Latest / Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar / 7/7/26: Platner Faces New SA Allegations, USA Loses To Belgium After Trump Intervention
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey, guys, Saga and Crystal here.
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- 0:29Speaker 1: dot com. Good morning, everybody, Happy Tuesday. Have an amazing
- 0:36Speaker 1: show for everybody today, Bro shows. Good to see you.
- 0:39Speaker 3: Awkward day for a BRO show, but very.
- 0:41Speaker 1: Yeah, I was actually thinking about that. Here we are. Yeah,
- 0:43Speaker 1: we that may not necessarily be the best day for
- 0:45Speaker 1: a Bro show, but Bro show is what the schedule is. Yees, yeah,
- 0:48Speaker 1: this schedule is. We don't create the news. It's good
- 0:52Speaker 1: to see you, my friend. We do have an amazing
- 0:54Speaker 1: show for everybody today and it's definitely good to be back.
- 0:57Speaker 1: So you probably saw and we will give you a
- 0:59Speaker 1: full rundown here of the Graham Platner situation. A former
- 1:04Speaker 1: associated of his coming out and accusing him of rape.
- 1:08Speaker 1: In a CNN interview and Politico story, Platner is weighing
- 1:12Speaker 1: whether to pull out of the race. We're going to
- 1:15Speaker 1: break down the full situation, just give you what you
- 1:17Speaker 1: need to know and some of the fallout from that,
- 1:19Speaker 1: with many Democratic leaders calling for him to drop out
- 1:22Speaker 1: so that somebody else can replace it. We're else going
- 1:24Speaker 1: to talk about FIFA. The United States lost yesterday four
- 1:27Speaker 1: to one to Belgium, a humiliating display after Donald Trump
- 1:31Speaker 1: put as much of his thumb on the scale as
- 1:33Speaker 1: he possibly could. It Actually, Ryan, in my opinion, would
- 1:36Speaker 1: have been better if we lost when he was gone,
- 1:38Speaker 1: so we could just blame it all that. You've got
- 1:40Speaker 1: to have something. Yeah, we got to say it was rigged.
- 1:42Speaker 1: This only reason that we lost. Maybe Trump will say it.
- 1:45Speaker 1: He actually said that it was. He said he's going
- 1:47Speaker 1: to ritten about it if we lost. So when to
- 1:50Speaker 1: talk about aires? A new internal report in the United
- 1:52Speaker 1: States Treasure that is warning of an AI bubble. We
- 1:55Speaker 1: have some new polling, some other interesting data point and
- 1:58Speaker 1: Michael Burray for the I think umpty time is calling
- 2:01Speaker 1: the AI top. You know, it's always one big short guy,
- 2:04Speaker 1: even though he has, of course said it many other times.
- 2:06Speaker 1: Caroline Levitt, some of you may have seen this White
- 2:09Speaker 1: House Press secretary saying that gen Z kids were born
- 2:12Speaker 1: with silver spoons in their mouth and they're lazy. Now
- 2:15Speaker 1: trying to clean up her comments after a honestly massive
- 2:19Speaker 1: meltdown by a lot of younger voters and others who
- 2:22Speaker 1: took her comments not particularly well in this economy, especially
- 2:27Speaker 1: after a lot of the gen Z younger voters the speeches,
- 2:30Speaker 1: especially the young men, had voted for Donald Trump in
- 2:32Speaker 1: the last election. And then Mitch McConnell. Is he alive
- 2:36Speaker 1: or not? Nobody knows, literally, nobody knows anything about his health.
- 2:40Speaker 1: He hasn't been seen for three weeks. He hasn't been home.
- 2:43Speaker 1: His wife is in China. There's all kinds of rumors
- 2:46Speaker 1: swirling around Washington. We're going to break that down for everybody.
- 2:49Speaker 1: Seems that he suffered cardiac arrest, according to leaked he
- 2:52Speaker 1: at what the EMS police report here for people who
- 2:55Speaker 1: showed up. He's in the hospital. We don't know anything
- 2:57Speaker 1: about his condition, and there's some speculation that they may
- 3:00Speaker 1: be not telling the public the entire truth to prevent
- 3:04Speaker 1: a primary which would allow Thomas Massey to replace him.
- 3:07Speaker 1: So we're going to break all of that down, and
- 3:09Speaker 1: of course Ryan and I are going to be doing
- 3:10Speaker 1: the AMA live now. Speaking of the AMA, this is
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- 3:47Speaker 1: some other updates here from the show, which I honestly
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- 3:58Speaker 1: and I are not going to be doing that silly
- 4:00Speaker 1: YouTube thing where we try to replace our words when
- 4:02Speaker 1: we talk about a very very serious situation. You know,
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- 4:17Speaker 1: and do that, or you can support our show if
- 4:18Speaker 1: you want to. All right, so hard turn Ryan. Let's
- 4:22Speaker 1: break down the Platinorm situation.
- 4:25Speaker 3: So his he he was dating on and off a
- 4:28Speaker 3: woman named Jenny Rassiko, who was featured actually in the
- 4:31Speaker 3: New York Times article that that made so much made
- 4:34Speaker 3: so many waves several weeks ago, where she said that
- 4:39Speaker 3: he had come over to her house uninvited, something happened
- 4:44Speaker 3: that made her think differently about him, and she basically
- 4:47Speaker 3: cut him off. She called his behavior at the time
- 4:49Speaker 3: reckless and unsettling. You might remember that moment, but at
- 4:52Speaker 3: the time she did not go on the record with
- 4:55Speaker 3: her full allegation, which is that he had unconsensuals with her,
- 5:01Speaker 3: that he raped her. He responded within I think six
- 5:05Speaker 3: minutes of the article dropping, they had put up a
- 5:08Speaker 3: video response. Let's roll that and then go through what
- 5:14Speaker 3: her allegation is.
- 5:15Speaker 4: I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious and false
- 5:19Speaker 4: allegations against me. Any accusation of non consensual behavior is
- 5:25Speaker 4: categorically false. Over the last ten months, I have been
- 5:29Speaker 4: deeply humbled by the faith maners have put in me.
- 5:33Speaker 4: You have welcomed me into your homes, into your places
- 5:36Speaker 4: of work, into your restaurants, into your houses of worship.
- 5:40Speaker 4: You have shown that a different kind of politics, one
- 5:43Speaker 4: that puts the interest of people over corporations, is not
- 5:46Speaker 4: just possible, but is inevitable, regardless of the inaccuracy of
- 5:51Speaker 4: the reporting, but mindful of political reality it will inflict,
- 5:55Speaker 4: we are taking the time to reflect on the best
- 5:57Speaker 4: path forward for the state that I love, that I love,
- 6:01Speaker 4: the movement I belonged to, and the goal of defeating
- 6:04Speaker 4: Susan Collins.
- 6:06Speaker 3: So that was the news that was in his two
- 6:09Speaker 3: minute video, which is that just if you didn't catch exactly,
- 6:13Speaker 3: regardless of whether it's true or not, he's saying he's
- 6:16Speaker 3: aware of the political impact that it's going to have,
- 6:18Speaker 3: and so he's evaluating the way forward. As of now,
- 6:21Speaker 3: he has not yet dropped out. The entire kind of
- 6:24Speaker 3: democratic political universes calling him the dropout, and people around
- 6:28Speaker 3: him suspect that it is a matter of when, not if,
- 6:33Speaker 3: at this point that his campaign is effectively over. There's
- 6:36Speaker 3: some discussion about who would replace him and what leverage
- 6:40Speaker 3: Platner would have in that decision, and we'll get to
- 6:43Speaker 3: that on the back half of this segment. But let's
- 6:45Speaker 3: go through some of her allegations, which she made both
- 6:48Speaker 3: to Politico and also in a sit down interview with
- 6:52Speaker 3: Jake Tapper at CNN. Let's roll a three here.
- 6:56Speaker 5: I remember specifically him like grabbing at my chest and
- 7:00Speaker 5: I like hit his hand and I said, don't touch me.
- 7:03Speaker 5: And I remember that during the.
- 7:06Speaker 1: Altercation, basically he kept going.
- 7:09Speaker 5: Yeah, and it was this weird mix of like coming
- 7:14Speaker 5: in and out of I don't think consciousness is a word,
- 7:17Speaker 5: but like coming to and kind of falling back into
- 7:19Speaker 5: that drunken but I don't know what I'm doing state
- 7:24Speaker 5: and yeah, and he just he would apologize in those
- 7:27Speaker 5: moments and then go back to doing what he was doing.
- 7:30Speaker 3: So he was aware that he was doing something wrong, Yeah, saying.
- 7:34Speaker 5: Sorry, I feel like he was in moments.
- 7:37Speaker 4: Is there any.
