Dems Sexting Scandal!

Today in the group chat the sexing scandal that could threaten Democrats' chances of winning back the Senate. Graham and I have a great marriage. Being married is hard. President Trump demands more from the peace deal. His own negotiators reached. How long can he afford to let talks with Iran drag out? Slowly but surely we're getting, I think, what we want, and if we don't get what we want, we're going to end it a different way.

A new hope for two people still missing in a flooded cave. Could a knocking noise be a sign that someone is still alive? Thank you. Fast individuals attack the barrier, taking aggressive, dangerous actions The New Jersey governor imposes a curfew after clashes continue outside an ICE detention facility. And two YouTubers having a big weekend at the box office as Hollywood losing its grip on the industry. Creators are the new stars and studios, and I hate to say it, but he's absolutely correct.

I find it really Um Media outlets. And people who are willing to spread Gossip.

The wife of Maine's presumptive Democratic Senate candidate, Graham Platner, speaking out as another controversy hits the campaign. Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish, and here's where we start. Sexting, a sexting scandal from a key candidate just ahead of the midterms. Now, over the weekend, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal were the first to report on

Sexually explicit messages a newly married Plattner sent to several women a few years ago. And the messages were disclosed by Plattner's wife, Amy Gertner, to a former campaign staffer as a potential liability last year. Now in a statement to CNN, Gertner said, I trusted this person with the most private chapter of our lives. I'm deeply hurt by her betrayal and the invasion of our privacy.

Now Senate Democrats are on damage control as the party counts on flipping Maine as a key towards taking control of the Senate in November. He certainly admitted that he has made mistakes, but I think this is gonna be a pretty clear contrast in Maine between somebody who has spent his life protecting us versus somebody who seems to be protecting Donald Trump's corruption.

Yeah, I have concerns. That guy has questions to answer, and that's what campaigns are for. If we do not get the votes necessary to take care of the House and the Senate, we will continue to have an out-of-control president. Joining me now in the group chat, Sarah Fisher, CNN senior media analyst and senior media reporter at Axios, Francesca Chambers, White House correspondent for USA Today, and Vee Spear, digital journalist and creator of Under the Desk News.

All right, so two things were interesting about this, uh beyond the obvious. Um one is that the she said, and I want to read this, that they disclosed it to somebody who was in the campaign. Mm-hmm. Right? Because usually you get asked, is anything else gonna come out? In fact, Manu Raju once asked Flatner this question directly. Are there other skeletons from your past that still may emerge in this race?

Uh no. My life is not very complicated, and uh there no, there is not anything else coming. It's why they led with what they had. Um V, I want to start with you. Is this the naivete of a newish candidate to the political scene? Is this someone being betrayed? Um how do you see it?

Well I think the wife described it well when she called it gossip. It's gossip not a scandal, right? It came from her telling one of the campaign staffers, hey, Graham sent these messages, we dealt with it as a couple. It didn't come from a woman saying that she felt attacked by him. We're not in a swallow situation. So I think while it's distasteful and of course not something that I would hope for in my Senate candidate, I don't think it is going to take him out.

But I hear a distinction you're making there about swalwell versus this. And I think that's important because Democrats staked out some ground saying, yes, Trump may be bad in a variety of ways, and the way we're gonna sort of um improve upon that is by having candidates who are sort of Morally infallible, which has proved to be very difficult. A standard, frankly, based on what we're

Yeah, everybody in power, I think, is falling to this problem. I think in the Grim Platner situation, one of the challenges that he faces is that Susan Collins. For the con her controversy has always just been to what extent she's willing to side with Trump. She's not a person that has a lot of personal controversies. So he's up against an incumbent who's ran relatively clean races for many, many years, which By comparison makes him look

juvenile, it makes him look like more of a rookie, it makes him look less postured and professional. And even when you see him, you know, this is a guy an oyster farmer. Yeah. He tries to bring that to the light, but the problem is What point is it too far? At what point do people look at you and say, there's too many scandals, you don't look the part, are you really fit to govern?

Let me show you the um most recent polling that we have. Um Actually I'm not gonna show this poll because I I think we've got something wrong here, but it it had Platiner up fifty-one percent, um Susan Collins at forty-two percent, um And this is from the University of New Hampshire poll. This is for Maine, of course. I want to ask you again the same question, which is.

