บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ The Campaign: Platner — Does Character Matter Anymore?

really means, you know, hot dog or something, but they don't know because it's Chinese. 00:05:49 Speaker 2: Who says, give me the Nazi tattoo. And he'll claim okay, so so so let's just again give him the benefit of that because I like walking this out, but I thought it looked cool. 00:05:59 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. 00:06:00 Speaker 1: And he also claims that he had it for twenty years, and lord knows he has a history of taking his shirt off, because I've seen more of this man's nipples than any man's nipples I ever want to see. There are so many pictures of him with his shirt off, and at no point in those twenty years did anybody say, hey, yeah, looks like a Nazi tattoo. 00:06:22 Speaker 3: His claim. 00:06:24 Speaker 1: His claim, Chris, and I'm sorry, it's a big setup. I apologize, but I don't talk on the air enough. So I got a really full time. You need to get yourself a show, really should try. He claims that it wasn't until October of twenty twenty five that it was brought to his attention via a New York Times article that it was a Nazi tattoo October of last year. Now here comes Chris Hayes, spinning off of the latest New York Times article watching the fall. 00:06:54 Speaker 4: One place on this, and I don't want to get too forensic, but you know, the Times basically reported that they saw text of hers, including a text in August I believe August third of last year. This would be before October of last year, in which she's basically said that you had a quote Nazi tattoo and she joked about how she's going to go volunteer for Collins. Now again, this is a text that got sent, so like we can place the time right, this is in August. How does she know it's a Nazi tattoo in August of last year and you don't know it's a Nazi tattoo in August of last year. 00:07:25 Speaker 5: Well, she certainly didn't send that text to me. So whoever she sent it to and was talking to, that's I can't say why, but I will say that I certainly didn't know. And the text messages she's sending to friends who may have recognized that. That's they didn't tell me. 00:07:43 Speaker 3: That, so, so that's his story. 00:07:51 Speaker 1: I didn't know it was a tattoo, that a Nazi tattoo, but my girlfriend did, and she never told me. 00:07:57 Speaker 2: Others were chatting about it amongst themselves. Hey, hey, did you see that tattoo at the pool? Graham's tattoo at the pool? I think that was a Nazi. Don't tell Graham though. Whatever you do, don't ask Graham about it. Don't talk to everybody else. So he has been blissfully ignorant for over a decade that he had a Nazi tattoo on his chest. 00:08:17 Speaker 3: That's the story. 00:08:18 Speaker 2: And then when informed, let's walk this out, when informed, mister Plattner. Then then when he finally found out, claims he ran out and got it covered up. Is that is that about right? 00:08:28 Speaker 5: Oh? 00:08:28 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, and it is. I've seen the new version of it. He got it covered up with like some Native American wolf or something. 00:08:34 Speaker 2: And when does he claim he did that? Now, as soon. 00:08:37 Speaker 1: As he found out it was a Nazi emblem, that's last fall. So should be end of the story. Stop challenging him. He's completely honest and he'll certainly be honest as your next US Senator. 00:08:47 Speaker 2: I think you know. To me, it's it's always one of those things that when you behave poorly and you're abusing substances, one always kind of wonders, do you chalk it up to being impaired or does it bring out the worst of your inclinations and the truth of who you really are? And I don't know where you fall on that. Yeah, yeah, But I have often found that people become the person that is deep within them when they're inebriated or when they're high or whatever. They kind of become the thing they truly are, right, their inhibitions drop and outcomes what's going on inside you. 00:09:24 Speaker 1: It reminds me of a joke that Bill Cosby used to tell and I know, open up a whole can of worms there by quoting Bill Cosby, But he used to joke about the prevalence of cocaine in Hollywood. And he was at a Hollywood party once and somebody offered him cocaine and he said, no, I don't do that, and they said and he said, what do you like about cocaine? And the guy said, well, it really accentuates your personality. And Bill Cosby looked at him and said, yeah, but what if you're an a hole? And I think that's what we see here with Graham pa Latner and his a substance abuse. 