Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov - Weekend at Bernie's in the Senate? Graham & McConnell Prove We Need Term Limits

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov open the week reflecting on the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died Saturday night following what his office described as a brief and sudden illness. They talk about what he will be most remembered for — and how some of his most consequential hypocrisies could be seen to undermine the legacy of a life devoted to public service.  And, what does Graham’s death mean for a Republican Party already navigating serious uncertainty around Mitch McConnell? Scott and Jessica discuss McConnell’s mysterious health situation — which led his office to release a “proof of life” photograph on Sunday of the Senator and his wife in a hospital. Democrats meanwhile have their own Senate crisis. Graham Platner has now formally submitted his paperwork to withdraw from the Maine race following sexual assault allegations. The Maine Democratic Party will hold a convention on July 25th to select his replacement. Will Platner’s base get behind the process? And, will whoever the Democrats nominate to replace him have a chance against many-term Republican incumbent Susan Collins? Get your tickets now for our live show at 92NY: https://www.92ny.org/event/scott-galloway-and-jessica-tarlov For ad-free episodes, exclusive livestreams, and to connect with Scott, Jessica, and the Raging Moderates community, join us at ProfG+ on Substack: https://ragingmoderates.profgmedia.com/ Get The Monday Rage newsletter: https://profgmedia.com/s/monday-rage/ Follow Raging Moderates on IG, Tiktok, and Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/ragingmoderatespod/ https://www.tiktok.com/@ragingmoderates https://www.facebook.com/ragingmoderates Follow Jessica Tarlov on Instagram, Substack, and Bluesky: https://instagram.com/jessicatarlov https://substack.com/@jessietarlov https://bsky.app/profile/jessicatarlov.bsky.social Follow Scott on Instagram, Substack, and Bluesky: https://instagram.com/profgalloway https://substack.com/@profgalloway https://bsky.app/profile/profgalloway.com Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RagingModerates Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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greater than 50 gigabytes, may slow when network is busy. See terms. What I think he will unfortunately be remembered for, it was that he quietly benefited from the courage of people who risked everything to secure equal rights and then turned around and argued those rights should be denied to others. Someone else paid the price. People lost jobs, rejected by the, their families, were even arrested, beaten, ostracize, because they wanted to live honestly. And they accepted those risks so that people like Senator Graham wouldn't have to. And to enjoy the protection their courage created, while Senator Graham undermined it, it's a profound failure of gratitude and integrity.

It says, I deserve these freedoms, but people like me don't. Welcome to Raging Moderners. I'm Scott Galloway. And I'm Jessica Tarlev. How are you, Jessica? I'm really good. How was your week in the sun of fun? Weekend the sun of fun? It was nice. Italy was great. And immediately went to the Team England game in Miami, which was epic. And now I'm in...

My son doesn't want me to tell people who's at. Anyways, I'm a tide pool of emotion, Jess. But most importantly, look at these peepers. Hello, ladies. I can't tell you how excited my son was to have me wear these that I got a registration for orientation around. He's really, really excited that his dad is wearing these. Anyways.

I'm sure he loves how much you're leaning in, though, to the school spirit. One day, he'll appreciate it. But that won't be for, like, three decades. So 100%. How are you? What's going on with you? I'm really good.

This weekend, we were out on Fire Island. I have never been, but that's not the point. I don't know if you would like it. I think you need like stuff. You know, they have no, they have like one store and everyone cooks, no cars. You know, they're just with each other. And it's very idyllic. Like people are doing.

Sounds awful. It's not, I couldn't do it. I'm not, but a weekend, I did it and I did it. I did it well. Yeah. There you go. All right. Before we get to the meat of the show,

please make sure to hit subscribe to help our show get more folks. Let's get into it. Americans across the country as well as members of Congress are mourning South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham today, who died Saturday night

following a brief and sudden illness. He had just celebrated his 71st birthday on Thursday. The unexpected passing leaves a number of questions for the Republican Party. Trump is pushing for Lindsay's sister to fill the seat. Hmm. Jess, what do we know here? This is pretty unexpected. Very unexpected. I want to, basically, this whole show is great tinfoil hat opportunity. I hope that you became more conspiratorial while you were on the boat because I've got a lot between this and Mitch McConnell. But I just want to touch first on his sister. And I didn't know a ton about their backstory. I knew they were really close. But they lost both their parents within, I think, 15 months when she was.