Trump has bad things in his past, right? There's lots of marriages and ladies and affairs and things like that. Um at the same time, it feels like Plattner's whole cell is I'm a flawed guy. So why wouldn't that work for Democrats? So I think there's two things at play here. Number one, I think voters have shown that there are

more concerned I think is some of the Democrats are are arguing right now about what's going on in your everyday life. How does what you're doing affect me directly? Does this affect me directly? It doesn't, okay. Perhaps I'm more willing to give a pass for that because we're seeing the same thing play out.

potentially in the Texas Senus Senate race here where you've seen James Tallerico has been, you know, hitting back at Ken Paxton and saying he's, you know, had all these scandals, he's had these allegations. Um It's not apples to apples, but you had Paxton's wife coming out and saying that she was divorcing him on biblical grounds. Not apples to apples, but in the larger political argument right now, both Republicans and Democrats.

have these candidates right now that they're having to defend uh in races where it would have otherwise been one that they might have been able to, you know, get closer or pick up. These uh in in both Texas and in Maine. And I think to Sarah, to your point that you're raising here, uh about Susan Collins, she has been someone who has been willing to go against

Donald Trump. I mean, she has not voted with him one hundred percent of the time. And when J D Vance came to be, she didn't even go to the rally because she was trying to put some distance between herself and the Yeah, I think what I'm wrestling with is the idea that around the sort of post me too movement and the idea of treatment of women, there are things that Democrats chucked candidates for for less. You know what I mean? Like

And there was a real reckoning about that and frustration with that and backlash to that. I don't do have they arrived at the answer. I mean I think we know a swalwell level situation where people come out and say they felt abused or harmed. is a red line. But there's a whole other wor gray area that the Me Too movement introduced that Democrats haven't reckoned with.

I don't think Platinair is in a Me Too situation that with the information that we have so far. He texted some women. It seems like it was consensual. The wife knows about it. She's fine with it or they've dealt with it in their marriage. Do you remember what I'm saying? Like for a while sex could be disqualified. Like there was a window there where

Anthony Wiener times and all that. There's always been these things. But I think at the point we're in America right now where gas in Rochester is$5.19 a gallon, people are like, so we texted some women and his wife and him are dealing with So that listness test is not what it was. During the Me Too movement it also came the Mean To movement, where we Right. Really judge people on their moral character. Right. And I think He's it.

Actions don't yes, but it really was a bigger picture thing. It's the their actions don't match their words. And that became a big thing during the Me Too era. I think that's where Democrats have pulled back because there's a sense of desperation in order to just win races to push back on. Donald Trump. And I wanna and I wanna add on that really quickly because I was just looking at the the polling from the twenty twenty four election'cause you're talking about the Donald Trump standard.

Voters rated Kamala Harris as someone that they saw as more trustworthy, as having a better moral character than Donald Trump. But when you got to things about better and decisive leader. That was where he consistently was beating her and then he won the presidential election. And I think Democrats are are reading the room to a certain extent. Again looking at this Texas race too. And that's what they're right.

All right, you guys stay with me. We've got more to talk about. And one of the things is California, because that's the state to watch this week. Is their primary a test of progressive power? Plus, Iran and the US are trading fire. Even as negotiations continue. President push for tougher terms. And then in New Jersey, police and protesters are clashing again outside of that immigration facility. We're better. Then take ripping apart from the five. Families.

Craig Ferguson is going coast to coast to unpack what it really means to be an American today. What could possibly go wrong? Craig Ferguson, American on Purpose. New episodes now streaming on the CNN app. Go to CNN.com slash watch to subscribe or log in with your TV provider. Okay, it's now 15 minutes past the hour. This is your morning roundup.

Overnight, more clashes between police and protesters in Newark, New Jersey. Despite a newly imposed nightly curfew, you've got demonstrators still outside the immigration detention center Delaney Hall. And the protest began after reports surfaced of inhumane conditions inside that detention center, including a hunger strike by detainees. The Department of Homeland Security still denying those allegations.

And I'm gonna warn you ahead of this next video. Some viewers are going to find it disturbing. It's unclear what happened in the moments before the start of the video started. But the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations is now reviewing the incident. And rescuers in Lao investigating a possible knocking sound deep inside the flooded cave where two men are believed to still be trapped.

