‘The Five’: Graham Platner plays the blame game

[0:00] Yes. Let's talk about Graham Plattner. It's been a minute. Maine Democrats are scrambling to replace the disgraced accused rapists. They once rallied behind after he bowed out last night in a rambling 11-minute video. [0:11] A corporate media system and the political establishment got to act as judge, jury, and executioner. It's not the false allegations, though, that have brought us to where we are. It's the fact that they're being used by the political establishment to put structural pressure [0:35] on us. This is incredibly difficult because I know that some will think it's an admission of guilt, and it most certainly is not. [0:44] And, of course, the Democrats can't own up to their poor judgment. They're finding a way to spin out to make it about Republicans and President Trump. Watch. [0:55] Republicans should just really just shut up. They really should just shut up if they're going to be critical of Democrats for supporting a morally challenged candidate. [1:07] My empathy goes with the bravery of that woman for speaking out, and he has to drop out of the race. Plattner's problem is he should have ran as a Republican, and then he would be the senator because they don't have an issue with this. [1:19] It's not a peak pointing to the one at the top because this is the one that is in front of our kids as well. [1:28] Yes. [1:28] And we have to explain why we say no to this one, but this one is okay. [1:33] And ultimately, deeply enraging political career for Graham Plattner, enraging for all of us. [1:40] Right. They're trying to spin their way out of this. Kaylee, is it working? [1:45] No. They were all on board. Look, I don't know why I do this, but occasionally subject myself to MSNOW. [1:51] Jen Psaki was on board. They were all on board with Graham Plattner. [1:54] They loved this guy. They loved him when he had a Nazi tattoo. [1:58] They loved him when he had Reddit posts that were on Earth that said the Army was absolute trash, full of fat, lazy trash. [2:06] They still supported this guy. [2:07] They supported this guy when we saw Reddit posts that he said the Navy SEALs were generally incompetent. [2:12] Teddy Daniels, remember what he said about him, that MF-er? [2:16] He said that dumb MF-er didn't deserve to live. They were all with this guy. They were still with him. [2:22] When Lindsey Fifield came forward and said he pushed her, left marks on her shoulder, locked her in a room, they were all on board. [2:29] Roe kind of appeared with him that night. [2:31] Absolutely. Bernie stayed. Elizabeth Warren stayed. This is what they did. [2:35] And Graham Plattner, he's going out guns a-blazing. He's blaming this on the establishment. [2:39] He is going to, I think, take down whoever is next. [2:43] He might do it subtly off the record to reporters, but he is on a mission to burn down the house. [2:48] And evidence of that, Axios just reported that he told staffers on the phone he's not filing his paperwork to exit the race until Monday. [2:56] He has until Monday at 5 p.m. Why is this guy waiting until Monday? [3:00] He has an ax to grind. He's not going away. [3:02] And the absolute comedy of The New York Times saying that his advisors thought he would be a 2028 presidential candidate. [3:08] I think not. [3:09] Well, Lisa, you do still think he could be president. [3:12] Yes, Lisa, let's talk about that. [3:14] Yes, Lisa, let's talk about that. [3:15] Is that right? [3:15] Is my pre-interview correct? [3:17] Yeah, to be clear, I never said that. [3:20] Yeah, Brian. [3:21] But look, two things can be true here. [3:23] Obviously, he's not some progressive martyr. [3:25] And also, this was a hit job from the Democrat establishment. [3:28] Some of these groups pulled advertising prior to the Politico rape story was published. [3:34] Also, they choked him out of this race. [3:36] They cut off future funding for him. [3:37] The Democrat establishment did in supporting groups. [3:40] Also said they would deny him access to, like, their voter files and important data that campaigns need to survive and thrive. [3:46] So it was a hit job from the Democrat party. [3:49] They're stacking up more bodies than the mob. [3:50] But also, what I think is really interesting here is do Democrats end up in the exact same position that they're in now? [3:56] They have another unvetted candidate. [3:58] Because the whole problem with Graham Plattner is the people who brought him into this race, they vetted him in three days. [4:03] They only spent $6,250. [4:06] When I've worked on big Senate races before, I've worked at the National Republican Congressional Committee, it takes weeks to do proper vetting. [4:13] Tens of thousands of dollars. [4:14] The Democrats have a two-week process to identify a candidate and to properly vet them. [4:19] That is not enough time. [4:20] And the last thing I will add is even if they try to go with someone who's already in the public eye, [4:25] for instance, someone like Troy Jackson who led in Graham Plattner's internal polling against Susan Collins [4:29] and who says he wants to be in the race, he wants to run, well, guess what? [4:33] He was accused by a progressive group of throwing a water bottle at a woman. [4:37] So they think they rescinded that. [4:40] Well, I'm just saying they did put that out initially. [4:43] So my only point is that they could end up replacing Graham Plattner with someone who potentially has their issues of their own. [4:49] Jimmy, do you think the next candidate should be forced to talk about their tattoos before they get any nomination? [4:55] I think that's why they're floating Patrick Dempsey. [4:57] We've seen him with his shirt off. [4:58] That's true. [4:59] They know he's in the clear. [5:00] He is hot, though. [5:01] Just to be clear. [5:02] Yeah. [5:02] Do you know how Hunter Biden was joking a few weeks back that he could run? [5:05] He's actually in the clear because we've seen his whole body. [5:08] Yes. [5:08] Okay. [5:08] But this is what drives me crazy about this. [5:11] As someone who legitimately cares about the state of politics in this country, [5:14] we don't have societal accountability for the people who are dividing us the most shamelessly off of falsehoods. [5:21] Like, let me give you an example. [5:22] Okay. [5:23] Everybody who told you Graham Plattner is a model citizen told you Biden was airtight. [5:28] Okay. [5:28] I know you saw him shake hands with invisible people. [5:30] But from this angle, he was doing 110 meter hurdles. [5:33] He