Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 7/8/26: Trump Says Iran Ceasefire Over, Bibi Rages Over Turkey, Platner Fallout Continues

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

Ryan and Saagar discuss Trump says Iran ceasefire over, Bibi rages over F-35s to Turkey, Maine Dems reject Platner influencing replacement, Platner story left key details out. David Morales: https://www.davidmoralespvd.com/ Kai Newkirk: https://kaiforaz.com/    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.com    Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Actually, no, it's thank you for having me. That's Wednesday. It's Wednesday. After all, people getting a lot of bro shows this week. That's how the schedule goes. The schedule goes. We're going to do our best here. So we're going to kick off Donald Trump,

some major comments abroad in Ankara. basically saying the memorandum of understanding is over as well as the ceasefire. This follows retaliatory strikes between Iran and the United States. Iran then firing back at U.S. bases. Probably the biggest exchange of fire since the ceasefire began. I don't even know what the date is at this point. Doesn't matter. Along with probably the biggest news is the revocation of American, or sorry, the reimposition of American sanctions on Iranian oil, almost certainly to invite a major Iranian response and perhaps a resumption of the war. Oil markets popping a little bit, but still delusional, as has been the case. Turkey, we're going to talk about that. Ryan and Emily

covered a little bit of this on Monday, but Bibi Netanyahu all over American cable news to tell us why Turkey is actually our greatest enemy. Neeran's over. Now it's all about Turkey. Trump making some comments there. B.B. putting his full thumb on the scale to prevent the sale of F-35s. And B.B. actually saying some of the quiet part. out loud. So this will be a major tussle between the U.S. and Israel. Wonder who I would put my money on in terms of winning that fight. We are going to talk about Graham Platner situation in Maine. There is a basically, I mean, I would describe it as a full-blown coup attempt now currently happening in Maine. You can evaluate for yourself, but the executive director of the Maine Democratic Party out this

morning, Ryan, saying that Graham Platner should have absolutely no say whatsoever in who replaces him, full-scale civil war between the establishment and Graham Platner in perhaps who will replace him. It does appear all signs currently point to him dropping out, but we're not entirely sure yet. We are going to talk about Me Too. Again, I know that this is a bit difficult, two bros on the bro show who are litigating this, but actually a lot of this is going to be reporting. Ryan has some exclusive reporting that he can show everybody for some of the text messages that led up to this exchange between Graham Platner and his current accuser, which Politico had. did not release, which in and of itself, in my opinion, is a media story. It's not how you do journalism. It is not how you do journalism whatsoever.

This is in addition to some new interviews from CNN and others of people who are accusing Graham Platner of improper behavior. And a lot of this is reminding us of the eight year ago kind of litigation through Me Too. And honestly, a lot of the journalistic standards here, and you do not have to in any way saying Graham Platner is innocent or Grand Platner did not act very terribly. but to say unequivocally the way the media is handling the story is genuinely irresponsible. So we're going to go through that. And then, Ryan, you've got Kai Newkirk who's going to join you.

Sagar stumbled into a Wednesday show here. And he's, what are all of these socialists doing on the runtime? All these DSA communists. But this guy, I'm going to make an exception for this dude, because he's currently running for office in Arizona and is, what is he? He's filed an official complaint with the Arizona Attorney General alleging four. interference by the state of Israel via a massive spending bomb against him. So any American who's under attack by the Israel lobby, I'm here to support them. And then you have Ryan, a candidate, David Morales, who's running... DSA is trying to take over Providence. And as people

say, as goes Providence, so goes the nation. As goes Providence, so goes Boss. So goes Providence. Yeah, so goes Providence. Great city, though. Don't get me wrong. Great city. I got married in Rhode Island. I'll always love it. Okay. Before we get to any of... of that, thank you to everybody who's been subscribing to the show, breakingpoints.com, if you're able to. But do not forget that we have our incredible newsletter, which is out here right now, which you can subscribe to perfectly for free. Just go to breakingpoints.com. The pop-ups right there. You put your email in and you get the first three blocks. Our premium subscribers, of course, get access to the full thing, which is a written version, basically rundown, of our entire show.

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All right. Let's go ahead and start with Iran, as Ryan said, some crazy stuff happening there. Trump basically saying the ceasefire is over in Ankara. Let's take a listen. I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them anymore. They're scum. You know what scum is?

They're scum. They're sick people. They're led by sick people. And they're vicious, violent people. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they'd use it. As far as I'm concerned, it's over. I'll speak to our negotiators. They want to negotiate.

They're good people. Steve Whitkoff, Jared Kushner, but they have to come back to me. As far as I'm concerned, it's just a waste of time dealing with them. They're liars. We make a deal. If I make a deal with him, we have a deal,

and he goes out, he talks. We make a deal. Everyone's agreed. No nuclear weapon. We make a deal. They go outside, talk to the press. They say, we never even talked about it. There's something wrong with them.

They're cuckoo. As far as I'm concerned, it's over. As far as I'm concerned, it's over. he says now multiple times. So let's go and put the next one, take a listen, where he talks specifically about the strikes on Iran, describing them as 20 to 1 in terms of what the U.S. received. Let's take a listen. We attacked very powerfully last night. The very dangerous people from Iran, they're sick. There's something wrong with them. We said, go and do your funeral stuff.

and instead of that, they started shooting rockets of chips yesterday. And so we hit them very hard last night, very hard. I would say 20 to 1, 20 times tougher. And I told them every time you hit, we hit. And of course, they're dirty players, so they

go after everyone, probably including me. I've been number one on their list for years, and they're a bunch of scum. You want to know that they're scum. And so we don't I don't like them. I don't like them. And they're evil people and it's the denuclearization of Iran and we're going to denook it. We're not going to let them because they're crazy

and they can't have a nuclear weapon. And they go around killing people. They've killed thousands and thousands of our soldiers. They've killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Evil people, we're going to denuk it. This is all, I mean, look, let's put A1 up here just to show you even the shift in language from the United States. The U.S. Central Command Forces have begun launching a series of powerful strikes against Iran. Note, this time, they don't even say powerful self-defense strikes like they usually do, which in and of itself is a meaningless phrase, to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway. The U.S. strikes are in response to Iranian attacks on three

commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz. So what this basically comes down to is a complete disagreement on what it actually means. means to have the memorandum of understanding and the phrase specifically that says free passage to the Strait of Hermitage. The Iranian understanding of the phrase free passage is, yes, you can go through for free with coordination with Iranian authorities. The American version of that is we can go through however we want, including through routes set up by the United States military and the government of Oman.

Iran is desperately, and is basically willing to blow up the entire ceasefire over, basically, they are threatening to blow up an entire ceasefire over the idea of control over the Strait of Hormuz because it is their ultimate leverage that they were able to exert in this war. The economic nuke, basically, as Robert Pate has described it here on our show. And why I think that's very important is just that there is a total mismatch between what the U.S. wants and what Iran wants. Iran wants not only security for itself for all time, but also to increase its overall regional power. So that's why the ceasefire in and of itself, they don't particularly care about taking some more of these smaller strikes, which on Kashim Island or around the Strait of Hormuz. The United States needs an immediate drop in oil prices. Remember, Brent crude, still around $76 per barrel. The national price of gasoline is still some $370, still a full dollar above where it was before the war even began.