Rescuers stressed that they need to investigate further before saying for sure that those knocks are from the stranded men. And the sounds came as rescuers repelled down this newly discovered vertical shaft. that may lead to a chamber where the men could be. Now five men have already been rescued from that cave.

Coming up on CNN this morning, after artists drop out of America's 250th celebration, President Trump says he might just have to take the stage himself. But first, YouTubers are no longer just competing with Hollywood. They're starting to beat it at its own game. And speaking of Hollywood, Good morning to one of the tinsel towns of the South, Miami, Florida. Shout out to Miami, because earlier I showed St. Louis and this beach deserves to be seen. Happy sunrise to you.

Um, I wanna turn to something else, which is this kind of quiet revolution at the box office driven by the generation that supposedly only watches the screen in the palm of their hands. Now the two biggest movies in the country right now are Obsession and Back Rooms. Both were made by 20-something directors who learned their craft on YouTube. These low-budget horror films managed to push franchise movies like Star Wars out of the top spots in the box office.

They're drawing Gen Z audiences into theaters in numbers and Holly that Hollywood hasn't seen in years. Experienced filmmaker and actor Mark Duplas, who stars in Backroom, says the YouTube to Hollywood pipeline is growing.

But we've got an example of creators woodshedding things, putting them online, building an audience, and now the people with the purse strings are gonna notice probably a little bit sooner because they see what they can do at the box office, you know, in the form of uh these two films. that are overperforming.

Group chat is back. We've got the right folks to talk about this. Let me show you this box office from over the weekend. As we mentioned, Backrooms and Obsession, two horror films that started out uh as YouTube phenomenon. But I want to show you the number third film. the Mandalorian and Grogu, which I think, by definition, Helps us understand, meaning IP fatigue. A lot of IP fatigue. You've seen in the past five years, audio.

Action and adventure films have skyrocketed at the box office because Hollywood studios know that there's a known return, even if the margin isn't huge, because remember these movies cost a ton to produce. There's a good understanding of what the return on investment is going to be. It also helps to fuel their entire higher. Sort of Right? Because yeah, you gotta have people showing up in theme parks. You're gonna sell goods. Those baby Yodas don't sell themselves audio. I thought they did.

The other thing I was thinking about though is studio consolidation. At this point it might actually be easier to make your film on YouTube first and get some interest for distribution. Um looking just ten years ago, you know, twentieth century g going under Disney, DreamWorks go under Universal.

MGM to Amazon, of course, pending WB to Paramount and I didn't even have room to fit all the boutique studios that used to exist, whether um it was your Merchant Ivories or your Miramax's or all these things that There were just more places to bring your stuff. I can see why any filmmaker would just make it on their own.

I mean, I think we're seeing the rise of DIY and do it at home and do it yourself across the board. And it's because the cost of things is so incredibly expensive to attend any kind of live event or any kind of entertainment. So if you're gonna go and spend those dollars, you wanna support somebody that maybe you can follow and see extra content from them online. Yeah, but also you're my insurgent. Yeah, I know. You're you're in my back room, right? Like you're doing under the Very true.

I I think you said there's like a YouTube conference going on right now.

So this is this is really cool. This is our White House correspondence week. It's trending up here. Yeah. Shout out Trending Up. So you've got all of your favorite news and political content creators here in DC doing what you guys usually do. And panicked boxes. I assure you. Yes. That's the fun part about being in person. But the thing that I think po folks are looking for and with these movies like Obsession and Backroom is this return to genuine creativity and fun and risk taking.

And also horror does very well when we feel bad about ourselves. This the super Which even Hollywood is doing well with, right? Cinners being the big thing at the box. And horror do really well because they give you the release that you don't feel like you're getting in real life. Things are really hard right now for Americans. So they go to the horror movie, they have an experience, it closes the

They see a little bit already, they get interested. Iron Lung uh from YouTube creator uh uh Mark Pleer. Um grows fifty million worldwide and then there's some one upcoming, the Amazing Digital Circus, which has pre-sale of nine million. There are some indie films I would kill to have pre-sale. Yeah, so the fan bases for these types of YouTube driven uh films are massive online and I think they've been underestimated for a long time by traditional Hollywood.

Well they didn't know how to reach them. They didn't know how to reach them and they also overestimated the fan bases of established stars. Those established stars oftentimes might have these huge, huge, huge followings on Instagram, but that does not translate into loyal followings on platforms especially like YouTube where people are spending hours trying to watch everyone I'm gonna show the n eighty-six percent of the tickets sold for backrooms people under the age of thirty five.

