Dems ABANDON Platner After Devastating SA Allegations

Good morning, everybody.Happy Tuesday.Have an amazing show for everybody today.Bro shows.Good to see you.I'm awkward day for a bro show, but very.

Yeah, I was actually thinking about that.

Here we are.I mean, that may not necessarily be the best day for a bro show, but bro show is what schedule is.The schedule is we don't create the news.It's good to see you, my friend.We do have an amazing show for everybody today, and it's definitely good to be back.So you probably saw and we will give you a full rundown here of the Graham Platner situation, a former former associate of his coming out and accusing him of rape in a CNN interview and Politico story.

Plattner is weighing whether to pull out of the race.We're going to break down the full situation, just give you what you need to know and some of the fallout from that with many Democratic leaders calling for him to drop out so that somebody else can replace him.We're also going to talk about FIFA.The United States lost yesterday four to one to Belgium, a humiliating display after Donald Trump put as much of his thumb on the scale as he possibly could.It actually, Ryan, in my opinion, would have been better if we lost when he was gone, so we could just blame it all on that.You gotta have something.

Yeah, we gotta say it was rigged.That's the only reason that we lost.Maybe Trump will say it.He actually said that it was.He said he was gonna say it rigged no matter what if we lost.So we're gonna talk about AI.

There's a new internal report in the United States Treasury that is warning of an AI bubble.We have some new polling, some other interesting data point, and Michael Burry, for the, I think, umpteenth time, is calling the AI top.You know, it's always fun, big time.short guy, even though he has, of course, said it many other times.Caroline Leavitt, some of you may have seen this, White House press secretary, saying that Gen Z kids were born with silver spoons in their mouth and they're lazy.Now trying to clean up her comments after a, honestly, massive meltdown by a lot of younger voters and others who took her comments not particularly well in this economy, especially after a lot of the Gen Z younger voters, especially

the young men had voted for Donald Trump in the last election.And then Mitch McConnell, is he alive or not?Nobody knows literally nobody knows anything about his health.He hasn't been seen for three weeks.He hasn't been home.His wife is in China There's all kinds of rumors swirling around Washington.

We're gonna break that down for everybody It seems that he suffered a cardiac arrest according to leaked yet with EMS police report here for people who showed up.He's in the hospital We don't know anything about his condition and there's some speculation that they may be, you know Not telling the public the entire truth to prevent a primary which would allow Thomas Massey to replace him.So we're going to break all of that down.And of course, Ryan and I are going to be doing the AMA live.Now, speaking of the AMA, this is my first time I get to promote this, this incredible product that we've been working on now for months here behind the scenes.We're going to hire another person.

This is something that our premium members get access to, is our newsletter, which is a written version of our show.We work so, so hard to make sure that this is something that's actually very, very useful to all of our premium subscribers.But what's even better, I think, for everybody else is that you can just go to breakingpoints .com and you can sign up for free.The pop -up will be right there.You can put your email.

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Ryan, let's break down the Platner situation.

So he was dating on and off a woman named Jenny Racicot, who was featured actually in the New York Times article that made so many waves several weeks ago, where she said that he had come over to her house uninvited.Something happened.made her think differently about him, and she basically cut him off.She called his behavior at the time reckless and unsettling.You might remember that moment.But at the time, she did not go on the record with her full allegation, which is that he had unconsensual sex with her, that he raped her.

He responded within, I think, six minutes of the article dropping.They had put up a video response.Let's roll that and then go through what her allegation is. I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me.

Any accusation of non -consensual behavior is categorically false.Over the last 10 months, I have been deeply humbled by the faith Mainers have put in me.You have welcomed me into your homes, into your places of work, into your restaurants, into your houses of worship.You have shown that a different kind of politics, one that puts the interests of people over corporations, is not just possible, but is inevitable, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful of the political reality it will inflict.We are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.

So that was the news that was in his two minute video, which is that, if you didn't catch exactly, regardless of whether it's true or not, he's saying, he's aware of the political impact that it's going to have and so he's evaluating the way forward.As of now, he has not yet dropped out.The entire kind of democratic political universe is calling for him to drop out and people around him suspect that it is a matter of when, not if, at this point, that his campaign is effectively over.There's some discussion about who would replace him and what leverage he would have.Plattner would have in that decision.And we'll get to that on the back half of this segment.

