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TRANSCRIPT
[clip of Jon Lovett] When an establishment says, sorry, we’re your only choice, people have a way of telling you to fuck off. [music break]
Jane Coaston: I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show that was wondering how Republicans would find a way to blame the screwworm outbreak that’s devastating the cattle industry on Democrats. But Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall figured it out Monday on Newsmax.
[clip of Senator Roger Marshall] We’ve been through this before. We eradicated the screw worm in 1966, and we’ll talk about this. But this is another thing we can thank Joe Biden for, that when millions of people came out of Central America, they brought this screw worm with them.
Jane Coaston: Not only is that not true, actually, we stopped investing in the proven methods to stop screw worms over the last two decades, but also, it’s June of 2026. Time to find a new scape president. On today’s show, I talked to Jon Lovett about Tuesday’s Maine Democratic Senate primary and the Graham Platner of it all. Before we get into all that, here’s what we’re following today, Monday, June 8th.
[clip of Kristen Welker] What changed? Because you insisted no new wars?
[clip of President Donald Trump] Look, look. First of all I didn’t guarantee no war.
Jane Coaston: President Donald Trump was on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday, where he dismissed the idea that starting the war with Iran this year betrayed his No New Wars campaign promise. Well, we’ve officially hit the 100-day mark since the start of the conflict. And it has shaken the global economy, driven energy prices up around the world, made many basics more expensive, and killed thousands of people. And Sunday, Israel and Iran traded fire for the first time since the U.S. agreed to a ceasefire with Tehran two months ago. As of Monday afternoon, the strikes appear to have stopped, but both countries warn they are ready to launch retaliatory attacks if provoked. Things got pretty heated during that Meet the Press interview, and apparently Trump couldn’t handle the heat, so he got out of the kitchen. Or in this case, a barn in Wisconsin. NBC’s Kristen Welker pressed an increasingly agitated Trump for evidence to support his claim that California’s recent primary elections were rigged. California’s notoriously prolonged vote count has been a magnet for election conspiracy theories. And Trump has claimed without evidence that Democrats are rigging the election because as more votes are counted, Republican vote totals are quote, “dropping fast.” And no surprise, that brought Trump to his own complaints about 2020.
[clip of President Donald Trump] You have more evidence, there’s more evidence than ever presented.
[clip of Kristen Welker] Lets talk about–
[clip of President Donald Trump] Your elections in this country.
[clip of Kristen Welker] You went to poor–
[clip of President Donald Trump] We’re like a third world country.
[clip of Kristen Welker] But sir.
[clip of President Donald Trump] Your elections are crooked. And you’re crooked. And Meet the Press is crooked. And so is ABC, and CBS, and CNN.
[clip of Kristen Welker] But Mr. President.
[clip of President Donald Trump] You’re a one sided crooked network. Sorry. Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you darling, have a good time.
[clip of Kristen Welker] Mr. President.
Jane Coaston: Have a good time? To no one’s surprise, the Trump-appointed top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles said Friday that his office had opened, quote, “multiple election fraud investigations.” Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a closely watched summit in North Korea today. Xi’s first visit to North Korea in seven years is likely an attempt to reassert Beijing’s unique influence over its socialist neighbor. According to an online report by China State Broadcaster, Xi expressed China’s willingness to expand cooperation in a wide range of areas, including trade, agriculture, construction, and technology. Remember that upcoming Ultimate Fighting Championship fight card that’s set for the White House South Lawn on President Trump’s 80th birthday? Because I know you’ve been so looking forward to it. Yeah, well, a federal lawsuit filed Saturday is trying to stop that atrocity from happening. The suit contends that the Trump administration’s authorization of the UFC event is unlawful and violates national park service regulations. The White House, however, said in a statement that the legal challenge doesn’t have any legs, and that the event is, quote, “no different than the various other White House-hosted events on the South Lawn and properly permitted events on the Ellipse and National Mall throughout the year.” No different. And that’s the news. Let’s talk about Graham Platner. Tomorrow, Maine voters will head to the polls to decide who will take on five-term Republican Senator Susan Collins. In his race against Governor Janet Mills, Platner still has a sizable lead in the Democratic primary. You probably know a few things about the presumptive Democratic nominee for Maine’s Senate seat. He runs an oyster farm. He served in the Marine Corps, doing three tours of duty in Iraq. But you’ve probably heard a lot of other things about Platner over the last few weeks. Like his Nazi tattoo, or about shitty things he said on Reddit about rape victims, for example. And last week, the New York Times detailed allegations that Platner was intimidating and even physically aggressive with past romantic partners. None of the new information is good. But will that matter to Maine voters? Voters who want to take back the Senate? And should it? To find out, I spoke to Jon Lovett. He’s co-host of Crooked Media’s Pod Save America. Jon, welcome back to What a Day.