Huge. This is the highest spending demographic for media and entertainment right now and Hollywood needs to tap into that. Another um thing that we've noticed is along with the boom of action and adventures. We've done an analysis before at Axios. Massive boom in the rise of re uh rated G and PG. And so I think a lot of people feel as though. We need it. Yeah, we're trying.

I think people think the box office has become this like family friendly kind of Disney World type of experience. And I think this this is a pushback from younger people. A lot of times they don't have kids. They want entertainment experiences that actually feel fun and engaging for them, for young adults, not just sort of like cartoons.

You have to see the YouTube made movie to make more YouTube content about the YouTube made movie. You've got to be included because there's a whole other industry that goes and sees obsession and then makes

Sarah I have a question for you. So you had said there's been like this rise in G and P G type movies. Is it because Hollywood thinks that the only way or one of the best ways to make money is to get families in there who who are bringing in their children and you're saying this is showing that there's another way?

Yeah, a lot of the franchises just so happen to be catered to kids. That's a huge part of that. Especially animated stuff is so big. You saw Lilo and Stitch go really big recently. And so that's part of it. I wanna just do one big picture of thought here though. Even though this past weekend Star Wars did come in third. When you look at the numbers on the margins, uh you can't say that Star Wars totally, totally tanked. I mean We're not saying it failed. We're just yeah.

These do very well. Um and so it it would be a mistake to say that these types of films are going to completely outpace. all of the big Hollywood blockbusters that we've seen. Actually we don't think that's going to be the case. And we still have a bunch of these big action and adventure films coming out later this summer. These are Exceptions to the rule, but they're notable excep exceptions because they force Hollywood to pay attention to a trend that they've long sort of been trying to

We're gonna leave it there'cause there's a lot more questions, including when you look at these streaming distribution models, uh how long they're in it for the long haul in terms of this kind of creation. So

Anyway, straight ahead on CNN this morning. We're gonna talk about the Supreme Court because it is back on the bench and we're waiting decisions on some of the biggest cases of the term. Plus, there's new strikes, there's also new demands. You've got the president toughening his terms for a peace. Deal with Iran.

I'm CNN Tech Reporter Claire Duffy. This week on the podcast Terms of Service. With me is Nathan Proctor. He's the senior director of the Right to Repair campaign. He'll share some tips for extending the life of your tech. When did you realize that this wasn't just an annoying thing that happens, but actually a systemic problem? Frankly, nothing lasts like it used to, like our clothes and furniture don't last as long as they did.

Yeah. There's a really clear incentive for manufacturers of all kinds to create short lifespan products so that we have to buy more stuff, and that's exactly what's happening. Listen to CNN's Terms of Service wherever you get your podcast. Hi. Oh, mean the house. Welcome to the high Competition of the semer. Two Three amateur renovation teams paired with a top HGTV mentor will transform three beach houses into a Like changing. opportunity. To win. $50,000 cash. Did you say$50,000? Can we join?

Season Premier Battle on the Beach. June 1st at 9 on HGTV. Good morning everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It is half past the hour, and here's what's happening right now. So this week the Supreme Court starts a busy final month of their current term. We're still waiting on 26 pending decisions, including the ruling on the Trump administration's efforts to end birthright citizenship.

With Republicans still trying to advance a massive immigration enforcement package, including tens of billions of dollars for ICE, border patrol, detention centers, and deportation operations. Left last week without a deal. And over the weekend, renewed strikes between the U.S. and Iran. U.S. Central Command is saying the U.S. carried out, quote, self-defense strikes against Iran after it downed a U.S. drone that was operating over

International waters. Now, this comes after President Trump sent back the Memorandum of Understanding text with changes to Iran. Officials say Trump insisted on tougher language surrounding Iran's nuclear commitments and its pledge to open the streets. Strait of Hormuz. Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson issued a response to the changes saying messages are being exchanged between the two parties with quote, deep suspicion and skepticism.