So what you can see is Trump, while he can say all of these things, he can't fully resume the war either. So we're in this very difficult status quo where oil is going to remain high. And in the interim, you have chaos, you know, really. In the straight Ryan, you've got shipping slowing down. You had a Qatari LNG tanker, which got hit, which is a huge, you know, huge deal because Qatar was one of their major mediators. And they're much more explosive. Yes, yeah, exactly. Much more flammable.

And we can look at Bullet 5 of the MOU. reads, the Islamic Republic of Iran will make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days, only from the Persian Gulf to the sea of Oman and vice versa, straight of Hormuz. The traffic of commercial vehicles will immediately start. So Iran is clearly reading that they will make the arrangements using their best efforts for the safe passage in coordination with Oman. Now, what the U.S. has been doing is they've been trying to tell all of these ships, go through the southern passage that is on the Omani side, and do not coordinate with Iran. Iran isn't asking for money, but they want basically, give me your license plate, license and registration. And the U.S. does not want to institutionalize the process of these international ships working with Iran to go through, because that is then effectively Ced. the idea that they control it. But if that was something that, if you ask me, that the U.S. wanted, maybe they should have negotiated for that better in the talks. Like, that's where you

work that out. So Iran is saying, hey, these, we didn't get their license and registration. We're hitting them. Now, Trump has a huge problem here. Even 20 to one strikes are not going to persuade Iran that their position should change on this question. Yes. Trump has already demonstrated that he does not have the military capacity to bend Iran's will on the strait of her moves. Like, we all watched it happen. And so that leaves either massive escalation and occupation of Iran and complete decapitation of not just the regime, but like complete regime change. Like, and you install the Shah or whatever, right? Like, you need. You know, the Shah's failed son who lives here in Maryland. Yes. Yeah. So that, there's that,

or there's the negotiations. This back and forth where they fire on ships and we fire on them does not change the status quo. Right. They still, like right now, if you're a ship, no matter how many times the U.S. has just bombed Iran over the last 24 hours,

you still better coordinate with Iran or you're going to get hit. Let's put A4 up here on the screen. This is about transits through the Strait of Hormuz. You can actually see what they look like in terms of how they have gone down. halted transit, anchored, instead of entering the straight. Remember, I mean, whenever we say, oh, is the straight open? It's really up to Iran and it's up to the insurance company. And then the

company itself. The company says, we're not going through. And insurance says, nope, don't do it. Well, then we're not going to. You can actually literally see the circle there where ship is refusing to go through the strait. So we are not even close to resuming normal traffic through the straight. This was already a problem. We've had multiple strikes now by Iran in the straight. We had a What was it, a renewal of said ceasefire? Nobody's saying that that can't happen tomorrow. But this type of language from Trump combined, I think you guys covered when I was gone,

the comments from the vice president, J.D. Vance, where he was like, look, the ceasefire gives us an opportunity to re-ar. Yeah, we're going to restock. We can restock our oil. I'm like, well, you know, if I'm Iran and I'm listening to that, I'm like, well, maybe I should start shooting. And now I should never stop shooting, actually. I'm not going to let you sneak past.

I think. And also, remember, you know, Iran has. internal politics too. Take a look at the funeral where it was millions of people. And guess what? There is a huge faction of the Iranian government who opposed a ceasefire from day one. Huge faction of the IRGC who said, you are making a catastrophic mistake. They're going to rearm and they're going to bomb us. And according to Treat to Parsi, the internal belief inside of Iran is that Israel and the United States will resume the war within six months, exactly like they did the last time. And so this is all setting the stage potentially for a major conflagration or confrontation.

This will not happen tomorrow necessarily. It could happen months from now. But on again, off again. We're probably not going to have time to cover the situation in Ukraine. Perfect example. The critical nexus of the battle in Ukraine is now where you have a development of the drone threat. You have Moscow and Ukraine locked in the contest, ballistic missiles, they're flying over the top, and Ukraine having the ability to strike deep inside of Russia to Russian oil refineries.

That's where the strategic calculus leaps to another level. And it's very unfortunate because we have effectively entered forever war territory here in terms of the logic. It's easier to just mow the lawn with Iran. It's easier for Iran to just constantly, you know, sit there and be like, look, we're not getting, you know, completely pounded by bombs. We can lob a few bombs in the Straits of Hormuz and continue to negotiate over time. That all, that instability in the global market and order is exactly what is diminishing U.S. power will keep having a magnet. for the U.S. and it's leading to crazy situations like Asia Pacific abandoning the United States. The European NATO summit, half of it with the European leaders, is about how can we stop being

dependent on America? Like, we can't be dependent on these people. The entire world seeing a pushback. And America not even having the ability, even if they wanted to arm Ukraine today, we can't. We don't have any of the missiles. We used it all. And to add to your point about Iran's internal calculations, yesterday there were two million plus more. in Najaf Iraq for the Ayatollah. And the morning in Karbala is expected to be even bigger than that. So what Iran is seeing is millions of people, not just pouring out into the streets of Iran, but also Iraq.

So they're seeing themselves, they're seeing themselves, you know, solidify and develop as a significant regional power. And so, yeah, 20-to-one air strikes from President Trump aren't going to do it. We can put up A-5. The geopolitical implications of this Qatari ship getting hit are significant as well. You know, Qatar had reached some kind of agreement with Iran, and what Iran is showing here is that we may have an agreement, but if you're not respecting the rules that we're setting up,

to get ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Even your LNG tanker is going to get hit, which everyone here is playing with fire. Like could be an absolutely, you know, could catastrophic attack, you know, for everybody on board, anybody nearby, and also ecologically for the entire region, so far they've been almost lucky that this is all that's happened so far.

Put up A6, that is from drop site. Yes. Up to five ships now may have been hit just over the past two days. The key is there is that southern Omani route, which is as far away from Iran as possible. You can't really say far because it's like 205 miles. Yeah, it's really not that far. That's the entire problem with the geography. Close enough for drones and hand grenades.

Exactly right. And speedboats, if that's something that you want to do too. And so we're just locked in this situation. How will it, you know, resolve? Who knows? again. And that's why it's always important to say Trump says it's over. You can't take that to the bank. Trump says that it's back on. You can't take that to the bank either. Right. There's all of these. But I will say, as far as I'm concerned, it's back on. There are signals that are, so in the same way that the

J.D. Ascension and Geneva, the Lake Lucerne Summit was, it was a positive sign. Like, you can't take back these comments about Israel or any of that. You can't. These are all good. Well, now we're seeing signs in the opposite direction. So one of the worst signs I saw, Pete Heggseth, was on his way to Israel. Visit just got canceled. Well, a bit of a problem. Why does visit get canceled? You could read it two ways. One, is there mad at BB over his comments on Turkey, which we're about to talk about. One is we're about to go back to war, so he needs to be at the Pentagon. So both of these are, you know, I mean, one would be a positive, one would be a negative. You also have Secretary Rubio, who's traveling with the President, not the Vice President, who's here in Washington. Well, you've got the Vice President away from the President. You've got the Hawkish Secretary of State with the President, along with Secretary of Defense, two of the people. who opposed the ceasefire, initially and always thought that it was going to be a total failure. So all of these tea leaves that we're reading around who were around Trump and what they're urging to do, et cetera, all of this currently points in a direction of at least a collapse of the memorandum understanding, which just leads to even more instability, which means stock markets are going to go down,

oil prices will go slightly up, but no way a return to normal, which is what everybody wanted in the first place. Nobody wants this war, except for Trump. And we're down at 90 million barrels are in our strategic reserve. That is, and we released, I think, 6 million last week. So we're still going down. 90 million is nothing. Like, you can see the bottom of that. Yeah, the strategic

patrol and reserve and much more. Okay, let's get to the Turkey situation. Listen. And you're there for heart-wrenching knockouts. The world's biggest stage. And breathtaking triumph. In 2026, FIFA.