- 7:39Speaker 3: Way that he thought this was consensual or no, just
- 7:42Speaker 3: because I.
- 7:43Speaker 5: Don't believe that you can think that that scenario was consensual.
- 7:49Speaker 5: You have to understand that that wasn't when somebody is repeatedly,
- 7:53Speaker 5: I mean, when somebody in the middle of it says,
- 7:54Speaker 5: don't touch me, like, that's obviously not consensual.
- 8:00Speaker 3: You're not coming forward because you have any political motivation.
- 8:03Speaker 5: No, not at all. That was actually one of the
- 8:05Speaker 5: huge reasons that I didn't come forward and still struggled
- 8:09Speaker 5: like that was a huge moral conflict to feel like.
- 8:14Speaker 3: Because you'd like a Democrat to be in the Senate. Yeah.
- 8:17Speaker 5: Yeah, I like the things that he speaks about. They're important,
- 8:19Speaker 5: They're important to people. I'm one of those people.
- 8:23Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, you feel he's
- 8:27Speaker 3: not being honest.
- 8:28Speaker 5: He's not being honest.
- 8:29Speaker 3: No, that y'all also offered some other details about how
- 8:34Speaker 3: he came over that evening and how it transpired. Let's
- 8:37Speaker 3: roll a three B here.
- 8:39Speaker 5: Him and I were texting back and forth and he
- 8:42Speaker 5: had taken something that I said as an invitation and
- 8:47Speaker 5: that's not how he meant it. And I quickly clarified,
- 8:49Speaker 5: and I realized. I remember it being an instant where
- 8:55Speaker 5: I had recognized that he wasn't listening to me. It
- 8:57Speaker 5: wasn't just that he wasn't hearing me or whatnot. And
- 9:00Speaker 5: then I recognized his level of intoxication, and I knew
- 9:04Speaker 5: in that moment I wasn't safe, and I don't think
- 9:06Speaker 5: I was. I don't think I was safe to physically
- 9:09Speaker 5: fight back. He's big, he's strong, and I just had
- 9:15Speaker 5: to evaluate my safety and come up with the least
- 9:20Speaker 5: worst outcome to this situation, and so I felt like
- 9:25Speaker 5: complying for my safety was the least worst option.
- 9:29Speaker 4: But that's not consenting.
- 9:31Speaker 5: No, complying is not consenting.
- 9:34Speaker 6: Complying is letting him, is getting it over with so
- 9:40Speaker 6: that he didn't I don't I don't know what this
- 9:45Speaker 6: person is capable of.
- 9:47Speaker 1: I don't you know.
- 9:48Speaker 5: I don't think anybody does, And even people you know
- 9:51Speaker 5: for years and trust, you don't know the depths of
- 9:55Speaker 5: what they're capable of. And you were afraid for your safety, Yeah,
- 10:00Speaker 5: that was afraid for my safety.
- 10:01Speaker 3: Beyond not that rape isn't a horrific thing, but beyond.
- 10:05Speaker 5: Right, I didn't want to find out how unsafe I
- 10:08Speaker 5: could get that night, or how how harmed I could
- 10:12Speaker 5: be that night, So.
- 10:14Speaker 3: Soger, her allegation there is is pretty.
- 10:17Speaker 1: It's graphic.
- 10:17Speaker 3: It's graphic and very specific. So yeah, so effectively, she
- 10:21Speaker 3: says she reached out to him. He's maybe he's a
- 10:24Speaker 3: bar or whatever. He's obviously drinking. Whatever she said to him,
- 10:30Speaker 3: he took as an invitation to come over. She says, no, don't,
- 10:34Speaker 3: don't come over. Whether he saw that or not, he's
- 10:38Speaker 3: next thing, she knows, he's in her house.
- 10:40Speaker 1: Her house is unlocked. He shows up at her.
- 10:42Speaker 3: He just shows up.
- 10:43Speaker 1: She says, don't come here, right, he shouldn't be here, right, Yeah.
- 10:48Speaker 3: And then uh, and then she says she feels she's
- 10:52Speaker 3: he's so black out drunk looking that she feels afraid,
- 10:56Speaker 3: and so just she just complies, which Tapper then distinguishes
- 11:03Speaker 3: from consent. This so her version of the story. I
- 11:09Speaker 3: think as everybody hears it, everybody's like, yeah, that probably happened,
- 11:16Speaker 3: like that feels like that was definitely her experience of
- 11:20Speaker 3: how this went down, and she related to a friend
- 11:24Speaker 3: in I believe it was twenty twenty three. Yes, this
- 11:28Speaker 3: is which is very important because it's before his campaign starts,
- 11:33Speaker 3: and the friend is asking about him because she wants
- 11:36Speaker 3: to introduce a friend, a friend of hers, to him.
- 11:40Speaker 3: And she says, he can be charming and funny, and
- 11:42Speaker 3: he's a decently intelligent person. He's not all bad by
- 11:45Speaker 3: but I ended up in a bad situation with him,
- 11:48Speaker 3: and I will just very politely call him consensually careless
- 11:52Speaker 3: at times when drunk plus PTSD. And then she asks
- 12:00Speaker 3: because he forced himself on people, forces himself on people,
- 12:04Speaker 3: and she sends two responses. It appears that her response
- 12:09Speaker 3: to that is doesn't listen to you when drunk, and
- 12:13Speaker 3: so that to me is strong corroboration of her initial
- 12:22Speaker 3: claim that she reached out to him but then said no, no, no,
- 12:26Speaker 3: I don't actually want you to come over. He came
- 12:28Speaker 3: over anyway. She said I don't want to do this,
- 12:32Speaker 3: and then she was afraid he did it anyway. And
- 12:35Speaker 3: then she talks in the taper interview too about in
- 12:38Speaker 3: the morning, she says, so he slept over and in
- 12:40Speaker 3: the morning she says, do you even remember what happened
- 12:44Speaker 3: last night? And he says no, basically, and he had
- 12:50Speaker 3: tried to put his arm around her like and so
- 12:53Speaker 3: her impression is that he was just so blacked out
- 12:55Speaker 3: he doesn't remember any of it. She's like, I don't
- 12:57Speaker 3: ever want to speak to you again. He leaves. And
- 12:59Speaker 3: then a few weeks later, when she she wanted to
- 13:04Speaker 3: make sure she wasn't pregnant because he had against her wishes,
- 13:10Speaker 3: she she sends him an Instagram message saying like that
- 13:14Speaker 3: what you did was not over all right that night,
- 13:17Speaker 3: and then she waits for him to see it. It's seen.
- 13:21Speaker 3: He never responds, and then it's after he doesn't respond,
- 13:24Speaker 3: she like blocks him on Instagram, blocks him on text message.
- 13:29Speaker 3: Now that is her version because she's deleted her Instagram and.
- 13:33Speaker 1: She says she did because she doesn't want to think
- 13:35Speaker 1: about it anymore.
- 13:36Speaker 3: Right, as you can imagine, in a situation like this,
- 13:42Speaker 3: this is how our political system works at this moment.
- 13:46Speaker 3: Just it's just it's over, like the world, the world
- 13:49Speaker 3: just came down on him. You had everyone from kind
- 13:55Speaker 3: of Rocanna.
- 13:56Speaker 1: To Rehab that A seven put that up there on
- 13:59Speaker 1: the screen. Congressman Conna, who was probably one of the
- 14:02Speaker 1: i would say the biggest supporters of Grand Platner, along
- 14:06Speaker 1: with Bernie Sanders. I've been very clear that sexual assault
- 14:09Speaker 1: or violence against women as a red line. These allegations
- 14:12Speaker 1: are very serious and credible. Grand Platner should drop out
- 14:15Speaker 1: from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement. And that
- 14:18Speaker 1: was paired with the probably more importantly for Platner's purposes,
- 14:22Speaker 1: was not just this, but we had Chuck Schumer and
- 14:25Speaker 1: Kristin Jilibrand, who's the head of the Democratic campaign to
- 14:29Speaker 1: elect senators, saying that they would pull money if he
- 14:32Speaker 1: did not drop out of the race, which is effectively
- 14:34Speaker 1: a death now. It means there would be no national
- 14:35Speaker 1: support in this competitive Senate race. So the Senate majority leader,
- 14:39Speaker 1: you also are the Senate leader, Chuck Schumer. You also
- 14:43Speaker 1: have Christian Gillibrand, you had a number of the super packs,
- 14:48Speaker 1: the big money efforts that were behind them. The main
- 14:50Speaker 1: Democratic Party leader also came out with a statement saying
- 14:54Speaker 1: that he should withdraw. So his political support in the
- 14:57Speaker 1: state and nationally has completely collab apps. He has yet
- 15:01Speaker 1: to announce that he is going to withdraw.
