Jul 7, 2026 · 16 min · 10 segments
Breaking news has upended one of the Democratic Party's highest-profile Senate campaigns. After reports of rape allegations against Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, Ravi Gupta explains why…
And if you've been listening to this podcast, you know I've been on this corner for a bit that I've been concerned about this guy.
And immediately after that interview, it was very clear that I felt like he lied to me in that interview about his tattoo in that instance.
And then I started talking here and elsewhere about all the other things in his background that made me very concerned.
And there was a combination of very concerning things in his background with very poor and inconsistent explanations for those things, combined with incoherent policy views as well.
So saying like, even if one did think that all these things in his background were, you something you could look past.
Look past in service of what? What is he saying? He had this kind of bumper sticker campaigning.
And then when I asked him about things like education or AI, his answers didn't make any sense to me.
He appears to be very likely to drop out, which means that the Democratic Party in Maine will be able to choose his successor.
I imagine given the state of the party, things are going to be really gnarly there.
And then it starts to get interesting, right? Who else can we blame here? Who brought us Graham Platner? And I wrote about this in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago, but I think there is a new establishment within the Democratic Party and includes prominent podcasters, YouTubers, but also operatives at places like the Fight Agency.
And if you've been listening to this podcast, you know I've been on this corner for a bit that I've been concerned about this guy.
And immediately after that interview, it was very clear that I felt like he lied to me in that interview about his tattoo in that instance.
And then I started talking here and elsewhere about all the other things in his background that made me very concerned.
And there was a combination of very concerning things in his background with very poor and inconsistent explanations for those things, combined with incoherent policy views as well.
So saying like, even if one did think that all these things in his background were, you something you could look past.
Look past in service of what? What is he saying? He had this kind of bumper sticker campaigning.
And then when I asked him about things like education or AI, his answers didn't make any sense to me.
He appears to be very likely to drop out, which means that the Democratic Party in Maine will be able to choose his successor.
I imagine given the state of the party, things are going to be really gnarly there.
And then it starts to get interesting, right? Who else can we blame here? Who brought us Graham Platner? And I wrote about this in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago, but I think there is a new establishment within the Democratic Party and includes prominent podcasters, YouTubers, but also operatives at places like the Fight Agency.
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