She was only 13 and he was 22. Mom to cancer, dad had a heart attack. And he was already at college, but he said, I'm going to take care of you. She went and lived with an aunt and uncle. And he became her guardian when he joined the Air Force so she could get military benefits. And he said that his greatest success or accomplishment in life was getting her through her teenage years and college. It's a really lovely story out of a tragedy. I think it's weird that she's going to be a senator with seemingly no political experience.

But that's the backstory there. This was unbelievably sudden. And I don't know, do you want to give broad thoughts before I get conspiratorial or you want me to like dive right into where I'm going? Keep the throw the take, yeah, keep with the tinfoil hat. I mean, he is with Zelensky on Friday in a drone factory. And Lindsey Graham, you know, I think that his main legacy is going to be this move from Trump critic to bootlicker, basically. But if there's one principle that he never abandoned, it was support for the Western Alliance and for the Ukrainians. And he's an incredible friend to them and used his clout with Trump to push as much as he could on that front.

And so the idea that he is, you know, side by side was Zelensky on Friday a few days before that. The Iranians, you know, they don't like Lindsey Graham much. And he's obviously pushing for war there because he's just traditional neocon that way. It makes you think like the guy comes home and just like goes into cardiac arrest. He's supposed to be on Meet the Press. They have the graphic ready to go. And he spoke to someone. I don't know who it was and said that he was feeling a bit sick and that he would seek. medical attention after he did his hit. So after he did meet the press. And I think Axios has that he joked, I can't die now. I still need to do the Russia sanctions, get Iran sorted out, and do Israeli Saudi normalization. And then a couple hours later, he's dead. So, you know, I was living in London when the Russians poisoned the former spy Litvinenko. I think I'm pronouncing that correctly at It'su Sushi, which was just this crazy thing that happened. He had turned on them after he had taken out Boris Berzovsky, one of the biggest Russian critics, and was working with UK and Spanish intelligence, I think, at that point, and a big critic of the Russians. And so I'm like, I don't know,

this timing's really strange. Should Russia get him somehow? But I don't want to be a lunatic. Do you think I'm a lunatic? Well, I have a conspiracy theory, and that it was 71 and out of of shape and out of heart attack. Oh, that's really insane, Scott. You shouldn't go around saying stuff like that. Well, it appears to be fringe in a world of social media where the algorithms like novelty and we've normalized these ridiculous fringe theories because they're more interesting than just the plain fact that he probably had a blockage break off in his artery that caused a heart

attack and denied oxygen to his brain because he was out of shape in 71. on. And I, you know, my sense is that should be the default. I mean, it sounds so I know what happened here. He wasn't poisoned by the fucking Russians or the Iranians. He was a 70-year-old in shitty shape that like many 71-year-olds do. They have heart attacks and die. But I'm all ears to anyone who has credible evidence. No, I don't have that. The, I'm curious. Let's go back. What do you know about his sister? I thought it was going to be Nikki Haley. He said on Meet the Press that he had someone in mind. I thought for sure it was going to be Nikki Haley. What do we know about his sister? That was basically it, like what I just told you, just that they were very close. And before he said,

if I were ever to have a first lady, it would be my sister. We could also talk about what's going on on gay social media about Lindsey Graham. And there have been a few people who have spoken at or posted their accounts of their relationships with Lindsay Graham. I mean, it was kind of a, I don't even want to say it was an open seeker, but obviously, you know, people thought Lindsay Graham was gay. He was bubble wandering around Disney. So that's not a conspiracy theory. I don't think certainly at the same level as the Russians. Nope.

