Trump Remaking Washington DC Infrastructure

For me, being a part of this place has always been about the people, not about the politics. From the field to the studio, Jacob is finding the heart of the story. Connect with Jacob Soborov. weekends at ten AM Eastern on MS now Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It's Tuesday, july seventh withith us. We have the co host of our eightM hour staff writer at the Atlantic Jonathan Lamir and MS now National Affairs analyst John Heilman. Let's get to our top story this morning. Maine Democratic Senate candidate, Graam Platner, facing calls to drop out of the race after a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her The woman, Jenny Rasco, detailed on her allegations to Politico in a series of three interviews over the past two weeks MS now does not identify victims of alleged sexual crimes unless they come forward publicly. She says she casually dated Platner on and off from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty one. She told Politico that Platner in late twenty twenty one entered her home in rural Maine, uninvited and deeply intoxicated She says he sexually assaulted her after telling him to stop. She then cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual. Politico reports Resco previously described reckless and unsettling behavior by Platner to the New York Times, says she didn't go public with a specific assault claim because she didn't want to be known as a rape victim She told CNN yesterday that her reasons for coming forward are not politically motivated I couldn't disagree more. That was actually one of the reasons that I didn't come out because you don agree with this politics. I do. I really agree with this politics. I think we need somebody with those political stances and who are willing to do the work. And you know, I see his political videos. They get me fired up as well. I understand why people want someone like him in office. You know, and I felt like me coming forward would essentially potentially take that away. And I felt really uncomfortable with the responsibility of and the weight of my story and what that might do. In response to this new reporting, Platner posted a video statement on social media, calling the accusations against him troubling, serious, and false So Regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality it will inflict We are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward. For the state that I love peopleeople that I love movement I belong to and the goal of defeating Susan Collins Those were the goals when we launched this campaign And they remain my goals today Now, Maine state law allows Platner to be replaced on the ballot if he decides to drop out of the race, but He has to do that By this coming Monday, july thirteenth, the state Democratic Party would then have until july twenty seventh to name his replacement We're going to dig into the politics, the timing of this in just a moment. But first, let's bring in one of the reporters who broke the story of the new allegations. Senior National politics correspondent for Politico, Adam Rren Adam I want to get right to the questions about this, the questions surrounding this on both sides of this debate. There's not a police report, correct cororrect me if I'm wrong, and there's not a legal case playing out here for due process to see itself through. So my question to you, given the very high standards political has before they write something like this and publish it, what aspects of this story brought it to the level of publishable Yeah, you're correct, Yure Mika. There is no police report in this case. We spent a lot of time talking to Jenny, you know, asking her for croooperorating evidence. She shared that she had confided into a number of people, including her therapist in almost real time And we reviewed email exchanges between she and her therapist referring to what she called the sexual assault and her therapist sort of acknowledging that this had happened to her. We talked to people who she confided in in the months after this happened. We asked her why she didn't file a police report and she describes sort of the The insular nature of where she lives in her corner of Maine that she shares with Graham Platner, and she debated sort of how to handle this. and we found ultimately the number of cooperating pieces of evidence to support her story in a way that we could report it So what are some of those corroborating pieces of evidence? So you've got conversations with her therapist And people who she conf fid it in Um any um Any conversations with Graham Platner at the time of it where she said, because apparently as part of this story, she says she even confirmed to him that this was not consent. Do you have that? What do you have that actually connects this literally Graham Plotner Yeah to raping this victim Yeah, she reached out to him the day after via Instagram and essentially, you know told him that you know she didn't want to hear from him again. She told him that morning as well. and You know, we looked at messages that she had sent to others in the months after this happened through you were able to see those DMs She tried to recover those DMs. We did not