00:10:01 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that's that's right. And you know, I won't say too much. I'll let you drive here. But we're familiar with people in this story, and I think, or at least you are a little more so than me. But we actually have relationships with people who knew this man. 00:10:20 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:10:20 Speaker 1: Well, specifically, the woman at the center of the New York Times article, Lindsay Feifeld, dated this guy for a couple of years. 00:10:28 Speaker 3: Now. 00:10:28 Speaker 1: I knew her at the time, but I did not socialize with her, so I never met Platner at the time. But she's very close friends with me now and she is imminently trustworthy, and I one hundred percent believe for a story, there's nothing not to believe. 00:10:41 Speaker 2: What are her just out of curiosity? It doesn't really matter. I'm just curious. Was he a particularly political person when she was with him or did they discuss politics? Is she a left winger like what? I don't know. 00:10:51 Speaker 3: She's conservative. 00:10:52 Speaker 1: She is conservative, although I wouldn't call her the Queen of Maga. She actually worked on the Nikki Hayley campaign during the primaries this last time around. She's she's an expert with social media. She also worked at the Heritage Foundation for many years. She's done work with Independent Women's Forum. She's set after Plantner dating Planner. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, but at that but at the time I met her, I think I first met her at a party

when Andrew Breitbart was still alive. She was sort of a d C based social media up and comer in the right of center media sphere, and she did consulting for social media stuff. That's that's sort of her background. 00:11:32 Speaker 2: Because not only the Nazi tattoo and the drinking or whatever. If that weren't enough, it's it's also the allegations that he was pretty fond of sending genital pics out there right to the universe, and and maybe allegedly perhaps some underage groups. 00:11:47 Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no there's no evidence of of that yet, but we're gonna see them. 00:11:52 Speaker 3: That's the thing. 00:11:52 Speaker 1: I mean, it's June, you know, and and and this is a long campaign, and it should be noted, you know, today is the day of the primary, so pretty much all of the leaks right now have sort of been within the Democrat tent, right, I mean, just you can't tell me Republicans. In fact, I know for a fact Republican operatives have more information about this. 00:12:12 Speaker 2: Guy, undoubtedly. And it's what's amazing is the Democrats want to die on the hill. They say, we're still I mean, Chuck Schumer standing with Did they learn nothing from Swallwell for instance? Right? Well? 00:12:22 Speaker 1: And I think the difference with Swallow is they had alternatives so they could throw him under the bus and act like they had integrity, But now they don't. And what's most important is defeating Susan Collins. And I guess that's where we come back to here, Chris, which is you know, like I said as I set this up at the beginning of the episode, we've been told the character is the most important thing, and that's why we're all horrible for supporting Donald Trump, even though most of the allegations they've made about him and try to throw against them pretty thin and haven't stood up. But I don't know, do voters care about this or or is it really just a team sport at this point and you root for the player who's wearing your team's jersey. 00:13:00 Speaker 2: You know what is disappointing and what I believe the real issue is here in Maine anyway, specifically Mainers who are Republicans or Conservatives or Trump voters or all three, how disappointed they are, how uninspired they are, how pissed off they are at their current sitting Senator Susan Collins. And so a guy like Graham Platner, I'm sorry to say, becomes an alternative for voters that typically wouldn't even look at him or talk about him or vote for him or his politics. He becomes an alternative because, and this is the same thing that happened in Pennsylvania with John Fetterman, they get credit for being real, they get credit for being authentic, they get credit for being the guy you want to have a beer with. Obama was very good at this too, and they dupe people into thinking, well, you know, Susan Collins. She doesn't she hasn't done anything that we wanted her to do. She won't pass the save active, and she's constantly antagonistic to Trump. Graham Platner seems more like a dude who'd actually do stuff and say stuff the way I'd do it, and say it. So maybe I'm going to give him a shot, or at a minimum, I'm just not going to vote. I don't like who the Republicans have offered me. I don't like Susan Collins, and so I'm just not going to vote. Say I'm sure many Republican maners frustrated with Susan Collins, and who's very enthusiastic