But let's go through some of her allegations, which she made both to Politico and also in a sit down interview with Jake Tapper at CNN.Let's roll a three here.

I remember specifically him, like grabbing at my chest and I like hit his hand and I said, don't touch me.And I remember that during the altercation.

And then he kept going.

Yeah.And it was this weird mix of like coming in and out of, I don't think consciousness is the word, but like coming to and kind of falling back into that drunken, I don't know what I'm doing state.Um, and yeah, and he just, he would apologize in those moments and then go back to doing what he was doing.

So he was aware that he was doing something wrong and saying, sorry.

I feel like he was in moments.Is there any, way that he thought this was consensual or no just because I don't believe that you can think that that scenario is consensual you have to you have to understand that that wasn't when somebody is repeatedly I mean, when somebody in the middle of it says, don't touch me, like that's obviously not consensual.

You're not coming forward because you have any political motivation.

No, not at all.That was actually one of the huge reasons that I didn't come forward and, and still struggled.Like that was a huge moral conflict to, to feel like.

Because you'd like a Democrat to be in the Senate.

Yeah, yeah.I like the things that he speaks about.They're important.They're important to people.I'm one of those people.

But at the end of the day, you feel he's not being honest.

He's not being honest, no.

She also offered some other details about how he came over that evening and how it transpired.Let's roll A3B here.

Him and I were texting back and forth, and he had taken something that I said as an imitation, and that's not how he meant it, and I quickly clarified.I realized, I remember it being an instant where I had recognized that he wasn't listening to me.It wasn't just that he wasn't hearing me or whatnot.And then I recognized his level of intoxication, and I knew in that moment I wasn't safe.And I don't think I was, I don't think I was safe to physically fight back.He's big.

He's strong.And I just had to evaluate my safety and come up with the least worst outcome to the situation.And so I felt like complying for my safety was the least worst option.

But that's not consenting.

No, complying is not consenting.

Complying is letting him rape you.

Is getting it over with.

So that he didn't hurt you even more?

I don't know what this person is capable of.I don't think anybody does.Even people you know for years and trust, you don't know the depths of what they're capable of.

You were afraid for your safety.

Yeah, I was afraid for my safety.

Beyond, not that rape isn't a horrific thing, but beyond.

Rape.

Rape.

I didn't want to find out how unsafe I could get that night.or how harmed I could be that night.

So Saga, her allegation there is pretty...It's graphic.It's graphic.

It's very specific.

Yeah, so effectively, she says she reached out to him.Maybe he's at a bar or whatever.He's obviously drinking.Whatever she said to him, he took as an invitation to come over.She says, no, don't come over.Whether he saw that or not, Next thing she knows, he's in the house.

Her house is unlocked.He shows up at her house.

He just shows up.

She says, don't come here.

Right.

You shouldn't be here.

Right.Yeah.And then she says she feels, he's so blackout drunk looking that she feels afraid.Right.And so she just complies, which Tapper then distinguishes from consent.Right.

So her version of the story, I think as everybody hears it, Everybody's like yeah that that that probably happened like that that feels like that was definitely her experience of of how this went down and She related to a friend in I believe it was 2023.Yes So this is which is very important because it's before his campaign starts And the friend is asking about him because she wants to introduce a friend a friend of hers to him and she says he can be charming and funny and he's a decently intelligent person and He's not all bad, but I ended up in a bad situation with him, and I will just very politely call him consensually careless at times when drunk, plus PTSD.And then she asks, does he force himself on people, forces himself on people, and shesends two responses.It appears that her response to that is, doesn't listen to you when drunk.And so that, to me, is strong corroboration of her initial claim, that she reached out to him, but then said, no, no, no, I don't actually want you to come over.

He came over anyway.She said, I don't want to do this.And then she was afraid and did it anyway.And then she talks in the Tapper interview, too, about in the morning she says, so he slept over, and in the morning she says, do you even remember what happened last night?And he says no, basically.And he had tried to put his arm around her.