So Lady G, there's a lot of fodder for you out there. The Internet had a good day. Let's just say that. Like the flags at Grindr flying at half-mast in on. honor of Lindsey Graham was funny. But I don't know a ton about the sister beyond the story. So basically what will happen is McMaster will appoint someone. Maybe it will be his sister. I assume Trump's saying that means that it will be. And then she'll serve out the rest of Graham's term, which will run through January. He was running for re-election. I mean, I don't want to say

this because I have a lot of friends that, you know, don't want him to win. But I imagine it was going to be just fine. And then the state will have to redo the Republican primary because there'll be a bunch of people that want to jump in. Nancy Mace, whose name was being floated around. And she put up some, like, very weird Michael Corleone meme, which was totally inappropriate about that. She says that, you know, she doesn't want to be considered for the interim job. But I'm sure a ton of people are going to get in for the main event. There are also some immediate challenges to this for, like, what happens in the week ahead, like Todd Blame. is going for confirmation to be the attorney general this week.

So Graham was Senate judiciary. It's going to be very contentious. I don't think there will be one Democratic vote. Mitch McConnell is still in rehab now, he says. I want to talk about that too. But they're down now two votes, right? And it was already a tight majority. So, you know, there are real knock-on effects of,

this happening for them politically. And also, Lindsey Graham chaired the budget committee. Like, he got the big, beautiful bill through, and they were going to try for a third reconciliation bill. And that will be a lot harder without Lindsey Graham. So I want to walk through some thoughts on Lindsay or Senator Graham's passing. And I thought a lot about this. I think, like you, the initial reaction is shock, right? I don't think anyone saw this coming, much less Senator Graham. The second thing is, I think there's a really healthy response, and that is to see someone in a positive light, to not dance on their grave. You know, he did reach across the aisle. A lot of people talked about, Mayor Pete talked about how important he was in getting, I think it was the infrastructure built through, that he was seen as someone who was well liked by his colleagues, obviously a lifetime of public service.

But I can't help it. I go to a different place. I don't think history is going to be kind. to Lindsay Graham. And it's not because he didn't agree with, you know, my political views, holding up Merrick Garland or ramming through Amy Coneyberry. That's, he represents a large portion of the country that has more conservative values than I do are many people on this podcast.

Where I think his legacy will be tarnished is that I look back when I was in college, I didn't think I knew a single gay person. And I was there at a weird time through the 80s where there was a pivotal moment in American history as it relates to the gay community, and that was finally people were starting, not to get comfortable, but to get less uncomfortable with gay people. And what I found out soon after graduation

is I not only knew gay people, but many, if not the majority of my closest friends and the fraternity and other fraternities were gay. And what was sad about it was we were so hostile to gay people, and then the AIDS crisis was such, we treated that community with just such a lack of empathy. We were so depraved in terms of the shame we made people feel as they were most vulnerable.

And I understand why a guy of Senator Graham's generation was closeted. And it's not even an open secret. It was fact that Senator Graham was a gay man. And what I think he will unfortunately be remembered for is that his hypocrisy wasn't about being gay. It was that he quietly benefited from the courage of people who risked everything to secure equal rights

and then turned around and argued those rights should be denied to others. Where he lived, the circles he ran in, the Republican Party has made huge strides around its, I won't call acceptance of gay people, but it's lessening of its intolerance. But every freedom the LGBTQ community enjoys today exists because someone else paid the price. People lost jobs, rejected by their families, were even arrested, beaten, ostracize. And in some cases killed because they wanted to live honestly. And they accepted those risks so that people like Senator Graham wouldn't have to endure that. And to enjoy the protection their courage created,

while Senator Graham undermined it, it's not just inconsistent. It's a profound failure of gratitude and integrity. It says, I deserve these freedoms, but people like me don't. And I think that his legacy and his character will be measured by your willingness to bear the cost of your convictions. And when you ask others to carry that burden while hiding behind the rights they won for you, you've outsourced courage and privatized its benefits. And I think history is going to remember the people who stood up when it was dangerous, and not those who waited until it was safe and then tried to pull up the ladder behind him. and I am very self-conscious and nervous about saying this in the context of a public servant

