Mika CONFRONTS Graham Platner on sexting scandal allegations after primary win

[0:00] If I'm in your campaign or if I'm high up in the Democratic Party, at this point I have a few [0:05] questions in terms of the health of your campaign moving forward into the general, which is a whole [0:11] different ballgame. So here's my first. You were asked this question by Chris Hayes about the issue [0:17] of is there more out there? What else could be out there that might be revealed during the [0:23] campaign? And you deflected, said among other things, this is between you and your wife. [0:27] It was understandable to a limit because for main voters in a general election, the question is, [0:35] what is out there? What is not in your possession that you sent to others who may have in their [0:41] possession? How many concerning pictures and or text messages are in the possession of other people [0:51] that could be used against you? And I'd like to know if there are pictures concerning pictures. [0:56] I will just say that the nature of Amy and I's relationship has been blown, I would say, [1:05] totally out of proportion. Early in our marriage, we had some struggles and we worked through them [1:12] because that's what you do when you're in love with somebody. And it made our marriage much stronger, [1:18] made us, frankly, a much happier and communicative couple. I was single for the majority of my adult [1:29] life. I was in my 20s and 30s and I dated. And, you know, that's in the modern age. That's what [1:38] happens. You date people and you use dating apps and you do all the stuff. And frankly, that all [1:45] happened long before I got married and happened long before I decided to run for the United States [1:49] Senate. I can just tell you, there is nothing out there that is going to be, will run counter to [1:58] any of the stories that I've talked about openly this entire campaign. And I know everyone continues [2:04] to be like, oh, what else is coming? You know, ironically, the whole what else is coming has [2:09] essentially been the same thing the whole time, which is, I've been very open about the fact that I [2:16] struggled very open about the fact that I had a long list litany of failed relationships for years [2:20] because I myself was not in a good place. And then every now and again, we will have a media outlet [2:28] or a politically motivated attack come up and try to drag it all up. But it's all very much within [2:34] the exact same story that I've told this entire time. [2:37] Okay. So you say there's nothing out there that could be concerning. And this may seem a little bit [2:47] rich. There's nothing out there that's actually concerning. People will make everything seem very [2:56] concerning because that's what people do in politics. But, you know, I think the thing about [3:05] all of this is, what I find to be kind of most curious, is this is what everyone wants to make [3:12] the campaign about. So we do not talk about the struggles of working manners. We do not talk about [3:19] the fact that I know someone in my hometown here who works three jobs and pays over 60 percent of her [3:26] income and rent. I think that matters a lot more than the details of my relationship before I ran for [3:37] the United States Senate. That's just me. Okay. So then let me ask you this way. Can you just talk [3:46] about the nature of the sexting in terms of can you call for the release of the Epstein files? [3:52] And can you call out those who have abused women and not be conflicted in any way? Yes, of course. [4:01] I mean, I engage in consensual romantic activities with adults at an earlier part in my life. That seems [4:09] like a fairly normal thing most people do. Going to an island with billionaires to possibly assault [4:16] children is a vastly, vastly different thing. Yeah. Okay. Do you wish that this had come out earlier [4:25] and in your own way? No. I mean, this was a very private thing for my wife and I. And the only [4:33] reason it's out is because we confided in someone we trusted on the campaign who then went and broke [4:39] that trust. So it's, uh, I mean, Amy and I, Amy, I have a very strong marriage and, uh, it's mostly [4:47] strong because of some of the challenges we faced early on and the work we did to get through it. [4:51] So, uh, no, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm not happy it's out, but it's also, it, it, it's not a, again, [4:59] I would say it's been entirely blown out of proportion as to what the reality of the situation is. [5:06] Mr. Plattner, good morning. Uh, let me ask you about the race ahead. Now that you won by a wide [5:10] margin, um, last night, Susan Collins hasn't really had a close race in a long time. Six years ago, [5:16] it was under a double digit. She won by eight points, but there always seems to be this idea [5:21] because Maine and presidential elections goes blue by and large, that this is the time that Susan [5:27] Collins is going to be defeated. And yet it never seems to be. So why do you believe this time [5:33] Mainers will walk away from Susan Collins, as I assume you believe they will? [5:37] Well, I believe they will because I am a normal Mainer and I have lots of normal Mainer friends [5:46] and everybody, Republicans, Democrats, independents. A lot of people in this state are sick and tired [5:53] of someone who for decades now has not really stood up for the people of Maine. Someone who will not hold [6:01] the Trump administration to account. Someone who has gotten quite wealthy while in office, [6:06] trading stocks and bonds, which is a very unpopular thing for those of us down here that don't have [6:11] stocks and bonds. Someone who promised to protect Roe v. Wade and then went and voted for Brett Kavanaugh [6:20] and brought about the destruction of a woman's right to choose in this country. Those are real things [6:27] that people see. And they bring about material realities for us down here on the ground. [6:33] And I am fully convinced that people in this state are sick and tired of this kind of politics as usual, [6:48] like corporatist establishment politician, which Susan Collins really is the avatar of. [6:54] Now, I will say this. The Republican Party, the people that donate to Susan Collins, [6:59] the people that support her, they know the stakes of this thing. And so they are dumping [7:04] millions of dollars into the state of Maine in attack ads against us already. We'll say for [7:09] anybody who's watching at home, if you want to see Susan Collins beaten, please go to grantforsenate.com [7:14] and donate. We can definitely use the help. But the stakes of this are so high because we really are [7:20] looking at, is this country going to be able to go in a direction of a politics that is accessible, [7:26] a politics that is representative of regular people, and then a politics that therefore represents [7:33] regular working people? Or do we maintain the status quo? Do we maintain a politics that allows [7:40] for billionaires and corporations to continue to get richer and richer and richer year after year, [7:46] while those of us that work for a living work harder and longer and for less? And I think the answer [7:52] to that up here in the state of Maine is people want change. [7:54] As you've been hearing for months from your Democratic opponents, and now we'll grow louder [7:59] with the Collins campaign and Republicans even nationally, the argument against you is that [8:04] all of the comments that you've talked about and addressed and said you were at a bad time in your [8:08] life, the past comments about black people calling yourself a communist, talking about police, [8:13] talking about armed resistance for the working class, they say that's who you really are and that [8:19] you've kind of cleaned yourself up to run this campaign to get into the United States Senate. [8:23] So how do you, for people just kind of tuning into this race, perhaps even in Maine, but certainly [8:29] nationally, how do you address that criticism? Because it's kind of at the heart of the argument [8:34] against you, which is you actually are that guy from 10 or 12 years ago, and that you've polished [8:39] yourself for the election. What do you say to that? [8:41] I would say that they really do not grasp what is happening up here in Maine, because they continue [8:51] to try to make this race about me. And what they fail to understand is it's not about me at all. [8:57] It's about us. It's about Maine. It's about the working people of this state.