And so her impression is that he was just so blacked out, he doesn't remember any of it.She's like, I don't ever wanna speak to you again.He leaves.And then a few weeks later, when she wanted to make sure she wasn't pregnant, because he had, against her wishes.She sends him an Instagram message saying what you did was not all right that night.And then she waits for him to see it.

It's seen.He never responds.And then after he doesn't respond, she blocks him on Instagram, blocks him on text message.Now that is her version because she's deleted her Instagram.

She says she did because she doesn't want to think about it anymore.

Right, right.So that's where we are.Immediately, as you can imagine in a situation like this, this is how our political system works at this moment, it's over.The world just came down on him.You had everyone from Ro Khanna to...

We have that.A7.We can put that up there on the screen.Congressman Khanna, who is probably one of the, I would say, biggest supporters of Grant Plattner, along with Bernie Sanders.I've been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line.These allegations are very serious and credible.

Grant Plattner should drop out from the race.I am withdrawing my endorsement.That was paired with the, probably more importantly for Plattner's purposes, was not just this, but we had Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand.who's the head of the Democratic campaign to elect senators saying that they would pull money if he did not drop out of the race, which is effectively a death knell.It means there will be no national support in this competitive Senate race.So the Senate majority leader, you also have the Senate leader, Chuck Schumer.

You also have Chris Gillibrand.You had a number of the super PACs, the big money efforts that were behind them.The main Democratic Party leader also came out with a statement saying that he should withdraw.So his political support in in the state and nationally has completely collapsed.He has yet to announce that he is going to withdraw.

Right.And there's kind of two different things going on.And he alludes to it or says, references it directly in his own statement.One is the litigation of the allegations and what the consequences of those allegations should be.And then there's separately, but obviously relatedly, what the political impact of it is.And in our system, It kind of doesn't matter.

The first doesn't matter for the second, because the second happens first, the decision that this is over.I do think there's something troublingly undemocratic about having political campaigns, people get fired up, and then if there is a damning story that comes out,in Politico and CNN together, within an hour, everything that all of those hundreds of thousands of people built together blows up.And there's something, I feel like as a society, we should be taking a beat on when it comes to these questions.That's not the society we live in.Yeah, I mean, this is really complicated, right?

Like you just said, it's two bros here who are talking about it, so it's a little difficult.We can only approach it from our own perspective.But here's kind of like how I would see it.When I read this, immediately, if we're all being honest, there is not a ton of corroboration, right?We have the friend - The Facebook message is pretty persuasive.Yeah, in terms of how she saw it, but in terms of she was supposed to have told her therapist.

The therapist did not respond to requests for comment, right?So that wasn't supposed to be an additional thing.The therapist did not back up her story to Politico whenever she was asked.

Okay, I'm not impugning this woman in any way.

I'm just saying we have to evaluate these things on its face.You're right that the Facebook messages and all of that exists.Now, she says that there was some text message in which he felt like he was invited over.We don't know the content of this message because she deleted it and he has not released it.

What was that message?Also, Jake Tapper, come on.So you're interviewing this woman.The woman says, I sent him a message that he interpreted to be an invitation to come over.You've been dating for two years.what that message is, is extremely important.

It's very important, that's right.And we don't know what the content - Jake Tapper just blows right past it.

Well, and look, this is part of the difficulty of assessing all of these things.And I think beyond all of it, because I'm trying to separate it just from this story to the wholesome thing, in my opinion, if you're truly not guilty, and this is an outrage, why would you consider even dropping out?Why wouldn't you vigorously defend yourself?And the fact that he feels so contrite in the messageyou can see it in his face, right?He doesn't usually talk that way.

And the fact that he's saying, I'm assessing the future of my campaign.And now there's all these leaks that are coming out saying like, well, if Graham were to drop out, he would have to be replaced with somebody who's true to his values, right?Like, so there's some negotiation.In my, again, just my opinion, considering the vigorous defense that he mounted after the original New York Times story compared to today, night and day difference, which kind of tells me, hey, At the very least, you know that something bad happened that day.I also think - There's more out there.And that there's more.