who deserves some recognition, but I don't think history is going to be kind to him, and nor should it. Your thoughts? I think that is a very powerful statement and take on this. I'm a little embarrassed that I talked about the Russians poisoning Lindsey Graham because you were much more thoughtful. I think that that will be a piece of this. And frankly, it extends further to who Lindsay Graham became as a politician, right? Like someone who used to stand on principle and then someone who just got along to get along. And so it was a private life decision and also a public life one. And so I think that that is the right take. And I think that will be very meaningful as well, especially for people or part of the gay community thinking like, you could have helped us out a little bit more, right? You didn't even have to come out necessarily, but you could just have been more kind, right? Or tried to push people even behind the scenes to be more generous about folks who aren't like them and don't fit this typical mold.

So I think that that that side of the history will be written. But I think for today and what will be in all of these obituaries, they will be talking about this transformation of Lindsay Graham, from someone who stood on principle to someone who went along. And I was rewatching his speech on January 6th, where he said, Mr. Vice President, to Mike Pence, just hang in there. You're going to do the right thing. It is over. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are lawfully elected and will become the president and the vice president of the United States on January the 20th. And I mean, there are a bunch of Republicans who knew what was actually going on on January 6th, right, and wanted to do the right thing and have become complete Trump apologists and just kind of stand there silently or even smirk as he says

things like I won the presidency three times he did that last week while you were away. So I think that that is going to be what a lot of people hang on to. The bipartisan tributes have been very nice. I just wanted to add, and I didn't know this, Monica Lewinsky, posted. I've disagreed with many, many of Lindsay Graham's choices and beliefs, but he was also, as one of the House managers on the 98 impeachment, the one who worked tirelessly to prove there was a smear campaign against me from inside the White House, RIP. And I'm sure we'll learn more of those kind of anecdotes because when you're around long enough, right? People have a lot of different memories and scenarios that they were involved in with you. So I thought that was interesting. But Very good take. I didn't expect you to go there. So thoughtful first day back, Scott.

There you go. It's the edibles I took last night. And the fact that my son has gone from my life. But anyways, that's cheery, isn't it? Support for this show comes from St. Germain Elder Flower Lecore. Nothing says summer like a sunny backyard hang. Think light-colored linens everywhere and an easy conversation on your lips,

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slash save. Right now for your free quote. That's fetchpet.com slash save. There's been a lot of talk in recent weeks about Mitch McConnell's health and what that could mean for the Senate. What is the process here to find a replacement and who do you think Republican congressional leaders

want to take this seat, Jess? So he's not, it's different than Lindsay. because he posted a proof of life photo, which a lot of people think is AI. And you could, again, the internet is having a good couple of days. You know, he looks better in the photo than he has basically in a decade. And certainly the last couple of years, because, you know, he's had these malfunctions multiple times right on the hill where he just freezes, you know, saying this was a bad fall.

I'm in a rehab center now. Elaine Chao, his wife, three days after he, you know, went to the hospital initially, jets off to China. Like the whole thing stinks. And this came right after Andy Bashir, the governor of Kentucky was on TV saying, rightly calling out the Republican legislature for changing the law. He was supposed to be able to appoint someone if McConnell can't serve. And McConnell says in the statement, you know, I'm not ready just yet to get back to taking vote. that is an empty seat, essentially, and Kentuckians are not getting representation. And so I think they're running out that clock until August 3rd, whether it's about blocking, you know, Thomas Massey or not. I think it's really terrible. And if you do want to show proof of life in this age, isn't it a video at this point? Or a phone call to Fox for 15 seconds? Well, he allegedly talked to Barroso, Thune, and Scott Jennings for 20 minutes. And no, nothing on Lindsey Graham, who he's been in the Senate with for decades, had a very close relationship, right?

