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Graham Platner: “Senator Schumer has not really risen to the occasion.”

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

Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview

Published May 16, 2026 | Video Starts at 10:48

I do think that the, that leadership in the Democratic Party has been, has really failed the moment. I don't think, I mean, for a bunch of different reasons. I do think that, I do think that Senator Schumer has not really risen to the occasion. And I think we do need new leadership in the party. Without question. Last question on this, and it is about Susan Collins. As you know, she has been there since the 90s. (10:48–10:51)

CLAIM

Asserts that Senator Chuck Schumer has failed to meet the leadership demands of the current political moment.

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

“The NRC has already put aside almost $50 million [for this race].”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 08:28-08:32
“We have the most expansive margin of wealth inequality in the history of the country.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 23:43-23:48
“We have now spent $50 billion. $50 billion in the war in Iran, a war that is uniquely unpopular with the American people.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:09:48-1:10:00
“We just spent $50 billion in two months in the war in Iran.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:11:17-1:11:21
“We destroyed Iraq and we destroyed Afghanistan and all the suffering, all the killing, all the dying, all the displacement, all of it.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 00:00-00:09
“I did four infantry tours in the Marine Corps and the Army.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 00:20-00:24
“We wanted to build a different looking politics in the state of Maine.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 02:04-02:09
“Organized people is the only actual place of power to conflict with organized money.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 02:13-02:20
“We were up against the Democratic establishment up until last week.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 02:51-02:56
“I've never been close to money. I've never been close to power.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 04:22-04:26
“Somebody saw a video of me talking about fighting a Norwegian salmon farm in our area.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 06:17-06:22
“The Democratic Party wants to retake the Senate more than anything else.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 07:57-08:02
“Almost no map that has a Democratic Senate does not include flipping the state of Maine.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 08:01-08:06
“We have 15,000 active volunteers in the state of Maine.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 09:03-09:07
“Polling methodology has changed significantly since 2020.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 11:33-11:36
“Maine has always been notoriously a hard state to poll because we have an aging population.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 11:38-11:43
“Collins had already voted for Brett Kavanaugh, but Roe had not been overturned.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 12:00-12:06
“Collins has tried to make herself look like this moderate Republican who will buck her party.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 12:17-12:23
“Susan Collins raises an immense amount of money outside of the state of Maine.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 13:08-13:28
“She takes an immense amount of money from aipac.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 13:27-13:36
“She takes an immense amount of money from special interest groups and fossil fuel companies.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 13:27-13:32
“She has a very high performing stock portfolio.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 13:32-13:36
“I think right now especially there are a lot of young men in our society who are being dragged into this kind of like really dangerous…”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 14:50-14:59
“Honestly, I think it's because they've left behind working like the working class.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 16:05-16:11
“And I think a lot of that came because the Democratic Party abandoned organized labor, quite frankly.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 17:39-17:47
“My wife and I work incredibly hard, and we probably make like $60,000 a year combined.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 21:23-21:30
“My house has gone up almost three times in value.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 21:38-21:42
“I could have used a VA home loan if I had wanted to.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 21:59-22:03
“My VA healthcare and my VA pension, which that really is kind of like the, that's the baseline that really allows all this to happen.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 22:36-22:45
“I moved back to Maine in 2016 from D.C. and I had, I was broke.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 22:53-22:58
“An armed working class is a requirement for economic justice.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 23:36-23:44
“In the state of Maine, almost everybody's working class.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 23:48-23:52
“George W. Bush got dragged out of a Bush rally. And I think November, December of O2.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 26:52-26:58
“The war in Iraq was kicking off, I was like, this seems like a deeply stupid idea.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 28:42-28:47
“I met a lot of guys in the Marine Corps that thought that the war was dumb.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 29:21-29:26
“We did the election late January 1st. That first Iraqi election, January of 05.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 30:26-30:32
“On April 2, 2005, there was a large combined assault, multiple suicide car bombs.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 30:35-30:44
“We came home for like four and a half, five months. I went to Machine Gun Leadership course.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 31:20-31:24
“We were at the government center in downtown [Ramadi], and we just lived there.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 31:37-31:42
“Didn't have a single day off for eight months.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 31:55-31:57
“In 05, we were actually engaging in, like, some building projects.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 32:36-32:42
“We were like, we're helping turn the water back on.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 32:41-32:45
“We were spending so much money. Like, somebody was clearly getting very rich, but it wasn't us.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 33:15-33:21