So here in the group chat, Becca Wasser, she's the defense lead for Bloomberg Economics. Welcome back. I want you and Francesca to compare notes. What do you know about what Trump wants changed? from the proposed language of the Iran deal. So there's a few things. This first starts with the enriched uranium, right? Which has been the debate the entire time is Does the US go in and get it? Does Iran

Turn it over is around ever allowed to have a nuclear weapon. And oh by the way, the president threw in this weekend, they can't buy one either because purchasing one is something that would also be ruled out as part of If it had come up for for a time, people would say, Okay, Iran, you can't enrich, but you'd be allowed to to buy what you need should you need it, as long as you don't have this capability. Am I getting that right?

Yeah, it's quite complicated, but I think it just really boils down to even though there has been some missed messaging from President Trump about, you know, what his goals were with this war, what is allowed, what is not allowed, he has been very firm as of late. on this issue of Iran's highly enriched uranium that that cannot remain in Iran because he believes that that is the quickest pathway to an Iranian weapon.

a nuclear weapon. So that essentially means that he is almost not allowing Iran to have a nuclear program, even a civil nuclear program. But you know, to your smart point, it is the open question of How does that happen? Because Iran is not willing to negotiate on that. And Iran has always said that they should at the very least have a civil nuclear program so that they can generate power, et cetera. I I wanna play for you something. This is Senator Chris.

uh Kuhnz because he is skeptical about whether this deal will be enough to stop Iran in the future. While we can use our technological superiority to bomb big factories in Iran, we're not going to be able to stop them from having the power to use their mines to close the Strait of Hormuz and their drones to attract us and our allies. We're gonna need a tough deal to actually address this new capability that Iran has demonstrated in this war.

There's sort of two goals here now because these strikes have effectively created a scenario where the Strait of Hormuz is closed, right, under double blockades. And finding the balance of which one would make it a win out of the deal. How are people seeing this who are watching it?

Listen, I think President Trump can try and spin a wheel uh like a win if he wants out of anything, but I think what we are seeing is the new normal. Iran has enormous leverage over the Strait of Hormuz that is not going away. The types of exchanges that we saw with the you know, the MQ nine predator uh the sorry, the MQ one predator getting shot down over the weekend, Iran responding with fire and missiles On Kuwait, that's the kind of skirmishing that we're going to see even if

there happens to be a deal because the ceasefire deal is just kicking the can down the road. It is not solving any of these longstanding issues. And to me, that new normal looks a lot like a protracted conflict. where we're going to see continued fighting for years to come. Enter Europe, I was going to say, because then we saw over the weekend that Emmanuel Macron is now saying this is why Europe needs a seat at the table, because if we're going to help.

uh police the Strait of Hormuz afterwards or at least, you know, make sure ships can get through, then we need to be part of whatever negotiation or deal is taking place. This is really important because we expect the president to head to the G7 here in just two weeks. And this will be the number one issue, assuming that we still don't have a deal. He's gonna get a lot of pressure from European leaders.

who he is accused of not having done enough in the first place to help the US out with this program. No, and I mean they have felt coerced into that and all of a sudden almost blindsided that there was a quid pro quo. For the security within the broader Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. That was not necessarily something they were expecting. But I think what we are really finding right now and what President Trump is finding right now.

Wars are incredibly easy to start, but they are incredibly difficult to s to just change and end, especially when the goalposts. keep on shifting and we see those goalposts shifting all the time, even just as much as yesterday when he sent back, you know, harder, you know, terms for what the negotiated MOU might be.

Okay, I want to turn to a war we did win because it is America's 250th birthday and the president has this concert and several artists have dropped out of do it. So of course he said I'll do it. Trump says we should hold a Make America Great Again rally headlined by him, and he's calling the artist who dropped out overpriced and boring.

The group chat is back. So I had to dig into this because I was like, how did these artists not know that this was sort of, you know what I mean? Well, it turns out there's dueling organizers of events. There's the America's 250 group.

Which is they was sort of a bipartisan group that got put together over many years and they've been waiting for their moment. This was their time. And then not so fast, Freedom 250 established by Trump by executive order, and they are the ones putting on this event. Um I like that even our unifying events are divided. Like we can't Am I the only person who's like this is ridiculous?

Completely ridiculous. But also there's you're sitting in bifurcation in terms of what Freedom two fifty is going to put their stake in the ground versus the other group. Notably this UFC match seems to be very much sort of like a Trumpian Freedom two fifty thing versus something that's a little bit broader. And I think that that UFC matches t uh was a turning point. As soon as people saw those big um this big stadium, you could see it right here being built.