So that was the second thing.And let's put it in the totality then of what we know about Platner.This is not some Brett Kavanaugh 15 -year -old situation.We're talking about, this was five years ago.I mean, this show was around whenever this allegedly happened, which is crazy to say.So this is very recent.

This is literally in the lifetime of breaking points.And this is somebody who admits to having a drinking problem, PTSD, to engaging in these, you know, inappropriate relationships, even both while he was married, so not that long ago, only a year or so ago.Ultimately, this is about bad judgment and bad character.Now, I am on the record talking about character, judgment.I mean, to be honest, all of this behavior fits with a lot of the politicians that we know.You have to basically be a raging narcissist to even wanna do this job.

It also is what makes them good at it.That's what makes you be a good communicator and barnstorm the state and get people fired up and all of that, right?I'm just being real in terms of like the skillset.to read a history book for how it generally seems to manifest itself.Now, all of that said, the reason why I think Platner is loathsome is two things, is that beyond the separate incident, so many people, you, Crystal, so many other people, they stuck their necks out for Platner.So I was in Maine on vacation, and I'm taking a walk in Portland.

It's 7 .30 a .m.There are two guys in the pouring, it's pouring rain, who are sitting there,out free iced coffee for Grant Plattner, all right?They don't even have raincoats on.Maybe that's normal.

For me, it was crazy.And I think about those kids, because I'm like, these guys, they got themselves out of bed.at 7 .30 a .m.just to stop random bypassers and give them iced coffee and say, let me tell you about the campaign.That's who Plattner betrayed.

And when I say betrayed, it's not just in his behavior.It was his decision to run and it was secondary.Don't forget that in that Politico story that broke a month ago, after Plattner meets with the entire Democratic caucus, Elizabeth Warren asked him straight up.She's like, look, be honest here, man.What else is out there?And he said, there is nothing else that is out there.

there are no more scandals.And it was based on that word, which many of his supporters took to the bank, that if you knew that you were doing some stuff like this, again, not 25 years ago, I'm talking about.five years ago, if you knew that you were rolling around blackout drunk, you know, in very questionable sexual relationships with a bunch of different women all across Maine, dude, you don't, you know, this is the post Me Too era.You who knew that there was some stuff out there.And frankly, especially, I mean, a message like that, the fact that he didn't even respond, allegedly, according to her, that he didn't respond to that, That's piece of shit behavior.That's right.

At the very least, you should say, I'm very sorry that you felt that way.I don't know.I mean, something, right?And it cuts against his - It's deeply narcissistic.

It cuts against the story that he's been telling of - Of redemption.Redemption because - Exactly.if he is finding redemption in community, which was the part of the story that so kind of moved me.

Well, you knew him, so I'm curious for how you feel.I mean, you've known him for a long time.I can relate.I've also known politicians who really stab you in the back.

You stick your neck out for them, and then you feel burned, so I get it.To not respond to that message, to not just sit down and have coffee and just hear her,apparently he doesn't remember any of this.Then ask her, tell me, what happened?Let me hear from you, what happened?To just completely ignore cuts against this idea that he's...

She's not on birth control, so she's sitting around, wait, did I get pregnant?I mean, that's horrific.I mean, that is horrific.

It's not good.And relatedly, And I bet he would agree with this.When he moved back to Maine, he starts oystering, and he's starting to kind of find his meaning and purpose, Guy should have quit drinking.And he has talked about his problems with alcohol abuse.Problem with talking about that is that he's still drinking.And it's not obvious that it's under control.

Certainly wasn't that night.There's absolutely no question about that.To your point about the people who were so driven to support him, when those people started dropping.It's one thing when the politicians... leave you, because they have their own self -preservation to think about.

They hated him anyways.

Well, yes, that's true, but not all of them.In the ones that liked him, they have their own interests as well.The volunteers who were just there for him and his movement, more particularly the movement and the message that he's delivering, they were dropping very quickly.We can put this next element.It's A6.This is from Nathan Bernard, drop site reporter, who's been covering the race for us.

flagged a bunch of these.

This is volunteer discourse.