and excited in Maine Democrats to unseat Susan Collins. So when you give your own base Susan Collins so little excitement and reason to get off the couch and come vote for you, Democrats don't need excitement. They've got all they want in spades, and they'll come out in full force for Grand Platner. Susan Collins has given Republicans nothing to be excited about. And so that's how somebody who otherwise shouldn't even be in a conversation about being a serious statewide Senate candidate now all of a sudden it is same with Betterman, because I think for too long, these squishy Northeastern Republicans they may as well be Democrats, and Republicans just get disenchanted and sit it out. 00:15:10 Speaker 1: Meantime, I also think that Republicans, for the most part, they do hold their candidates up to a higher standard, because, yes, the Republican Party has ended up being I listen, I'm not saying every Republican candidate or elected official is up to this standard, but the Republican Party ends up being the place where believing conservative Christians end up. They feel most at home there, and they feel better knowing that they're candidate and the person who's literally representing them, you know, at the very least shares those same values, if not lives up to those values as much as a fallen person can. Does this come up for you a lot on the campaign trail? How much time do you spend talking about issues versus how much time you're talking about you and your character and your life story? 00:15:53 Speaker 2: Almost never I got you know, I was invited last week and in fact it will be coming out soon. There was a gentleman who invited me to be a part of his podcast. And he does long form podcasts, which is sort of a lost art. Not a lot of people do them, because you know, we're in a short attention span world, and so he and I were actually talking about the fact that he still values the long form conversation, and he does these kind of he will invite people that he thinks are interesting for whatever reason into his studio and sits down and gives them like it's a two hour long series of who are you? What's your background? Like, what makes you tick? What informs you? Deep dive into faith and things like that. It was a wonderful conversation. I really appreciated it. And then at the end he said, Okay, now go ahead and do your stump speech. Tell people you know the thing, and he goes, I almost hate to do this because it and his words, He goes, you know, it can sound so insincere. I said, I know exactly what you mean, because when you're given only so much time, and we're in such

a truncated you know, digital age, when you're only giving so much time, you do have to kind of boil down to its essence what you're trying to say and a message that you believe in, and you try to do it quickly, and then I think if you're not careful, it does start to sound kind of insincere and robotic, and people start to question do you believe it? So then when you actually get to actually meet someone and sit out and find out what makes them tick and what drives them and why they're doing it, what's there why? It's really enlightening, and it is kind of I mean, this is probably more social commentary, but socially we just don't. We don't do that with people anymore. We don't really find out what makes them tick, because if you did, I mean, you know, it's one thing for Graham Platner to say he wants universal health care, but I think we still ought to care if he has an alcohol problem, or potentially abuse as women, or has a Nazi sympathizing in his background. Those are things that should matter. Character does matter. 00:17:54 Speaker 1: We've recently found out that he was sexting women mud after he had gotten married, and that. 00:18:02 Speaker 3: Was like two years ago. 00:18:05 Speaker 1: And let's face it, you know Congress has a slush fund for sexual harassment. 00:18:10 Speaker 2: I mean, there's a whole it's a mess. 00:18:12 Speaker 3: Up there, Chris. 00:18:12 Speaker 1: It's I think the first conversation you and I had candidly before you made your decision, I said, are you sure you want to be in that room with those people? 