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Graham Platner: “I think I filed my first claim in 2013, and it wasn't until…”

Featuring: Graham Platner, Populist, Progressive | Former Candidate, U.S. Senate Maine

Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers

Published June 1, 2026 | Video Starts at 43:45

That needs to end. I have found that VA healthcare for me has been incredibly life changing. The process to get it was still a total pain in the ass. I mean, I think I filed my first claim in 2013, and it wasn't until the early 2000 and twenties that the VA finally gave me my final rating. I mean, that's a long, long time. For many of those years, I didn't even have anything. And those were the years in which I struggled the most because I didn't have access to that support. (43:45–43:57)

CLAIM

Asserts that it took nearly a decade to receive a final VA benefits rating.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Graham Platner

“We spent, it looks like in the end it's going to be somewhere around $8 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for nothing.”
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“Pete Hegseth is literally using the US Military to make up for the fact that he's insecure about his own military service.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 00:00-00:07
“Re empowering organized labor is going to be one of the keys to building the power necessary to really take back our democracy from…”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 02:08-02:20
“Historically, organized labor has always really been the kind of foundation of any kind of real movement politics that is able to advocate…”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 02:22-02:33
“The Democratic Party should be the party of labor unions, should be the party of community organizations, should be the party of civil…”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 03:49-03:57
“Polling at the moment and has been for quite some time [reflects that working people do not see the Democratic Party as a party for them].”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 04:15-04:32
“There are many people who talk about the Democratic Party as it once was, a party that used to represent labor unions, used to represent…”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 04:15-04:25
“I have served my country multiple combat tours.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 06:08-06:12
“Building a small business, growing food in the ocean for my community.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 07:01-07:07
“We don't sell an oyster outside of a 25 mile radius.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 07:07-07:10
“We tax wages at a higher rate than we tax wealth.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 10:50-10:55
“We live in the outcome of policy policies that have been implemented really for the last 40 years by establishment politicians at the behest…”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 11:46-11:59
“I love the idea of raising taxes immensely on the high on billionaires and their wealth.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 13:23-13:30
“There's a proposal which I think is a really good one, which is that we should never tax someone into poverty.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 13:48-13:54
“We should also still raise taxes on billionaires and corporations.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 14:04-14:10
“We're raising it on all 930 billionaires in the United States.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 14:25-14:30
“We have to go after the wealth as well.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 14:33-14:36
“Winning the Senate seat back from Susan Collins is just the beginning.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 16:24-16:28
“She's been there for 30 years.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 17:36-17:39
“The campaigns that have generally been run against Susan Collins have been Directed from Washington D.C.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 17:50-17:56
“Susan Collins has been there for 30 years. And in those 30 years, everything got harder down here.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 19:25-19:33
“She has been in charge for 30 years, and she has overseen a system that has brought us to the brink of collapse.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 19:54-20:01
“Susan Collins has not represented the people of Maine.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 23:06-23:10
“We are seeing our healthcare system collapse in the state [of Maine].”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 23:10-23:14
“I reenlist in the United States Army. I got screened for gang and hate tattoos.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 24:39-24:45
“I worked for the State Department. I had a top secret clearance.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 24:44-24:48
“I was on the ambassador to Afghanistan's security team, where I was screened for gang and hate tattoos.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 24:47-24:54
“Private equity is allowed to buy up single family homes in this country.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 30:59-31:03
“Their health care is a mess because it is structured right now to prioritize profit over providing healthcare.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 31:08-31:16
“Any road to a blue Senate pretty much goes through the state of Maine.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 31:48-31:53
“There are very few paths available if we don't beat Susan Collins.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 31:52-31:57
“We did just beat the Democratic establishment and we did it with a candidate that nobody had ever heard of before August of last year.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 33:00-33:10
“Blocking every bit of funding possible. We shouldn't send a single dollar for any of this nonsense.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 34:52-34:58
“Congress has abdicated its constitutional responsibility around war making.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 38:35-38:40
“He was a National Guard major. I mean, no shade to the National Guard at all. I was in the National Guard. But his combat record doesn't…”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 39:27-39:38
“It's a war. And the reason I say it's the same kind of war is that it is the outcome of politicians who think war is flippant.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 40:12-40:23
“The Bush administration got to enrich a lot of other people, got to kind of use the sort of the post 911 feel of patriotism to go start that…”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 40:36-40:49
“Everyone's like, oh, we're almost to a peace deal in which we reopen the Straits of Hormuz. And it's like, oh, you mean what we had before…”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 41:40-41:50
“I really want to work on in the Senate is building an army of social workers for the VA to go out into this country and find every single…”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 42:35-42:49
“I want to expand the VA's ability to find veterans who are suffering and get them the benefits that they earned.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 44:28-44:36
“We need to end partisan gerrymandering.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 45:01-45:04
“We need to get money out of politics.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 45:04-45:07
“If I have my way, elections will be publicly funded and they will last two months.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 45:06-45:12
“Other countries do this.”
Will Maine voters extend 'forgiveness' to another Graham Platner controversy? | Newsmakers | Uploaded June 1, 2026 | 45:18-45:20