Jon Lovett: Great to be back.
Jane Coaston: Tomorrow main democrats will decide if they want to vote for Graham Platner who has been through a bunch of scandals since announcing his senate primary but he’s still doing very well in polls and a lot of party democrats are standing by him. Why do you think that is?
Jon Lovett: I think a couple of things. One, and probably most importantly, the most recent, and I would argue, worst story for Graham Platner, broke a week before.
Jane Coaston: Yeah.
Jon Lovett: Maine Democrats had their primary, and after Janet Mills suspended her campaign, and all Janet Mills has said in the days since the story broke is, well, I’m technically still on the ballot.
Jane Coaston: Yeah.
Jon Lovett: Which is, I am not sure the purpose of saying that. To get a few extra votes while losing and signaling that Graham Platner is weak without doing anything to change the situation. Like I think there’s the conversation Maine voters are having and there’s the conversation.
Jane Coaston: Right.
Jon Lovett: Uh. Watchers are having and they’re–
Jane Coaston: Yeah.
Jon Lovett: Sort of disconnected.
Jane Coaston: Right. Okay, so walk me through the conversation you think Maine voters are having. Because I think outside of Maine, people did not know who he was when he announced his run for the Senate. Like his political experience was serving as the planning board chair and harbor master for his hometown of Sullivan, which seems lovely. Maine’s governor, Janet Mills, as you mentioned, was kind of supposed to be the Democratic front runner. Why are Maine voters, it seems like, sticking with him?
Jon Lovett: Well, first of all, we don’t know that.
Jane Coaston: Right.
Jon Lovett: Right we just–
Jane Coaston: Okay. We we don’t know.
Jon Lovett: We just don’t know because–
Jane Coaston: That’s fair.
Jon Lovett: Right now Democrats who are gonna vote in the primary, he’s he’s really running unopposed and maybe we’ll see in the results that come through tomorrow, how much um frustration there is, right, if a lot of people show up and vote for Janet Mills, even though she’s not really in the race, I think that would tell us something about how Maine voters feel about this. I think we don’t really have that much good polling or any good polling since this story broke. I think we don’t have any actually. Uh. And so what we have is people that clearly have metabolized the Reddit story, the tattoo story, and are willing to give a person a chance who says they’ve grown and they’ve changed. What happens if they keep saying they’ve grown and they’ve changed and then you keep seeing bad stories? And they’re like, oh, that’s yet another thing I’ve grown and changed.
Jane Coaston: Yeah.
Jon Lovett: I’ve grown and changed so much. Actually, each of these stories only proves how much I’ve grown and changed because it’s yet other thing I had to–
Jane Coaston: Yeah.
Jon Lovett: –stop doing.
Jane Coaston: But why do you think you got so much support in the first place?
Jon Lovett: I think two things are happening. One is what people are looking for, and the other is what the Democratic Party is offering. So let’s talk about what the Democratic Party’s offering first, which was, I think, in the classic of of of the current mainstream Democratic Party, a tolerable and very old classic Democrat who is the safe choice and who represents an establishment that people are really frustrated by.