It suddenly sent a big signal, A, that this is coming up really soon, B that this is very Trump uh coded because it's happening on his birthday. That's the thing, all this time we're being told that look, to say you don't want to participate in these things is to kind of reject a patriotic moment. And uh Beck I can turn to you about this too,'cause this happens with the military.

And then when you get there, it actually feels very much like a political rally. Like when Hegset speaks, I don't necessarily hear him as head of the defense, I hear him as like Trump's Cheerleader? No. It sounds like campaigning and it doesn't necessarily sound like a politically neutral thing that's celebrating America, but is that some sort of distinction without a difference? I mean we saw this last year with the Army birthday parade that felt a lot like a Trump birthday parade.

And in fact, really only went forward on the national mall in the way that it did because President Trump wanted it to. And so there is this politicization of essentially American history, but also a continued political politicization of, you know, US forces um with a lot of these events and we might see that with the UFC event where President Trump is reportedly allowing troops to come in and get tickets for free. and trying to also use this as a military recruit.

Right. Yes. If they fit the physical standard that he has set forth to qualify for these tickets. So you have to be hot and buff just to watch it? Yes, and in your short sleeve uniform and have the proper waist height ratio. This is all public. Okay, artists who are gonna be at America's 250, currently performing, Vanilla Ice, currently dropped out, everyone else. Um and over the weekend I saw some great memes of Marco Rubio, uh, you know, with a Millie Vanilli wig. Yeah, it's a pop star.

Like maybe this will be yet another job. Продолжение следует... Yeah, exactly. Honestly, I'd watch that since he could DJ. Why not? Uh but now it might be a Trump rally, an actual Trump rally. Um because I didn't the internet's undefeated, okay? There's only so much I could do folks. Uh but it might actually be a Trump rally because to your point, the president's now saying, Oh, okay, it's okay, I'll do it myself. And so if he gets up there and speaks

Okay, I'm the president celebrating the two hundred and fifty anniversary. This is somehow not political. But I'm saying that at that point, when it becomes the president speaking, then you are more likely, I think, to get people who are gonna show up who are going to be Trump supportive. Mega supportive audience when it's the president who's out there speaking on the lawn.

He doesn't speak in a bipartisan way, so of course if you're gonna come and watch President Trump speak, he's gonna talk only to his MAGA bases if he's on the campaign trail. He never made that flip that presidents often make to.

Okay, campaigning is over. I'm now the president for everyone. The thing I am missing right now, because I would love to go to an America 250 event, like I love all of that pomp and circumstance, is when we did the 200th in the 70s, man did they have cool stuff going on. They recreated. Queen Elizabeth came, New Jersey didn't.

Put something out there though. We're talking also a period of time when the political divisions forward etcetera, there was a real sense of like we gotta sew this thing back together. And that was lead from the White House. And so there was much more I we I was talked about this last week. If you go to the National Archives, you look at the material from the seventies, it doesn't have anyone's face on it. Right. It's very different approach than what's being taken now.

Yes, and there's a huge difference too in the role that corporate America is playing this time around versus last time around. Last time around corporate America didn't feel the same kind of political pressure to speak up around not just politics but things like American history. Now that is table stakes if you are a corporation. They've had to donate to both organizations. They've been hit up twice.

What's been fascinating to me though are the ones that are unabashed about supporting Freedom two fifty. I think about Meta, which has Dana White, the CEO of the UFC, on its board. Is Mark on the bill?'Cause I know he's a fighter. I don't think he's I don't know, but I know that they're hosting events with UFC leading.

this and I think that that just is a perfect example that shows corporations are going to play a much different role in supporting some of the president's agenda this time around, which is partisan coded, versus the 70s that you reflect on.

Okay. Well Becca, thanks for playing on this one. I really appreciate it. on CNN this morning we're gonna talk term limits. People are asking whether or not the Supreme Court justices should have them. Congressman Johnny Oliszewski says yes and he's gonna join us live. Plus Pete Buttigudge is showing up in races across the country. Is he helping Democrats? Is he Is he helping himself? Is he running? All the things we'll ask in a moment.

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So in just a few hours, the Supreme Court kicks off what should be a busy final month of its current term. They're expected to issue decisions on twenty sixth. That's right, twenty-six pending cases by the end of the month, including key decisions on voting rights, birthright citizenship. and the president's effort to fire federal officials. The final month comes as some in Congress are now pushing for term limits on the justices who serve lifetime appointments.