Yeah, and like one person says, for instance, I don't necessarily want Graham to win.I want his, parentheses, our political ideas to win.He is not coming back from this and we should find someone to carry the ideals now.People can be flawed, this is the discord of the volunteers, people can be flawed and become better, but hanging your movement on the coattails of somebody credibly accused of sexualassault is the exact thing we are trying to do better than.Another person says, if this is all true, I am obviously the most heartbroken for this poor woman who lived through something no woman should ever have to endure, but I'm also, to a lesser extent, heartbroken for all the volunteers who believed in Graham, his message, and his campaign, and really thought he was a vehicle for change, and I'm ashamed I supported someone who could do something like that again.

waiting for more to come out, not rushing to a snap judgment, but this is my gut reaction.Another person says, Graham had great policies.I hope someone whose character aligns with those policies steps up.Another person says, I'm in so much pain.Another says, he needs to drop out now.And the whole thing is really heartbreaking.

And this was the sentiment kind of across the volunteer chat, that a feeling of betrayal, but also a commitment that what they were fighting for was bigger than just one person.They very quickly started gravitating towards, we can put up the next element here, this is also from Nathan Bernard, people saying, this is very early on, good run guys, back Troy Jackson.Another person says, Troy has virtually the same politics.I feel like he's the obvious answer.Anyone else that reads as a more establishment picked and we're definitely cooked.Honestly, somebody somebody else says having him endorse someone like Troy could be an interesting moment to see how this kind of politics polls without any baggage and In in the Troy Jackson discord people started popping to because there is that this is go ahead Tell us about Troy Jackson Troy Jackson.

So he he's a really interesting case.He You would actually like him be he because listen to this.He got his start in politics.He was politicized andas an anti -immigrant activist.

Really?Wow.

So he's a Bernie guy?There's some contours to this.He's a logger from northern Maine.So in the late 1990s, Canada and Maine got in a fight over labor rights and a bunch of Canadian loggers started taking jobs.in dangerous working conditions and lower pay from main loggers.And so when I say anti -immigrant, he's anti -Canadian immigrant.

That's fine.I don't discriminate.Exactly.

You don't discriminate your anti -immigrant.

And so he is at the time basically not political.He's in the union of loggers.Sure.He participates in protests and even civil disobedience.They filed something like 137 complaints through different OSHA labor boards and otherwise, fighting against what they saw as the Canadian exploitation of Canadian migrant labor.And they were getting nowhere, so they started engaging in civil disobedience as well.

Then he gets into politics, and he runs for the state legislature as a Republican.That's what I'm saying, you really love him.Loses a very close race against this very entrenched Democrat.It's one of these rural main areas that had been Democratic for decades He then runs the next cycle as an independent and beats the Democrat So unseats this guy over time he converts them to a Democrat he then ends up becoming president of the Senate like so he becomes like a no significant figure in the in the state, you know as significant as you can be in a small state likebut it's the President of the Senate.He ran for governor in this cycle, and he came very close to winning because of the ranked choice voting process.

It looked like he very much had a chance, even after election day, to end up with a nomination.He fell a little bit short.Plattner endorsed him, he endorsed Plattner.They kind of ran together as this working class ticket.And people would often say, that Troy Jackson was what people thought Platner was, because Platner had this complicated background with his dad as a lawyer.

He was a rich kid.

He gave him money.He spent a year at Hotchkiss, then he goes to the Marines, whereas Troy Jackson, his mom was 16.It's an actual logger.

It's not for me to decide who's a real mainer.

You guys can decide.His mom was 16 when she had him.He went to community college, and then he became a logger.That's a kind of more straightforward understanding of what that is.

But the question now is, and this is part of it, this is, look, I mean, to your point, you're not wrong.Like there is an undemocratic nature to this.The current traction, correct me if I'm wrong, as I understand it, main Democratic Party is considering doing some sort of super delegate convention where they get to decide who the nominee is gonna be.I mean, I gotta be honest, I do have a problem with that.Like that is a little bit like what happened with Biden and Kamala, and it was kind of a disaster.And so - No, no, no, it's not at all.

