[Rush Lindell] Welcome back to the Rush Lindell Show.
[Rush Lindell] I'm Rush,
[Rush Lindell] and folks, we've got a wild one tonight.
[Reagan] And I'm Reagan.
[Reagan] Glad you're with us, because this story broke fast.
[Rush Lindell] Graham Platner's Senate campaign is falling apart in real time.
[Rush Lindell] And NBC News says the anger inside the Democratic Party is boiling over tonight.
[Reagan] And the party's already lining up statements. We'll get into who exactly.
[Rush Lindell] Let me tell you something.
[Rush Lindell] I've already got a nickname for this guy.
[Rush Lindell] And by hour's end you'll be using it too.
[Reagan] I have a feeling it's not flattering.
[Rush Lindell] Not even a little.
[Reagan] We'll dig into the pattern of controversy that's followed him for months and whether it adds up to anything.
[Rush Lindell] Then the fallout:
[Rush Lindell] who's abandoning ship,
[Rush Lindell] who's staying quiet,
[Rush Lindell] and what it does to the map.
[Reagan] And Maine's got legal deadlines bearing down fast and a couple names already floating as replacements.
[Rush Lindell] And don't sleep on Susan Collins just sitting back while
[Speaker 3] the world is going to hell.
[Rush Lindell] Watching all this happen to her opponents.
[Reagan] Let's separate the rhetoric from the reality on this one,
[Reagan] starting with what actually happened last night.
[Rush Lindell] Straight ahead,
[Rush Lindell] the collapse minute by minute.
[Rush Lindell] Before we dive in, a quick reminder.
[Rush Lindell] We love hearing from you.
[Rush Lindell] If you have questions or topics you'd like us to cover,
[Rush Lindell] head to the link in the description and submit your question.
[Rush Lindell] We read every single one.
[Rush Lindell] Bath to Bangor,
[Rush Lindell] the whole state of Maine woke up to one word this morning,
[Rush Lindell] collapse.
[Reagan] Good morning to you, too.
[Rush Lindell] Graham Platner,
[Rush Lindell] the oyster farmer turned Senate savior,
[Rush Lindell] I'm calling him Captain Collapse, effective immediately.
[Rush Lindell] His campaign is taking water and nobody's manning the pumps.
[Reagan] Before we nickname the man into oblivion, let's say what actually happened.
[Reagan] This is an allegation,
[Reagan] serious but unproven.
[Rush Lindell] Fair; say it straight.
[Reagan] According to CNN,
[Reagan] a woman he dated casually nearly five years ago says he raped her while intoxicated.
[Reagan] He denies it.
[Rush Lindell] And Al Jazeera's got the name "Jenny Racicot" telling Politico in an exclusive that this happened in late twenty twenty one,
[Rush Lindell] non consensual and that she told him to stop.
[Reagan] Politico's the outlet that broke it.
[Reagan] That matters for who gets credited.
[Rush Lindell] Here's what gets me,
[Rush Lindell] Reagan.
[Rush Lindell] Three weeks ago, you and I were on this show mapping the Democrats'
[Rush Lindell] four-seat pickup path,
[Rush Lindell] remember?
[Rush Lindell] Platner was seat number one.
[Reagan] I remember he was the closer.
[Rush Lindell] Well, the closer just walked off the mound.
[Reagan] NBC's reporting tonight that Democratic hopes for the majority may be going down with him.
[Rush Lindell] Going down with him,
[Rush Lindell] say it louder for the DSCC in the back.
[Reagan] Speaking of, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand didn't sit on this.
[Reagan] ness.
[Rush Lindell] No way-both of 'em?
[Reagan] Joint statement,
[Reagan] calling the allegations incredibly disturbing.
[Reagan] That's Senate Democratic leadership on record within hours.
[Rush Lindell] Whistle!
[Rush Lindell] That's not a slow leak-that's the whole dam breaking!
[Reagan] And Platner himself?" NBC quotes him saying he's reflecting on the "best path forward.
[Rush Lindell] Translation:
[Rush Lindell] his lawyers are on the phone and his pollsters crying.
[Reagan] Maybe.
[Rush Lindell] So walk me through it:
[Rush Lindell] does a guy in this spot actually survive?
[Rush Lindell] survive or is this a body they haven't buried yet?
[Reagan] That depends on whether this is a one-off allegation or part of something bigger.
[Rush Lindell] Which is exactly the question, isn't it? Because this isn't the first headline with Platner's name on it this cycle.
