'Shut this White House down': Platner talks strategy to stop Trump

[0:00] We are back with U.S. Senate candidate Graham Plattner. So before the break, I was saying, [0:05] you know, you as you know, you were the national party's pick for people out there. He wasn't the [0:09] national party's pick. Chuck Schumer recruited Janet Mills to run for this race. He quickly [0:15] endorsed you today. Have you spoken to him today? And what's that relationship like right now? [0:23] Yes. No, we had a brief conversation this evening. And I'll just say that nothing brings [0:28] people together like wanting to beat Susan Collins. So that's where we are. But you're [0:36] still not going to support him for leader, are you? Or have you changed your mind on that? [0:41] No. I mean, my criticisms of leadership, my criticisms of the party, they remain. [0:46] I will say, I think that those criticisms, those pale, I think, from their perspective, [0:52] from the party leadership's perspective, in comparison to the need to take down Collins, [0:56] because there is no Democratic majority in the Senate without getting rid of Collins. And I think [1:01] that for everybody right now is the priority. Everything else, I guess we can hash that out [1:07] later on. But at this point, the fight is against Collins, and we're all going to align and work [1:12] together to that goal. But my criticisms of leadership absolutely remain the same. [1:19] Trump is obviously a factor in every race in the country. I mean, he's the sitting president. He's [1:23] hugely unpopular. He started this hugely, not just unpopular, but to your point, it's not even a [1:29] political issue, kind of immoral, misguided, no guided, not guided at all war in Iran. [1:36] How much of Trump is a factor in this general election against Susan Collins for you in Maine? [1:43] You know, it's funny. You know, we all understand that Donald Trump is uniquely awful, [1:49] that Donald Trump really is kind of the avatar of the worst elements of our politics and our [1:55] society. But I think a lot of people also understand that Trump is the symptom of a much [1:59] deeper rot. I mean, Trump is the outcome of a system that for a long time now has been leaving [2:05] working people, average, everyday Americans feeling like their politics does not represent [2:10] them at all. Like, I'll be upfront. I have a lot of friends who voted for Donald Trump. I live [2:14] in rural Maine. I work on the water. I got friends who voted for Trump three times. And I can tell [2:19] you they voted for a change candidate. They wanted this whole thing to look different. They felt like [2:25] they'd been left behind. And while, of course, Trump was not going to be the answer to that, [2:31] that frustration remains because right-wing populism, Donald Trump's presidency, it hasn't [2:35] fixed any of those problems that people had. In fact, it's made them worse. Prices have gone up. [2:41] We are watching, I mean, at this point, just outright corruption in our political system. [2:45] That's a thing that Americans see. They see it and they understand it for what it is. [2:50] And we are going to continue to show people that it isn't just about beating Trump, although, [2:58] of course, it is. It really is about building a political system that does not result in Donald [3:03] Trump in the first place. It's building a political system that is accessible to people [3:07] and that people can see themselves represented in. Because I'll be honest, I mean, as someone that [3:13] was kind of living a very normal life until about a year ago, this political system as we have it, [3:18] the average person does not see themselves reflected. We don't see our will. We don't see [3:23] our material needs reflected in the halls of power. And that's really what we're engaged in. [3:29] So when it comes to Collins, her inability, or let me rephrase, her attempt to thread this needle [3:37] where she is pro-Donald Trump enough to try to appease his loyalists, but also anti-Donald Trump enough [3:45] to try to trick everybody else into supporting her, that doesn't work now. That doesn't work in this [3:52] era. And I think she's going to run up to the finite end of that kind of politics. And we're going to [3:58] very much continue pointing out that she doesn't stand up to Donald Trump. She doesn't reign in his [4:02] power. And his abuse of that power is making things material work, materially worse day after [4:09] day for the average American. Very concerned doesn't fly anymore. I don't think they're [4:15] clutching their pearls and very concerned. Let me ask you about some other aspect of this. And you [4:20] alluded to this. I mean, you ran your campaign in part by running against Washington. This is a very [4:24] effective thing for people to do out there right now. Washington is not exactly popular. Youth is also [4:29] very popular. But you ran against, you know, Washington, its inadequacies and the failure [4:33] of Democrats, too, to use power and think boldly enough. So if you're elected to Senate, it's [4:38] possible, I started the show talking about this, that you could be in the majority. How do you think [4:42] power should be wielded if Democrats are given that for people who are just getting to know you, [4:46] trying to figure you out out there? Well, first and foremost, I think we need to understand that [4:52] the Democratic Party needs to form a theory of power. I don't think it's had one for a long time. [4:58] It's had a theory of management. The Republican Party has, which is one of the reasons why we find [5:02] ourselves in these straits. With the theory of power, you have to define the end state. What is [5:08] the goal? What do you want to use your power in the service of? And then how are you going to craft [5:13] the policies to get there? And more importantly, build the political will and the political power [5:18] to make those policies a reality. Something we're going to have to do if we're in the majority, [5:22] we need to use the power we get to shut this White House down. We do that, I think one of the best [5:30] ways is through committee hearings and investigations. I want the Trump administration not to function [5:35] because everyone in the White House is being hauled under subpoena in front of a Senate committee day [5:41] after day after day. Not just because, one, we have so many crimes to investigate. At this point, [5:48] we can probably be doing this for the next 30 years. But two, because it's a lever of power. [5:53] Using subpoena power, bringing people in for investigations, that keeps them busy. [5:59] And that doesn't allow them to go start another stupid war. That doesn't allow them to continue to [6:04] give billionaires more and more and more of our economy. And so I think it's very important that [6:10] if we're in the majority, we're going to wield the power that we have to reign this thing in. [6:15] I also think, and I'll just be upfront, I don't believe a single U.S. Democratic senator should vote [6:20] for a nominee out of the Trump administration moving forward. I think we need to use all of the [6:26] power we have around funding and the power of the purse to stop paying for these kinds of stupid wars, [6:31] stop paying for agencies like ICE, stop paying for the things that the Trump administration is doing [6:38] that are materially hurting our democracy and hurting working people. But we need to get people [6:43] into office who have a theory of power and who understand that the purpose of power isn't just [6:48] to have it, it's to use it. It's to wield it. And in the service of a long-term goal. And I mean, [6:55] honestly, that's not what we've been seeing for quite some time. [6:58] Graham Plattner, so many more questions, but I got to get to other guests. Thank you. Actually, [7:04] on cue, my next guest is Jack Smith's, was Jack Smith's deputy who's running for Congress. So when [7:09] we talk about investigations, it's a natural lead-in. Thank you for joining me tonight. [7:14] Perfect lead. No, thank you very much, Jen. I really appreciate it. [7:17] Thank you very much, thank you.