Jane Coaston: Janet Mills.
Jon Lovett: Janet Mills, the governor, and who would, how old would she have been at the end of her term?
Jane Coaston: Old.
Jon Lovett: Old. Uh.
Jane Coaston: She’s 78 right now.
Jon Lovett: She’s 78.
Jane Coaston: Just for, just for.
Jon Lovett: So she was, she’s, would be in her mid-80s at the end of her term. She promised to run one term, fine. And so then you’re saying, okay, well this election is so important because we have to defeat Susan Collins. But then the next election, which presumably will also be important, we’re gonna have to get somebody new anyway, but this time we’re gonna, we’re gonna because we don’t trust ourselves to find a new candidate, we have to use the kind of the old guard to try to defeat Susan Collins at a time when people are clamoring for a different direction who want fresh ideas and and new voices and someone that acknowledges that politics has not been delivering for people in a way that leaves them pretty cynical and turned off. And so that’s what the establishment offered. And then you have this, uh younger guy who’s been in the military, had traumatic experiences in the military, built himself back up, and who just was an eloquent and charismatic speaker about about why normal people are turned off by the political system and want something different. And that was really captivating. And when people feel as though, and I think this, applies in all kinds of democratic elections. When when an establishment says, sorry, we’re your only choice, people have a way of telling you to fuck off.
Jane Coaston: We’ll get back to my conversation with Jon in a moment, but we will never tell you to F off. If you like the show, make sure to subscribe. Leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]
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Jane Coaston: Let’s get back to my conversation with Jon Lovett. Platner’s issues to a national audience first started in October, when these old problematic I hate using that term, but let’s say problematic Reddit posts came to light and of course there have been more issues that have kept coming. And you know, you’ve got the New York Times reporting you just mentioned, you’ve got the nazi tattoo he said he didn’t know it was a nazi tattoo. You’ve got allegations of a bunch of other stuff. But the context he’s running in is that Donald Trump is president. Has Trump totally scrambled our political priors like we went from an era in which like Howard Dean’s screaming was like well, we can’t have that to now it’s like, is there a line? What is the line? And how do we try to figure that out?
Jon Lovett: So I think there’s a big difference. And to me, the big difference is on the Republican side, people like Donald Trump in part because he’s an unrepentant asshole, but that’s a perk.
Jane Coaston: Yeah.
Jon Lovett: That’s a selling that’s a selling feature. Thomas Massie uh had a quote about his loss that I thought was really smart and interesting. He said, I thought that I was winning because people wanted somewhat of my libertarian views. It turns out they were just voting for the craziest person. And now he’s getting out competed by Trump. With Platner, I actually think what’s happening is people are like what is the debate among Democrats broadly? Right? Yes, it’s caustic and often unproductive, but at root it is about whether or not he’s an asshole, whether or not a person whether or not his being sorry uh is enough to justify giving someone the responsibility of being a Senator. Can a person grow beyond the asshole that they had been, right? That’s what Democrats are asking. So nobody wants Graham Platner because of the Reddit post, because of the tattoo. I mean, maybe there’s people out there, but that’s not what Democratic voters are saying.
Jane Coaston: Right.
Jon Lovett: Right. And certainly it wouldn’t be because uh he was a bad boyfriend and possibly a boyfriend who grabbed an ex-girlfriend by the wrist and shoved her into a room. Like that’s a not a selling point. It’s more, uh A, are these things disqualifying for him as a candidate? And B, are they going to cost him the race?
Jane Coaston: Something else that’s been interesting about Platner is that a lot of times, if you watch his campaign events, like obviously he’s going after Republicans, but he’s going after Democrats, too. And I’ve seen some arguments on the left that Platner and everything that he’s had to kind of come to terms with actually makes him more real and that his controversies make him more appealing than so-called quote, “upper class ninnies.” This idea of like, well, you know, this is better than some McKinsey, Deloitte, Democratic establishment candidate. Is this kind of some sort of like left-wing populism at work because you’re saying like oh people don’t like him because of these issues. But there is a sense in people generally online that it’s like oh, you know, we all have tattoos we regret. We’ve all done bad things like there’s this idea of like the fact that he’s not practiced makes him better.