00:18:23 Speaker 2: Look? Because people I've told you this on previous shows. I get that question maybe more than any other question, how how do we know you're not going to go to Washington, D C. And become some filthy, uh, you know, compromised miscreant, some you know, you get into some kind of sexual tryst or whatever. It's just it's assumed, sadly that the second you hit Washington, you become some pervert, some Benny Hill running around with your pants around your ankles. Like yeah, And as all I say is I continue to say, listen, my faith and my commitment to cry Heist is all I can offer you. He and I know where we are. You may not know my heart, but that's all I can offer you. And I'll just trust that my church, my family, my wife, and ultimately you will hold me accountable for that. But here's what you can't be. I'll just say this. If you haven't been in the arena, if you haven't been exposed to that, if you don't know who you are, if you're not solid in your faith, if your background is checkery at best, and you don't have a firm footing, yeah, Washington's gonna chew you up and spitch you out. 00:19:30 Speaker 5: Man. 00:19:30 Speaker 2: You better believe it will. 00:19:32 Speaker 1: Or worse, You're going to get the kind of power, Like if Graham Platner gets away with this and he wins and becomes a senator, say a prayer for any woman on his staff, or because he's going to feel so emboldened that he

can get away with murder. And you know what else is interesting about this Platiner story, Unlike all the other scandals of pretty much every other elected official or potential Supreme Court justice. When you bring up Brett Kavanaugh, have you noticed that over the last couple of months, as these stories roll out christ to Gall, not one person and I mean not one person has stepped forward and said, this doesn't sound like the Grand Platner I know, yeah, no, no one person. You see, now, if anyone accused you of this kind of thing, you would have a long line of people saying, I've known Christagall for a long time. 00:20:19 Speaker 3: That is not Christagall, right, exactly right. 00:20:22 Speaker 2: And and when you start to see the organized see here's what I think, because we're seeing it, it's funny. I bring up John Fetterman. Now Fetterman has come out forcefully against this guy. By the way, Fierman has been the toughest Democrat out there on Grand Platner says he says scumbag. In fact, I think, what what did Fednerman just said something, I'll start wearing a suit if something this week he said something that he'd put on a suit. 00:20:44 Speaker 1: If I think he'd start wearing a suit of Platner drops out or something like that, something like that. But he also said something about it's like, listen, I got a lot of you know, I haven't been the best guy, but I haven't sent any dick pics, is what he said. 00:20:57 Speaker 3: I do like the Fetterman. Yeah, whenever he plays blue, I always. 00:21:04 Speaker 2: But here's what he and Platner have in common. For whatever reason, the New York Times and a lot of left wing media don't want them around, and they've decided they're going to throw them overboard. Now. I say, for whatever reason, I think it's probably a little more obvious in that Fetterman, for whatever reason, has become more empathetic with the President's agenda on things like Israel, border closures and the like, and progressives aren't allowed to be supportive of those issues at all. So that might be the obvious for Fetterment, But for Platner, it's kind of a weird deal, is it? Because Susan Collins is sufficient for the New York Times and MS now they don't really mind her. She's not really a threat to them. Are They almost kind of doing Susan Collins bidding because that's good enough up there. 00:21:52 Speaker 1: To be honest, what I've learned about how the New York Times handled this story, I think that they know that there's a legitimate story there, so they went ahead. They reported it, but they did it in such a kid glove's way. 00:22:04 Speaker 3: Honestly. 00:22:04 Speaker 1: That's the second story to drop here, is about how the New York Times mishandled this story. I've spoken to Lindsay Feifeld about it. She's got more to tell. She told the New York Times, and the New York Times kept it out of the story. There will be more stories. 00:22:17 Speaker 3: Call you. 00:22:18 Speaker 1: I think the New York Times basically what's the old Iowa Hawk blog thing. When the media covers the story, they cover a story with a pillow to try to suffocate it. And that's what they meant by covering a story. 00:22:31 Speaker 2: And I'll say that even so, it was an extensive I mean, at least as I read it printed out, it was a very thick dive. So it wasn't even if they left things out. I mean that means that's a huge. 00:22:44 Speaker 1: Story to tell and they did it on purpose. All right, Well, we're going to get into this a little bit more about character and whether voters care about character or whether it's really just you know, you're going to vote the way I want you to vote. So I prefer you to be a good man, but I don't care really, just vote for what I need. Is that really where the electorate is? Or can we do better? We'll get to that in a minute, but first, it's our favorite part of the show where Chris talks about what a morbidly obese person he is to be. 00:23:10 Speaker 2: You really drive that home. 00:23:11 Speaker 3: I was girthy. I was a very very pleasantly plump. 