- 15:03Speaker 3: Right, And there's kind of two different things going on,
- 15:06Speaker 3: and he alludes to it or says references it directly
- 15:09Speaker 3: in his own statement. One is the litigation of the
- 15:14Speaker 3: allegations and there and what the consequences of those those
- 15:19Speaker 3: allegations should be. And then there's separately but obviously relatedly,
- 15:23Speaker 3: what the political impact of it is. And in our system,
- 15:28Speaker 3: it kind of doesn't matter like what you know, the
- 15:32Speaker 3: first doesn't matter for the second, because the second happens first,
- 15:35Speaker 3: the kind of the decision that this is over. And
- 15:38Speaker 3: I do think there's something troublingly kind of undemocratic about
- 15:43Speaker 3: having political campaigns getting you know, people get fired up,
- 15:48Speaker 3: and then if there is a damning story that comes
- 15:51Speaker 3: out in Politico and CNN together within an hour, everything
- 15:59Speaker 3: that all of those hundreds of thousands of people built
- 16:02Speaker 3: together blows up. And there's something I feel like as
- 16:06Speaker 3: a society we should be taking a beat on when
- 16:11Speaker 3: it comes to these questions. That's not the society we
- 16:14Speaker 3: live in.
- 16:14Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean this is really complicated, right, Like you
- 16:16Speaker 1: just said, it's two bros here who we're talking about it,
- 16:18Speaker 1: So it's a little difficult. We can only approach it
- 16:20Speaker 1: from our own perspective. Here's there's kind of like how
- 16:24Speaker 1: I would see it when I read this immediately, if
- 16:27Speaker 1: we're all being honest, there is not a ton of corroboration. Right,
- 16:31Speaker 1: we have the friend that persuisive, Yeah, in terms of
- 16:34Speaker 1: how she saw it, but in terms of she was
- 16:37Speaker 1: supposed to have told her therapist. The therapist did not
- 16:39Speaker 1: respond to request for comment, right, so that was supposed
- 16:42Speaker 1: to be an additional thing. The therapists did not back
- 16:45Speaker 1: up her story to Politico whenever she was asked, Okay,
- 16:48Speaker 1: I'm not impugning this woman in any way. I'm just
- 16:49Speaker 1: saying we have to evaluate these things on its face.
- 16:51Speaker 1: You're right. The Facebook messages and all of that exists. Now,
- 16:54Speaker 1: she says that there was some text message in which
- 16:57Speaker 1: he felt like he was invited over. We don't know
- 16:59Speaker 1: the content of the message because she deleted it and
- 17:01Speaker 1: he has not released.
- 17:02Speaker 3: What was that message himself. And also, Jake Tapper, come on, yeah,
- 17:05Speaker 3: so you're interviewing this woman. The woman says, I sent
- 17:09Speaker 3: him a message that he interpreted to be an invitation
- 17:12Speaker 3: to come over. Right, you've been dating for two years.
- 17:17Speaker 3: What that message is is extremely It's very important, That's right.
- 17:20Speaker 3: We don't know what the Joon Tapper just blows right
- 17:22Speaker 3: past it.
- 17:22Speaker 1: Well, and look, this is part of the difficulty of
- 17:24Speaker 1: assessing all of these things, and you know, and I
- 17:27Speaker 1: think beyond all of it, because I'm trying to separate
- 17:30Speaker 1: it just from this story to the wholesome thing. In
- 17:34Speaker 1: my opinion, if you're truly not guilty and this is
- 17:38Speaker 1: an outrage, why would you consider even dropping out? Why
- 17:41Speaker 1: wouldn't you vigorously defend yourself? Right, And the fact that
- 17:44Speaker 1: he feels so contrite in the message. You can see
- 17:47Speaker 1: it in his face, right, he doesn't usually talk that way.
- 17:50Speaker 1: And the fact that he's saying, I'm assessing the future
- 17:52Speaker 1: of my campaign. And now there's all these leaks that
- 17:54Speaker 1: are coming out saying like, well, if Graham were to
- 17:56Speaker 1: drop out, he would have to be replaced with somebody
- 17:58Speaker 1: who's true to his values. Right, So there's some negotiation
- 18:01Speaker 1: in my again just my opinion, considering the vigorous defense
- 18:05Speaker 1: that he mounted after the original New York Time story
- 18:08Speaker 1: compared today night and day difference, which kind of tells me, hey,
- 18:12Speaker 1: at the very least, you know that something bad happened
- 18:15Speaker 1: that day. I also thought out there and that this
- 18:17Speaker 1: more so that was the second thing. And let's put
- 18:19Speaker 1: it in the totality then, of what we know about Platner.
- 18:22Speaker 1: This is not some Brett Kavanaugh fifteen year old situation
- 18:25Speaker 1: we're talking about. This was five years ago. I mean,
- 18:27Speaker 1: this show was around whenever this allegedly happened, which is
- 18:30Speaker 1: crazy saying, so this is very recent. This is literally
- 18:33Speaker 1: the lifetime of breaking points. And this is somebody who
- 18:37Speaker 1: admits to having a drinking problem PTSD, to engaging in
- 18:41Speaker 1: these inappropriate relationships, even both while he was married. So
- 18:45Speaker 1: not that long ago, only a year or so ago. Ultimately,
- 18:48Speaker 1: this is about bad judgment and bad character. Now I
- 18:51Speaker 1: am on the record talking about character judgment. I mean,
- 18:54Speaker 1: to be honest, all of this behavior fits with a
- 18:57Speaker 1: lot of the politicians that we know. You have to
- 18:59Speaker 1: baseicly be a raging narcissist to even want to do
- 19:02Speaker 1: this job. It also does what makes them good at it.
- 19:03Speaker 1: That's what makes you be a good communicator and then
- 19:06Speaker 1: barnstorm this state and get people fired up and all
- 19:09Speaker 1: of that. Right, I'm just being real in terms of
- 19:11Speaker 1: like the skill set, if you can read a history
- 19:13Speaker 1: book for how it generally seems to manifest itself. Now,
- 19:16Speaker 1: all of that said, the reason why I think Platiner
- 19:19Speaker 1: is loadsome is two things. Is that, beyond the separate incident,
- 19:24Speaker 1: so many people, you, Crystal, so many other people they
- 19:28Speaker 1: stuck their necks out for Platter. So I was in
- 19:31Speaker 1: Maine on vacation and I'm taking a walk in Portland.
- 19:35Speaker 1: It's seven thirty am. There are two guys in the
- 19:39Speaker 1: pouring it's pouring rain who are sitting there handing out
- 19:43Speaker 1: free ice coffee for Grand Platiner. All right, they don't
- 19:45Speaker 1: even have runcoats on. Maybe that's normal for me, it
- 19:48Speaker 1: was crazy. And I think about those kids because I'm like,
- 19:51Speaker 1: these guys they got themselves out of bed at seven
- 19:55Speaker 1: thirty am just to stop random bypassers and give them
- 19:59Speaker 1: iced coffee and say, let me tell you about the campaign.
- 20:02Speaker 1: That's who Platiner betrayed. And when I say betrayed, it's
- 20:05Speaker 1: not just in his behavior. It was his decision to
- 20:07Speaker 1: run and it was secondary. Don't forget that. In that
- 20:09Speaker 1: Politico story that broke a month ago, after Platiner meets
- 20:13Speaker 1: with the entire Democratic Caucus, Elizabeth Warren asked him straight up,
- 20:16Speaker 1: She's like, look, be honest here man, what else is
- 20:19Speaker 1: out there? And he said, there is nothing else that
- 20:22Speaker 1: is out there. There are no more scandals. And it
- 20:24Speaker 1: was based on that word which many of his supporters
- 20:28Speaker 1: took to the bank that if you knew that you
- 20:31Speaker 1: were doing some stuff like this, again, not twenty five
- 20:33Speaker 1: years ago, I'm talking about five years ago. If you
- 20:36Speaker 1: knew that you were rolling around blackout drunk, you know,
- 20:39Speaker 1: and very questionable sexual relationships with a bunch of different
- 20:42Speaker 1: women all across Maine. Dude, you don't you know this
- 20:45Speaker 1: is the post me too era, You who knew that
- 20:48Speaker 1: there was some stuff out there, and frankly especially, I
- 20:51Speaker 1: mean a message like that. The fact that you didn't
- 20:52Speaker 1: even respond, allegedly, according to her, that he didn't respond
- 20:55Speaker 1: to that, that's piece of shit behavior. That's right, at
- 20:57Speaker 1: the very least, you should say, I'm very sorry that
- 20:59Speaker 1: you felt that way.
- 21:00Speaker 3: I don't know, I mean something right, and it cuts
- 21:02Speaker 3: against his deeply narcissistic cut. It cuts against the story
- 21:06Speaker 3: that he's been telling of ofem redemption because if he
- 21:09Speaker 3: is finding redemption in community, which was the part of
- 21:13Speaker 3: the story that that's so kind of moved me that.