“In 2005, my vehicle got hit by an IED outside of [a place called] Karma north, north of Fallujah.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 35:11-35:19
“When I went back in 2018, I didn't believe in any of it.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 39:23-39:28
“Seven years I haven't been in this country and no new ideas.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 40:09-40:13
“We're out there dropping bombs on people's houses, there are special operations units kicking in people's doors in the middle of the night.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 40:13-40:20
“We destroyed Iraq and we destroyed Afghanistan and all the suffering, all the killing, all the dying, all the displacement, all of it was…”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 41:22-41:38
“The anger that I feel is for the people that sent me who are frankly still the same people who are sending people off right now to go but be…”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 41:46-42:01
“Susan Collins voted to send me to [war in Iraq] and she's also there to help Donald Trump continue this absolutely insane conflict in the…”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 42:00-42:10
“The United States wages war... rarely good for the people who have to go fight and die, and rarely good for... the American people who have…”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 42:44-43:12
“Raytheon executives get a... yacht. People make a lot of money off of this thing.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 43:15-43:20
“The forever wars that we have been in now, really, since 2001. I mean, what good has it done us?”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 43:44-43:52
“We released all of the comments.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 49:23-49:26
“We just put everything out there.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 49:34-49:37
“I haven't used Reddit in, I think since 2021.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 49:41-49:45
“CNN, who was the first. The first outlet that reached out to us.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 51:06-51:10
“I hadn't used Reddit Since, I think, 21.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 51:46-51:49
“I spent 18 years on, or whatever, 12 years on Reddit.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 52:22-52:30
“Historically, fascism has been beaten with. With armed, like, resistance and conflict.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 53:29-53:36
“I don't think it moves us any closer to a better or freer society.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 53:53-53:57
“Building organizing at the community level is paramount for the future of our political system.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 54:41-54:50
“We don't have things that most of the American people want, like universal health care, like a foreign policy that isn't just based around…”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 58:09-58:20
“We need more people who are willing to vote for things like universal health care.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 58:36-58:43
“We haven't been able to get, say, Medicare for all.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 58:55-58:59
“FDR implements a bunch of New Deal programs. Supreme Court says a lot of these might be unconstitutional.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:00:26-1:00:32
“FDR, much to the chagrin of his own party, I may add, threatens to pack the court.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:00:37-1:00:44
“The Trump administration breaks the law every single day.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:02:39-1:02:43
“The Trump administration has started what I would call an unconstitutional war overseas in Iran.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:02:48-1:02:54
“The Trump administration has been sending ICE out to terrorize American communities and murder American citizens with at this point, no…”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:02:55-1:03:04
“I saw that you want to impeach members of the Supreme Court.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:03:08-1:03:19
“The Senate has the power, the Congress has the power to hold the court to ethics standards if it so chose to.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:03:27-1:03:35
“Over the past 40 years, we have seen a coalescing of power in the executive branch that far outweighs what it was supposed to be in the…”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:04:10-1:04:28
“We have Just given power up to the executive and we've given power up to the judicial in a completely unelected body.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:05:52-1:06:00
“Term limits in the Supreme Court, absolutely. And term limits in the House and the Senate as well.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:06:14-1:06:20
“We need to have a new War Powers act that really pulls war powers back from the executive.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:06:24-1:06:30
“The Trump administration got rid of the jcpoa Which. Which then reset the stage.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:08:35-1:08:42
“Things have gotten worse for working people in the state of Maine in the last 30 years.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:10:10-1:10:16
“We have taken on an immense amount of debt, specifically over the past 30 years.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:11:59-1:12:05
“The reason this nation is an immense amount of debt...is because we created lots of new public money...into a speculative financial system.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:12:13-1:12:26
“We put this money out in the form of fossil fuel subsidies...tax cuts for billionaires and for corporations.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:12:45-1:12:52
“We put it out into massive amount of funding for the American military industrial complex.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:12:52-1:12:57
“We will never be able to pay off our debt if we don't invest in making America more productive.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:13:18-1:13:27
“What we have right now is a non functioning market because essentially all the money...gets extracted out of working people.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:13:47-1:13:56
“New Deal era programs are going to be necessary to meet the, the challenges of the moment and of the future.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:17:16-1:17:22
“This nation really needs to get back to [long term industrial policy].”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:17:30-1:17:32
“We're going to be talking about names next year and the year after in relation to the 2028 presidential race that right now just aren't even…”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:17:52-1:18:00
“We're in for a, a generational shift in American politics and it's coming quickly.”
Graham Platner Wants a Democratic Revolution | The Interview | Uploaded May 16, 2026 | 1:17:59-1:18:06