Like, you know, Titans of the South, et cetera. Like, the whole thing is super fucked up. And I don't know how crazy you want to get, judging by how it went with Graham, you don't want to get that crazy. But, like, if there is some cover up going on here, what is the punishment for something like that? right? Because you are clearly trying to make it so the Democratic governor of Kentucky can't do what he was supposed to be able to do. Republican legislature works against it. And now this, I think it's really shitty. And when you leave people with no information, we've talked about this before, like with Butler, they're going to go insane, right, looking for an answer. And there are reporters on the ground. And I would say mainstream media, I was very, late to the story, right? Independent journalists were the ones all over it. And the statement says he's in the rehab center, but his police detail is still outside of the hospital. So like, which is it? Generally speaking, you can reverse engineer a lot of the world's problems, administrative

headache, tumult, inconsistency, chaos to one thing. And that is old people won't fucking leave. I don't care if it's 70 or 80-something-year-olds and autocrats and Hungary, the United States, Israel, senators, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Senator Feinstein, we need age limits and term limits. This weekend at Bernie's bullshit. I mean, we know what's going on. And by the way, both sides were guilty of it. This reminds me of when all the President Biden's spokespersons would make a concerted effort to say, I was with the president today and he was commanding the room and understood where the Sixth Fleet was. And it's like, yeah, bitch, how come we never see that on tape? How come no one ever sees that when the cameras are rolling?

And now we have it even worse. And that is on I Feel Stupid or with Abby Phillips on CNN, where they basically have a weirdo say ridiculous things, basically the Trump spokesperson, say something ridiculous, and then a bunch of off-off Broadway progressives go fucking insane, and that's supposed to be, you know,

responsible journalism. You had Scott Jennings say, oh, I talked to him. Scott, you're lying. I talked to my dad the last year and a half of his life, and that is he was sitting there in his bed and hospice. He didn't know who I was, and I would speak to him.

So I could tangibly say I had a conversation with my father. If Mitch McConnell was even conscious right now or had the ability to communicate or wasn't totally incapacitated, he would have had a voicemail. They could have spent three or four days and hopped him up with all sorts of shit such that if he was capable to do a 15-second voicemail talking about his friend, Senator Graham, it would have gone a long way. they can't even manage that, which says to me, this is weekend at Bernie's. Only Bernie seems like, I don't know, like I'm trying to think of a LeBron James right now

compared to what is obviously going on with Senator McConnell. And this isn't mocking the old. It's about American political system that refuses to make room for the next generation. And it affects every organization. There are too many people on the faculty at NYU that should be put on a fucking ice flow. because they're adding no value, they're obstructive, and they get in the way of young people and young ideas having an opportunity. People are living too damn long, more power to them, and they should go spend time with their grandkids. Aging comes for all of us.

I'm an agist, and so is biology, and the failure belongs to the people and the institutions that keep insisting that these octogenarians should be making the highest stakes decisions in the world. The median American is 38. The median senator is around 65, and leadership in both parties increasingly resemble the board of a company that forgot succession planning is part of the job. The people making the most important decisions around technology and needing to command a sense of the complexities of the world are looking increasingly like a mashup between the golden girls and the land of the dead. Enough already. Every CEO is told that their ultimate responsibility is to leave the company stronger than they found it. We fire CEOs on succession committees if they don't have in place a succession plan. And he used to be at 65 that was mandatory retirement in the U.K.

And Martin Sorrell got that wave. We've somehow decided the goal is to die with your hand on the steering wheel and take other people with you. Enough already. Age limits. There's no reason Joe Biden should have been president. That was insane. There's no reason President Trump should be president. That's insane, nodding off in meetings. Experience matters, wisdom matters, but so does energy, cognitive sharpness, and also the willingness to pass the goddamn baton. Something that doesn't get enough grace and dignity is not only knowing when to fight, it's knowing when to leave for God's sakes.

And I feel like we don't have an age problem. We have an incentive problem, and that is the whole system rewards incumbencies, celebrity, and fundraising over renewal or youth or energy. And the result is we have an America that often looks like it's being run by people who remember the Cold War better than they understand AI. So where I am is if you believe in democracy, you should believe in turnover. That's the whole point. We shut our skin. The best leaders don't prove their greatness by never leaving. They prove it by building a bench and a willingness to play those players, even if it means they have to sit down enough already.