- 21:17Speaker 1: Well, you knew him, so I'm curious for how you feel.
- 21:19Speaker 1: I mean, you've known him for a long time. I
- 21:21Speaker 1: can relate. I've also known politicians who you know, really
- 21:24Speaker 1: stab you in the back, you stick your neck out
- 21:26Speaker 1: for them, and then you, yeah, really you feel burned.
- 21:28Speaker 1: So I get it to not to.
- 21:30Speaker 3: Not respond to that message, to not just sit down
- 21:33Speaker 3: and have coffee, right and just hear her like, apparently
- 21:39Speaker 3: he doesn't remember any of this, right, then ask her
- 21:42Speaker 3: tell me what, like what happened? Like, let me let
- 21:44Speaker 3: me hear from you what happened? Like? To just completely
- 21:47Speaker 3: ignore cuts against this idea that he is.
- 21:49Speaker 1: She's not on birth control, so she's sitting around Wayiam,
- 21:52Speaker 1: did I get pregnant? And I mean, God's horrific. I
- 21:55Speaker 1: mean that is that is terrific.
- 21:57Speaker 3: It's not good. And relatedly, and I bet he would
- 22:01Speaker 3: agree with this. When he moved back to Maine, he
- 22:04Speaker 3: starts oystering and he's starting to kind of find his
- 22:07Speaker 3: meaning and purpose. Guy should have quit drinking, and he
- 22:10Speaker 3: has talked about his problems with alcohol abuse. The problem
- 22:14Speaker 3: with talking about that is that he's still drinking exactly,
- 22:19Speaker 3: and it's not obvious that it's like under control. Certainly,
- 22:23Speaker 3: wasn't that night like that, There's absolutely no question about that.
- 22:29Speaker 3: To your point about the people who were so driven
- 22:33Speaker 3: to support him, when those people sort of dropping, it's
- 22:38Speaker 3: one thing when the politicians leave you because they have
- 22:42Speaker 3: their own self preservation to.
- 22:43Speaker 1: Think they hate him, they hated him anyways, Well.
- 22:46Speaker 3: Yes that's true, but not all of them, in the
- 22:48Speaker 3: ones that liked him, have their they have their own
- 22:50Speaker 3: interests as well. The volunteers who are just there for
- 22:54Speaker 3: him and his movement, more particularly the movement and the
- 22:57Speaker 3: message that he's living, they were dropping very quickly. Put
- 23:02Speaker 3: this next elements. It's a six. This is from Nathan Bernard,
- 23:05Speaker 3: drop site reporter who's been covering the race for US
- 23:09Speaker 3: flagged a bunch of these. This is volunteered discuss Yes,
- 23:14Speaker 3: and like one person says, for instance, I don't necessarily
- 23:17Speaker 3: want Graham to win. I want his parentheses, our political
- 23:21Speaker 3: ideas to win. He is not coming back from this,
- 23:24Speaker 3: and we should find someone to carry the ideals now.
- 23:27Speaker 3: People can be flawed, This is the discord of the volunteers.
- 23:29Speaker 3: People can be flawed and become better, But hanging your
- 23:32Speaker 3: movement on the coattails of somebody credibly accused of sexual
- 23:34Speaker 3: assault is the exact thing we are trying to do
- 23:37Speaker 3: better than. Another person says, if this is all true,
- 23:41Speaker 3: I am obviously the most heartbroken for this poor woman
- 23:43Speaker 3: who lived through something no woman should ever have to endure.
- 23:46Speaker 3: But I'm also, to a lesser extent, heartbroken for all
- 23:49Speaker 3: the volunteers who believed in Graham, his message in his
- 23:52Speaker 3: campaign and really thought he was a vehicle for change.
- 23:55Speaker 3: And I'm ashamed I supported someone who could do something
- 23:57Speaker 3: like that. Again, waiting for more to come out and
- 23:59Speaker 3: not rush to a snap judgment. But this is my
- 24:01Speaker 3: gut reaction. Another person's Graham had great policies. I hope
- 24:05Speaker 3: someone whose characters character aligns with those policies steps up.
- 24:10Speaker 3: I mean, another person is I'm in so much pain,
- 24:12Speaker 3: and other says he needs to drop out now. And
- 24:14Speaker 3: the whole thing is really heartbreaking. And this was the
- 24:17Speaker 3: sentiment kind of across the across the volunteer chat, that
- 24:23Speaker 3: a feeling of betrayal, but also a commitment that what
- 24:27Speaker 3: they were fighting for was bigger than bigger than just
- 24:30Speaker 3: one one person. They very quickly started gravitating towards we
- 24:36Speaker 3: can put up the next element here. This is also
- 24:39Speaker 3: from Nathan Bernard. People saying this is very early on
- 24:45Speaker 3: good run. Guys back Troy Jackson. Another person says Troy
- 24:49Speaker 3: has virtually the same politics. I feel like he's the
- 24:51Speaker 3: obvious answer. Anyone else that reads has a more establishment
- 24:54Speaker 3: picked and we're definitely cooked. Honestly, somebody else says having
- 24:59Speaker 3: him into or someone like Troy could be an interesting
- 25:01Speaker 3: moment to see how this kind of politics polls without
- 25:04Speaker 3: any baggage. And in the Troy Jackson discord, people started
- 25:11Speaker 3: popping too because there is this is tell us about
- 25:15Speaker 3: Troy Jackson. Troy Jackson. So he's a really interesting case.
- 25:19Speaker 3: He You would actually like him because listen to this.
- 25:26Speaker 3: He got his start in politics. He was politicized as
- 25:31Speaker 3: an anti immigrant activist. Really wow, now there's some content,
- 25:37Speaker 3: there's some contours to this. He's a lagger from northern Maine.
- 25:42Speaker 3: So in the late nineteen nineties, Canada and Maine got
- 25:47Speaker 3: in a fight over over labor rights, and a bunch
- 25:52Speaker 3: of Canadian laggers started taking jobs at dangerous working condition
- 26:00Speaker 3: and lower pay from Maine laggers. And so when I
- 26:04Speaker 3: say anti immigrant, he's anti Canadian immigrants. Yeah, exactly, you know,
- 26:10Speaker 3: discriminate your anti immigrant. And so he is at the time,
- 26:15Speaker 3: basically not politically, he's in the Union of Laggers and
- 26:19Speaker 3: he participates in protests and even civil disobedience. After that,
- 26:23Speaker 3: they filed something like one hundred and thirty seven complaints
- 26:27Speaker 3: through different you know, OSHA labor boards and otherwise fighting
- 26:31Speaker 3: against what they saw as the Canadian exploitation of Canadian
- 26:35Speaker 3: migrant labor. And they were getting nowhere, so they started
- 26:39Speaker 3: engaging in civil disobedience as well. Then then he gets
- 26:43Speaker 3: into politics and he runs for the state legislature as
- 26:47Speaker 3: a Republican. That's what I'm saying, you really love him.
- 26:50Speaker 3: He loses a very close race against this very entrenched Democrat.
- 26:54Speaker 3: It's one of these rural main areas that had been
- 26:57Speaker 3: Democratic for decades. He then runs the next cycle as
- 27:01Speaker 3: an independent and beats the Democrat, so unseats this guy.
- 27:06Speaker 3: Over time, he converts then to a Democrat. He then
- 27:13Speaker 3: ends up becoming president of the Senate. Like so he
- 27:17Speaker 3: becomes like a significant figure in the state, as significant
- 27:23Speaker 3: as you can be in a small state like that,
- 27:24Speaker 3: but his president's Senate. He ran for a governor in
- 27:29Speaker 3: this cycle, and he came very close to winning because
- 27:33Speaker 3: the rank choice voting process, it looked like very much
- 27:36Speaker 3: had a chance even after election day to end up
- 27:40Speaker 3: end up with a nomination. He felt a little bit short.
- 27:43Speaker 3: Plattner endorsed him, he endorsed Platina. They kind of ran
- 27:46Speaker 3: together as this working class ticket, and people would often
- 27:49Speaker 3: say that Troy Jackson was what people thought Platner was
- 27:54Speaker 3: because Platner had this complicated background where his dad's a lawyer,
- 28:00Speaker 3: a rich kid. He spent a year at the Hotchkiss
- 28:03Speaker 3: right then he goes to the Marines, whereas Troy Jackson,
- 28:08Speaker 3: his mom was sixteen.
- 28:09Speaker 1: It's like actual lagger.
- 28:11Speaker 3: You mean he did.
- 28:13Speaker 1: It's not for me to decide who's a real manor
- 28:15Speaker 1: but you guys can.