Oh, sorry, no, you're right, because there wasn't even a super delegate process.So you tell me, I mean, I don't know the composition of the main Democratic Party.Is it the similar nature?I mean, because Janet Mills, obviously, it did not look like Plattner was beloved by the main Democratic establishment.He was a total outsider, who ran overwhelmingly won the primary.However, you know, now you basically have the hands back in the establishment, you know,

for not just Janet Mills, but all these super delicate people, and they're gonna choose.Like one of the people apparently who's being floated is like, what, Biden's CDC director?I mean, it doesn't take a political genius to say, that may be a little bit of a problem up in Maine.Just my opinion.Who, Shah?

Yeah, Nirav Shah.And which is funny, somebody asked Nirav Shah on Twitter yesterday, Would you take AIPAC money in Israel committing a genocide and immediately he's like they're committing a genocide wouldn't take AIPAC money Yeah, so it's funny like now you have political candidates pandering in the opposite direction Like I don't know whether he believes that or not, right?But he clearly understands that given the momentum that that Graham Plattner had like you're you're not you're not getting into this position With with public support, maybe you can get it the establishment could force you on on the party, but you're gonna lose them at that point.Like you need Plattner's momentum behind them.

Yeah, but is it legitimate?Like it's one of those where, you know, it's, is it, I, look, I don't know anything.I'm just, for me, CDC director under COVID, I'm like, no, it's like, no, I think, I think that's ridiculous.

Certainly he's in the running.I think it'd be ridiculous if, if he ran for governor as well, did not win.It would be ridiculous if he, if they go, if they go with him, but, but so they have until the 13th or 14th for Plattner to drop out.

Six days.

Yeah.And so he has leverage in that sense, because if he doesn't drop out, then they lose the seat.So he can say, look, I will drop out in exchange, and this is my understanding of what's going on, I will drop out in exchange for this.For Jackson.Maybe for Jackson, or for a genuinely fair process that allows the real grassroots energy in the party to pick at a kind of shotgun rapid convention to pick a nominee that'sAnd that's not just Janet Mills' team picking somebody.

And Mills, as far as I can tell, nobody's interested in her being the nominee, and she's not interested in being the nominee, it seems like.

I think she's not obtuse enough to try to obtain it.But I mean, long story short.Yeah, go ahead.

So in 2020, I was urging Democrats to have this snap convention.Like, just have a three -week.Right, a mini -primary.Fight it out on CNN.Do the polls and then let let the delegates vote and yes, there's super dollars, but there's also delegates So a lot of these party activists in Maine and part and county chairs and county vice chairs Not like they liked Graham Platner a lot.They didn't like mills.

Obviously it was lost So maybe let that process play out that has to happen.I think by the 26th and 7th or something like that So the end so it has to happen fairly quickly, but you could then say okay here are the candidates Nirav Shah wants to get in, Troy Jackson wants to get in, we go to the convention, and there will be polling at the same time.So it's, so even though it's not a statewide vote, like right, there's a poll circulating right now that shows Jackson beating Collins by five.And he's, he has the highest gap head -to -head of any of the other ones that are being floated.We're gonna continue to see those polls get published between now and the end of July.and that will factor into how these state party activists decide.

I will say, having just been to Maine, it's a very competitive primary, not a lot of signs.Not just, no signs, no political signs.

It's nice, so thank you, Mainers.

It's beautiful.It's like, everyone's, the weather's just so good, they're like, forget about it, we're all just gonna hang out.I'm curious, if you wanna go into any of it, just how should the left be thinking about it?

Because I think there's probably a lot of people out there who are very heartbroken.

And, you know, I mean, does it make you a sad story?how he handled the Lindsey Fifield thing and get questions about his character?Because to be honest, for me, I thought that the New York Times story was bullshit.And I'm not saying that about Lindsay.I'm saying this is total, he said, she said.This isn't the fact that she's Republican.

And you could say, Sagar, but this one is like that too.And I'm like, you're right, but it's a little bit different.Like when we're talking about forcible rape versus like, oh, he grabbed my arm in a drunken situation.I mean, you have no idea, right?In something like that.And this one, you know, it's like the, The implications are so haram.