[Rush Lindell] Building on that collapse,
[Rush Lindell] this isn't Platner's first brush with trouble,
[Rush Lindell] Reagan.
[Reagan] It's not.
[Reagan] Al Jazeera's report today calls it a long string of controversies trailing this campaign.
[Rush Lindell] We're talking a Nazi-style tattoo he had to explain,
[Rush Lindell] sexually explicit texts that leaked,
[Rush Lindell] and New York Times interviews where he came off downright unsettling.
[Reagan] Each one alone survivable; stacked together,
[Reagan] voters notice.
[Rush Lindell] And now...
[Rush Lindell] Wait for it; old Reddit posts are crawling back out of the grave.
[Reagan] NPR's been tracking those,
[Reagan] comments disparaging Black and LGBTQ plus people,
[Reagan] and remarks mocking assault victims specifically.
[Rush Lindell] Mocking assault victims,
[Rush Lindell] and now he's the one accused of assault.
[Rush Lindell] You cannot write this stuff.
[Reagan] Hold on,
[Reagan] I'll push back:
[Reagan] a bad Reddit history doesn't prove Racicot's allegation is true.
[Rush Lindell] I'm not calling it proof; I'm calling it a pile of matches next to gasoline.
[Rush Lindell] Eventually the fire's not a coincidence.
[Reagan] Fair,
[Reagan] but juries don't convict on vibes and neither should we.
[Reagan] Pattern isn't evidence,
[Reagan] it's context.
[Rush Lindell] Context that's still crushing him.
[Reagan] CNBC," reported Platner,
[Reagan] calling the new accusation "categorically false," and flagging the timing-a week before Maine's ballot deadline.
[Rush Lindell] Skeptical for him to say-could be convenient for her,
[Rush Lindell] too-cuts both ways.
[Reagan] It does,
[Reagan] and that's the scrutiny Democratic leadership
[Speaker 3] isn't getting.
[Reagan] is suddenly discovering they should have applied months ago.
[Rush Lindell] Suddenly discovering.
[Rush Lindell] Funny how that happens once the seat looks actually winnable.
[Rush Lindell] So the DSCC just drew a line in the sand.
[Rush Lindell] Finally.
[Reagan] Schumer and Gillibrand told reporters, according to The Hill,
[Reagan] the committee won't put a dime in Maine if Platner stays on that ballot.
[Rush Lindell] Oh,
[Rush Lindell] now there's a budget line; funny how conviction shows up right when the polling gets ugly.
[Speaker 4] Mm-hmm.
[Reagan] And it's not just leadership.
[Reagan] Politico reported Ro Khanna and Ruben Gallego both yanked their endorsements Monday night.
[Rush Lindell] Gone-poof-like they were never there.
[Reagan] Martin Heinrich went further,
[Reagan] calling the allegations "very serious," his words per that same report.
[Rush Lindell] Very serious!
[Rush Lindell] Wow-bold stance,
[Rush Lindell] Senator.
[Reagan] But notice who's missing from that list.
[Rush Lindell] Wait,
[Rush Lindell] wait.
[Rush Lindell] Don't tell me!
[Reagan] Elizabeth Warren.
[Reagan] Axios says she stopped short of a hard break,
[Reagan] still hedging.
[Rush Lindell] Oh,
[Rush Lindell] shocking!
[Reagan] And Bernie Sanders?
[Reagan] Silent.
[Reagan] Nothing.
[Reagan] Not one statement.
[Rush Lindell] Bernie's probably still drafting it in longhand.
[Reagan] Maybe,
[Reagan] but look,
[Reagan] credit where it's due,
[Reagan] Democrats mostly landed in the right place on this.
[Rush Lindell] Sure,
[Rush Lindell] eventually.
[Reagan] My issue isn't the destination,
[Reagan] it's the clock.
[Reagan] Nobody found their principal when the tattoo story broke.
[Reagan] Nobody found it after the texts.
[Rush Lindell] They found it the second the internal polling showed the seat slipping away.
[Reagan] That's the pattern worth watching; conviction with impeccable timing.
[Rush Lindell] Convenient conviction; I love it.
[Reagan] Warren and Sanders staying quiet tells you something,
[Reagan] too; they're waiting to see which way this breaks before spending capital.
[Rush Lindell] Smart,
[Rush Lindell] cynical,
[Rush Lindell] and completely
[Speaker 3] carnal.
[Rush Lindell] easily predictable!
