Brooks and Capehart on what's next for Democrats in the Maine Senate race

[0:00] to discuss the fallout from this week's shakeup in maine's senate race and the resumption of [0:05] hostilities with iran and more we turn now to brooks and capehart that's the atlantic's david [0:10] brooks and jonathan capehart of ms now good evening gentlemen so democrats have this immediate [0:16] challenge trying to replace graham platner in this critical maine senate race the larger question is [0:23] why you know these serious controversies increasingly fail to disqualify political [0:28] candidates until the pressure becomes overwhelming but but jonathan starting with the practical [0:33] question what do democrats need to do now they they need to get a nominee who can best go up against [0:44] susan collins now with graham platner finally out of the race i was happy to see that he [0:50] submitted the papers who fully get out of the race um this afternoon that is the first step that needed [0:57] to happen now they have to have democrats have to have the convention and a bunch of people are [1:01] going to jump in jump into that race and be a part of the process to become the nominee but again no [1:07] matter who the nominee is they are going up against a formidable candidate in susan collins we've talked [1:14] about this many times before how many elections have we seen her either down in the polls potentially [1:21] losing to the democrat but on election day she blows the doors off the election that scenario is still [1:28] at work so whoever becomes the democratic nominee whoever the main democrats pick um they better pick [1:35] the person and then circle the wagons around them to and to give that nominee the best possible shot [1:41] uh they can to defeat susan collins and david the fact that graham platner survived one controversy [1:47] after another his political support largely held until there was this allegation that was just so [1:53] serious that it became impossible for the party to move on what does that say about how high the [1:58] threshold for political shame has become uh very high apparently you know uh everyone's a sinner and we [2:05] all have things that we're not proud of in our past but he had so many red flags uh and it was not [2:11] only the tattoo and over a decade of reddit posts but as we've learned when some guy's abusive to one [2:16] woman they're more there's a pattern of behavior all the time and we learned from some reporting in [2:21] the new york times this week that three operatives from the democratic national party in dc went up to [2:26] maine and told him you're the guy you're our hero you're a messiah you should run and people in maine [2:31] who knew him was like you might still be in a fragile state maybe this is not a good idea and they [2:37] turned out to be right to me the the bigger picture is when you decide whether or not to vote for [2:43] somebody there should be three filters first do they have the moral character ready to do the job [2:50] are they trustworthy do they tell the truth the second filter should be do they have good judgment [2:55] can they read a situation and see here's what needs to be done here and the third filter should be do [3:01] they agree with me do they are they on my political team but what's happened in politics over the last [3:06] i don't know how many years is those first two filters are gone and so people only ask are they on [3:11] my team and that's obviously true on the republican side with trump but it's also true of bernie sanders [3:16] who stuck to plattner like glue after a lot of these revelations are coming because he decided oh [3:21] he's a democrat therefore i don't have to worry about character i don't have to worry about judgment [3:24] but let's all learn the lesson character actually kind of is important and if somebody doesn't have [3:30] that it doesn't matter if they're on your team but what about that jonathan democrats for years had [3:34] pointed at donald trump and made the argument that character matters does the fact that so many democrats [3:40] were willing to stick with graham plattner does that undercut the their argument fundamentally no it [3:46] doesn't because we're talking about one guy over a history of candidates where democrats um didn't put [3:54] those the the considerations they gave to grant plattner uh into into work i look at i look at it like [4:01] this um what happened what was what should have happened finally happened and when you look on the republican [4:09] side and particularly with president trump who's had similar um accusations against him including [4:15] some some court actions and yet republicans stuck by him and so i i wonder if a lot of democrats looked [4:23] and thought you know what the guy in the oval office has got a lot of baggage this guy has a lot of baggage [4:31] we're going to hang in there should they have done it no they shouldn't have and the consequences of [4:36] that you know maine and maine democrats are dealing with that now but i hope that this is a lesson [4:43] for candidates around the country