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I mean, they are full on. So, Bibi is furious right now. Let's put B1 up here. You guys can see it. Trump arrived in Ankara to great fanfare. Erdogan even met him on the tarmac, which is such a huge deal. Apparently, he never does that. And this show of allyship between these two longstanding nations is throwing Israeli politics into complete chaos.

So much so that Bibi Netanyahu has now taken to Fox News and CNN, not his own press, to beg the United States, not to resume the sale of F-35 planes to Turkey, which of course is a NATO ally. and more important to the United States in every way than Israel. But here he is saying it will jeopardize not U.S. security, but Israeli security. And that's why we shouldn't do it. Let's take a listen. President Trump is in Turkey right now. He said this morning he will consider selling F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, which is a reversal

of a ban he put in place. You said yesterday that would, quote, upset the power balance in the Middle East. Have you made that clear to President Trump? Yes, I have actually spoke to him several times about it. And I think that everybody understands that notwithstanding the personal friendship that President Trump has with Erdogan, it doesn't make Turkey a friendly or a friendly state to the United States to the contrary. It's a regime that's infected with the Muslim Brotherhood, which hates the United States.

He harbors Hamas, the Hamas terrorists. He supports them. He finances them. He's thrown his opponents in jail, all of them. He throws more journalists in jail than anyone can understand. So he's not exactly a model ally of the United States. But even worse than that, he threatens Greece, a NATO ally. He occupies half of Cyprus, another NATO country, and the most important thing, and I put

it right on the table. He threatens to destroy my country, the one and only Jewish state, is number two, says that We have no place among the nations, and you know what that means. And as number three, the Interior Minister says that he's looking forward to be the governor of Jerusalem. Hello, you know, we're a sovereign country? He is considering giving the country these planes, F-35s. Well, as I said, it would destroy the power balance in the Middle East because Turkey, I think,

has aggressive aspirations. I mean, they openly say that. They want to restore the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire not only included Turkey, it included many other countries, included Syria, and included pieces of Jordan, included all of present-day Israel, included some Gulf countries. So this is not a force for peace and stability. And if you give this kind of radical regime, that admittedly smiles to America when it is necessary, or smiles to the President of the United States,

is necessary. When you're given that power, you're going to see aggression in its wake. I wouldn't do that. There's so much going on there, Ryan, that you flag. Number one, he's so concerned about journalists. Wow. Yes. The person who murdered a bunch of journalists. He's very concerned about journalists. Second, Turkey is occupying. Anti-occupation. Anti-occupation. End the occupation, says Netanyahu.

Yeah, you might as well be a Ryan Graham. Defend journalists and end the occupation. The final little quiet part out loud is this would threaten Israeli air-superiorial. in the region. That's what it's all about. That's the whole thing. She calls a balance. That's the opposite of a balance. Exactly. It's the imbalance. The imbalance is balanced to the Israelis. The Israeli right to them is the right to not only have their country, to have whatever you would define as Palestine, is to have half of Lebanon, is to have half of Syria, is to bomb Qatar at will, is to bomb Iran at will. Is to be, and why would, what was the purpose?

Nobody can have the capacity to fight back. Nobody has it. Why, the Israeli demand was Iran cannot have a ballistic missile, which is capable of hitting Israel. Not anything on nuclear weapons. Is it ballistic missile capable? Why? Because they need no balance whatsoever. So they can take over whatever they want. These Iranians are like, look, we'll ship the nuclear weapon or nuclear material out of the country. Nope, not good enough. Why? Because they don't have, they can't have the ability to threaten Tel Aviv or Jerusalem or any of these, Haifa, any of the other cities in Israel. That's what it's actually all about, this entire thing. And so when he says this about Turkey, which we all know, they've been saying it out loud now for what, for the entire war.

Basically, they're like Turkey is next from Neftali Bennett now to the prime minister. This is purely about breaking up the U.S. and NATO. And I'm no defender of NATO, but if we're going to break up NATO, it should be on our terms, not on Israeli terms, okay? It should be a lot more about why should we defend North Macedonia or whatever, you know, Montenegro, as opposed to, well, Israel wants to bomb Turkey and that's a huge problem. The irony, of course, is that by launching this war, Trump has made himself much more reliant on Turkey and much more reliant on the Gulf countries because he needs them, because we no longer have any weapons, to actually restore some sort of regional balance. But he's still the superpower person on top of that. So he both has to court Erdogan and court Bibi. He has this rogue actor over here.

And then this NATO ally over here with a population which hates Israel with a fiery passion, Israelis hate them right back. And I just think it demonstrates exactly the sheer instability of our alliance here with Israel. And also, I mean, what can we even say about CNN just inviting this propaganda commercial on for why he shouldn't be able to buy F-35? She didn't even challenge. But why do you deserve Israeli air superiority in the region? Did you even think to ask that? Nothing.

It's crazy. Yeah, nothing. Yeah. And so then watching, oh, and last point, so we'll get to put a B6, Netanyahu said he jails his political opponents. Indeed, the mayor of Istanbul is the largest opposition figure, is in jail with trumped-up charges. But meanwhile, of course, Netanyahu has thousands of his political opponents in administrative detention, in torture chambers, in Israel. But so it'll be, it's interesting to see how Trump navigated this. Listen closely to how Trump talks about the F-35s and his relationship with Turkey versus a

a certain other ally that he doesn't name, but is quite clear who he's referring to. It's going to be four. President, are you going to sell F-35s to Turkey? And what about the legal restrictions? Well, it's a decision we're going to make. We have a very good relationship. I mean, we have a very good relationship, I would think that many people, I can tell you, many people, including the people sitting right here, thinks, you know, why wouldn't we do that? We have a better relationship with Turkey, and Turkey's been in many ways much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal. So, yeah, something certainly we would consider. It's a great plane. It's the best,

currently the best plane by far. And it's certainly something we will consider, yeah. that's probably a double swipe at Europe and European countries who he's always dogging for not being loyal enough and not defending him when he went to war with Iran. But given the context of Netanyahu's 24-7 in a public cable campaign against Trump doling out the F-35 to Turkey, to have him say, no, these guys are loyal, unlike some other people who I'm not going to mention. it's pretty difficult not to believe that he's also including Netanyahu in that. Who he feels, or he at least has been saying publicly he feels like has been an obstacle to his agenda in the Middle East lately. Right. But at the same time, like, how can we see the collapse of the ceasefire and not bet on Netanyahu?