00:23:18 Speaker 2: Yeah, I was, and I'm glad to now say that I have shed a lot of excess weight. Still working on it. I'd like to continue to engage. You know. One of the things that helps, obviously is getting up and moving around. Not that that's a huge secret, but it wasn't. You know, being a talk show host, it's a rather sedentary way of life, so you at least had to navigate what you're eating and kick your metabolism into high gears, so that at a minimum, if you're not going to be an active person, you at least know what's best to eat and when to eat it. And I know that may seem sort of elementary, like, well, yeah, Chris, how you don't need help with that? Well I did. You'd be surprised at what you eat and what you think is great. And maybe it's loaded with sugar or calories, particularly at times like breakfast, or maybe you're one of those that skips breakfast. What are you eating at lunch? What are you eat in the middle of the day. Do you eat anything at all? Do you wait until you have a huge dinner? Have you ever figured out or do you know anything about why you wait for a certain period of time between eating. It's all science, and your body has been studied by doctor Ashley Lucas in a way most don't. She's Maha. She has made a commitment to understanding how the human body, men and women, how we metabolize food, how it burns the calories and keeps us thin. And it's really it's not that complex once you learn it. I'd never been taught it, so it's not even as much what you're eating as much as it is when you're eating it and how much of it you're eating. But yeah, you'll meet one on one with a counselor at PhD Weight Loss and they will walk you through this every single week. And I lost forty pounds in under four months. My old producer, fast Eddie Caiazo, he just texted me last week said I'm at fifth I lost fifty. His goal was fifty pounds in under four months, and he did it. He's done it

through walking and just strictly eating what doctor Ashley Lucas and the team at Phdweight Loss told him to do. So between him and me over the last calendar year, that's ninety pounds. Phdw Weight Loss has helped us lose and all we had to do is follow their instructions. That's it. They they're so confident you're going to have success with this. They're going to give you two free weeks of the program, absolutely free. If you reach out today and tell them you heard Chris talking about him. A couple of ways to reach them eight six four sixty four four nineteen hundred eighty sixty four six four four nineteen hundred or Myphdweightloss dot com. 00:25:41 Speaker 1: All right, Christopher, let's wrap it up here with these two lovely ladies. These women are liberal women who have a podcast, and I'm told that they represent not just liberals, but women in general and women's issues. So now here, you've got a guy credibly accused of physical assault, bullying, psychological abuse of several girlfriends, and of course the Nazi tattoo and the lies about the Nazi tattoo and cheating on his wife, and on and on and on, and here's how they sum it up. 00:26:10 Speaker 6: Go ahead, ladies, everybody's talking about toxic relationships and tattoos and all of this shit. Talk about Susan Collins voting to dismantled protections that keep women safe and keep women free, because that is the real story here. They don't want us talking about that. Susan Collins needs to be defeated. She trots out, I'm a centrist. I think Donald Trump has learned his lesson. She is a maga fascist to her core. And just want to throw this in there too. I don't give a fuck if somebody had a toxic relationship. I myself had been a toxic girlfriend. I've had toxic boyfriends. That's part of the human experience. 00:26:57 Speaker 1: Right, Okay, so I believe all women takes another another hit. 00:27:02 Speaker 2: I'm sorry Chris that I had to. 00:27:04 Speaker 1: Make you sit through them. They're delightful, aren't they. It's like it's like a it's a reinvention of Wicked where both lead characters are alphaba. 00:27:13 Speaker 2: She The one thing I do believe that she said was she is she's been a toxic girlfriend. 