These people are too fucking old. Age limits. Your thoughts, Jess. I'm with you and make people miss you. That's like the best thing, right? You leave a party a little bit early. You leave the Senate a little bit early. Mitt Romney, who is turning 80 but looks like sick.

50, yeah, was being interviewed by McKay Coppins, and they were talking about, you know, what would you do it? Would you run? Because it should be, you know, a big primary field on the Republican side, too. And he was like, absolutely not. Your brain shrinks by 20 percent by the time you're 80. Yep. Like, who wants a president operating at 80 percent in a best case scenario?

And that's not even factoring in how hard you've lived, right? like how many martinis you've had, what kind of childhood illnesses. I mean, I don't want to blame them, obviously. It's a terrible thing that Mitch McConnell had polio. But, like, you know, people go through all sorts of stuff that make it hard for you to do the most important jobs in the world. And if Mitt Romney, who seems sharp as attack and looks the part, right, like out of central casting that Mitt Romney would be our, you know, center right, savior or whatever for the Republican Party, if he's even like, you're losing. losing your mind. Also, he is a big family. They all have these big families and they post the pictures of your huge tribe. Just like spend 20 minutes with them. That would be cool.

So I'm with you. The Hulu original series Furious is coming to Disney Plus. Starring Emmy Rossum, Furious follows FBI Agent Alice Black on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating serial killer. Both walk their own paths toward justice and as their lives start to intertwine. The line between right and wrong begins to blur. Don't miss the three-episode premiere of the Hulu original series Furious on July 27th, only on Hulu on Disney Plus. This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update.

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The Maine Democratic Party will choose a nominee at a 601-person convention on July 25th, just two days before the state's replacement deadline. Candidates must file by Wednesday, collect 500 signatures from registered Maine Democrats by the 21st, and submit a statement explaining how they'll build the grassroots energy Platner generated. At least seven candidates have announced. intent to vie for the nomination at the convention itself. Voting happens in rounds until someone secures a majority. As of now, Kalshi had a 66% likelihood that Troy Jackson will be the nominee on July 31st. Jess, our Troy and Senator and Senator Graham's sister's friends, another guy. I know nothing. Tell us about,

give us the lowdown on Troy Jackson. Okay, I'm going to do it quickly, but I really want to hear you on Platner because we've been talking about this a long time and you were like, And I went AWOL when shit got real. Yeah. So you were like, actually, I'm going to hop on a yacht and you can sit there and talk about the, like, legitimate rape accusation. But Troy Jackson is actually an interesting figure because he's Bernie Sanders endorsed. Our Revolution backed him in the governor's race.

He was part of that very crowded primary. But he is also an institutionalist and was the head of the main Senate for 10 years. So maybe it's the right marriage. right between someone that has the progressive bona fides, you know, he was a logger, he looks the part for sure, but then also isn't some guy that two liberal morons found and quote unquote vetted and didn't come up with the fact that he has a Nazi tattoo and that he raped someone. So maybe Troy Jackson is the answer. But how are you feeling about your platinum hot takes from the last month? So, okay, so we as we always do on the left enter into the self-flogging and constant hand-wringing over our decisions.

And I would argue that the Democratic Party, until we started the self-flogging, has mostly gotten a right so far. When it was discovered he had a Totencompt tattoo, I don't know how you said. Toten cough. Toten cough. I wish I didn't know that. But I do because of grand platter. As a Jew, we found that disturbing. Having said that, a guy dodging IEDs in the military, you know, does something stupid with his mates.

I don't see a pattern of anti-Semitism. So I was willing to overlook it. And I desperately want that seat. When a woman accused him of being physical with her and it ended up that in the midst of a campaign, the accusation was being made by a Republican operative, I was suspect of that accusation. When I heard about this accusation, last week when I was on vacation, and I went to the YouTube to see her testimony,

within about 10 seconds of listening to her, I thought he should resign immediately. She just reeks of credibility. You just listen to her and you're like, she's telling the truth, and what happened there was unacceptable and he should resign immediately. Don't pass go. Don't make excuses. Get out of the fucking race immediately.