One of the lawmakers pushing for the change, Congressman, Johnny Olishewski, Democrat of Maryland. Uh Congressman, thank you so much for being here. Good morning. So I have been hearing this conversation on the left for a very long time, either expanding the court or as we talked about here, uh adding some sort of term limits. Um can you talk about why you have an actual proposal for this, which seems you know, pretty far away since we're not even at midterm.

Yeah, it's the Roback, the reform of bench eligibility. It's a constitutional amendment that would institute eighteen year term limits supported overwhelmingly by Americans of all stripes, Republicans, Democrats, independence and I'm putting it forward because the court is really facing a confidence of crisis and a confidence of credibility. Uh, because you see both justices who are aligning on ideological lines overturning decades.

of legal precedents and then doing so at a time where there are also incredibly large ethical questions about how they're operating. And so I think this is a good way to address that. But can I ask is there? Is there a way to deal with those ethical questions? I mean it's a lifetime gig for a reason, and there's gonna be people who say, certainly Republicans who say, look, Democrats don't like it now because it's not going their way.

Well yeah, we should also be acting on ethics reforms and the fact that we have justices that can take lavish trips and then rule on cases before those individuals who gave them uh justices who don't disclose uh other gifts that are given to them who are writing books and making a lot of money, who are hobnobbing with the president at state dinners, I think that ethics reform is also really important.

But what we also see are um extremely partisan battles around these appointments. Justices are timing when they retire. uh Mitch McConnell held for months Merrick Garland's appointment and then uh because of an election that was pending and then during early voting uh put in Amy Comey Barrett. So

I I think if we have regular clear um timelines for these appointments and eighteen years seems like a still a long time where justices can and should be above the law. But what we're seeing is this is a court that's happy to overturn law that they've established. Now, to do a constitutional amendment, of course, you're gonna need a lot more Democratic members of Congress, certainly in the Senate, and so I want to ask you about that main Senate race.

Um you had Platinor really um uh being quite ahead, obviously, um kind of an insurgent campaign that Democrats hadn't really planned for. Now that another scandal has hit him, do you think he should drop out? What do you think the response should be? I mean look, as a voter, the totality of some of the reports we've heard would give me pause.

But what also gives me great pause is the fact that the incumbent Senator is not doing enough to stand up to Donald Trump and his corruption, who broke her own pledge to serve uh self-imposed term limits. Speaking of speaking of term limits. Uh and the fact that we have a president who was convicted of sexual uh uh assault, who was mentioned and accused by a thirteen year old girl in the Epstein files. Of rate.

that no one's talking about that and we're focused here. So uh yes, as a voter it would give me serious calls. This is gonna be a question for Mainers to weigh, but I'm looking for candidates who address cost. trust and corruption, and that's something Mr. Plattner is doing notwithstanding the issues and the concerns. But over and over again we do see candidates, whether they're backed by Schumer or the D C C who are not the candidates, their primary voters.

really are supporting. There seems to be a disconnect between what establishment Democrats think is the the right path forward and who should be running and what their primary voters think. And this is just the latest of them. Yeah, I I'm I'm an individual and I'm a Democrat that don't like Democrats meddling in primaries. That's the whole point of a primary. I think we should let the process play out, let voters have their voices heard and registered.

And then we should rally around whomever those nominees are in a general election. Uh I think the stakes are far too har high for us to be divided and for uh the party and for our voters not to feel like. uh we're allowing them to weigh in and register their preferences in primaries. And so I I actually think that we should be allowing voters to decide and not weighing in as heavily in a lot All right, that's Congressman Johnny O of Maryland. Thank you so much for your time.

Thanks, Holly. V I saw you nodding there. There have been so many progressive voices who are like, I'm gonna put my own money into this primary. There's a lot of meddling going on in general. There is and uh we all can't wait for tomorrow to come soon enough. Especially in Creator Land. It's it's not we're not saved by that.

Um the thing that I think I was nodding with the Congressman about is is when he said we need to be talking about what we're gonna do for people, not what any kind of scandal coming up is. Because there's so much getting lost in the conversations that are happening if we're trying to police and do purity culture on every single candidate. And that's kind of an issue.

like this next one talking about policing and purity culture. Yeah. We're gonna talk about Pete Buttigieg. Oh, because he's always out there talking. He doesn't hold a government position. It's not stopped him from being one of the most prolific midterm campaigners.