By the way, you know, we didn't even put this on the show. Shame on. Guess what Israel also did today. Bomb Lebanon. Bomb Lebanon, right? Which the Iranians are like, hello, hello. Paragraph one, ceasefire on all fronts. It's totally nuts. And so you look at this, you see the Israelis who are bombing Lebanon. You have this attack, basically on the Trump administration, full-blown from BB Netanyahu, on American cable news. And what does the president say? Nothing. I mean, every once in a while, he'll give an interview when he's like, oh, BB, I'm the boss.

And that's great. Right. Okay, it's nice to say. But BB's not stupid. He knows exactly how to reach Trump through U.S. cable news. He's fully activated all of his allies. And the other thing is, now that Trump says as the ceasefire is over, the neocon tonguebath is about to come back full and force. Oh, Mr. President, the greatest and the strongest president, you didn't make any mistake

here with the ceasefire. Don't worry about it. And at this, you know, you basically have like fifth columnists here in the United States who are agents of the Israeli government. Like, let's put B-10 up here, Mark Levine. Look at this. I mean, this is basically propaganda on behalf of the Israeli government's position. Breaking news, Erdogan was prepared to join forces with Iran against Israel. The president has mentioned several times he talked Erdogan out of entering the war on the side of the Iranian regime, meaning he talked Erdogan out of going to war with the U.S. and Israel. I really think this needs to be explained in detail and fully pursued. If a NATO country was going to join the enemy in our war against Iran, we need to know all about it. The president is rightfully condemning

the support of NATO countries, but in the case of Turkey, it was prepared to fight us, question mark? Can you imagine Erdogan using our military equipment against us? Now this thug will have our F-35s. By the way, Israel has F-35s. And we're praising the hell out of this guy like is our best friend, we need to know a lot more about this. I mean, what they do is, you know, Bibi puts out the talking point, then the entire neocon industrial complex comes up behind him. It's a pressure campaign. And as, you know, Bruno Maseas, he's a commentator, I deeply respect. He called this years ago. I remember him saying it. He said, the death of NATO will have nothing to do with Ukraine. It will have nothing to do with Russia. It will be an Israeli war of

aggression on doing. And I mean, he could not have been more right. I really, one of the most prescient predictions I have ever seen. And on the Lebanon strikes, if you know, there was a drone strike on a vehicle down in southern Lebanon. It hit a school principal, her mother, a foreign domestic worker, you know, like an au pair or something, and then a Syrian citizen that were all driving in this car, which had been trying to return to its check on their home down in, down in southern Lebanon where Israel has destroyed most of the homes. Yeah, so, and then finally, do you want to talk about this Egypt thing? I wanted to give you that opportunity here.

I know that was something that was so horrible. Yes, we can put this next element up. Be nine guys. One of the most sadistic and insane things, I feel like I've ever seen. So this, so the Egyptian Relief Committee was organizing, they put out a bunch of TVs so that people could watch in Gaza, the Egypt Argentina game

which trying to give people a little bit of life, a little bit of joy in as bleak a scenario as you could possibly imagine an hour before the match, Israel kills

the committee's PR guy. Yeah. Like, just let them watch the game. Also, Israel would have been happy because Egypt was completely robbed in that game. I mean, credit to Argentina, an incredible

comeback, but Egypt had this one of the greatest goals in World Cup history called off by some stupid VAR call. And then Argentina does the exact same thing, goes coast to coast, who also trips an Egyptian player in the box, and they don't get a call for that. So Israel could have just been satisfied with the Palestinians who were rooting for Egypt being disappointed in how that unfolded. Instead, they have to kill the PR guy who's setting up

the big screen TVs. It's just so just depraved. Like, there's no, there's no word for it. I agree. And that's why they deserve regional air superiority. That's the balance of power they're talking about. That's what they're doing with their balance. That America deserves and should backstop in the region. Smart. Smart. Okay, let's get to Platner. Canadian women are looking for more. More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are out of them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart.

And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on IHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hey, I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. If you know me, you know this. I'm always searching for inspiration, for support, and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover all of that together. We're going to have these meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people.

Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming. I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer, and that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartum depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety. Olympic champ Sean Johnson revealed why she had no choice but to be a gymnast. There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us. We just have to find it.

Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Munga Shat Together, and I'm back with a new season of the podcast. Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones, and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain, as opposed to his brain. Here are some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five year acceleration.

And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. To make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Maine Senate candidate, Graham Platner has still not resigned the nomination.

But Maine Democratic Party executive director, Devin Murphy Anderson, last night, posted a video urging that he do so and telling him in his campaign that he will have no say in who is chosen to replace him or how that candidate will be picked. Let's roll a little bit of Murphy Anderson here. Hi, everyone. I wanted to provide you all an update on the U.S. Senate race here in Maine. As you know, the Maine Democratic Party has been working around the clock to develop a process to represent. our U.S. Senate nominee that is open, inclusive, transparent, and fair. The integrity of this process is just as important as the outcome, and we are committed to ensuring that Democrats across our state can have confidence in both. Unfortunately, Graham Platner's team has repeatedly reached out to us

in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like. We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner's team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, nor in determining what this process looks like. We have also reiterated that Graham Platner must drop out of this race so that Democrats in Maine can focus on defeating Susan Collins this November. We look forward to making this process public as soon as Graham Platner formally withdraws from this race. And so the Plattener campaign responded to this, and we can add this in post, campaign official told Sahel Kapoor, quote,

the Platter campaign has reached out to the party to try and understand what this process would look like. At no point has the campaign tried to, quote, put its finger on the scale. Over 150,000 Mainers voted for this movement, and over 15,000 Mainers volunteered their time and energy to it. While Graham wouldn't want to be a part of the process, he would want to make sure the voters and volunteers make this decision, not the political establishment, unquote. Can I say what it is? This is a coup. Well, that from the executive director, to say we're not even going to answer their phone calls,

they did win the nomination. He won more votes. Look, can we just say, I'm not some Platner fan board. I literally said... Can vouch. Guy does not like Plattener. It's not that I hate Plattener. I've always thought he's like a Brooklyn cosplaying leftist

some sort of working platinum. I think his background bears all of that out, okay? And so I'll save that I tell you so for later. But to me, this is a principle of matter. Like, this man won more votes in the Democratic primary than anyone in Maine history. And the main Democratic Party, who is that lady, by the way? I don't remember anybody voting for her across the state. I don't think so.

Does she run for anything? Maybe, look, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe she got voted on it. Like, I'm not familiar exactly. With the bylaws of the Maine Democratic Party, I know that one person got more votes than anyone in the history of a Maine Democratic Party. And to say that he should have no say whatsoever in how. how the next person, if he were to step down to replace him, is totally insane.

Insane. Because his volunteers, his people, his campaign are ultimately the ones who beat a sitting governor for the, you know, in the Democratic nomination. You don't force her out of the race. They beat the DSCC. And then to say that if he's going to step down, which he doesn't have to do, that he should have no say in the process, is, I mean, it is as anti-democratic as it possibly could be. because Ryan, you and I both know they're going to try various different ways to make this seem open. Superdelegates or televised debates, like nothing beats voting. And they can't vote again. So it is, by definition, going to be an anti-democratic process.