we were not able to review those DMs, but she described them to us. We also long before he was a public before he was a political candidate, we saw her essentially explain to others that he was, quote, in her words, consensually careless, end quote Right But you were you able to see the interactions between Graham Platner and this alleged victim? Did you actually physically see them? Did she produce them for you? She was she attempted to uncover them. She but was unable to Willie So let's talk a little bit, Adam about some of the timing of this. Some people pointed out, it's a week out from the date that Democrats now have to scramble and potentially find a new candidate. if Platner does indeed drop out as he's expected to. We'll talk more about his support in the Democratic Party nationally at the state level has collapsed after these revelations. She was Jenny in that New York Times piece in the piece a few weeks ago. So what's your sense of why she decided she wanted to go into more detail with you at this point Yeah, Willie. She was frustrated with how that article landed, she told us. She was frustrated with another woman that she knows who was quoted in that piece, how her story was received. She felt there was a lot of negative polarization around that anecdote that she was written off just because she was a Republican And you know, she wanted maine voters to have sort of the full story here And you know, she sort of relayed all of this to us. And how do you square yesterday, we heard it we just saw in that soundbite that Graham Platinner just saying objectively that the charges are false. He says they are troubling, but that they're false, that this doesn't happen. Just to pull back the curtain a little bit, how do you square that as a reporter as you produce this story Yeah, you know, it we gave the Platner, we reached out to the Platner campaign early Sunday. We gave them roughly twenty four hours to sort of respond to this and, you know, included included their response. We, you know, stress test all of the reporting in this as much as as we could. And, you know, of course, you know, included his his denial But, you know, she Jenny describes him as being, you know, deeply into intoxicated. And, you know, at times while this alleged attack was occurring, you know, he was sort of as she describes it passing in and out of recognition of what was going on and even you occasionally know apologizing. And know the next morning she confronted him about this and he didn't quite seem to remember what had happened. And she felt deeply wounded by that and in her telling, you know lived with that for years So Adam, let's talk now about how the Platinner campaign is responding. We saw the video from the candidate yesterday and he says he's taking time to reevaluate next steps. What is his team suggesting to you as to what the timing might look like for indeed, his decision as to what to do next? We have, as we'll dive into in a few minutes, have seen his support nationally really fall apart here How is this landing with his campaign?, because he is to this point His popularity has been pretty resilient in Maine Due to previous allegations, this one though might be different Yeah, John, there's some indication that he is trying to have some leverage in this situation and find a candidate who sort of fits his progressive fighter profile. You know the former progressive gubernatorial candidate, Troy Jackson has been name checked as a possible replacement here And so in some ways he's trying to look at the contours and negotiate you know a potential exit from his race. He has galvanized a lot of support in Maine. We see these videos from the town halls that he has the way that he's received on the campaign trail. and there's a lot of you know significant support for his platform, for his message the way that's resonating across the state M. And so you know, you know, they're looking for a path out and they're weighing sort of all their options at this point So Adam in closing, obviously this is a huge political bombshell story, a story that Might probably will lead to the end of Graam Platner's campaign. Andm just I'm going back to the decision to publish and I'm curious what What concrete evidence. You have conversations with therapists, conversation with friends, but what took this story beyond Gram Platner saying this was consensual Jenny Rasco saying this was not consensual What took it over the edge And had you and your editors decide to publish, of course kind of an earthquake in democratic politics What was the piece of evidence or pieces of evidence that made you sure of this story Yeah, I mean, long before he was a political candidate, long before much of the country knew his name, Jenny in her telling had confided in a number of people. We saw screenshots that she shared of messages relaying this account to others. We viewed an email response from her therapist to her acknowledging that they had talked about. Those are the things I said, but those are what what is the actual is there evidence between her and him evidence of a crime because he's being It's being accused of rape U so What is the what put this over the edge Be yeah, says he didn't. And he has people