It's basically a crime, right?This being alleged here, like a category one felony or whatever, a class A felony.So the question I think is, I mean, the breadcrumbs were there.Like when we put this one with the rest of them, it does make sense.And I think that's the problem.It's like, yep, drunken behavior, sexual philanderer, bad judgment with the tattoo, which can we all just acknowledge he knew it was a Nazi tattoo?

Ryan, he obviously knew.When he got it?Huh?When he got it?

I think he learned at some point.Dude, he knew it was a Nazi tattoo.

Everybody in the Marine Corps, here's his defense, there are a bunch of Marine Corps guys who have the same tattoo, all right?I don't particularly care.

His buddies say they didn't know it either.God, come on.

This is very good.Marine scout snipers, all these other people, they brag about it.They're like, it's a Totenkopf tattoo.For them, they can give you a whole explanation about Waffen -SS versus SS, whatever.Are they truly Nazis in their heart?No, I don't think so.

And that's what it came down to.But I'm saying his adrenaline, adventure -seeking, total, look, he joined Blackwater or whatever it was called.He was an adrenaline junkie.He had bad judgment.He was an alcoholic.The signs were there.

Yeah, I'm kind of of two minds of it.On the one hand, the people who were saying there are red flags everywhere, beware, are obviously vindicated.Their spidey sense went off.they sensed something, and now they can say what I told you so.At the same time, I do want to draw a line.Where exactly were you getting those red flags?

If it's that he codes as this gruff, kind of working class guy, I do not want to concede that therefore, he's probably a rapist.And we need to just kind of cordon off all of those people from decent society.So I do not regret at all drawing that line.You meet people where they are, and then when new information emerges, you evaluate that information.You do not assume the worst about a person based on how they look.Like this is America, we understand that for every person.

gender and race, we have to also apply that to white working class men as well.So on the other hand, when people are like, well, yeah, but if you look at some of the Reddit posts and you get deeper into them, you see some real dehumanizing language.And that is the red flag I'm talking about.For somebody who says that, I'm like, okay, you know what?

That's being borne out.I think you're right, is we have to meet people where they are.His story was one of redemption.This was five years ago, man. I'm not saying you can't redeem yourself, but it's like, dude, you're a full -blown alcoholic, obviously.You have problems, you have PTSD, we can all understand that, anybody who has dealt with veterans.However, some behavior is genuinely, like, it's bad, right?

And it's one of those.

And it's also pretty deep into his redemption arc.Obviously, redemption is not one day you wake up and you're a good person.Right.on the other hand This is a like an extreme violation and it's pretty far into after having gone back and doing that, right?He's always stirring.He's with this community his family So and yeah, I do think it goes back to the self -medicating with alcohol and alcohol abuse.

And that - Which is not an excuse for what he did.Not at all.Yeah, we can see here.So I don't know.I mean, I really do, because I met some of them in Portland.They were so excited.

That's where I'm like, Platner, man, you're loathsome.because you fucked those people.They went out there literally in the pouring rain to go and to talk to people, and you told them nothing else was coming, and you betrayed their trust.And a lot of other people stuck their necks out for you, and a lot of other people, and it's like, man, to me, there is no higher crime than that as a politician, because people believe, and I've felt this way.When you believe in somebody, and it's not that they stab you in the back, they betray what they told you that they were gonna do.I mean, there's no higher crime.

Right?Especially on the fringes.At the same time, I do wanna say, all these people pearl clutching in Washington, you better be real careful, all right?Because, you know, I've heard plenty of stories about a lot of different people who are in this town.And it's like, you know, just cause you're doing it while you're wearing a tuxedo and you've got the power broker behind you doesn't make it better.

I'm just saying.And I do think, as a society, I do think we need to sit with this very fast rush to judgment that we do.

Yeah, I've always been anti -MeToo.Because, you know, it gets completely out of control.I will say, though, in the pantheon of all of them, because this accusation is in Weinstein territory, not Aziz Ansari territory, if you'll recall, there's a big difference.So there's breadcrumbs that were kind of AzizAnsari -ish to the middle, and now you have this.It does make it genuinely, genuinely different.

So there you go.That's our long take, and I hope it was helpful and for everybody thinking about it.We're gonna do a hard left turn.Let's go to FIFA.

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