And while he's trying to hold on and leverage whatever power he aggregated, you know, fine. Where I think the Democrats get it wrong is then I'll go back again to the show the algorithm keeps throwing in my feed because it knows it's going to outrage me. Is the I feel stupider with Abby Phillips where Scott Jennings says, when they're talking about Grand Platner, and they say, to him, should Grand Platner resign? And he says, well, if there's honest accusations that are corroborated, yeah, someone should resign. All right, bitch.

The ultimate corroboration in our society where we try to take the very difficult situations and the nuance and the context of these types of situations and all the doubt in incentives and motivations, they create muck and cloud and confusion around these. issues is we decide that the ultimate arbiter and litmus test, the ultimate corroboration, is we find 12 individuals, and we let the defense and the prosecution have input into those individuals, and 12 of them

in New York decided that Donald Trump was guilty of sexually assaulting, shoving a woman into a dressing room, and either raping her or trying to rape her. Found liable, not convicted. Found liable. To avoid the suing. And yet we have Republicans somehow claiming that if there's actual corroboration here, he should resign immediately, which, by the way, is the right thing. But quite frankly, all of these people should shut the fuck up. They're sitting Congress people on the Republican side who have more credible accusations or, you all say equally credible. So the Democrats get it right, in my view.

I think they have done the right thing here. What is insane is that they're sitting around focusing their energy on which Democrats saw the red flags before the yellow flags. No, our energy should be around the following. All right. This is disqualifying. We're disqualifying him. Your turn. Your move.

Because I find what the Democrats are doing to themselves right now, the self-hate of what we need to talk. about how we got this so wrong. How on, I mean, when there was a credit, when the red flags and the credible accusation, which this was popped up, he was out. That's what we Democrats do. That is not what the Republicans do. And we're basically saying, okay, let's do a full top autopsy and where we might have gotten it wrong, as opposed to focusing all our energy on what we should be focusing on, and that is we have a cult on the right surrounding a man who's been found liable of this. Your thoughts? I'm so with you. I talked about this all over the network last week where I just said, we are taking out our own trash, and don't you fucking dare say anything to me

about, you know, we're the party of depraved men and that will accept anything because we're so desperate to win seats. We don't have one ounce of what Mitch McConnell has coursing through his body if he is still alive and coursing. And so, like, I'm done, you know, like Max Miller, Ken Paxton, Matt Gates. I mean, we don't talk about Matt Gates and like the underage girls that he's Venmoing. Like, please. But I will say, and I do like to self-flagellate more than you do. So I don't know if it's the estrogen or what, but I have felt disappointed in myself, not because we didn't do this at the right time for electoral reasons because I too wanted that seat. And I think that Susan Collins is much more vulnerable today than she was in 2020 when Sarah Gideon looked like she had a shot. Speaking of people that should go away and aren't healthy and can't command.

With the, yeah, yes. And voters are taking stock of all of it. And I actually am optimistic about winning this seat now with whoever is going to be in it because it's a very blue environment. I think it's like D plus 14 in Maine. But I wish that I had been more forthcoming about what I thought about Grand Platner and that I hadn't moved to the politics of it as quickly because it was very clear from. day three, that this guy did not have the character to get one of those jobs. And that isn't because I'm against the idea of someone with a complicated past and undergoing an evolution, ending up being the right man or woman for one of 100, right, for something so important to the country and the world. But Grand Platner was below standard. And, and, and, you know, and, we didn't know anything about the supposed vetting. I think Chuck Schumer made mistakes in clearing the field for Janet Mills. Like one of the guys who's jumping in now, this guy who owns a brewery, wanted to run last time around, right, in the Democratic primary and got pushed aside because