on his side who say he didn't. She says he did and there are people, butone there's I'm trying what's the through line? What ties this together and gives you the evidence Bring this story. to the point of publishable Yeah, you know, we interviewed her know three separate times. Her storory stayed consistent across those times. You know, we talked to people who she had spoken with contemporaneously about these attacks and all of those stories lined up and checked out. and ultimately, you know, politico stands by our reporting. and we talked to you know, people who cooperated her story largely The new reporting is online right now. Senior national politics correspondent for Politico, Adam Wren, thank you so much for getting up early and sharing this story with us. We appreciate it. Coming up on morning Joe Communism is a mortal threat American liberty. Communism is a loser and it always will be. The communist system is the opposite of the American system and the communist system has never worked. The communists. They want to destroy our country. We're not going to let that happen. Why the president's new favorite word might not be as effective as he thinks it is. Michael Damaski explains in his latest beeast from the New Republic. And that conversation is straight ahead on Morning Joe Simone Sanders Townsend and I have known each other for more than a decade, tussling over politics and policy when she worked in the White House and I reported on it. And now we're friends and colleagues and on our podcast, Clocket, we are positioning ourselves at the intersection of culture and politics. Clocket is where we talk about what we see and hear in the news, so you can start to clock it too Lock it with Son and Eugene, all episodes available now W this is obviously Graam Platner has been reallyally talked with different stories along the way. and there are a lot of analysts who are now saying, why did it take so long? A the same time This is an incredible moment in time to come forward and some are questioning that as well. The timing. Yeah, and as we've learned at least in the last decade, but hopefully far before that, it's not easy for any woman to come forward and put herself out there and put her name and face to a story like this. She doesn't want to talk about this publicly. So the allegations taken very seriously, reported out pololitico but immediately now we have, as you point out, six days for Democrats, John Heumman to find a new candidate if Platner does indeed I'll leave the race as many are expecting him to do. I mean, we could just tick through it You've got Elizabeth Warren, one of his chief supporters. We haven't heard yet from Bernie Sanders. as of this morning. we may sureortly Roana. Tammy Duckworth, Galliego, the Senatorial campaign Committee has withdrawn its support, the main Democratic Party. So there's really not a whole lot left. So what is your sense of what happens here in the next few hours today Well, I mean, first really, I think there's just to correct the one thing you said a second ago, there's two stages to this, right? where Plder has to decide by Monday if he's going to drop out. If he doesn't drop out by Monday, he's on the ballot if he decides that between now and Monday This party then has two weeks after that to figure out who their nominee is going to be. And there is nothing in in maine law or in the way the Democratic Party works that tells them how to do that. So I think one of the questions is going to be is the practical matter of what's the process by which you would select another candidate? There is a strong sense that Graham Pidder is going to drop out. Some people think that he may drop out as soon as this morning and And that will throw it's a very important decision, obviously that the main Democratic partarty has to make. The one thing that the partarty has ruled out is the notion of doing of having a kind of the party itself select someone from the closed kind of ranks of the party. they have just they are saying that they're not going to do that, even though again, by law they would be able to if they if they chose to. I think that's in keeping with lot of the kind of sentiment up in Maine. I don't think a party that a Democratic partarty that was attracted to Graham Platner's candidacy, the outsider nature of it, the populist nature of it is probably not one that would be all that inclined to accept or rally behind a nominee that was chosen by party insiders. There' a possib there's been discussion about the possibility of calling a party convention in that two week time to scre talk about candidates and take some kind of a vote. There's also been talk about holding a snap us putting together a quick Democratic caucus to kind of redo the results from the primary. I'm not sure where they're going to come down on that. will say U And I know there's a lot of things to discuss here, but When it comes to the timing of this story Republicans Broadly speaking, we're kind of licking their chops over the notion that Graham Platner lookook at their jobs with the notion that they feel like they have very, very heavy opposition research dossiers that they were waiting for after the deadline, after the deadline of next Monday, where