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Graham Platner: “Life got harder down here.”

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

Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour

Published December 19, 2025 | Video Starts at 31:44

What would they have said 20 years ago? I think 20 years ago they probably would have said yes. Most of them might have said yes. What changed? What changed is the fact that Life got harder down here. And we're also witnessing the ultra wealthy in corporate interests consolidate wealth and power in ways that we can hardly comprehend. I mean, everybody understands that everything is owned by five companies now, right? (31:44–31:47)

CLAIM

Asserts that living conditions have worsened for people in recent years.

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

“Obama's on record saying this, there was a moment where there were two options. We give money to homeowners or we give money to the banks…”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 17:12-17:25
“They were part of this project with the main afl, cio, a couple labor union groups trying to recruit a candidate.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 01:28-01:34
“We make $60,000 a year and the Senate is not for people like us.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 01:48-01:55
“I have been the chair of the planning board and also as harbor master.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 03:04-03:13
“By the time I got out of the Marine Corps in 08, Petraeus and General Mattis had written the counterinsurgency manual.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 07:30-07:38
“I also said that sexual assault didn't occur in the military as much as people said it did. It does.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 11:44-11:51
“Sexual assault occurred often in the military and was often covered up.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 12:22-12:26
“The Democratic Party, today's biggest problem is that there is an element of it that has become as attached to corporate interests as the…”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 14:48-15:01
“The Democratic Party used to be the party that represented those people, was the party of labor unions.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 15:57-16:02
“In the 1990s in the Clinton administration...the party sold out organized labor.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 16:26-16:57
“I continue to not have been contacted...from either Chuck Schumer or from the dscc, the Senatorial Campaign Committee.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 19:16-19:17
“The DSCC set up to fundraise with [Governor Janet Mills] the day after she announced.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 19:29-19:34
“We've held 35 town halls around the state of Maine the past couple of months.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 20:44-20:49
“We have 12,000 volunteers.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 20:51-20:55
“Continue pushing for universal health care, Medicare for all.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 21:46-21:50
“We also need to restrict the ability of senators and congresspeople to trade stocks and bonds.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 21:50-21:58
“We also need to fix the tax code because we cannot continue to tax wages at a higher rate than we tax wealth.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 22:04-22:15
“All the money we're taking in is individual donations.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 23:00-23:04
“I think the death count now is up to 95 [in Venezuela].”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 24:28-24:31
“No declaration of war, no even concept of why this is a war.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 24:34-24:41
“I was four years the Marine Corps, four years in the United States Army National Guard.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 25:19-25:25
“I think the number one thing we have to do is claw war powers back from the executive branch.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 27:56-28:02
“Congress has abdicated its role in war making.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 28:05-28:20
“We have handed off more and more power to the executive branch over decades.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 28:20-28:25
“They're just dropping bombs on people's boats, and that shouldn't even be an option.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 28:26-28:32
“The Constitution lays out clearly who is supposed to be in charge of war powers.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 28:52-28:58
“We're entering into an era of politics of power, an understanding of what power actually is.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 30:31-30:39
“There is an immense amount of working class angst in this country and for good reason.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 31:12-31:18
“Nobody says yes [to living in a political or economic system that benefits them].”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 31:29-31:35
“Everything is owned by five companies now.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 31:59-32:03
“Our system [is] purely built on the exploitation of working people, which is what we have right now.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 35:14-35:22
“I am lucky enough to be a disabled combat veteran. I get health care. I don't think about it. I don't deal with insurance companies.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 37:14-37:24
“Her rent is 60% of her monthly income.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 39:10-39:14
“Rent everywhere is going up.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 39:17-39:19
“This is eastern Maine. I mean, this is a. We're a poor community.”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 39:27-39:32
“I've watched people in my community watch their material conditions deteriorate at the exact same time that we watched Jeff Bezos and Elon…”
Graham Platner Is Staying in the Race | The New Yorker Radio Hour | Uploaded December 19, 2025 | 39:55-40:06