Jon Lovett: This is where I feel like the online hyper-engaged debate is very silly and one I’m not super interested in participating in. It’s a lot of people fighting their factional battles, making claims about what people want even though they’re not there. Uh. Combining–
Jane Coaston: Especially talking about the working class while definitely–
Jon Lovett: Right.
Jane Coaston: –not being a part of it.
Jon Lovett: Right, and it’s just like, yes, I am annoyed by the kind of running for president since they were seven, smartest kid in class, no hair out of place, no mistakes, perfect resume. I I have been annoyed by those people my entire life. There is a lot of people who aren’t that and also who um uh don’t have these toxic and terrible stories in their lives. And by the way, there are also people who can speak eloquently about what people are facing in a way that doesn’t sound like a politician who managed to get from childhood to adulthood without these kinds of allegations. So I find that all a bit um like of a cope and of a kind of um, I don’t know, like a fan fiction about what people are like.
Jane Coaston: So, with all of this, the bigger context to me is that Democrats want to win the Senate. Democrats want to win the Senate, like, real bad. And I think, still, Platner might be Democrats’ best chance to oust Maine’s long-time Republican Senator Susan Collins, who has been the lightly boring white whale of Democrats for pretty much the entire time I’ve been writing about politics. What do you think Platner needs to do, if he wins tomorrow, to win over Maine voters in the general? With all of this still swirling.
Jon Lovett: I think he has to, first of all, deal with the fact that he has lost a lot of trust because we’ve had so many cycles of him explaining how he’s changed and he’s grown from the tattoo to the Reddit post to now this terrible story about his past relationships. And I think a big question mark is if there are more stories and what he does if there more stories. But uh Maine is a place where you can probably talk to most of the people whose votes you need, which and he’s a very capable and charismatic speaker who um has really resonated for that reason. And then outside of Maine, I think there’s a lot of like online discourse about whether he should have been the candidate, whether he shouldn’t have been, if he is, then what is our responsibility here? And uh we can all spend our days online, kind of arguing about whether it should have been Janet Mills or not, or or or whether people were right about Graham Platner all along. I think the threshold question is, would you rather have a Democratic majority with Graham Platner in the Senate, or would you rather have a Republican majority with Susan Collins in the senate? Now, if you have come to the conclusion that Graham Platner, his conduct is so deplorable that you don’t believe he should be elected to the point that you would rather have Susan Collins and a Republican majority. I understand that. I don’t agree given the stakes for the country and once you get beyond your own personal feelings about it, your own either disgust or frustration or whatever it may be, the question is do we want a democratic majority? And if we do I would I think it is it behooves us to spend less time lamenting and fighting our little factional beefs and claiming you were right all along then figuring out the best way to help. Maybe you don’t wanna help in the Maine race, but I would say posting about how how annoyed you are by the whole thing probably is unproductive in the long run.
Jane Coaston: Jon, as always, thanks for joining me.
Jon Lovett: Thanks for having me.
Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Jon Lovett, co-host of Pod Save America.
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Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, good luck to New Yorkers in their efforts to walk through Midtown Manhattan tonight and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how Donald Trump has decided to grace Game 3 of the NBA Finals with his presence, and now multiple blocks around Madison Square Garden will be closed off and the watch party outside the arena has been canceled, like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston and here’s hoping that the collective powers of Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns will be enough to ward off the bad vibes of Donald Trump. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. Our show is produced by Caitlin Plummer, Emily Fohr, Erica Morrison, and Adriene Hilt. Our team includes Hayley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Joseph Dutra, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdock and Jordan Cantor. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.