[Reagan] Which raises the real question,
[Reagan] if the top of the party can't move fast on something this obvious,
[Reagan] what happens to the seat itself?
[Rush Lindell] And that,
[Rush Lindell] Reagan,
[Rush Lindell] is exactly where we go next,
[Rush Lindell] because Maine's got a clock ticking and it's not a metaphor.
[Reagan] Shifting to the math,
[Reagan] Democrats need a net four seat gain to flip the Senate.
[Reagan] That's the number that made Maine matter in the first place.
[Rush Lindell] Right; and,
[Rush Lindell] Reagan,
[Rush Lindell] you've got the calendar in front of you-walk me through it.
[Reagan] Under Maine law,
[Reagan] Platner has until July thirteenth to withdraw (five p m,
[Reagan] second Monday in July).
[Rush Lindell] The DMV closes faster than that deadline approaches.
[Reagan] If he steps aside by then,
[Reagan] the state party has until July twenty seventh to pick a replacement.
[Reagan] A REPLACEMENT
[Rush Lindell] Two weeks to find someone who isn't radioactive?
[Rush Lindell] Tight window.
[Reagan] The names floating around include Troy Jackson and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, though Governor Mills has ruled herself out of an endorsement.
[Rush Lindell] Mills won't even weigh in after losing to the primary guy who's now imploding?
[Reagan] That's the read—she's staying out of it entirely,
[Reagan] at least publicly.
[Rush Lindell] All right,
[Rush Lindell] here's my call back weeks ago on this show.
[Rush Lindell] we ran the Senate firewall segment—four seat flip,
[Rush Lindell] tight map,
[Rush Lindell] no room for error.
[Reagan] I remember,
[Reagan] you said Maine was load bearing.
[Rush Lindell] I did.
[Rush Lindell] Now ask yourself:
[Rush Lindell] does the four seat math survive if Democrats have to install a replacement candidate in two weeks with zero name recognition against a five term incumbent?
[Reagan] Susan Collins has run state wide five times; a newcomer starts from a
[Speaker 3] dead stop.
[Reagan] From a dead sprint,
[Reagan] not a jog.
[Rush Lindell] So,
[Rush Lindell] my verdict:
[Rush Lindell] the firewall didn't crack; it shattered.
[Rush Lindell] You don't patch four seats with a rushed nominating meeting.
[Reagan] I'd say it's damaged,
[Reagan] not shattered.
[Reagan] Jackson and Bellows both have real infrastructure in the state.
[Rush Lindell] Infrastructure doesn't buy you name ID by November.
[Reagan] Mm-hmm.
[Reagan] Fair,
[Reagan] but calling it dead on July sixth is premature.
[Reagan] We've got three weeks of runway before we even know if he was
[Reagan] P.
[Reagan] WITHDRAWN.
[Rush Lindell] Three weeks-that's the whole runway for the whole plan!
[Reagan] And Platner hasn't announced anything yet,
[Reagan] just that video about reflecting.
[Rush Lindell] Oh,
[Rush Lindell] don't get me started on that video.
[Rush Lindell] Oh,
[Rush Lindell] Kash!
[Rush Lindell] Reagan,
[Rush Lindell] we've got the tape-Platner's big statement-let me do this properly.
[Reagan] Oh,
[Reagan] no
[Rush Lindell] I am-
[Speaker 4] Taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.
[Reagan] Riveting.
[Speaker 4] A path forward towards what,
[Speaker 4] Graham?
[Speaker 4] A press conference?
[Speaker 4] Witness protection?
[Speaker 4] Forty five seconds of nothing dressed up as courage?
[Reagan] It's a whole genre; statements built to sound sincere while committing to zero actual words.
[Speaker 4] Captain Collapse has entered his reflection era.
[Reagan] Cha,
[Reagan] there it is.
[Speaker 4] That's the nickname folks.
[Speaker 4] Sticking.
[Speaker 4] Every Democrat who needs three weeks-
[Speaker 4] And a lawyer is now officially in a 'reflection era.'
[Reagan] I'll allow it; but strip the theatre,
[Reagan] and what's left is a campaign with no message and a clock running.
[Speaker 4] Which is exactly why this stopped being a 'Maine-only'
[Speaker 4] story.
[Reagan] The longer he reflects,
[Reagan] the longer the other side gets to just watch.
[Speaker 4] And wait till you hear what Susan Collins just said about all this.
[Reagan] Oh,
[Reagan] this ought to be good.
