
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  And if I follow Bobby Charles posts on, hate to say it,
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  Facebook in the last couple of weeks, I get the impression you
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  have someone who does not who who is throwing caution to the
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  winds as he goes to label other people.
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  That means you probably got Ben Midgley moving forward.
• 14:26
  You know, Keith had alluded to the fact that there will be a
• 14:28
  quick coalescing of the Democrats once it's over on the
• 14:31
  Republican side. One thing you're alluding to is
• 14:33
  the fact that there does seem to be a bit more contentiousness.
• 14:37
  They in debates seem to be attacking each other more.
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  There's a micro sites that are going up, you know, calling
• 14:43
  candidates woke and then there's obviously push back against that
• 14:46
  back in the other direction. There's a lot of crosstalk and
• 14:49
  fire going on here. Do you think when it's over the
• 14:52
  party will be unified? Do you think that this bad
• 14:54
  blood, if any, has developed, is going to ultimately poison the
• 14:57
  well? Your thoughts?
• 14:59
  I, I think Keith is correct, the the Democrats are going to
• 15:02
  figure out a way to let the past be the past.
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  And I I'm watching Gavin Newsom sticking up for for Karen Bass
• 15:14
  in Los Angeles, even though she more or less was absent without
• 15:19
  leave when the Los Angeles was burning down.
• 15:22
  Yep, they'll be able to figure it out.
• 15:24
  It's a little bit more difficult on the Republican side to let
• 15:28
  bygones be bygones. However, if I look at some of
• 15:33
  the people who are at the front of the front of the polling
• 15:38
  right now, I'm not sure the roots are so deep that it's
• 15:44
  really going to make that much of a difference in terms of
• 15:47
  being able to get Republicans to coalesce around 1 particular
• 15:51
  candidate on June 10th. After the primary is over, I
• 15:56
  think the Republicans are going to be able to come back together
• 16:00
  again. I I don't think the the blood is
• 16:02
  going to be that better. Yeah, You know, I do think it's
• 16:05
  interesting if, if, if Eric's right and, and Midgley emerges
• 16:08
  here as a Republican candidate, I the, the Bennett candidacy
• 16:13
  then in the general election, I think really threatens to divide
• 16:16
  the Republican electorate here. And I, and unlike if it was if
• 16:21
  it was Bobby Charles, where I think that would represent then
• 16:23
  a different kind of opportunity for for Bennett.
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  I, I think Bennett's candidacy potentially really disrupts the,
• 16:30
  the Republican side of the ballot on this.
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  Be interesting to see what happens.
• 16:34
  Yeah, indeed, in the couple minutes we have left here, so
• 16:37
  maybe a minute answer for each of you, Nationally, we had
• 16:40
  Thomas Massie lose his primary. So Trump with another sort of
• 16:44
  victory there as he points at someone and that person wins.
• 16:47
  You also have him pointing at Ken Paxton in Texas.
• 16:50
  That one hasn't happened yet, but it's about two.
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  Your thoughts on this, Keith? I guess it's a mid term
• 16:55
  question. It it if Paxton wins.
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  If Paxton wins, Texas is actually in play.
• 17:01
  And I think that that that was a real mistake on the part of the
• 17:04
  president. Well, that's less than a minute.
• 17:06
  I love that Eric, your thoughts on this.
• 17:08
  You're free to go a little longer now that Keith just.
• 17:10
  I think I think Keith has got it right as far as Ken Paxton and
• 17:14
  Texas go, although the candidate who is going to be the Democrat
• 17:19
  frontrunner in that Senate race is not a particularly strong
• 17:24
  figure. But I I agree that Paxton does
• 17:27
  put the Texas Senate seat back into play.
• 17:31
  And people need to remember Donald Trump in some way or
• 17:35
  another is going to figure out a way to get into to get into a
• 17:40
  race. He is, in some regards, still on
• 17:43
  the ballot. He is indeed.
• 17:46
  I guess now that I have a little extra time here, guys, any
• 17:49
  thoughts on where we stand with the Iran situation?
• 17:52
  Keith, again very quick answer here for you, but.
• 17:54
  Just gets deeper and deeper and harder and harder here for the
• 17:58
  Republicans to figure out how to make any anything positive out
• 18:02
  of this. I mean, gas prices are killing
• 18:03
  people $65 for me to fill up my tank yesterday and I think
• 18:08
  people are starting to feel it really bad.
• 18:10
  And there people are just done with this over with.
• 18:13
  This is, it is a, it is becoming more and more of a drag on Trump
• 18:16
  and then and and hence for the party nationally.
• 18:20
  Eric, your thoughts? The next thing you know, Gavin
• 18:23
  Newsom in California is going to start saying drill, baby drill
• 18:27
  because oil prices are high. He didn't seem Gavin Newsom.
• 18:31
  The Democrats didn't seem to have a problem when a gallon of
• 18:35
  gas of Octane 87 was at 5 bucks. But now at 4:50, it's an issue.
• 18:41
  I think that we're watching the different Persian Gulf nations
• 18:47
  coming together saying we need to have a solution.
• 18:50
  The Chinese are coming together with those nations saying we
• 18:54
  need to have a solution. And the straw that is strangely
• 18:58
  stirring the drink is Pakistan. They've just sent a squadron of
• 19:04
  fighter jets and troops over to Saudi Arabia.
• 19:08
  I think this is going to be coming to a resolution thanks to
• 19:12
  the other Arab nations in the Persian Gulf and.
• 19:16
  We shall see. Gentlemen.
• 19:17
  Appreciate it. Thanks a lot as always.
• 19:18
  And we'll talk again next Wednesday.