They could do at least a caucus-level situation. And what Platter seems to be saying here is I'm not trying to force you to take who I want you to take. Now, if an establishment candidate was getting pushed out of the race, by the way, they would appoint an establishment replacement. There would be no controversy about it, no question about it. It would be done in 12 hours. But an establishment candidate is not getting pushed out of the race. Platner is. Plattenor is not even saying he is insisting on, like, Troy Jackson or Shennebello's.

What he is saying is that he wants to make sure that there is an inclusive process that as many Democrats who participated in the primary process are able to participate in. And that could be a convention in Portland that has many conventions in every county where there's a democratic... Like, this is easily something that can be put together. And so he's just asking, and this is within the power of the main Democratic Party to put together, it would be a kind of a shotgun thing, probably be hard to pull off an entire primary, whether you

count every single vote, but you could do a caucus-type. situation. They could figure something out in Plattner's campaign and saying, what are you thinking? Because to your point, they don't want this to go into Janet Mills' office. Yeah. Which is fair. Or her office. Because it's fair. And they just come out the smoke signal. Yeah. The voters rejected her. Right. They explicitly did not vote for her. Like you cannot do this, in my opinion. This is why, I mean, look, I think so much of Platner and a lot of the Democratic left, I don't know what is going on, but like, you know, their whole brand is fighting. This is the time to fight guys.

This is how you got steamrolled under Biden. And this is basically why you have no power. This is why Bernie dropped out of the race after Super Tuesday, never fought and did anything. Allegedly, this is the time to stand up. Everybody just immediately was like, oh, yeah, Platner's got to go. But nobody demanded any sort of conditions. And the main Democratic Party said he's in no position to demand anything. Well, he's literally in a position.

It literally isn't a position to demand anything. It's like I really feel like I'm taking crazy pills, Ryan, because a lot of it, like from Mamdani to Bernie to any of the Rokana, to all the movement leaders, everyone started with he's got to go without the next part. The next part should be and the person who he, who succeeds him, should be as similar to him as possible. And they've given up all their leverage. And now these people are right back in charge. I really think if you're anti-establishment, Democrat in Maine, you should be. outrage. By the way, this is playing out. Right. There are three kind of ways you can handle serious, huge allegations like that in the moment. One is to say we need to wait

for a couple of days here to get more information about this. I want to hear from all sides. Two is to say, okay, you know what? Our guy is done. We're going to negotiate a surrender here. Let's work on the terms of what this surrender looks like.

Three is just complete total surrender. And they went with basically number three. So let's put up C2. So this is Bernie Sanders. He says, he tweeted, I have spoken with Graham Platner about the best path forward for Maine in light of these very serious allegations. I have recommended that he step aside. Mayor Zoran Mamdani in New York was asked as well about whether or not Platner should stay in the race. He has a lot of the same kind of consultants on his team as are with Platner and staffers. Let's roll C-1 here. Given that you have a sort of ascendant role in the Democratic Party,

could you talk about the main Senate race? Do you think that Graham Platner should drop out of the race? And do you have any intention of endorsing any candidates in competitive races outside of New York, El-Said, or anyone else? I believe that it's time for him to drop out of the race. And when it comes to my own endorsements, I've made, eight endorsements at the state and federal level. They've all been right here in New York City.

I'm incredibly excited at the fact that they won their races, and that's where my focus is for now. I think the focus of today should be to respond to the gravity of what so many of us have read, and I think that the only appropriate response is for the campaign to come to an end. And we put up C5 here. This is from Dropside News, Nathan Bernard. He interviewed a ton of volunteers for Graham Platner,

and the overwhelming, almost universal consensus from them was that Platner either no longer should have a shot at staying in the race or no longer does have a shot in the race and that either way the upshot is the same, but they want Troy Jackson, who we were talking about earlier and talked about yesterday on the program, he's a logger who was the former State Senate president who ran for governor,

finished a very close, there was a very close third with it was Hannah Pingree, Shenna Bellows, and him as well, and Ralph Shaw had, you know, ran competitively as well. Meanwhile, Jared Golden and put up C6 here. Platinum ran as an anti-war candidate. Jared Golden cast a deciding vote to kill a war powers resolution in the U.S. House.

Right. As his thing was he's a maverick in the conservative district who, to his credit, continued to get elected as a Democrat in a Trump-leaning district to his discredit. One of the ways he did it was by constantly voting for war. So to try to replace a guy whose energy clearly came from his passionate opposition to forever wars and to the genocide in Gaza with some. somebody who was passionately on the other side of that would be apparently maybe that's something that's okay with the main Democratic Party, but it's hard to believe that that's not just guaranteeing defeat in November. That's what I want to ask you. Am I overreacting? Like, does the current process point in the Troy Jackson, you know, path? Because could one, but see, this is where,

this is kind of why I think that the left is not, you know, far be for me to like give advice or whatever. You don't have to listen. But, you know, the whole point was. supposed to be we fight. That's why we go with Platner. That's why we're going to abandon our woke shibbolets after the New York Times store story and be like, no, we're sticking with our man. This is it, right? We're all in because this is about fight. And then you not only do immediately give up, you ask for nothing. And you basically give the establishment, the bat, which to bash your head in, which if you're spending any time on Twitter right now, and you really should, go monitor the accounts of all of the pro-establishment people,

near a Tandon and Matt Aglaeasius and Josh Barrow. And I'm not saying this in a disparaging way. They have a, you know, they have a more of a adversarial, more like centrist's view of how the Democratic Party should be. They are using this moment to not only go after Platterner, but everybody who backed him. So Morris Katz and the, and I'm sorry if this is too inside baseball, but this stuff matters.

They're currently using it to try and blacklist the, what is it, fight agency, which found Platner. So they're like, see these people have horrible. judgment, right? See, these people cannot be trusted. That's why I said not only is it a coup, it's a purge. It's a simultaneous effort by a lot of the establishment Democrats. And so when you immediately give up all your leverage, now you have nothing. Because Graham has both not fought back, even though, I mean, again, the biggest indication to me that he's guilty is, or at least guilty of something, is he's like, okay, I haven't heard from him. Hands up. Yeah,

he hasn't heard from anything. He's canceled his events. He stopped all of his spending. He's, He basically, you know, conceded from day one that he was like, we're going to assess the future of our campaign. He's hanging out at his home, you know, doing nothing from what we can see right now. And then it's not just him. It's all the movement leaders that I listed. And you're basically allowing the establishment to burn you, which, you know, if it's 2020 after BLM, that's one thing. But it's today where you guys are actually winning primaries. You do have some leverage.

and I see nothing. I think this is a shameful incident, honestly. And they're even, I've noticed trying to use it against Abdul al-Saiyad in Michigan. I've noticed that too. It's like, wait, hold on a second. What on earth does Abdul al-Syad? And also, good luck trying to, like,

Platner's name ID in Michigan is probably not very high. Like, this is inside stuff that freaks like us are following pretty closely. But Abdul al-Syid, like, what are you doing? You're going after him just because he shares some politics with Platinum. No, it's completely. I got my own beef with Abdul, who by the way is hopefully coming on the show next week.

We're going to talk a lot about property taxes. Yes, I mean, I'm beefing with him over this too. I mean, I'm not, like I haven't argued with him, but I would. We'll get into it. We'll save all that for later. No spoilers. So, Abdul's been married for 20 years. It looks like he's two children.