- 28:16Speaker 3: His mom was sixteen when she had him. He went
- 28:17Speaker 3: to community college, and then he became a lagger, right like,
- 28:21Speaker 3: So that that's that's a that's a kind of more
- 28:26Speaker 3: straightforward understanding of what that.
- 28:28Speaker 1: But the question now is, and this is part of it.
- 28:30Speaker 1: This is look, I mean, to your point, you're not wrong,
- 28:33Speaker 1: Like there is an undemocratic nature to this the current traction.
- 28:36Speaker 1: You tell correct me if I'm wrong. As I understand it,
- 28:38Speaker 1: main Democratic Party is considering doing some sort of super
- 28:41Speaker 1: delegate convention where they get to decide who the nominee
- 28:45Speaker 1: is going to be. I mean, I gotta be honest,
- 28:48Speaker 1: I do have a problem with that, like that is
- 28:50Speaker 1: a little bit like what happened with Biden and Kamalaw
- 28:53Speaker 1: and it's kind of a disaster. And so no, no, no,
- 28:55Speaker 1: it's not at all or sorry, no, you're right, because
- 28:57Speaker 1: there wasn't even a super delegate process, So you tell me.
- 29:00Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know the composition of the main
- 29:02Speaker 1: Democratic Party. Is it the similar nature? I mean, because
- 29:05Speaker 1: he's Janet Mills. Obviously it did not look like Platner
- 29:08Speaker 1: was beloved by the main Democratic establishment. He was a
- 29:11Speaker 1: total outsider who ran overwhelmingly won the primary. However, you know,
- 29:16Speaker 1: now you basically have the hands back in the establishment,
- 29:19Speaker 1: you know, for not just Janet Mills, but all these
- 29:21Speaker 1: super delegate people, and they're gonna choose like one of
- 29:23Speaker 1: the people apparently who's being floated is like well Biden's
- 29:26Speaker 1: CDC director. I mean, so it doesn't take a political
- 29:29Speaker 1: genius to say that may be a little bit of
- 29:31Speaker 1: a problem up in Maine, just my opinion.
- 29:34Speaker 3: Shot, yeah, yeah, yeah, which and which is funny. Somebody
- 29:39Speaker 3: somebody asked nerov Shaw on Twitter yesterday, is would you
- 29:45Speaker 3: take a pac money and Israel committing a genocide? And
- 29:48Speaker 3: immediately he's like they're committing a genocide, wouldn't take a
- 29:50Speaker 3: pac money. So it's funny like now you have political
- 29:54Speaker 3: candidates pandering in the opposite direction. Like I don't know
- 29:57Speaker 3: whether he believes that or not, but he clearly understands
- 30:01Speaker 3: that given the momentum that Graham Platner had, like you're
- 30:05Speaker 3: you're not You're not getting into this position with public support.
- 30:09Speaker 3: Maybe you can get it. The established could force you
- 30:11Speaker 3: on on the party, but you're gonna lose then at
- 30:14Speaker 3: that point.
- 30:14Speaker 1: Like you need Yeah, but it's one of those where
- 30:17Speaker 1: you know, it's is it? I look, I don't know anything.
- 30:20Speaker 1: So for me cc director under COVID, I'm like.
- 30:23Speaker 3: No, it's I think that's ridiculous. Yeah, certainly he's in
- 30:26Speaker 3: the running. I think it would be ridiculous if if
- 30:28Speaker 3: he ran for governor as well, it didn't did not win,
- 30:33Speaker 3: it would be ridiculous if he if they go, if
- 30:36Speaker 3: they go with him, But but so they happen until
- 30:39Speaker 3: the thirteenth or fourteenth for Planner to drop out six days. Yeah,
- 30:43Speaker 3: and so he has leverage in that sense because if
- 30:46Speaker 3: he doesn't drop out, like then they lose the seat.
- 30:49Speaker 3: So he can he can say, look, I will drop
- 30:52Speaker 3: out in exchange. And this is my understanding of what's
- 30:55Speaker 3: going on. I will drop out in exchange for this Jackson,
- 30:59Speaker 3: maybe for accent or for a genuinely fair process that
- 31:05Speaker 3: allows the real grassroots energy in the party to pick
- 31:10Speaker 3: at a kind of shotgun rapid convention to pick a
- 31:14Speaker 3: nominee that and that's not just Janet Mills his team
- 31:19Speaker 3: picking somebody and a Mills. As far as I can tell,
- 31:22Speaker 3: nobody's interested in her being the nominee, and she's not
- 31:24Speaker 3: interested in being the nominee.
- 31:25Speaker 1: It seem I think she's not obtuse enough to try
- 31:27Speaker 1: to obtain it. But I mean, long story short, but
- 31:29Speaker 1: I yeah, go.
- 31:30Speaker 3: So in twenty twenty four, even I was urging Democrats
- 31:35Speaker 3: to have this snap convention, like just have a three
- 31:37Speaker 3: week mini primary, fight it out on CNN, do the polls,
- 31:41Speaker 3: and then let the delegates vote. And yes, there's Superdells,
- 31:45Speaker 3: but there's also delegates. So a lot of these party
- 31:47Speaker 3: activists in Maine and part and county chairs and county
- 31:52Speaker 3: vice chairs like they liked Graham Platner a lot, they
- 31:55Speaker 3: didn't like Mills. Obviously, Mills lost, So maybe let that
- 32:00Speaker 3: process play out that has to happen I think by
- 32:02Speaker 3: the twenty sixth and seventh or something like that, so
- 32:04Speaker 3: the end, so it has to happen fairly quickly. But
- 32:07Speaker 3: you could then say, okay, here the you're off Shot
- 32:10Speaker 3: wants to get in, Troy Jackson wants to get in.
- 32:13Speaker 3: We go to the convention, and there will be polling
- 32:16Speaker 3: at the same time. So it's so even though it's
- 32:18Speaker 3: not a statewide vote, Like right there's a poll circulating
- 32:23Speaker 3: right now that shows Jackson beating Collins by five and
- 32:27Speaker 3: he's he has the highest gap head to head of
- 32:30Speaker 3: of any of the other ones that are being floated.
- 32:33Speaker 3: We're going to continue to see those polls get published
- 32:35Speaker 3: between now and the end of July, and that will
- 32:38Speaker 3: factor into how these these state party acts.
- 32:41Speaker 1: I will say, having just uh, you know, there is
- 32:43Speaker 1: a very competitive primary. Not a lot of signs. They're
- 32:46Speaker 1: like they're like like not just like no signs, like
- 32:49Speaker 1: no political side. It's nice still, thank you mainers.
- 32:51Speaker 3: It's beautiful. It's beautiful.
- 32:53Speaker 1: It's like everyone's the weather's just so good. They're like,
- 32:55Speaker 1: forget about it, We're all just going to hang out.
- 32:57Speaker 1: You know, I'm curious. You know what you if you
- 33:00Speaker 1: want to go into any of it, just like how
- 33:02Speaker 1: should the left be thinking about because I think there's
- 33:05Speaker 1: probably a lot of people out there who are very heartbroken,
- 33:07Speaker 1: and you know, I mean, does it make you assess
- 33:09Speaker 1: like how how handle the Lindsay Fifield thing and good
- 33:13Speaker 1: questions about his care because to be honest, for me,
- 33:16Speaker 1: I thought that the New York Times story was bullshit.
- 33:19Speaker 1: And I'm not saying that about Lindsay. I'm saying this
- 33:22Speaker 1: is total he said, she said, this isn't the fact
- 33:24Speaker 1: that she's Republican, and you could say soger, but this
- 33:27Speaker 1: one is like that too, And I'm like, you're right,
- 33:29Speaker 1: but it's a little bit different, like when we're talking
- 33:31Speaker 1: about forcible rape versus like oh, he grabbed my arm
- 33:35Speaker 1: and a drunken situation. I mean, you have no idea
- 33:37Speaker 1: right in something like that, and this one, you know,
- 33:40Speaker 1: it's it's like the kind of the implications are so rim.
- 33:44Speaker 1: It's basically a crime, right, this being a led share
- 33:46Speaker 1: like a category one felony or whatever, classic felony. So
- 33:50Speaker 1: the question I think is, I mean, the red crumbs
- 33:53Speaker 1: were there, like when we put this one with the
- 33:54Speaker 1: rest of them, it does make sense and I think
- 33:56Speaker 1: that's the problem. It's like, yeah, drunken behavior, sexual philanderer, bad,
- 34:01Speaker 1: you know, bad judgment with the with the tattoo, which
- 34:04Speaker 1: can we all just acknowledge he knew it was a
- 34:05Speaker 1: Nazi tattoo. Ran he obviously when he got it.
- 34:09Speaker 3: Huh, he got it.
