Platner's two top political strategists telling him to step down: Maine Reporter

[0:00] Joining us, MSNOW political analyst, Democratic strategist, and former executive director of the [0:04] New York State Democratic Party, Basil Schmeichel, host of the Fast Politics podcast, and MSNOW [0:10] political analyst, Molly Jong-Fast, and reporter for the Maine Morning Star, Emma Davis. Peter [0:16] Baker still with us as well. Emma, I'll begin with you. What is our latest understanding of [0:22] what's up with Graham Plattner? If it's a question of when, not if, when will he drop out of the [0:27] race? Yeah, so it's still a question we all are looking for the answer to. I did speak just this [0:34] morning to a person familiar with Plattner's campaign's internal conversations who told me [0:39] that his two top political strategists have been telling him to step down following the sexual [0:44] assault accusation. This person who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the strategist [0:50] made a final push last night and that Plattner seems to have come to terms with dropping out, [0:54] but as of now, he has yet to officially do so. Okay, so it's going to put the party in something [1:02] of a vice. Emma, what is the party prepared to do? Yeah, so we actually know little about what the [1:11] process will actually look like at this time. Maine law stipulates dates for when the decision [1:16] has to be made, but it does not say how the party has to make the determination. We heard from the [1:22] Democratic Party here in Maine last night who said that they will not make that process public until [1:27] Plattner does officially drop out if he does do so. So a lot of it is still up in the air, unfortunately. [1:35] So we're in a situation now, guys, which feels a little bit like Kamala Harris and Joe Biden for [1:40] the Democratic Party. How does the party avoid the—many people will call it a mistake—the mistake of [1:49] anointing somebody without the voters having a say? Well, to Emma's point, there's probably not—there [1:53] are state laws, but, you know, there are also party rules, and then there's what you should do. [1:58] Yeah. And what you should do is have as public a process as possible. Every state party has some [2:03] contingency for what you do when your candidate can't continue to run. It's like a committee to [2:10] fill vacancies. Everybody has that. But that actually is a very small, very closed process. [2:15] And what I think is going to be called for here is something that is far more open, far more [2:19] transparent, and something that allows the supporters of Plattner to be a part of the process, [2:25] even if Plattner wants that—wants to be part of it himself, which it sounds like it does and [2:28] sounds like they don't want. And so you—it needs to be more transparent to avoid the anointing issue. [2:35] Yeah. I mean, the reporting is that Plattner wants to have some leverage here. He wants somebody who [2:40] can take up the mantle that he was pushing, more progressive, more focused on working-class issues, [2:47] working-class policies, more of a change candidate, not a mainstream Democratic Party person, maybe like [2:54] a Janet Mills. [2:56] So I would like to pull back here for a minute and just talk about how we got here, because, [3:02] you know, a lot of us—I interviewed him for my podcast. I've talked to his team. I—when the first [3:10] New York Times article came out, I said, this reads sort of funny. What else is there? Is there [3:17] something else coming out? And everyone told me, up and down, absolutely not. And I—and I think all of [3:24] us heard that same thing from him, from his team, nothing else coming out. This is clearly a [3:30] misunderstanding. There's nothing more coming out. We were sold a—an arc, right? A character arc of a [3:37] person who had blacked out, but now no longer did that behavior. Now, I should have asked him when I [3:44] interviewed him if he was drinking still, because there's only one way you get those blackouts, and [3:50] that's from drinking. And so the idea we were sold this—this character arc, this—this person who gets [3:57] better, who got better, but he wasn't maybe better. And so I just think the fact that he feels he has [4:04] so much capital still is sort of striking to me. Yeah. Well, so you're jumping ahead, and I don't [4:11] mind it, because I want to get to this point that was made by Kat Rosenfield. She diagnoses the [4:18] Democratic Party's search for somebody like Plattner this way. She says this is not about the main electorate. [4:25] It's not even about Plattner. It's about members of the progressive elite wanting to shed the [4:29] unflattering image of themselves as the perpetually offended HR department of politics in favor of [4:35] something rougher, tougher, and more relatable. It is reasonable when you're all in on trying to [4:40] distance yourself from a pearl-clutching past to equivocate on something like an ill-advised tattoo [4:44] or an extramarital affair. Who among us has not raped his paramour during a home invasion, [4:49] on the other hand, requires you to cross the line from sunk cost fallacy into outright depravity. And [4:56] this is where the