the Democrats will be locked in with Graham Platinner to drop what they think of as being a very damaging material on him. I don't know what that material is, but there's been a lot of scuttle bit about that. If it were Republicans who were driving the timing of this disclosure, they would have waited until after the deadline. They were very happy to campaign against Grand Planner with the material that they feel like they have in their bags. This I think that argues against the notion that a lot of progressives have immediately reacted, which was, well, this is obviously Republicans who are responsible for this. this is the establishment trying to take Gam Plat out I think that whatever the motivations are that Jenny Rasicott was driven by to come out when she did. and you know, there's no reason not to believe the things she said to Politico. Certainly her conduct with with having put out kind of a veiled reference to this in the New York Times story suggests that she that there's some credibility to the notion she shares as politics and didn't want to be identified as a rape victim, that rings true to a lot of women that I've spoken to. I don't think though that the argument that this is obviously Republican the doings of Republicans or platinner opponents rings true again, given that if you really wanted to take him out, you probably would have let him still have him stay on on the ballot and then gone after him later with with the material you have Coming up how Donald Trump became the president of Washington DC. We'll dig into that headline from Semaphore when Morning Joe comes right back. Welcome back. There are growing questions this morning about the health of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell The Kentucky lawmaker was admitted to the hospital more than three weeks ago back on june fourteenth. But his office has only released some vague updates on his condition since then The latest one from last Thursday states that McConnell, quote continues to improve But it offers no specifics about why he was hospitalized nor the type of treatment he's receiving There's also been no confirmation from McConnell's office as to whether or not the Senator is even currently conscious New York Times reports that on the morning that McConnell was taken to the hospital, In their words, emergency responders reported performing CPR on an unconscious individual undergoing cardiac arrest the Senator's Washington address That's according to recordings of dispatcher calls that were widely reported by news outlets last week and obtained by the New York Times The recordings do not name McConnell as the individual. And We should just note that I think this is a storyline that's going to trigger more and more questions in the days ahead Let's take a look now at some of the other stories making headlines this morning. Starting with the cost of oil which has plunged since President Trump signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran And airlines are finally seeing some relief when it comes to the price of jet fuel. But as the Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning, Air travelers aren't seeing any savings yet while fuel prices are definitely down from their peak. Experts say airfare isn't likely to follow because travelers keep paying up Carriers have raised ticket prices several times since the start of the war. But there has still been consistent travel demand At at least one analyst notes that consumers might start rethinking travel plans after the summer rush Prices remain this high elsewhere Coyota has announced it will spend three point six billion dollars to build a new auto plant in Texas. The company says it will move production of its mid sized Tacoma pickup truck from Mexico Cross the border to Texas when that factory is complete The investment is expected to create roughly two thousand US jobs The announcement comes less than a week after the Trump administration confirmed it would not extend its current trade agreement with Canada and Mexico Also this morning, Microsoft is eliminating four thousand eight hundred jobs as part of its latest effort. Costs in the age of artificial intelligence Cuts will largely impact the software Giant's Xbox video games division Over the past several years, Microsoft has spent billions of dollars in an effort to expand Xbox but has still struggled to narrow the gap with competitors like PlayStation and Nintendo. The company has had multiple rounds of layoffs in the last year, including one that cut nine thousand jobs Still ahead here. as more and more Democrats call on U. S. Senate nominee Graham Platner to leave the race Former Republican House Fpeairer Kevin McCarthy said something yesterday how his party handles controversies surrounding Rublican candidates We'll see if what he said rings true at all Ns next, I'monning Jo Welcome back. This morning. We've been covering the growing calls for Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner to drop out of the race after a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her The woman detailed her allegations to Politico in a series of three interviews over the past two weeks. Now Graham denies the allegations, calling