- 34:10Speaker 1: I think he learned at some point, dude, he knew
- 34:12Speaker 1: it was not everybody in the Marine Cop Here's here's
- 34:14Speaker 1: his defense. There are a bunch of Marine Corps guys
- 34:16Speaker 1: who have the same tattoo. All right, I mean I
- 34:19Speaker 1: don't particularly can't.
- 34:20Speaker 3: Bud said either.
- 34:21Speaker 1: Come on, like this is very good Marine scout snipers,
- 34:24Speaker 1: all these other people. They brag about it. They're like
- 34:26Speaker 1: it's a total cop tattoo for them. You know, it's
- 34:28Speaker 1: like they can give you a whole explanation about wafting
- 34:30Speaker 1: SS versus SS whatever. All right. You know at the
- 34:34Speaker 1: are they truly Nazis in their heart?
- 34:36Speaker 5: No?
- 34:36Speaker 1: I don't think so. And like that's what it came
- 34:38Speaker 1: down to. But I'm saying his adrenaline adventure seeking total
- 34:43Speaker 1: you know, look, he joined Blackwater or whatever it was called.
- 34:46Speaker 1: He was an adrenaline junkie. He had bad judgment, He
- 34:48Speaker 1: was an alcoholic, like, you know, the signs were there, right, Yeah.
- 34:51Speaker 3: I'm kind of two minds of it. On the one hand,
- 34:54Speaker 3: the people who were saying there are red flags everywhere,
- 34:58Speaker 3: beware are obviously vindicated like that their their spider sense
- 35:04Speaker 3: went off. They sense something and now yeah, so they
- 35:10Speaker 3: can say I told you so. At the same time,
- 35:13Speaker 3: I do want to draw a line at where exactly
- 35:18Speaker 3: were you getting those red flags? If it's if it's
- 35:21Speaker 3: that he codes as this gruff kind of working class guy,
- 35:25Speaker 3: I do not want to concede that therefore he's probably
- 35:31Speaker 3: a rapist, right, and that we need and we need
- 35:33Speaker 3: to just kind of cordon off all of those people
- 35:37Speaker 3: from our from decent society. And so that's right. So
- 35:39Speaker 3: I do not regret at all drawing drawing that line.
- 35:43Speaker 3: You you meet people where they are, and then when
- 35:46Speaker 3: new information emerges, you evaluate that information. You do not
- 35:51Speaker 3: assume the worst about a person based on how they look.
- 35:55Speaker 3: Like this is America. We understand that for every gender
- 36:00Speaker 3: and race. We have to also apply that to white
- 36:02Speaker 3: working class men as well. Yes, So on the other hand,
- 36:08Speaker 3: when people are like, well, yeah, but if you look
- 36:09Speaker 3: at some of the Reddit posts and you get deeper
- 36:12Speaker 3: into them, you see some real dehumanizing language, and that
- 36:16Speaker 3: that is the red flag I'm talking about for somebody
- 36:19Speaker 3: who says that, I'm like, okay, you.
- 36:20Speaker 1: Know what, Yeah, that right, Remember that that's being born
- 36:23Speaker 1: as anecdot where he's like, I want somebody to break
- 36:25Speaker 1: in so I can rape them. Like it looks a
- 36:27Speaker 1: little different now, right, you know. It's like, and I mean,
- 36:30Speaker 1: I think you're right, is we have to meet people
- 36:32Speaker 1: where they are. His story was one of redemption. This
- 36:35Speaker 1: was five years ago. Man. I'm not saying you can't
- 36:37Speaker 1: redeem yourself, but it's like, dude, you're a full blown alcoholic. Obviously,
- 36:40Speaker 1: your problems, your PTSD. We can all understand that. You know,
- 36:44Speaker 1: anybody who has dealt with veterans. However, you know some
- 36:47Speaker 1: behavior is genuinely like it's bad, right, And it's one
- 36:50Speaker 1: of those, And.
- 36:51Speaker 3: It's also pretty deep into his redemption arc. Obviously, redemption
- 36:56Speaker 3: is not one day you wake up and you're a
- 36:57Speaker 3: good person.
- 36:58Speaker 5: Right.
- 36:59Speaker 3: On the other hand, this is like an extreme violation
- 37:02Speaker 3: and it's pretty far into after having gone back and
- 37:05Speaker 3: doing the right he's alwaysterring. He's with his community, his family,
- 37:11Speaker 3: so and yeah, I do think it goes back to
- 37:15Speaker 3: the self medicating with alcohol and alcohol abuse. Yeah, and that.
- 37:19Speaker 1: Which is not an excuse for what he did not
- 37:21Speaker 1: at all. Yeah, we can see here. So I don't know.
- 37:24Speaker 1: I mean I really do because I met some of
- 37:27Speaker 1: them in Portland. They were so excited. That's where my platinum. Man,
- 37:32Speaker 1: You're lowesome because you fucked those people like you. They
- 37:36Speaker 1: went out there literally in the pouring rain to go
- 37:38Speaker 1: and to talk to people, and you told them nothing
- 37:41Speaker 1: else was coming, and you betrayed their trust. And a
- 37:43Speaker 1: lot of other people stuck their next out for you
- 37:45Speaker 1: and a lot of other people, And it's like, man
- 37:47Speaker 1: like that to me, there is no higher crime than
- 37:49Speaker 1: that as a politician, because people believe in and I
- 37:51Speaker 1: felt this way. You know, when you believe in somebody
- 37:53Speaker 1: and it's not that they stab you in the back
- 37:55Speaker 1: because they betrayed what they told you that they were
- 37:57Speaker 1: going to do. I mean, there's no there's no higher crime,
- 37:59Speaker 1: right especially on the fringes. At the same time, I
- 38:03Speaker 1: do want to say all these people, Pearl Clutching and Washington,
- 38:06Speaker 1: you better be real careful, all right, because you know,
- 38:08Speaker 1: I've heard plenty of stories about a lot of different
- 38:10Speaker 1: people who are you know, just because just because you're
- 38:15Speaker 1: doing it while you're wearing a tuxedo and you've got
- 38:18Speaker 1: the power broker behind you doesn't make it better, I'm saying.
- 38:21Speaker 3: And I do think as a society, I do think
- 38:25Speaker 3: we need to sit with this rush, this this very
- 38:28Speaker 3: fast rush to judgment that we do.
- 38:30Speaker 4: Right.
- 38:30Speaker 1: It's yeah, I've always been anti me too. This is
- 38:36Speaker 1: it's because you know, it gets completely out of control.
- 38:39Speaker 1: I will say, though, you know, in the pantheon of
- 38:41Speaker 1: all of them like this, because this accusation is in
- 38:45Speaker 1: Weinstein territory, not a z's on sorry in territory right,
- 38:49Speaker 1: If you'll recall, there's a big different right, and so
- 38:52Speaker 1: there's breadcrumbs that were kind of a z'son sorry ish
- 38:55Speaker 1: to the middle, and I have this. It does make
- 38:58Speaker 1: it genuinely, gnuinely different. So there you go. That's our
- 39:02Speaker 1: our long take, and you know, I hope it was
- 39:05Speaker 1: helpful and for everybody thinking about it, we're going to
- 39:08Speaker 1: do a hard left turn. Let's go to FIFA. Turning
- 39:13Speaker 1: down to FIFA. For those of you who stayed up
- 39:15Speaker 1: late to watch Team USA lose to Belgium late four
- 39:18Speaker 1: to one, very late from Oh my god, all right,
- 39:20Speaker 1: let's put this one up here on the screen there.
- 39:23Speaker 1: It is four to one, one of which was a
- 39:26Speaker 1: humiliating goal against the United States. This all despite President
- 39:31Speaker 1: Trump's intervention on behalf of Team USA for this huge game,
- 39:36Speaker 1: which took place in Seattle yesterday we had I know,
- 39:39Speaker 1: you guys covered it, and Ryan you cheered it. I
- 39:41Speaker 1: cheered it on as well. For once you know you
- 39:43Speaker 1: use corruption to benefit the country.
- 39:46Speaker 3: I also think I defend it.
- 39:48Speaker 1: You should defend and you know why, because you know
- 39:51Speaker 1: this is what look I mean, I'm not a huge
- 39:52Speaker 1: soccer president. Even before this, I did not watch a
- 39:55Speaker 1: lot of the World Cup. It was while I was off.
- 39:57Speaker 1: Some of my family were watching it and that kind
- 39:59Speaker 1: of you know, I got bitten by the bug and
- 40:01Speaker 1: this is a higher stakes knockout and all that. So
- 40:03Speaker 1: I started watching some more of the games and it
- 40:05Speaker 1: genuinely was fun, really fun to root for a team USA.