Democratic Party is drawing the line. But what do you make of this argument that [5:01] they were searching for authenticity and willing to overlook too much in the process? [5:08] I mean, it's easy to say that now. As someone, I got sober when I was 19. So I should have known, [5:14] as someone who's 28 and a half years sober, when I was listening to this story, I mean, [5:17] I am a person who should have known that drinking was an issue and should have asked him. Like, [5:23] I, you know, I hold myself as responsible as anyone for this. I should have said, [5:28] okay, you're not having blackouts anymore. That means you're not drinking anymore. [5:31] And I didn't ask that question. And so as much as this is on all of us, and the truth is, [5:37] we are a culture where alcoholism is not talked about, where drinking is not, you know, [5:42] the, all of these women describe a person who is very drunk and apologizing. So clearly, [5:48] this is about drinking. [5:50] Yeah. I mean, there, I think there's a question of redemption, but what do you think of on the [5:53] bigger issue of what the Democratic Party has been searching for? [5:56] There was, it's a, it's a great question and a great point because there was another article, [6:00] I think it was in Slate, and I forgive me for not remembering the author's name, [6:03] but talked about the, the importance of having this kind of masculine candidate to appeal to the [6:08] masculinity that the right seems to be dominating. And I think that's, that's a real, this is a [6:15] really important question because there's this Venn diagram of, of, of electability, accountability, [6:22] and power. Who's the candidate that's going to kind of solve that issue and be at that [6:27] intersection. And I think there was this concern that we just needed somebody to win. And we had [6:32] to bring in all of these folks that we, that might've been attracted to Donald Trump or to the [6:37] right. And here is this, here is, here is the one candidate that solves that problem. But at what [6:43] cost? Yeah. Listen, we have just to insert, Graham Plattner's denied all the delegations. I just want [6:48] to say that we, we also don't know if he's still drinking. I just want to put that out there. And I [6:52] want to get Peter Baker in because we have to take a break in a moment. We're going to come back to [6:55] the full conversation. But Peter, part of this is the Democratic Party's image has been in the tank. [7:03] You know, the party is not seen well by most American voters. They're benefiting right now [7:09] because Donald Trump is doing so poorly on pretty much everything. But there still is, the party still [7:16] has, it's still struggling with trying to define who it is and who it wants to appeal to. And we're seeing [7:24] that within the party with democratic socialists vying for attention, but also leadership roles [7:31] and the more mainstream part of the party saying, we got to have people who know what they're doing [7:37] and can appeal to a broader set of Americans. So, so how do they deal with a situation like Plattner [7:45] where they tried to go off and find somebody authentic and not part of the establishment, [7:50] but now find themselves in a position of searching for somebody, anybody that could possibly save this [7:58] main Senate seat? Yeah. Yeah. There is always a risk, of course, when you go for a candidate who [8:03] is not tested. This is, you know, the appeal and the danger, right? Somebody who's never been out [8:08] there before, that's, thank goodness, because we think the system is broken. Let's get an outsider [8:12] who's not part of the corrupt, you know, establishment, but then hasn't been through the vetting that, [8:18] you know, having run for past elections would automatically provide. And then of course, [8:23] you know, the, the, the, the warning signs were there with this guy. People chose not to see them [8:27] because they did want to, uh, you know, somebody who seemed authentic or whatever you want to say, [8:32] what do you want to call him? Uh, and it blew up in their face. And now this choice in the next two [8:36] weeks, assuming he does drop out, we'll put this to the test, put aside Plattner. Nobody thinks that [8:41] Plattner in Maine, it seems like should have a role in deciding who his replacement might be, [8:46] should he drop out. But if you're a progressive who thinks you won the primary fair and square by [8:52] electing him over Janet Mills or pushing Janet Mills out of the race because she wasn't popular and a [8:57] creature of the establishment, it looks like a betrayal. If the person that the party then [9:02] ultimately picks is one, one of these people from the establishment. Uh, and yet if you have [9:07] somebody at the last second, you're trying to insert how much of a chance do you take? And if that's the [9:12] real conundrum here for a party that is, you know, desperate to win this seat, this should be the [9:17] most winnable seat held by a Republican in the Senate for the Democrats this fall. Uh, Susan Collins [9:23] is, you know, is on the edge here. And if they lose this seat, their chances of taking the Senate [9:27] for the Democrats is pretty hard to see.