them, quote, troubling, serious, and false Still, top Democrats who backed Platinner through a number of previous controversies during his campaign have now begun rescinding their endorsements Meanwhile, last night, forormmer House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested Republicans are different and would never cozy up to a candidate who faced accusations of sexual abuse Take look Look, we're celebrating one hundred and fifty years. The one thing I know about Republicans, when we had a very bad candidate found out We didn't vote for that person. We walked to it. For better for worse. When Matt Gates came forward, ye, we got rid of him Now I was talking about Gates there, I think when Gates was an attorney general nominee, but remember Gates is a congressman wasn't voted out. The the Republicans didn't back away from him. And more than anything That's the same Kevin McCarthy. Let's remind everyone, who flew to Mar aago just days after the january sixth insurrection for a photo op with President Trump who was found civilly liable for sexually abusing and defaming advice columnist Egene Carroll Trump also, of course, bragged about how he treated women And that access Hollywood tape back in the twenty sixteen campaign Let's now bring in contributing opinion writer for New York Times, Molly Jang Fast and Also the editor of New Republic, Michael Tamasky. MS now contributor Elast Jordan back with us as well Thank you all for being here. Molly, let's start with you on the platiner issue. We can set aside McCarthy's absurd hypocrisy. Let's just focus here. You know, this woman obviously very brave in coming forward and telling her her story here And it's one that seems to be for many Democrats, the breaking point in their support for Platner. What do you think happens next So look, this is a mean this is a main election that takes place in Maine, that the people of Maine vote in. And so the big question, I think is we saw already from that Tes piece that the people of Maine, his numbers were going down, right? We saw the polling, that his main numbers were down. And so now the question is and the times piece didn't have necessarily it seemed as it was was sort of nipping around the edges, but it didn't have an allegation like this, which is the full substantial You know, Well I did have him putting her in a room and holding her captive, which I don't know, and grabbing her a lot. Again, ye, ye. I mean it's not to me the media debate over this over what constitutes enough. It is not up to me to constitute what is enough. I think it's up to the voters of Maine And we saw these polls after that time story came out that said they were starting to reallyis fundraising started to fade tooight And so then the question is, and again, look, would this story As someone, I mean, what she says in this story is that she is I mean, the misogyny that I found in the story was this poor woman is saying it was nonconsensual when it was obviously rape. And she couldn't say that because she was, you know, trying to protect him to some extent. So in my mind, this is a really serious, you know, as a as a woman and a mother of of a daughter you know, as serious as it gets and you see in, you know the ways in which the culture, you know, this victim is protecting this man. So in my mind, this is, you know, but it's not up to me because I don't even live in Maine. It is up to the voters of Maine So Michael Let me go to you with I am just fascinated with this horrified really in terms of Just what? constitutes a red flag in terms of coverage of a political candidate. You have the first time story being dismissed in a lot of quarters because the accuser, the victim, had a past of working for right wing causes. then Certainly, these allegations are more extreme of breaking into her home and raping her Why were the first round of accusations that were V egregious and terrible, not seen as enough of a character flaw to be disqualifying That's a really fair question. thoseose were bad and really, really disturbing allegations, but I think people at that time, a lot of people, including me, I admit felt that we needed to weigh those against what appeared to be the will of the Democratic voters of Maine who were very solidly behind Graham Platner and, you know, who who nominate him to the Democratic to nomination by a by a massive margin. Uh, so, you know, there were things like that to weigh. There's not much to weigh here This is a credible allegation of rape You know, not of not of not of physically accosting a woman and locking her in a room credible allegation of rape That's different. In a court of law He'd be entitled to the presumption of innocence, and we'd have to wait for his day in court Senate campaign isn't a court of law. It's a political campaign. And we're entitled to make judgments based on what's best for the party and what he should do that would be best for the party. He should go And yes, it's worth reiterating that his to this point had been rather resilient. He had managed to stay afloat here. This one does feel different. A lot of Democrats call him for drop out. rumors he may do just that in the days ahead. We of course will be following this story. Up next here on