'The decisions she's made have consequences': Platner on Collin’s remarks about his Iraq deployment

[0:00] The main Senate race is heating up over comments from incumbent Republican Susan Collins. [0:05] Marine combat veteran Graham Plattner has repeatedly claimed the Republican senator [0:09] sent him to Iraq by voting to authorize the war in 2002. [0:14] Well, here's what Senator Collins said when she was asked about Plattner's claims yesterday. [0:18] So I respect anyone who steps forward to serve their country. But the fact is [0:27] that was Plattner's decision to serve. He was not drafted. [0:34] Graham Plattner, Democratic candidate for Maine's U.S. Senate seat, joins us now. [0:38] Good to meet you. Good to have you on the program. [0:41] Collins' comments have drawn some pretty sharp reaction, especially from veterans. [0:46] What about what she said strikes a chord? [0:50] It's rather amazing to me that someone who's been in a place of political power for this long [0:56] doesn't seem to recognize that the decisions that she has made have consequences. [1:04] Like the willingness for young Americans to enlist in the military, to put on the uniform, [1:10] to serve their country, that is a national resource. [1:13] That is something that we as Americans take great pride in. [1:17] And that's also why it should never be abused and used for personal gain or used just for like political [1:25] gain, which is exactly what happened with the war in Iraq. And frankly, it's still happening right [1:31] now with the war in Iran, another war that Susan Collins has not been able to find a spine to stand [1:37] up against. So it's the idea that it's my fault that I wanted to serve my country, but she, [1:49] one of the establishment politicians who actually started the war, has no agency whatsoever and no [1:56] responsibility. It's a, I think it's a pretty damning admission that she doesn't actually seem to [2:02] take any, any responsibility or even understand the consequences of her power and her inability to [2:09] use it effectively. Well, let me ask you about the war that's going on right now. There was not [2:13] authorization, obviously there was no vote on Iran, but I wonder how you think Democrats in [2:19] Congress are handling the current situation and the way the president of the United States is [2:24] prosecuting this. Not well, you know, there is something that really blows my mind at the moment, [2:30] which is that this is, the war in Iran right now is uniquely unpopular. The vast majority of Americans [2:36] are against it. They think it's, they see it for what it is. They see it for a completely insane [2:42] made-up thing that's making all of our lives harder. It's making gas more expensive. It's killing [2:48] people. It's gotten 13 Americans killed. We've killed thousands of people in Iran, all because [2:54] Donald Trump wants a distraction from the Epstein files. And that's insane. And yet somehow our, [3:01] representative democracy can't figure out a way to use any power, not just to stop it from [3:06] happening, but they can't even slow it down. There should be no funding for this. And we should [3:12] have very loud voices in with Democrats in the Senate and Congress coming together and being the [3:19] anti-war party. And that's, we've got some voices that are speaking up, but it's not a, it's not the [3:26] whole caucus and it needs to be. And it still frustrates me. I wish we would see more. [3:30] And in your criticism just now of Senator Collins, you say it particularly surprises you [3:36] because she's coming out of a place of political experience. I want to note that we invited her [3:40] to be on the program too. But I want to play in the meantime some more of what she's saying. [3:47] I think that speaks to your political experience comment about why she thinks voters should choose [3:53] her and not you. Here it is. I've been able to secure in the last five years, [4:01] $1.5 billion for 674 projects. With my opponent, that would go away. That would go away. [4:12] He would not have the seniority, the experience, the knowledge, or the respect in order to secure [4:20] that funding. So while the latest poll from UNH has you ahead by nine points, we've seen the [4:29] senator defy expectations in polls before. Does the argument we just heard from her in a time of [4:35] economic uncertainty help her? No. And the reason why is that things have gotten harder [4:44] down here. She's been in power for 30 years. She points out that she has seniority. She does. [4:51] She's been there since the late 1990s. And that seniority has not created a main in which housing [4:58] is more affordable or accessible. It is not, she has not been able to keep our rural health care [5:04] system from collapsing. A system, by the way, that is collapsing because she didn't use her power at all [5:11] to stop the big, beautiful bill, which cut Medicaid and Medicare funds simply to justify tax cuts for [5:18] corporations and billionaires. It is those cuts that are contributing to the closing of rural hospitals [5:24] in Maine. Mainers are not seeing their wages go up, but they are seeing the price of goods and services [5:30] that they need continue to go up, including right now, gas. I mean, we're still at $4.50 up here. [5:37] And the money that she has brought into the state has not addressed any of this. What Collins does [5:43] is that instead of standing up for working people in the state by trying to make any kind of structural [5:50] change, whether it's getting money out of politics, changing the tax code, making it illegal for senators [5:57] and congresspeople to trade stocks and bonds, she won't try to do that. She makes a lot of money off of [6:01] the stock market. Instead of doing those things, she just brings in earmarks and says that, well, [6:08] if you lose me and my seniority, you don't get to do this anymore. Here's the thing. We're going to [6:13] lose her someday. She's not going to be there forever. And when that day comes, we will lose [6:19] her seniority. The question is, do we want to replace her with someone who, one, has the time [6:24] and the inclination to spend time rebuilding that seniority, rebuilding that power, but also using [6:30] that power to make those structural changes, getting money out of politics, making it illegal [6:36] for congresspeople to trade stocks and bonds, looking at things like term limits, the structural [6:40] fixes. You can do both of these things. They're not mutually exclusive, but she's trying to pitch us [6:46] that they are. And it's clearly not working because things down here are difficult for working [6:51] matters. Yeah, I think there's the question of how much Americans are hurting. There's also [6:57] the question of the contrast between how this administration is spending money, right? [7:02] So I want to ask you about something that happened today. The judge temporarily blocking the nearly [7:06] $1.8 billion settlement fund that could allow taxpayer money to go to violent January 6th attackers, [7:13] to other people who claim they were wrongly prosecuted. One of countless ways that the administration [7:19] has tried to upend government as we know it. You're running to enter Congress in this world, [7:27] in this Donald Trump world. How do you propose handling it? [7:32] I think when we get the majority of the Senate, we need to use our investigatory capacity with Senate [7:40] committees to shut this White House down. We need to haul everybody under subpoena in front of those [7:47] committees for the next two years. So they're too busy answering questions and starting another stupid [7:51] war or figuring out other ways to be corrupt. We also have so much to investigate. I mean, [7:57] it's really important right now that we understand that the law is being broken almost every single day [8:02] by the Trump administration and those that are supporting it. And we need to look into it and we [8:08] need to make people or we need to hold people accountable. But when it comes to funding, [8:13] that's another thing we really need. Like the Trump administration is spending money at an absurd [8:19] rate on things that are not in any way, shape or form helping the average American, whether it's the [8:27] war on Iran, whether it's this illegal slush fund, whether it's attempting to get the taxpayer to pay [8:32] for Trump's stupid ballroom. I mean, these guys are trying to expand the deficit in a wild way [8:38] just to enrich themselves or the people that donate the most money to them. That's it. And we need to [8:44] use our power in the Senate, whether it's the power of the purse by withholding funds or our power to [8:50] investigate over the next two years to rein the Trump administration in and hold these people [8:55] accountable. Graham Plattner, thank you so much. It's good to have you on the program. [9:02] Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.