On top of that, some reports see him as leading the pack right now for a 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. And Booty Judge is, of course, not officially declared. He is running for president in 2028. So we are left looking for Easter eggs. When you ran for president, you met me and we went up well publicized. Uh Lunch at Sylvia's restaurant in Harlem. Just so my calendar's clear, should I be reserving s a table at Sylvia's Are you are you gonna run again? You save me a seat, I'll be back.

I mean we all gotta find a way to ask. We gotta find a way to ask. She's going to Sylvia's Melbourne. You gotta get the banana pudding. I joke that booty judge is at the opening of an envelope. Like he goes where Every yeah. are to talk. He's highly visible online. Um and this uh this follows what you were talking about because the uh what did you call them? Purity culture saying Yeah, yeah, the purity culture of

What does that mean? Because I hear that is the most vicious fight online is who should we appeal to and is appealing to certain affinity groups or having these conversations and not trying to talk to people on the right a mistake?

I think the thing is negative ads and negative conversation just reduces turnout. So I think that that's the the issue I have with purity culture testing and this like is this person a good enough moral character to run for office? Are they perfect? Are they squeaky clean?

Because when we get into negative campaigning, it just reduces voter turnout. It negs people out and they don't show up. And I think more and more we just need to be encouraging people to show up for something and making our campaigns Tell us what they're gonna do for real, not just big huge promises that they know can't actually happen. Like be realistic with me.

Another person on the road, um AOC, big fundraiser for people in general. This is her at a Montana Montana rally for Sam Forstag um on Thursday. And I know understandably that there's a lot of suspicion around a city girl. But I also think it's important for us to note that a lot of that is intended to divide us. Because what the folks and the big money do don't want us to realise is that we're actually and our struggles are far more common than our landscapes are different

Yeah, help me discern here. You're smiling. It's primary day tomorrow. So primary day is all about separating the most progressive side of the wing from the more mainstream side of the Democratic. And underscore. So why you hear AOC coming out and highlighting that is because she wants to make sure that the more progressive side of Democratic Party is winning races tomorrow. Those are the people that are gonna be on the ballot in

I think I'm just surprised there's not a longer list of moneymakers, right? There's supposed to be a couple marquee names who you send out who are able to do to kind of pull that thing and it's It's a little bit like Bernie Sanders, her I mean does Gavin Newsom uh these big draws, like that to me is indicative of what's going on.

Well so part of this too though is that some of the marquee Democrats you're talking about are in reelection races in their own states right now, some of our expected twenty twenty eight candidates. So Pete Butge can be out there more frequently because Wes Moore is running for re election. Josh Shapiro is running for re election right now. No, three.

granted Gavin Newsom is is not running for for reelection so he can afford to be out there more. But the central question that you're raising about who should Democrats appeal to and what does the coalition look like is one that they are wrestling with Very hardcore right now. I wrote about this last week. One of the ways that it's playing out right now is they're trying to figure out which states should vote first in the twenty twenty eight presidential. This is my most hated discussion.

Quick, quick, right. But it it matters from the perspective of the discussion that's taking place in the Democratic Party because it's reflective for them of the demographics of the coalition as they try to win back on a swing state. That they lost to Trump twice in the last

Okay, I can't talk about twenty twenty eight anymore. I'm just gonna like pass out. So be Let us in your group chat and don't say 2020. Delaney Hall. So not anything better than that. I mean my whole chat, I just pulled it up right before this. Everybody has eyes on Delaney Hall in particular. I think it's really amazing. Adrenalin.

The cool thing to me is the way that creator-led media and legacy media are both in there showing different sides of this story and letting the public sort it out for themselves. So some creators to shout out are here's why Kevin and Penny Does News. If you want to follow them, obviously CNN is down there. And I think this is where we are showing people versus power, unity, accountability before reconciliation, and I love it. I'm happy with it.

I just moderated my hometown's congressional debate last week. And Delani call came up multiple times because it puts pressure on Democrats to figure out how they're going to address this. All right. Guys, this is great. Thanks so much for sharing your reporting. Thanks for being with us to start the week. Amadi Cornish, the headlines are next.

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