- 40:07Speaker 1: So I do actually think it was one of those
- 40:09Speaker 1: moments where you know, say what you will. Kamalo would
- 40:12Speaker 1: not have gotten the red card. Okay, we all know it,
- 40:15Speaker 1: like we know this, She's not making that call. She
- 40:17Speaker 1: would never make the call, and she would not win
- 40:21Speaker 1: the Viva Peace Prize, the most coveted prize that there is.
- 40:26Speaker 1: So here's Trump confirming. Yes, I mean, I guess we
- 40:29Speaker 1: should meditate here on the Trump curse because remember the
- 40:32Speaker 1: one Knicks game that he went to if they lost,
- 40:35Speaker 1: and now the one game where he put his thumb
- 40:36Speaker 1: on the scale we lost. Iet I forget who said
- 40:39Speaker 1: it's like a part in my take thing where they're like,
- 40:41Speaker 1: one of the reasons why you should never go to
- 40:44Speaker 1: automatic refing is because fans need something to blame, like
- 40:49Speaker 1: we need fee, you know, we need to be like
- 40:51Speaker 1: it was total bullshit balgain like it with the Regor,
- 40:54Speaker 1: we would have won that game. And now you're like,
- 40:57Speaker 1: I don't know, what can you say?
- 40:59Speaker 3: It's a disa we need we need that hope.
- 41:02Speaker 1: But here's Trump confirming, and I think you know this
- 41:05Speaker 1: isn't just gonna be about the Team USA loss. It's
- 41:07Speaker 1: actually about how Trump has opened up this can of
- 41:09Speaker 1: worms where now every major leader in the world is
- 41:14Speaker 1: trying to use their influence on FIFA and is actually
- 41:18Speaker 1: doing it to to some effects. So here's Trump talking
- 41:21Speaker 1: about his phone call with FIFA's Infantino, specifically about how
- 41:27Speaker 1: he pressured him to take the Balgan red card away.
- 41:29Speaker 1: Let's take a listen.
- 41:30Speaker 4: You're asking me about the whole suck.
- 41:32Speaker 7: So, yeah, I did. I spoke to Johnny, who's highly respected.
- 41:37Speaker 7: I saw the play, and I'm a person that loves
- 41:41Speaker 7: sports and who's a good athlete, and I understand sports
- 41:45Speaker 7: really well, really well. And that wasn't a foul. That
- 41:51Speaker 7: wasn't even an infraction. That was two guys running full
- 41:54Speaker 7: speed that happened to crash into each other. You can't
- 41:57Speaker 7: take your foot and properly place it on somebody else
- 42:00Speaker 7: his foot when you're going. No, these were two great
- 42:03Speaker 7: athletes that got tangled up. And this referee who is
- 42:12Speaker 7: a little bit suspect if you check his if you
- 42:15Speaker 7: check his past. I don't want to say that because
- 42:18Speaker 7: I don't like to create controversy, but very suspect. If
- 42:24Speaker 7: you'd like, I'll provide you with the past. He made
- 42:27Speaker 7: a call that nobody could believe, you know, even people
- 42:31Speaker 7: on the other side they say, oh, we got lucky, wow,
- 42:34Speaker 7: And it's very interesting. They say, they don't show him
- 42:37Speaker 7: in slow motion, And I never realized that I've never
- 42:39Speaker 7: heard of that before, that they're not allowed to review
- 42:42Speaker 7: in slow motion because it's so different, because you'll take
- 42:44Speaker 7: one little quarter of a second and you'll see that
- 42:47Speaker 7: a hand is touching a neck or you see something. Yes,
- 42:51Speaker 7: I asked for a review by FIFA. I spoke to
- 42:55Speaker 7: a man who's highly respected and by the way, whose
- 42:57Speaker 7: level of respect has gone up tenfold. This game would
- 43:02Speaker 7: have a big mark on it if we lost. If
- 43:05Speaker 7: we want no matter what happened, you have to let
- 43:09Speaker 7: them use their best players. And the game tonight's gonna
- 43:13Speaker 7: be amazing and we're gonna have a full team, and
- 43:15Speaker 7: Belgium is gonna have a full team. And you know what,
- 43:17Speaker 7: if they beat us, then they can be really proud.
- 43:21Speaker 7: The other way, if they beat us, we'll say it
- 43:24Speaker 7: was I say it was rigged, just like the election
- 43:27Speaker 7: was rigged in twenty twenty.
- 43:28Speaker 1: But Trump the athlete describing his his funk, I mean
- 43:31Speaker 1: he objectively, the red card was complete. Bs right, if
- 43:34Speaker 1: you have to agree, yeah, right. So what was funny
- 43:38Speaker 1: though about this was everyone in American leadership was very
- 43:43Speaker 1: high on the hog because they really believed this is it,
- 43:45Speaker 1: We're gonna win. And so for example, here's the Secretary
- 43:48Speaker 1: of State. Let's put this one up here on the screen.
- 43:51Speaker 1: Secretary of State Rubio he was at a meeting yesterday.
- 43:53Speaker 1: We'd play the audio for you, but it's really messed up.
- 43:55Speaker 1: He was a meeting at the State Department today. Him
- 43:58Speaker 1: and Trump are actually meeting with an Ankra with the
- 44:02Speaker 1: entire NATO delegation, and so he will come face to
- 44:05Speaker 1: face with the practice. I think it's Prime Minister right
- 44:08Speaker 1: of Belgium, and Rubio here says, maybe turning it into
- 44:11Speaker 1: an international incident. I don't know. Maybe we'll bring it
- 44:13Speaker 1: up at NATO tomorrow with the Belgians and everybody else. Quote,
- 44:16Speaker 1: if you're Belgium, why would you want to play a
- 44:18Speaker 1: game and win a match? And then everybody will argue
- 44:21Speaker 1: that you didn't really win it, right, And so yeah,
- 44:24Speaker 1: I agree, right, I mean, we should have had it
- 44:26Speaker 1: so that there we could all blame the fact that
- 44:29Speaker 1: he did not show up and we also had this
- 44:32Speaker 1: just some other hilarious stuff here. In terms of FIFA,
- 44:36Speaker 1: let's put B five up here on the screen. The
- 44:38Speaker 1: President of FIFA, Gianni Inventino. He says, I have seen
- 44:42Speaker 1: the public comments regarding the decision of independent FIFA Disciplinary
- 44:46Speaker 1: Committee related to the suspension of Valigan, and I would
- 44:49Speaker 1: like to reiterate a fundamental principle of FIFA governance. FIFA's
- 44:52Speaker 1: judicial bodies are independent. They operate autonomously, apply the disciplinary
- 44:57Speaker 1: code and decide cases based on the applicable regulations and
- 45:01Speaker 1: specific facts before them. Their independence is essential to the
- 45:05Speaker 1: credibility and integrity of football and this must always be respected. Yes,
- 45:09Speaker 1: I regularly discuss matters related to the FIFA World Cup
- 45:13Speaker 1: with the President of the United States, and on this
- 45:15Speaker 1: matter I did receive a call from President Trump, just
- 45:18Speaker 1: as I receive calls from heads of state, government officials,
- 45:21Speaker 1: football stakeholders and business executives from around the world on
- 45:24Speaker 1: many different issues. During our conversation, I explained that there
- 45:27Speaker 1: was an ongoing legal process involving FIFA independent judicial body
- 45:31Speaker 1: and that the case would be decided in due course.
- 45:33Speaker 1: That is how the FIFA system works and as a
- 45:35Speaker 1: principle I will always uphold. So, he says, I even
- 45:38Speaker 1: read the decision sometimes and I am surprised. Sometimes I agree,
- 45:41Speaker 1: and sometimes I disagree, And he says, Finally, respect for
- 45:45Speaker 1: independent institutions and the rule of law is what protects
- 45:48Speaker 1: the integrity of our competitions and the credibility of FIFA
- 45:52Speaker 1: at all times. And you will be shocked to learn
- 45:55Speaker 1: that even even step Bladder, who is one of the
- 45:59Speaker 1: most corrupt you know, FIFA officials literally of all time,
- 46:03Speaker 1: had said that you can't be doing this. So let's
- 46:06Speaker 1: put the B six up here on the screen, he says.
- 46:09Speaker 1: Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls. They
- 46:12Speaker 1: are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies. If a
- 46:15Speaker 1: US president intervenes with the FIFA president and a player
- 46:18Speaker 1: is suddenly cleared before a World Cup knockout match, the
- 46:21Speaker 1: question is unavoidable. I cannot say these were It was
- 46:24Speaker 1: a quo vadi FIFA. Football must never become a playground
- 46:28Speaker 1: for political power. So there you have it, right, set
- 46:31Speaker 1: Bladder is calling you out.