broke a world record. [5:34] They told you Trump colluded with Russia. [5:35] They told you about the fine people hoax. [5:37] And every time they were proven to be wrong, we never slammed on the brake and said, by the way, you lied. [5:44] Okay. [5:44] We need to bring back shame. [5:46] Do you know when the dog goes to the vet, gets the cone of shame? [5:48] Let's just move on. [5:48] I support. [5:49] That's what I mean. [5:50] I support the First Amendment more than anybody. [5:51] I'm a comedian. [5:52] Okay. [5:52] But we need to bring back some type of societal accountability for the people who did this [5:57] because they're all pretending it never happened. [5:59] Elizabeth Warren is in about 50 different clips that are viral right now going, this is the best human being who's ever lived. [6:06] And now all of a sudden she has reservations. [6:09] Good night, everybody. [6:10] Right. [6:10] But this is what drives me crazy. [6:11] I just want to say this. [6:12] Okay. [6:13] The justification for sticking with him was that he relates to the working class, which is the ultimate tell that you have no relationship with the working class. [6:22] I'm the working class. [6:23] I'm telemarketer, driven a cab, dressed like an affordable male stripper right now. [6:27] I'm like Magic Mike's brother, Tragic Mike, you know, chubbier, got a little fat during the pandemic. [6:31] But the point is, there is no working class job in America where the Nazi sex pest, okay, with multiple assault allegations is popular. [6:40] Now, if you go to any job in America and trouble the Nazi, you're not getting hired. [6:44] You know, so the idea that that was the justification and now they're like, but this last allegation was a bridge too far. [6:48] Dude, there have been so many bridges with this guy. [6:50] I need an easy pass to talk about him. [6:52] Absolutely. [6:53] Stupid. [6:53] And you have to have a credit card that works. [6:55] Interesting thing about him, and I think he should get out of the race. [6:57] I would not have voted for him if I were in Maine and during the primary, is that he still got the nomination by a large amount, by a pretty large margin. [7:06] 72% of the vote. [7:07] I mean, even when these stories were coming out and we learned about the tattoo, there were questions about his previous relationships. [7:14] So I do think that there's something, I listened to someone earlier on the Democrat side talk about what is it, not only the vetting piece, but something else is going on. [7:22] Our standards, this is not meant to malign or be an indictment on anybody in politics today, but just think about it broadly. [7:27] Well, our standards and tolerance for character has just changed in politics over the last 20 years. [7:33] I mean, whether you like, there are people we all like, people we don't like. [7:35] You say, well, that's just him or that's just her, but something has changed in politics. [7:39] The last time this happened on the Republican side was in 2004 in a Senate race in Illinois. [7:43] A guy named Jack Ryan, who was a Democrat that everybody knows now, named Barack Obama, was running for the Senate. [7:48] Poor Jack Ryan had to get out of the race. [7:49] He and his wife were having marital issues, and apparently they went to some club in Paris together that was revealed in his divorce proceedings. [7:55] Now, if that happened today, that guy was probably been able to run based on the standards, but the standards we have today. [8:01] So what I hope Graham Plattner understands is that this was never about you. [8:06] If you believe in the things, and I really believe, I don't know him, but I believe he believes that the affordability challenges [8:11] and the need to talk to and respond to and address the needs of working-class America and working-class Mainers every day is a priority. [8:19] But if that's a priority, then move on. [8:21] Because if you, this is just not meant to be a partisan comment from my friends around the table, [8:24] but if you're a Democrat and you want to win, he's going to be too much of a distraction to win in that race. [8:28] So I think the only thing that disappointed me in listening to him the other night or last night was that he took no responsibility for anything. [8:35] And I also think that is a new thing in politics today on both sides, [8:40] where people just think if they can just get past the story, it'll move on. [8:43] They can get above it, and things will be fine. [8:46] At some level, character does matter. [8:47] And the only thing about this matter that is relieving is that the country and Mainers are going to have to now select someone else. [8:56] They have a process, and hopefully the process, I do think that Plattner's right, it should be transparent. [9:00] And hopefully they choose someone that is able to separate and give people a real choice between Susan Collins and a Democrat. [9:06] Real quick, though, Grant Plattner didn't just do well in his primary. [9:09] He got more votes than any other Senate Democrat candidate in primary history in the state of Maine. [9:15] And that was even after all of the information out, with the exception of the rape story, had been out there. [9:21] Right. [9:21] So I think that's on us. [9:22] But that's on we as voters. [9:24] It's Maine. [9:25] Don't blame me. [9:25] No, no. [9:27] But I'm saying, but still, voters there, they're not, they're Americans. [9:30] They made that decision. [9:31] So I think there are a lot of questions here that we need to contemplate even after this primary. [9:36] I think the one difference is with Trump, I don't know if the Ken Paxton analogy might be relevant. [9:41] I didn't mention any names. [9:42] Yes, but with the one thing with Trump, if you accuse him, he's going to tell you, no, you accuse me, he'll point you out, he'll hunt you down, he'll say directly exactly what it is. [9:51] He doesn't say generally it's not true. [9:53] He'll tell you exactly who accused him and tell you why it's not true. [9:56] So he would confront these people. [9:58] He just said it's not true. [10:00] Well, you dated her for a while. [10:01] Tell me why it's not true. [10:03] Tell me the proof. [10:03] If that would show a guy that wanted to fight over the last six days, that probably would have kept him in the race if he pushed back and had proof that he didn't do it. [10:10] Standards have changed. [10:11] It's the only thing. [10:12] Want even more Fox News on YouTube? [10:14] Become a Fox News Patriot today. [10:16] Click join to find out how.