So, you know, good for him. I don't think he has anything to do with his behavior. Also, you know, plug for, you know, non-traditional Sharia. If you don't drink, none of this will happen to you. That's just my, well, my personal plug. But you've got to look. Not totally, but it reduces the likelihood. Soft Sharia.

So if you live a soft Sharia lifestyle and you don't drink, you don't gamble, and you don't run around and chase promiscuous sex, you will not have people who have accusations who against you. Who would have thought? So Zoranam Dhani and Abdul, see, you know, you got two Muslim guys and they live clean. This is what clean living can get you. But my general point here about the way that this is all playing out is it's. seems abundantly clear that the Democratic establishment is on a high I have not seen them on in quite some time. Like they really, like the left was having an ascendant moment. They had between Zoron and then those three New York City primaries. Oh, and Colorado, this was a big deal.

This was a big, big, I would say two months. And now this was actually, in my opinion, the real testing ground. Because when in a blue seat in a blue state, okay, congratulations. knocking off a Republican swing senator in a swing-ish state like Maine, which has consistently voted for Susan Collins, to have a full-blown, like, non-compromising in terms of the DSA ideology, to be able to win that state would have been a absolute earthquake in politics. Like, again, it's one thing to beat a Democrat. It's a whole other thing to actually beat a Republican whenever you're running on that strategy.

And that's why to give up all of that leverage and to basically hand it all, back in the silver platter to the main Democratic Party who is setting these standards. I mean, you tell me, Ryan, I don't see a single prominent movement leader going after this main Democratic woman, right? I haven't seen one be like, actually, no, he's going to have a say because he seems so toxic. So I do think it, I think it's a very dangerous moment, like for democracy. And especially if you, how could you, how could the number one lesson from Biden not be democracy is good? Actually, democracy is good. It is because that, the fifth. The fifth, of that is what led to your devastating loss in November of 2024.

Let's talk a little bit about the way the press handled this. Listen. And you're there for heart-wrenching knockouts. The world's biggest stage. And breathtaking triumph. In 2026 FIFA World Cup, the knockout stage. Every match, every moment. Listen on TSN radio.

Join the globe. On the road to the Jail. July 19th final. 2026 FIFA World Cup. Stream it all live on TSN Radio. Available on IHeart Radio. Hey, I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby. Okay, if you know me, you know this.

I'm always searching for inspiration, for support, and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover all of that together. We're going to have these meaningful conversations with the world. most fascinating people. Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming. I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer, and that was more difficult.

There's a lot of people who understand postpartner depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety. Olympic champ Sean Johnson revealed why she had no choice but to be a gymnast. There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures. inside of us. We just have to find it. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Mungeshit Together and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you, and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain, as opposed to his brain.

Here are some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five-year acceleration. And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bones smashing. That doesn't work. make it look more defined. They say it works.

I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Politico and CNN omitted a key detail from its reporting around the Graham Platner sexual assault allegations we have learned. Let's take a listen to how Jenny Rassikot, the accuser of Graham Platner,

described how the evening began in her interview with Jake Tapper on CNN. It was a night where him and I were texting back and forth, and he had taken something that I said as an invitation. And that's not how he meant it. And I quickly clarified. And he sent a message back indicating that he would come over. And I said, no, don't come over. Like, I'm not in the mood. Don't come over.

And I was more stern with that message. And then I didn't hear back from him. So I thought that that meant he got the message or gave up on it or whatnot. Okay, Saga, so there was no follow-up from Jake Tapper. If you listen to closely there that she said, we were texting back and forth, and he took something that I said as an invitation to come over. This is, they've been dating off and on for about two years at this point. The follow-up from a normal person at that point is, what did you say?

What did you say? Right. Like, what was the thing that you said to him that, that he misunderstood. Now, let's take a look at how Politico reported this. This is D8. This is how Politico first reported. So Razakot told Politico she connected with Platner on the dating at Bumble in 2019 and had consensual relations with him prior to the night he allegedly assaulted her. That night in late 2021, she said she had exchanged text messages with him and told him not to come over, saying she wasn't in the mood for company. Later that evening,

evening, she said she realized when she heard a sound on the stairs that he had let himself into her house, which was unlocked. Platner came up the stairs, Rassikot said, to where she was on a couch. He got on top of her and kept grabbing her, she said, while she repeatedly told him to stop and that she wasn't interested. So Saga, you read that, and most people in Washington who read that, they're like, that sounds like he broke in to the house, like uninvited. and then began a violent assault of her. Nowhere does Politico mention what she mentioned to CNN there, that she had said something in the text message exchanges

that he mistook as an invitation. And elsewhere in the article, they say he was, quote, uninvited. It turns out, and we have learned, that Politico definitively, at the time of publication, knew precisely what Jenny had texted to Graham that he, according to her, mistook as an invitation to come over.

And we know this because the Washington Post also interviewed Jenny Rassikud. And Jenny told the Washington Post because she's being honest. She's laying out all of the details, which is how it should be. You lay out all the details and then you let the readers,

the public, the voters, say, okay, we have all the different facts. Here's how we interpret this scenario. So good for her for being transparent. I totally agree with you, and I want to say that up at the top. This is in no way an attack on her. This is about how I believe that the media is handled as story. She was transparent about this.

She doesn't have the text messages anymore. Platter apparently doesn't have the text messages anymore, so we're going by her memory of what they are. And to her credit, she divulged the details of the text messages from that evening. So she divulged it to the Washington Post. The Washington Post reaches out to the Platner campaign for comment, good for the Washington Post.

And in their request for comment, they mention that Jenny had been texting him talking about a massage earlier. And so the Platter campaign sees this, and they go back to Politico. And they say, apparently there's some more context here about the back and forth. Like, do you know about these text messages? The reporter then exchanges messages with the Platner campaign.

Those messages have been now circulating in main politics, in main political circles. I obtained a copy of those. I was able to authenticate them with sources with knowledge of them. and here is what the Politico reporter said to the campaign. Jenny Raskot had been, quote, texting Plattner about needing her glute massaged. That detail didn't make our story. Right.

Glute massage. So within about a half an hour of getting this glute massage text, Platner is in the house. Now, she says... She says she followed up. No, no, no, don't come, don't come. And don't come. Because he texted back.

So he's wasted, clearly. He gets this message. I need, you know, I need my glute massage. Right. He comes over. And he's, and he's texts back. I'm coming over. And she's like, wait, wait, wait, don't come over.

She says, don't come over. This is Maine. He's not taking the subway. Like, so he's drunk. Drunkenly driving over there. Yes. Comes into the house. And then it gives, and then he's, she says he's grabbing her on the couch.

Where is she's? She's saying, no. Right. Where's he grabbing her? Like is he like immediately starting like the glute massage or whatever? Right. Anyway, with Washington Post, to its credit, included a version of the detail. We could put up Washington Post at D7. One night in November or December, December 2021, she said she texted him to say that she could use a massage.

She said she did not intend it as an invitation, but he interpreted it that way, immediately replying to say he would come right over. She said she wrote back twice, telling him not to. The Post was not able to review the alleged messages or independently verify them. Marascaut said she later deleted them soon after the incident. Post didn't include the glue part but did mention the massage to their credit. But because the Politico published first, nobody, I didn't even know the Washington Post reported on this. Exactly. And I think that's why this is important.