00:27:23 Speaker 3: Evidence on that. 00:27:24 Speaker 1: But this is the question of so she doesn't care about all of those she she doesn't care about characters she doesn't care about. By the way, she's not saying I don't believe this didn't happen. She's saying she does not care. She just wants Susan. By the way, Susan Collins is pro choice. Susan Collins voted to prosecute Donald Trump in the impeachment trial. What more does this does Susan Collins need to do? 00:27:48 Speaker 3: Uh? 00:27:49 Speaker 1: This is a good lesson for Republicans who get squishy and want to appeal to people like this. But that's where we are right now, That's where the electorate is or is it? Is this just an outlier and I'm making a big deal of it. 00:28:00 Speaker 2: Well, I you know. I have been told by some I guess that, you know, when you take a position that planned parenthood isn't so bad, or when you take a position that transgender people ought to serve in the military even though Donald Trump thinks they shouldn't. I've been told that people who support my opponents say, oh, that's no big deal. That was then, this is now. I think that's a pretty fundamental big deal. I think those things matter, and I think people ought to be held accountable when they say things. They ought to be forced to explain. Okay, why did you say that then? Why do you think that then? And what has changed for you now? I think that matters. 00:28:38 Speaker 1: It needs to be pointed out when you talk about your opponent and all of those pro trands and trans in the military issues. This is the Republican in the primary you're talking about, not the Democrat you're going to face in November. That's your Republican and so his supporters. Why people need to go to stick Golf for Congress right now, Stick Golf for Congress dot com right now. 00:28:55 Speaker 2: I'll help Chris, all right, go ahead, I'm sorry, Well, no, I'll just I'll just say that that people will say you know that, well, okay, whatever, Quit being mean to him. You know it's the same and you get that with the grand platter. Quit picking on him. We all have our failings, we all have our faults. It's not you know, it's not about human failing. That's not it. It's about Nazi tattoos and supporting trans people in the military and not understanding why that's a bad thing. That speaks to your judgment. That's a judgment thing, for God's sakes. It's not flip, it's not trite. It's a big deal. It's a judgment issue, and it speaks to someone's lack of judgment in my view, and so it is absolutely open for debate. And I just I reject this idea that, oh, let's just stop being mean because they care about the things I have the feels about right now now, I think the totality of a resume and a person's worldview and their background, I think all of that matters, and it ought to be laid bare and discussed thoroughly. And if everyone has heard it to a sufficient level, and then after that they want to make the decision to support whomever, fine, but don't say all this questionable character stuff. Let's set that aside, because we care so much viscerally about the thing right now, Well, it's if we spend a little more time vetting the kinds of people we're electing. I hear this. Here's what I hear all the time, all the time. I hear we need more good people to run. Good people don't want to run. I hear that all the time. Well, when you look at Graham Platner, it's hard to argue that point. And why don't more people step forward and run except for people like Graham Platner? I because good, bad behaviors rewarded. Are there people talking about Hunter Biden potentially running for president right now? 00:30:45 Speaker 3: Seriously? 00:30:46 Speaker 2: I saw somebody say yesterday or over the weekend on X, well, he's running. He's running because he put out some post about here are things that we all as Americans can agree on. And I started seeing people say, oh, well, look at that. Hunters speak in common sense like all of us. 00:31:02 Speaker 1: Look, I think that maybe with family business it beats getting a real job. I guess, Chris, I'd be remiss if I didn't offer you this opportunity to come clean about any tattoos that we need to know about here before we Please, no, I said, I've seen enough nipples. No, no more enough I have nipples, Greg, can you milk me? It's Robert Deniers. Yeah, no, I remember from the Meet the Fockers. I believe that is uh, that's it for this episode. And in tantalizing what it was, we all we almost got a bare chested Chris to gall and if you go to stick golf for Congress dot com right now and uh maximize your contribution to his campaign, he will take that shirt off. 00:31:57 Speaker 2: But I'm in a fundraising mode right now. I didn't need money cut out. Yeah, oh, actually demanding their funds back. 00:32:06 Speaker 1: Donate toiing off for Congress, or he will take his shirt off. 00:32:10 Speaker 2: The only way we keep that shirt on. Don't make me get naked. Folks call now or close start coming off. 00:32:17 Speaker 1: It's like the Reversaldie fans. Please keep it on. Here's my buddy. Please don't get undressed. No fan, all right, tomorrow we'll celebrate pride Pond. It's a sin, you know, but it's not the least of the sins we're seeing right now in the pride most celebration. Who gets to the side what America's values are and who decided this month was dedicated to what we're seeing. We'll get to that on the next episode of the campaign. It's christa gol account wo