[Speaker 5] Susan Collins finally spoke,
[Speaker 5] and man, it's a master class in staying out of the blast radius.
[Reagan] She called the allegations appalling, but added that it's not her job to pick the Democratic nominee.
[Reagan] Careful,
[Reagan] lawyerly,
[Reagan] exactly what you'd expect from a five-term incumbent.
[Speaker 5] Smart.
[Speaker 5] Why grab a live wire when your opponent's already on fire?
[Reagan] And CNN reported Monday that Senate majority PAC is pulling money out of Maine unless Platner or Court.
[Reagan] and are quits-real dollars,
[Reagan] not just a statement.
[Speaker 5] That's the tell,
[Speaker 5] Reagan.
[Speaker 5] When the super pack walks,
[Speaker 5] the party's admitting the math doesn't work with him on the ballot.
[Reagan] Fair,
[Reagan] but walking from Platner isn't the same as walking from Maine.
[Speaker 5] Maybe not,
[Speaker 5] but remember Kamala Harris only carried that state by about seven points in 2024.
[Speaker 5] Collins was already the underdog in a blue leaning seat before any of this.
[Reagan] Sure,
[Reagan] but if Democrats swap in someone clean by the twenty seventh?
[Reagan] That cushion doesn't just evaporate.
[Speaker 5] It shrinks; it doesn't vanish.
[Speaker 5] That's the real fight here.
[Rush Lindell] Right.
[Reagan] And every day this drags out,
[Reagan] Collins runs essentially unopposed—free airtime for an incumbent.
[Speaker 5] Which is exactly why I'm calling this Susan Collins Lifeline—clean nominee or wounded one,
[Speaker 5] she's the only campaign in Maine that hasn't lost a single day.
[Reagan] That's a lifeline built entirely out of somebody else's disaster—that's not a mandate, Rush.
[Speaker 5] I'll take a gift horse over a mandate any day of the week.
[Speaker 5] Building on that,
[Speaker 5] the calendar's the real headline now:
[Speaker 5] six days to July thirteenth,
[Speaker 5] then the clock hits July twenty-seventh.
[Reagan] And every hour that passes without a withdrawal makes an orderly transition messier.
[Speaker 5] My prediction:
[Speaker 5] Platner's out by Friday,
[Speaker 5] Democrats scramble,
[Speaker 5] and Collins walks into November with the wind at her back.
[Reagan] I'd stop short of that.
[Reagan] Bellows or Jackson steps in clean.
[Reagan] Maine's fundamentals don't just evaporate overnight.
[Speaker 5] Fundamentals don't matter much when your nominee is radioactive and your bench needed three days just to admit it.
[Reagan] Three weeks of runway is still three weeks.
[Reagan] Ask me again after the filing deadline.
[Speaker 5] Noted for the record,
[Speaker 5] official Senate Firewall scoreboard update.
[Reagan] Scoreboard duly noted,
[Reagan] Rush.
[Speaker 5] We'll be back the moment Augusta makes it official.
[Speaker 5] Until then,
[Speaker 5] that seat's a jump ball.
[Reagan] A jump ball with a very loud crowd watching every bounce.
[Speaker 5] So Captain Collapse—that's where we land tonight.
[Speaker 5] One allegation and the whole Maine map shakes.
[Reagan] And I'll say it again for anyone just tuning in,
[Reagan] it's an allegation,
[Reagan] serious but unproven; that distinction still matters.
[Speaker 5] Fair,
[Speaker 5] but Schumer and Gillibrand didn't wait around to make that distinction,
[Speaker 5] did they?
[Reagan] No,
[Reagan] they didn't," dryly.
[Reagan] Conviction moves fast when the polling does.
[Speaker 5] Exactly; and remember our Senate firewall segment?
[Speaker 5] Platner was seat number one; that firewall's got a crack in it now.
[Reagan] July thirteenth,
[Reagan] July twenty-seventh—those dates decide whether Democrats patch it or lose Maine outright.
[Rush Lindell] Right.
[Reagan] My money's on Collins keeping the seat; Reagan's holding out hope for a clean replacement.
[Rush Lindell] I am; will know soon enough.
[Reagan] Warmly:
[Reagan] That's the show.
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[Rush Lindell] New episodes every weekday.
[Rush Lindell] Thanks for spending this one with us.
[Reagan] Grinning,
[Reagan] stay sharp out there.
[Reagan] We'll see you tomorrow.
[Speaker 4] .