it was like we've gotten Janet Mills. And once you didn't get Jared Golden, I get it. It's disappointing. But you still have to field someone that people don't think is going to die in office. And it doesn't say I'm going to release my medical records. But I wish that I had said more and that I had been more visibly uncomfortable with the choice that Maine voters made because when you are lucky enough to get to pontificate for a living and we're so unbelievably lucky, we owe people the totality of what we're feeling. And even if you have to compartmentalize it into, this is how Jessica, the human feels, but this is how Jessica, the political strategist, feels. I think that's still a better take or angle to give to people. And I think that I got to politics too fast and I should have

dwelled more on how fundamentally uncomfortable I was with this choice and that it wasn't about me struggling with Graham Platner's politics, although I'm to the, I'm more center left and he's far left or whatever. It was really about like, this guy's. a liar and it is not going to stop, right? This is a, it was a slow-moving role and then it became a fast-moving one, but you knew in that New York Times article, which Jenny Rassacott, who's accused him of rape now, was quoted in where she said he displayed deeply unsettling behavior. It's not that hard then to get to the idea that he raped her, right? When she says there was deeply unsettling behavior. And this circumstance of the assault, I think,

really resonated with people and so quickly because it feels so familiar. And so many women or people in more physically vulnerable positions know what that's like. Right. Like a guy that you used to do it with comes over and when she said something like, I complied, but I didn't consent. And that's a tale as old as time, right? And that's something you can completely believe. But we knew the guy was bad news.

And I wish I had done more. I think that's an entirely fair take that it's clear that usually when they're smoked, there's fire. And there was like, there was a blaze here. And within like, I mean, I did feel that regret. Within about five, I'm like, oh, God, I know, another accusation. And I pulled up to YouTube within about five seconds, you're like, oh, my God, it's all true. Right? You're like, oh, no.

Oh, no, it was all, well, it all of a sudden felt obvious, right? It all of a sudden felt like, well, of course, it just, and also just to acknowledge, you know, there's, Kara Swisher said something that's always stuck with me, and that is when you've never been a victim, it's hard to understand the dangers presented to victims and victimization. And around these types of issues, I just don't think men have nearly the empathy they need to have, right? I would cite the example when I was during COVID when my sister visited me in New York and we were walking down the street and a homeless person, or was it, unhoused now? No, we're back to homeless. Trump one.

Moved, kind of like jumped up. And she nearly jumped out of her skin. And I said to her, I'm like, that's a bit of an overreaction. And she said, easy for you. for you to say. You're 6-2-1-90. I mean, the reality is I have never, I was trying to think about it, I've never felt unsafe. I've never been worried that a woman was going to rape me. I've never been an environment where I thought someone in an uncontrolled situation who can overpower me, which I'm sure they could, but I don't feel, Kara said it in the context of big tech executives

who've always had the, you know, most of them grew up in upper middle class, or wealthy homes, white, male, and just have never had to deal with the bullshit and the fear that so many special interest groups have to deal with every day. You know, Dave Chappelle said something, as he does, crude but insightful. He said early in his career, he was doing a gig or a show, and for some reason they gave him cash. He had something like he had $50,000 or $60,000 in cash in his backpack,

and he was walking through a fairly dangerous neighborhood with 60,000 bucks of cash in his backpack. And he said, for the first time, he felt like what it feels like to be a woman. Yeah. And that is under threat. And so there does need to be, there's a long-winded way of saying,

I empathize with your, I don't know, concerns over what we overlooked, And I don't think men or people who are have been fortunate enough to not be in situations where there's so much, quite frankly, victimization or violence against that group. I think it's it's a longer road for us and it needs to be a shorter road for us to get there about how serious these accusations are. All right, Jess, that's kind of an ugly note, but we're going to leave it there. I will see you tomorrow. I'll see you tomorrow. Welcome back. On July 16th, the hawk lands on Netflix.

From the mind of Will Ferrell. Oh, mama. I'm back. Come in love. Comes a new original series. Get ready. Get ready. That's it. Did I stutter? When an iconic pro golfer. Lonnie?

Monty. Hocked out! takes one last swing at greatness. You were a big shot golfer. I still am a big shot golfer. No one. Dad, I'm the Hawk now. We'll stand in his way. That's how it's done.

The Hawk, only on Netflix, July 6th. Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home.