if you have skeletons in your closet you better know what they [4:49] are and you better be truthful and forthcoming about what they are when people come to you and say you [4:55] are the one maybe you should be the person who says you know what i'm not and maybe you should go talk [5:02] to someone else well let's shift our focus to the president and nato this past week because the [5:08] president left the summit in turkey turkey with allies now spending more on their own defense which [5:14] is what he has been calling for for years and the alliance is still intact it's a it's a low bar [5:20] but but his defenders would say that the president's that the results vindicate the president's methods [5:25] do you see it that way not quite vindication i think people have taken gotten used to the trump show [5:30] and they know there's going to be a lot of shrapnel flying in the air when he arrives in town [5:34] but the good news is according to the reporting at the end he he filled everybody with love he praised [5:40] everybody apparently he was actually listening to each of the leaders as we spoke and we got more out [5:44] of this summit than we had every right to expect or deserve as you said the europeans are taking more [5:49] a greater share of the defense budget to me the most impressive thing is both europeans and americans [5:55] and our other allies are building a manufacturing base for defense we were a couple years ago we [6:00] were so far behind china in the manufacturing base we're now beginning to do that there's still a [6:05] support for ukraine and more money for ukraine out of this summit uh and that's significant and so it [6:12] was a successful summit and trump showed some humanity the thing that worries me is so many foreign [6:18] policy experts these days are worried that vladimir putin who's got his back to the wall [6:23] is going to reach out and attack a nato ally directly and they're going to wonder is the u.s [6:28] going to be there is nato going to be there is nato still a thing and it's it seems outrageous to [6:33] me that vladimir putin would launch another invasion but i keep hearing this from so many [6:37] foreign policy experts i'm wondering what's something to look out for yeah what's your assessment [6:42] jonathan well i mean i you know i i take your points david about a successful summit i just wonder [6:51] if part of it was a you know great the president's good behavior but i wonder if the europeans the [6:57] nato allies have gotten to the point where you know they just placate him have um um ruta babysit him [7:06] and do all the stuff for public show but behind the scenes are doing everything they can to ensure [7:13] that the alliance hangs together whether it or not the united states is there and the one thing that [7:19] tempers when as i was listening to you david the one thing that gives me some caution is let's say [7:25] vladimir putin does invade a nato country or attack a nato country directly i still believe and i'm sure [7:32] leaders in european nato capitals are wondering will the united states actually be a participant in [7:40] article 5 protection of that of that nato ally and i don't know if anyone has a definitive answer to [7:48] that right now in the time that remains i want to get to this other topic because i spoke with [7:53] rahm emanuel this past week who argued in israel that prime minister benjamin netanyahu's handling of [7:58] the of the war with gaza has left israel increasingly isolated and facing what he called the prospect of [8:05] perpetual occupation david is that becoming in many ways the sort of the mainstream position inside both [8:14] political parties i hope so uh but i don't think so i think ram gave a great speech uh he has the [8:20] bona fides to do it i thought the palestines were idiots for not signing up to the oslo peace process [8:26] i think netanyahu and the israelis have been idiots to do all these uh settlements which really make the [8:31] two-state process and so both sides in the region have given up on the two-state solution my problem [8:37] is that in the united states a lot of people in america are giving up the two-state solution ram emanuel believes [8:42] in it a lot of mainstream republicans believe in it but when i go on college campuses a lot of the [8:48] students i talk to they just don't believe in it uh and a lot of people on the right don't believe in [8:52] it jonathan um one day uh jeff i want to commend you on your interview with rahm emanuel um your [9:01] questions were great i thought his answers were terrific his speech was terrific and what i took away [9:06] from it was that ram was sending a message um to the israeli people that this is about prime minister [9:12] netanyahu and he he is the obstacle to bringing about any kind of path towards a peaceful solution [9:21] jonathan capehart david brooks i certainly wish we had more time for this conversation but [9:25] thank you both have a great weekend thanks jack support journalism you trust support pbs news [9:41] donate now or even better start a monthly contribution today