morning, Joe. President Trump announces yet another construction project for the White House We'll tell you what it is and we come right back Listen to your favorite MS Now shows anytim as a podcast. Enjoy new episodes of Morning Joe, Deadline White House, and the Rachel Madtow Show. Every small D Democratic muscle that we have is flexing. Plus the last word with Lawrence O'Donnell, the beat with Ari Melbour, The Weeknight, and more. on the go Whver you get your podcasts, For ad free listening to all of your favorite shows, subscribe to MS Now Premium on Apple Podcasts This just stand President Trump on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Turkey meeting with Turkish President Erdogan complaining about NATO. No surprise there, saying he didn't even want their help with the Iran warar, but he was still upset that he didn't get it. So perhaps setting a tone of more grievances with the alliance as that sum kick summit kicks off today And tomorrow, meananwhile, M at Tamasky You note in your latest piece for the New Republic that and I'll read, Donald Trump has a new favorite word He's been calling Democrats communists ever after, ever since a few Democratic socialists won some House primaries You argue. It's crystal clear in a factual sense, which party is more radical today The Democrats could elect two dozen socialists and they still wouldn't be anywhere near as far left as the GOP has gone far right Michael setting aside the difference between a communist and socialist, tellell us more about your argument here and why you feel not gonna to work. Well, okay, so first of all The Republican Party has gone a lot farther right than the Democratic Party has gone left. And I can talk about that for two hours. I don't have two hours, so I won't. But you know we have a sitting president of the United States, Jonathan invited an avowed white supremacist to dine with him at his home. That would be Nick Fuente. I could go on and on and on like that The Republican Party is much farther right than the Democratic Party is left. Now, as to this word Donald grew up in a time and place where calling somebody a copy packed a big wallet. There's no question about it And you know, he's been saying radical left lunatics and Marxists and things like that for a long time. So Now he's just gone the last logical step I think, you know, it'll resonate within the MGa world and maybe a little bit beyond the fringes of the MGa world I don't see it packing a huge punch though for a couple of reasons. I think a lot of people don't even know what that means anymore. know's the Berlin Wall fell in nineteen eighty nine, The Soviet Union collapsed in nineteen ninety one. so you'd be forty five at least, to have any memory of what communism actually was fifty seven point five percent of the country is under the age of forty five. so I don't know. I could be wrong, but I don't see it, you know generating a lot of heat for him. nor probably a line that he'll stick with. The new piece is available to read online now. and there at the Republic, Michael Tamasky. Thank you as always. Meanwhile, President Trump is breaking ground on yet another construction project at the White House. Trump announced yesterday, he's building a new granite helipad On the White House South on We're building a heliped, beautiful heliped And it's got the seal of the White House on it in granite in carved granite really A beautiful thing. and I'll tell you Skorsky is paying for it. You know why becausecause they didn't tell us how powerful these helicopters were, and they felt a little bit guilty. They sold us how I like power, by the way. I think it's great for a helicopter U They probably, I don't know, they felt a little guilty And they are paying for the cost of it. it's about five or six million dollars The hellapat, of course, not the president's only project. He's also set his sights on renovating the East Wing, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, various statues and fountains across the capital city, the golf course, and much much more It's all detailed in our next guest latest piece titled how Trump became the president of Washington, D.C It's author White House correspor for Semore,hellly Talgget, join us now. Shelb be good to see you. On one hand, there's a lot of anger as to how president is trying to remake the Capitol in his own image, but it also to me is a sort of a tell His agenda has almost been reduced to this because there's so much more he's not able to get done Yeah, I do think that you're seeing he is sort of reaching some of the limits of his power, right? The Supreme Court has checked him on a number of issues, even as they have also given him wins. he's fighting, he's dealing with this kind of intparty fighting within the Republican partarty within Congress when historically, they have really just agreed to whatever he wants. And so you're seeing as he has these difficulties He's talking more and more about the projects that he's doing here in Washington, DC. You're seeing an uptick on true social. He mentions it a lot in public conversations with lawmakers, with us here here in DC. And so he's talking about it more and he's really leaning in more and more into what can he do