So there's the most important part. And let's just zoom out. Because this does potentially explain why a drunken Plattner enters the home. Right. It stops there because that's where the rest of the evening and her account of the evening, it no longer accounts for. But it does explain a detail. I think what was key to the understanding generally that all of us had was that it did genuinely

appear as if Platter had been told explicitly not to come over there, understood that to be the case, broke into the home. effectively. Entering a home unannounced and which either whether it's unlocked or not is a full-blown crime. I mean, and I do think that that's part of why we need to assess this very seriously. The very definition of what Jenny has alleged here is a full-blown gross sexual assault class A felony in the state of Maine with the statute of limitations for 20 years. That's what she is alleging, which carries a significant prison sentence for like decades potentially in prison. And that is my own. understanding of how I need to evaluate what is being alleged year. I want to make that clear.

Now, if I were then to submit to due process or any of something like that in a trial, and I saw something like that, it would significantly change, again, my understanding of how the event were to begin. This does not in any way say that she is lying about what then transcribed. Also, we should not take away agency from Platner, who is wasted out of his mind, five years ago, mind, you know, not 20 years ago, five years ago, absolutely blacked out drunk, and then clearly in a position where he has had been in several of these types of encounters, which have been described from Lindsay Fyfield to others, women or ex-girlfriends who have talked to the media, he put himself and had terrible judgment, terrible behavior, and put himself in a situation

where something like this could happen, which was obviously very traumatizing to Jenny, in terms of her understanding, the Facebook messages about consensually careless. That's why I think this is a media story. Right. Because I think that the irresponsibility of not reporting that led to an understanding of how the event transpired, which is not fulsome with the general reality. And maybe it seems like you and I are splitting Harris. But the reason why I think it's really important.

And when you learn this, it really struck me is it really reminded me of how a lot of the Me Too cases in 2017 and 2018 transpired in which it was very obvious. It was purely on the, you know, word of one person. You could have contravening evidence of what obviously was a complicated encounter or something where, look, there's genuine, you know, misunderstanding or, you know, a different takeaway and in which people's lives got totally ruined. And I do think that in this case, like with Plattner, look, it looks like he's on the track to resign. And when he does, from what we know about his finances, if his rich parents don't bail him out, he has no money. And he will be branded, let's call it what it is, a rapist for all time.

And that is kind of what we're talking about, beyond the political implications, but the character of the person. I don't think he has particularly good character, personally, in terms of the way that he's acted here. But, you know, politics is not a character context. If it was, it wouldn't be good. We wouldn't have Trump as president. I say all of this only to say that the way that CNN did not follow up that question and Politico did not include that detail, that is willful in trying to craft a narrative. That's not what we're supposed to do. That's why, and that's part of why I appreciate the show.

We talk back and forth. We add different context, detail, understanding. And for them, you know, by printing it the way they did, I mean, as a journalist, I think the ultimate job is to always include as much understanding an event as much. possible, especially one. They're just something like this. Jenny is a relaging a full-blown felony, punishable by, you know, a decade or plus or whatever in prison. That merits a serious understanding of how we're going to put in all the details as much

as possible as if then were go-to-trial, since they knew the direct implications of their story at the time that they wrote it. They knew exactly how it would unfold. And what's so interesting, like we were saying earlier, credit to Jenny for volunteering this information. I totally agree. Perhaps she thought that maybe Platner still had the text messages, but either way, she did not hide anything. She did not hide this at all. It is the media that decided that this was not a relevant detail to share. And like you said, none of what we're saying here is intended to say, oh, well, everything afterwards is justified? No, of course not. The question is,

is it a relevant detail that should have been shared with readers so that as they are analytical, how they feel about the situation, they can take it all into context. Does it give you any clues into how Graham Platner was interpreting whether or not there was consent, whether or not he was invited over? Politico affirmatively wrote in its article that he was uninvited. You could say he was disinvited by the subsequent text messages. Uninvited is false. Yeah. Like, it is just flat out false. There was an invitation. Yeah. And that is the key, and it adds even more to this interview, which never thought I would say this, a decent job of questioning here of Mika Prisinski and Adam Wren, who's one of the boarders.

Oh, real quick before we do that. So I asked Jake Tapper if he's aware, if he knew. Yeah. I asked why didn't you do a follow up of that? But more importantly, did you ask her off camera? Did you know that she had said I need my glute massage? in the text message, that that was the thing that he, quote, unquote, mistook as an invitation. He did not respond. Okay. I asked Politico for comment. They are saying that they're working on a response. When that response comes in, we'll put it in the newsletter, and we'll put it in the notes underneath here.

If it comes in before we finish taping the program, we'll put it up. Listen, and you're there for heart-wrenching knock-up. The world's biggest stage. And breathtaking triumph. In 2026 FIFA World Cup. The knockout stage. Every match. Every moment.

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I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Let's get to Mika Prisinski here talking about, or sorry, pressing Adam Wren, one of the reporters who was on this story. Let's take a listen. What aspects of this story brought it to the level of publishable? Yeah, you're correct here, Mika. There is no police report in this case. We spent a lot of time talking to Jenny, you know, asking her for cooperating evidence. She shared that she had confided into a number of people, including her things.

therapist in almost real time. And we reviewed email exchanges between she and her therapist referring to what she called this, the sexual assault. And her therapist sort of acknowledging that this had happened to her. We talked to people who she confided in in the months after this happened. We asked her why she didn't file a police report. And she described sort of the insular, nature of where she lives and her corner of maintenance she shares with Graham Platner. And she, you know, debated sort of how to handle this. And we found ultimately the number of corroborating pieces of evidence to support her story in a way that we could report it.

So what are some of those corroborating pieces of evidence? So you've got conversations with her therapist. and people who she confided in. Any conversations with Graham Platner at the time of it where she said, because apparently as part of this story, she says she even confirmed to him that this was not consent. Do you have that? What do you have that actually connects this literally?

Graham Plotner to raping this victim? Yeah. She reached out to him. the day after via Instagram and essentially told him that, you know, she didn't want to hear from again. She told him that morning as well. And, you know, we looked at messages that she had sent to others in the months after this happened through social media. But you were able to see those DMs? She tried to recover those DMs.

We did not. We were not able to review those DMs, but she described them to us. We also, long before he was a public, before he was a political candidate, we saw her essentially explain to others that he was, quote, in her words, consensually careless. So I do think that that interview is important because, you know, and, you know, cut me off if I'm sharing too much. But when you shared before the story came out, one of the key details where I was like, this is devastating, is you told me the therapist verified her comments.

And that didn't happen. Right. That wasn't in the story. Right. That was the rumor. That was the rumor that was the rumor that was going around was that the therapist could verify that at a time before he ran for office that he, she could verify her allegation. And that's not what happened. And they reviewed emails, you know, between her telling the therapist that had happened.

In June. June of this year. In June of this year. After she started working with Shepin Hunt. They did talk to a friend, ex-boyfriend, who backed up her story. So that, you know, that's there. And the Facebook message is there, too. But I don't know.

