The Trump Endorsement Slump

**Marianna Sotomayor** (0:01)
Well, you've seen the Republican Party embrace someone like Trump, who is probably one of the most flawed candidates in modern day history, right? And if Republicans continue to back someone who will still be a winner because they are on a populist tide and really engaging a voter base, then why shouldn't we also get behind Platner?

**Peter Hamby** (0:28)
Welcome to The Powers That Be Daily, Puck's podcast focused on the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley and Hollywood and the players who run it all. I'm Peter Hamby. It's Tuesday, June 9th. Today I'm joined by Marianna Sotomayor with a look at two big primaries on the ballot today. One in Maine, where besieged Democrat Graham Platner is hoping to make a statement and run up the score on the ballot to prove that stories about his past don't matter to voters in the Senate race. And another in South Carolina, where the GOP primary for governor is testing the strength of the coveted Donald Trump endorsement. We also discussed why Democrats on Capitol Hill are holding back their votes to reauthorize the government's spying powers in protest of Trump's underqualified pick to manage the US intelligence community. We'll discuss all that and much more on today's episode of The Powers That Be.
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Happy Tuesday, everybody, and welcome to The Powers That Be. I'm joined today by my colleague, Marianna Sotomayor, to talk about politics. Of course, today, like many Tuesdays coming up in the next few months, it is a big primary day. We, of course, have Graham Platner on the Democratic primary ballot up in Maine. He has been mired in controversy, but he doesn't really have any serious opponents. We'll see how he does on the ballot. We also have an interesting primary in South Carolina that's going to test the strength of the Donald Trump endorsement, which isn't looking as strong as it was maybe even just a few months ago. Marianna is also going to fill me in on Democrats on Capitol Hill revolting over reauthorizing the president's spy powers after Trump nominated Bill Pulte to run DNI. Yeah, it's pretty weird. Before getting into the job on Capitol Hill, let's talk about these races today on this podcast and everywhere else in the media over the last few days. We've been talking a ton about Graham Platner. Multiple stories have come out in recent weeks about his behavior with women. There haven't been any really good polls since these stories broke, although University of New Hampshire had one a few weeks ago that had Platner up 60 points in the primary because his former opponent, Janet Mills, the sitting governor, dropped out of the race after Platner just lapped her when he got in the primary. She is playing a little coy, almost too cute by half. She's been telling voters in the wake of these stories, or aides to her anonymously have been saying, hey, I'm still on the ballot. We'll see if there's a protest vote. But this is difficult territory for Democrats, especially establishment Democrats in Washington who probably didn't want Graham Platner.
If another shoe drops, it could be too late after Tuesday because he will be locked in as the Democratic nominee. What are Democrats on the Hill on the Senate side saying about Platner after this latest raft of stories heading into today's primary?

**Marianna Sotomayor** (5:03)
I mean, it is completely split on the Senate side. I would say even on the House side, not that House Democrats necessarily have any say in what the Senate is going to look like. But it's really divided the party into two camps. You have one that is still standing behind Platner, and there's lawmakers and I think a number of people in the party say, well, you know, you've seen the Republican Party embrace someone like Trump, who is probably one of the most flawed candidates in modern day history, right? And if Republicans continue to back someone who will still be a winner because they are on a populist tide and really engaging a voter base, then why shouldn't we also get behind Platner?