- 46:33Speaker 3: You have a problem, you have so fun Well, first
- 46:36Speaker 3: of all, the credibility of FIFA is such a funny phrase. Yes,
- 46:39Speaker 3: getting exactly the credibility of FIFA. On the other hand,
- 46:43Speaker 3: I don't know whether or not the people in the
- 46:47Speaker 3: US understand like how this is perceived internationally, Like it's
- 46:53Speaker 3: just it just looks like the most kind of grotesque
- 46:58Speaker 3: and blunt bullying from a bull and a bull in
- 47:03Speaker 3: a FIFA China shop here, Like, also, I think you're
- 47:08Speaker 3: not supposed to get caught this blatantly trying to exert
- 47:12Speaker 3: political influence, Like you're supposed to like meet at the
- 47:15Speaker 3: Four Seasons and talk about a future contract that you're
- 47:20Speaker 3: going to give to whatever quote unquote independent judge is
- 47:24Speaker 3: on this football panel. See I remember it. Miraculously they
- 47:28Speaker 3: get this contract and all of a sudden they're living.
- 47:30Speaker 3: They've got a really nice vacation home in Greece somewhere
- 47:34Speaker 3: you don't but we're just so like Trump is just so,
- 47:39Speaker 3: he's corrupt from the chest.
- 47:41Speaker 1: He's in this case though, don't even prefer it. You're like, yeah,
- 47:44Speaker 1: I called him. He's like, we're the host country. It's bullshit.
- 47:46Speaker 1: I'm the most powerful leader in the world. No, we
- 47:48Speaker 1: can't be having this soon.
- 47:49Speaker 3: As soon the story came out, I knew, like, yeah, oh, well,
- 47:52Speaker 3: Suan Trump has the press conference, We're going to hear
- 47:55Speaker 3: all the details of disruption. If he was Nixon, he
- 47:58Speaker 3: would never talk about it, right, No Trump would know.
- 48:00Speaker 3: But if Trump were president in the seventies, You're like, yeah,
- 48:03Speaker 3: he's like, I want I sent the I sent my
- 48:06Speaker 3: guys into Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office because he's crazy, and I
- 48:12Speaker 3: wanted to prove it to the American people. And the
- 48:15Speaker 3: DNC is trying to rig the economy and they're in
- 48:17Speaker 3: the watergate. So I sent my guys in there.
- 48:19Speaker 1: I mean yeah, I mean.
- 48:22Speaker 3: Right, yes, that's it.
- 48:24Speaker 1: That's it. That's it. But here's my favorite part is, now,
- 48:27Speaker 1: let's put B seven up here on the screen. Is
- 48:30Speaker 1: after this whole situation, the French of Football Federation has
- 48:34Speaker 1: now appealed to FIFA to rescind one of their players.
- 48:37Speaker 1: Yellow cards during the World Cup last sixteen win over Paraguay.
- 48:41Speaker 1: The star player was booked after an altercation who went
- 48:44Speaker 1: to ground holding his face, were replaced show he was
- 48:47Speaker 1: actually holding his shirt. And so the French are like, hey,
- 48:51Speaker 1: you know, we're pretty good. We're powerful. We have you know,
- 48:53Speaker 1: we have nuclear wet that we do. Hey, we really
- 48:57Speaker 1: we Soccer is our sport, right, you know, it's one
- 48:59Speaker 1: of our major sports. If you're handing out favors, let's
- 49:03Speaker 1: hand out a few. We also have this one. Let's
- 49:05Speaker 1: put B eight up here on the screen. Man, these people,
- 49:07Speaker 1: it's crazy. Honestly, again, I had no idea how much
- 49:11Speaker 1: influenc there was here, so apparently this just happened. Keir
- 49:15Speaker 1: Starmer helped stop an earlier kickoff between England and Mexico,
- 49:20Speaker 1: so the outgoing Prime Minister gave English players quote a
- 49:23Speaker 1: few extra hours to acclimatize to the Mexico City altitude.
- 49:28Speaker 1: FIFA wanted to reschedule England's football match in Mexico City
- 49:32Speaker 1: by several hours, keeping the kickoff set for one am
- 49:36Speaker 1: Monday morning UK time. FIFA had considered starting it at
- 49:40Speaker 1: seven pm UK time, friendlier for British viewers, but tougher
- 49:44Speaker 1: on English players, who had to acclimatize to Mexico City's
- 49:47Speaker 1: grueling high elevation. The departing PM was contacted by the
- 49:51Speaker 1: English Football Association to alert him before a full blown
- 49:55Speaker 1: diplomatic intervention by the government, because it is what is
- 50:00Speaker 1: like seven thousand feet up or something in Mexico City.
- 50:03Speaker 1: So now all of a sudden, you've got heads of
- 50:05Speaker 1: state again, You've got a nuclear arm power here. They're like, hey,
- 50:08Speaker 1: you know, we once ruled the Seas. It's like you
- 50:10Speaker 1: have to listen to us here Premier League and all
- 50:12Speaker 1: the half of our players are playing now currently here
- 50:15Speaker 1: in FIFA, so you got to listen, I think to
- 50:18Speaker 1: a little bit of us, But I think the overwhelming
- 50:20Speaker 1: consensus here is just a classic FIFA moment. As I understand. Again,
- 50:25Speaker 1: I'm very new to this, so please forgive me. I'm
- 50:26Speaker 1: doing my best. If Crystal were here, she would do
- 50:28Speaker 1: much better than I do. She watched like the entire
- 50:30Speaker 1: World Cup as I from what I know here. You know,
- 50:35Speaker 1: I watched the documentary about FIFA and Katar and all
- 50:38Speaker 1: of their insane corruption going back decades. Like this very
- 50:42Speaker 1: much fits with FIFA as a World Cup as to
- 50:45Speaker 1: how it all went down, the peace prize, Trump's overall intervention,
- 50:49Speaker 1: and then the poetic you know justice. I guess for
- 50:52Speaker 1: us is that we lost in humiliating fashion. So there
- 50:55Speaker 1: it is.
- 50:56Speaker 3: That's it.
- 50:56Speaker 1: So I guess we'll see does Norway have the juice
- 50:59Speaker 1: to rig the to rig it for them, because that's
- 51:01Speaker 1: why I'm rooting for now.
- 51:01Speaker 3: I don't know about you, wrong, I might have even
- 51:03Speaker 3: been in that documentary. Were you in that documentary?
- 51:06Speaker 1: You in everything? One of those coreat I was in
- 51:07Speaker 1: the Joe Loo documentary, which one of my favorite books,
- 51:10Speaker 1: Billion Dollars What is it?
- 51:11Speaker 3: Billion dollar Dollar? Great book? The Yeah, because I did
- 51:16Speaker 3: this story about how the UAE devised this entire plan
- 51:21Speaker 3: to tank Cutter's currency and hold it and hold it
- 51:24Speaker 3: hostage Katari real, yeah, in order to then force them
- 51:28Speaker 3: to share the World Cup. It did it with Prince Andrew.
- 51:34Speaker 3: Prince then this print and this bank that Prince Andrew was.
- 51:36Speaker 1: I was going to high school in Qatar when they
- 51:38Speaker 1: got the World Cup and I was looking around. I
- 51:40Speaker 1: was like here. I was like, it's one hundred and
- 51:42Speaker 1: thirty degrees outside. I was like, how is anybody gonna
- 51:45Speaker 1: play here? This is I was like, you can't even
- 51:46Speaker 1: drink in this country, How's this going to work? I
- 51:48Speaker 1: was totally right, by the way.
- 51:49Speaker 3: And this is why I got to sign up for
- 51:50Speaker 3: the news letter, because I'll put the link to that
- 51:52Speaker 3: article about the UA and Cutter in the World Cup
- 51:55Speaker 3: in the newsletter Ye breaking.
- 51:56Speaker 1: Points dot Com only in the newsletter Breaking Points dot Com. Great, wait,
- 52:00Speaker 1: ask who are you writting for? I'm going for Norway.
- 52:01Speaker 1: It's not about how long guy.
- 52:02Speaker 3: I love this dude, but Norway. I would love to
- 52:04Speaker 3: see that.
- 52:05Speaker 1: This is just his his Viking physiognomy.
- 52:07Speaker 3: It's just so love it.
- 52:09Speaker 1: It's hilarious. Uh and yeah, I mean English, and it's
- 52:12Speaker 1: like we got to see we got to see the
- 52:14Speaker 1: Vikings triumph, you know, over over the English and just just.
- 52:19Speaker 3: Just be really funny. It is really funny.
- 52:21Speaker 1: You're ready for Spain, I think, so okay.
- 52:24Speaker 3: Yeah, but I would be I would be pleased to
- 52:25Speaker 3: see the Viking guy with yeah yeah, I.
- 52:27Speaker 1: Mean for he needs it, you know, he's America loves
- 52:29Speaker 1: this guy. He's he's scoring cowboy hats and Texas is
- 52:32Speaker 1: great