I mean, the therapist detail was kind of important. And I can read from the political article. So this is about the, this is the Politico describing the therapist. Rassico showed Politico recent emails with her therapist. They say recent. My understanding is this is June, like, you know, weeks ago, in which Rassikod explained. She was talking to the media about her relationship with Platner and the essay slash R, using an abbreviation for in the message.

Rassicoat was not ready to go public and was seeking help corroborating her account in conversations she was having with reporters on condition of anonymity. Her therapist responded that Rassikot shouldn't have to speak publicly about a traumatic incident in order to be believed without referencing details of any particular incident. The therapist, who Politico agreed not to name at her request, declined to comment when reached on Monday. So if you hear Adam Wren from Politico discussing it, the therapist confirmed that they discussed this. That's not what they wrote. But they should have written that in their article that. So he is saying something which did not appear in their story, which is why I think, again, this is where the

rumor mill actually got past what was written. Because when I read that and I'm assuming the editors, you know, something like this, you go through with a fine-tooth comb because your ass is getting sued if you get a single detail wrong. So she wrote basically, do you remember me sharing these details of you. And the therapist wrote back with a general comment on how women should be believed and she should be believed and she should be, you know, applauded for her courage. That's not the same thing. That's not confirming. And they don't report it in their article as confirming, but then they say in interviews that they did, which is, again, we're in an era where people are losing trust in media and what are we doing?

That's why I finally want to do D5. Let's do D5 here and put it up here on the screen. This is from Lindsay Fyfield, who you'll recall, she was the conservative activist who originally was one of the people named in the New York Times story. And I actually think it's very worth reading what she says here. She says, I actually understand why Democratic leaders didn't take our stories seriously when the Times reported them in June, but are taking them seriously now. It was by design.

The line most shared from my piece was the claim that Times could, quote, not corroborate my story, despite talking to two of my friends. I gave them contact information for five friends. They called the two who I clarified not to know about the abuse, but they would be able to affirm our relationship, timeline events, etc. They simply did not call the other three. I also gave the names of all my former roommates

who remembered him stalking our row house, which was five row houses down from his, and waiting for me to return. I gave them screenshots of messages between these roommates and I discussing it. I gave them the names of other men I dated who might have remembered him following us around the hills, showing up on my stoop,

where we walked home from days to confront us. I gave them emails to my landlord, urgently ending my lease and moving to an apartment across town, and diary entries talking about it all time marked. I told them that during premarital counseling, I'd spoken to my ex-fiancee about the abuse because I had to explain to him why I reacted with terror anytime he lost his temper. They said, oh, no, we don't need to bother him or my priest. Besides, I had written about it in my diary. As the weeks dragged on, I stopped trying to give them evidence because the amount I'd already give them seemed to overwhelm them, and I thought it meant that they had clearly more enough to verify my every claim. My friends might not have known the details, but they affirm that, yes,

I had told him he was abusive. Besides, they assured my part in the reporting would be small. I thought my details would only serve to affirm Jenny and the other anonymous woman. Jenny and I, having never met or spoken, both shared with these reporters, terrifyingly similar details of intimate partner violence, coercive control, and cycles of abuse. The third unnamed woman did as well, but tell me again how they could not corroborate. So there are two things that actually happened here, is it's very clear. they told her she would be a small part of the story. She ends up being, in my opinion,

the flagship part of the story, right? Similarly, she actually did provide them a decent amount of evidence. And this is speculation on my part. If by telling her that she's going to be a small part of the story, they probably did the same thing to Jenny. And Jenny is her entire reason for coming forward with this allegation now

is that she says she was furious at the way the reaction happened to the New York Times story, which elevated Lindsay Fifeield's allegation and the dismissal generally of her because of her previous role as a conservative activist. And so their spiral here is that if the Times had just done its job, if they had reported what she says here, by the way, Jenny also says, I told the Times all of this off the record. And if they had gotten her to expound on that and get her on the record and properly get her on the record

and put all of this in a fulsome story, this could have all been done before the primary. And then none of this would be happening in some weird, you know, extra-democratic way where he's got to drop out and then they're going to have to put him. This could happen before the primary, right? The voters would have had the information,

new candidates, Troy or whatever, could have declared. People would have actually had a chance to vote. And so I think that the two primary villains here, New York Times for the way they handled this, and then CNN and Politico. All three of those because they did not present. And Graham for being a dog.

Well, yeah, right. Sorry. When I say primary villain, I'm talking about the process. I'm not doing the. Right, right. Yes, I know. I know. Yeah, Graham, I mean, again, I said it before in our previous block.

Take it as a lesson, guys. Clean living. Clean living will get you a clean life. And if you want to run for office, you shouldn't be acting like this. And that's final thing. I said it yesterday. That's why I think he's loadsome. Because he told people nothing else is coming.

And you were rolling around like this four or five years ago, maybe even 10, 15 years ago, like Lindsay Fivefield says. There could be more that we don't know about. There could be more that we didn't talk about. And people stuck their necks out for you. How many millions of dollars did you raise? Millions. People donated to their hard earned money to you. And you fucked them over, man.

You really did. And he's got to live with that. You know, not which is what he did, these women. He betrayed all these supporters trusts. And I don't know if he even remembers this text message exchange. And I reached out to him for comment having. her back. So I don't even know.

And as far as people I've talked to him, he may not even know about the existence of these text messages, the glute thing, because he was, seems like he was blacked out. According to Jenny, the next morning, he rolled over and put his arm around her. She's like, what are you doing?

Like, do you not remember what happened last night? And he's like, no. And she's like, get out. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, his handling of all of it is awful. He never responded. Allegedly, you know, according to her, he never responded to her message being like, dude, you rape me.

And that was a thing. Come on. Come on. That was the thing that he's knocked for over and over. Right. Ghosts these women. He's drunk. You know, he's acting totally out of control, manic depressive.

And he acknowledges that even five years ago, that was, he was gradually. And that's my final thing where people are like, how could you have known? And you couldn't have known this. I'm not blaming you or anybody. But, you know, the tattoo, the adrenaline junkie behavior. the Blackwater and all that. It's a type. It's an archetype which anybody

who's ever interacted with people in the military, they know. They know well. Some people liked them for that. And I understand that. But it does come with a significant downside for anybody who, you know, is like this. And so, you know, look, if you want to be a public servant,

part of that is you not only have to withstand scrutiny, but you need good character, you need good judgment. And I don't think I would have said that five years ago. I don't think the character in judgment, or sorry, character especially, was all that important to judgment. But I've actually changed my opinion quite a bit on that. And as Mom Dani showed, if you're going to take on the man...

Oh, man. You've got to be squeaky clean. Completely. No skeletons or any of that in the closet. Because you're right. If you're the man, you can have plenty of skeletons in there. They don't care. But if you're not, you know, look, and that's not an endorsement of the way that the situation is. It is kind of unfair, considering how many disgusting cretons are here in Washington, probably who have done the exact same thing. Yeah, the acting class cannot count in such behavior. Yeah.

Great point. Joy is essential and it's also elusive. But now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, How to Coppe. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid, uplifting, and moving on-air chats. Open your free IHeart Radio app.

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Are you serious? It was insane. Listen to Paul's best podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Munga Shatikula, and I'm back with a new season of my podcast, Skyline Drive. This time I talked to scientists, biopunks, cremogens, blues owners, super seniors, and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work.

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