One of the strangest days in American politics

**David Pakman** (0:00)
Donald Trump had one of his strangest public days yet rambling through bizarre Oval Office appearances, confusing world leaders and also making claims about what he calls Tic Tac. And he also promoted a company he owns, Stockin, and joked that crypto executives are lucky that he's president. As if it's not obvious why, we will look at why Republicans are very nervous about the midterms. And some analysts believe Trump has transformed the Republican Party into a party that just rises and falls with Trump. And Trump is currently down. We then have extraordinary new questions surrounding Mitch McConnell's health. And the David Pakman Show is able to exclusively report that McConnell has actually been unconscious for three weeks and a bomb drops on the Graham Platner campaign. As a woman comes out and says he sexually assaulted her. Most Democratic leaders now calling for him to drop out. We'll talk about whether he will or won't. And a surprising economic number that Republicans used to love is now moving in the wrong direction. And the Trump sports curse may have struck again. I don't know how many of you saw that game last night. All of that and more today. Let's do it.
The Democratic Party in Maine is suddenly in complete chaos as allegations of rape against Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner have dropped. Calls for him to step down are growing. His campaign may be finished, although there are some people saying he should simply stick it out. The allegations are from a woman who said that she was in a relationship, a situation ship with Graham Platner previously. Her name is Jenny Racicote. I hope I'm pronouncing that last name correctly. We are going to hear from her in a moment. But the allegations build on the preexisting allegations against Platner of inappropriate behavior, while it did not lend itself to the topic, to the to the category, I guess of any kind of assault. It was inappropriate or unseemly behavior. This has now exploded. Now I think it's important to say a few things up front. Number one, if Platner were a Republican, I don't think this would make a difference at all because Republicans overtly don't care about this type of allegation. A reminder that Republicans and Democrats are different in a lot of different ways.
I am going to play a video from Platner that he put out after the explosive allegations came out.
Listen, my view on this for a while has been Susan Collins is terrible. And if there's anyone better than Susan Collins to vote for, that's who we should vote for. At the same time, I haven't been doing the rah rah Platner stuff because I didn't find him to be particularly honest when I interviewed him and big picture picking the guy with a Nazi tattoo who I thought was lying to me about when he found out it was a Nazi tattoo and probably was lying about other things I don't think was a really good idea. And if this were a Republican, we would all be saying this person has no business even running for elected office. And now we end up in what I think is an unsurprising situation of a major scandal where, like we say, we have to believe the women. The allegations are extensively corroborated in the reporting. And party leadership is saying he's got to resign. And it has the potential to hand this election to a Republican. So you end up in an absolutely terrible situation. I think AOC saw that this was a problem. She never endorsed Platner.
Let's hear the reaction from Platner. And I think the key line is that he's going to figure out the path forward, which to me suggests he's going to get out.

**Graham Platner** (4:06)
I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious and allegations against me.
Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false. Over the last 10 months, I have been deeply humbled by the faith Mainers have put in me. You have welcomed me into your homes, into your places of work, into your restaurants, into your houses of worship. You have shown that a different kind of politics, one that puts the interests of people over corporations, is not just possible, but is inevitable.
This movement we have built, the largest volunteer base in the history of Main politics. The hundreds of thousands of grassroots donors and the supporters across the ideological spectrum, we were united in a love of Main, a belief that our politics must change, and a focus on defeating Susan Collins. So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful of the political reality it will inflict. We are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.