Democratic strategist James Carville, Friday on his podcast, made an unorthodox pitch for Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner. Maybe the Senate needs a “f—ked up” war veteran to remind “He’s [bleep] up. He’s been shot at. He’s a veteran. All right?” “Maybe we need a combat veteran right on that Senate floor who is [bleep] up, who every time these [bleep] go to vote for another war – yeah, Susan Collins, all the wars that he got shot at in combat, Susan Collins voted for all of them,” he said. “Maybe they need to look at this guy before they start sending young people off to fight wars and see what the consequence of it is.”

JAMES CARVILLE: Susan Collins, whose spine reminds me of blueberry jelly from Maine, is – I’m concerned. You know, maybe we need a combat veteran right on that Senate floor who is [bleep] up, who every time these [bleep] go to vote for another war – yeah, Susan Collins, all the wars that he got shot at in combat, Susan Collins voted for all of them. I understand he’s flawed. I understand he’s [bleep] up. And then you got John Fetterman. What the [bleep] is this [bleep] good for? What’s he done? Charged a machine gun nest in his cargo pants and his fat-ass stomach? The [bleep] has he done? I would like to address the topic of one Graham Platner now. And understand, I was for Janet Mills. I said, You’re kind of a friend of mine. You can send out a fundraising appeal. Use her name. I’ll go to northern Maine. I’ll go and campaign with you. There are actually some kind of variation of Acadians, French. But she didn’t win, and she had to drop out. So now, Graham Platner, for all intents and purposes, looks like he’s going to be the Democratic nominee. And oh my God, the fainting in the street. Oh, what about a tattoo? or What about this? And then they go back and they interview everybody. And let me tell you what right now: Graham Platner grew up, I think, pretty privileged. I looked. He went to some kind of fancy-schmancy boarding school. He graduated. He joined the United States Marine Corps. He was in for eight years. He had three combat deployments. He gets out of the Marine Corps and he goes to GW, where I know, because we used to live in Washington, used to do Crossfire. Every student got their head so far up some congressman’s ass thinking that they’re going to go to GW and be part of the whole in crowd. You know what Graham Platner did? He joined the Maryland National Guard. Oh, you know what happened? He gets deployed a fourth time. He’s [bleep] up. He’s been shot at. He’s a veteran. All right? He’s a little bit weird. He’s an oysterman. I know – what do I live in Louisiana? I think oyster harvesting is the same the world over. It’s hard-ass work, you know. And then his opponent, I can hardly say the name without the utter contempt dripping: Susan Collins, whose spine reminds me of blueberry jelly from Maine. All right. I’m concerned. You know, maybe we need a combat veteran right on that Senate floor who is [bleep] up, who every time these [bleep] go to vote for another war – yeah, Susan Collins, all the wars that he got shot at in combat, Susan Collins voted for all of them. Maybe they need to look at this guy before they start sending young people off to fight wars and see what the consequence of it is. Maybe he ought to run and say, You know what I do? I’m going to be on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and I want to be on a mental health subcommittee because I know something about it. Yeah, I might be five degrees off dead center. So [bleep] what? They need that. You’re going to say, I’ve been in there for 24 years. That is the most pliable member in the history of the United States Senate. I looked up the big, bad, beautiful bill. Oh, she voted against it. Maybe she has courage. No. She voted for the rule. So she goes to John Thune and says, Look, I don’t want to be for this because, you know, I want to be able to say I voted against it, but I’ll vote for the rule. And then you go line up Lisa, whoever else you got, and they’ll pass it in the end. That’s duplicity. Don’t be fooled by that. Young people are not fooled by this [bleep] at all, by the way. And look, I don’t agree. Platner’s economic stuff is to the left of anything I’d say I’m for. But you know what? He recognizes horrific inequality in this country, and it actually would do some good to have somebody in there. And now you got The New York Times. They’re chasing women down for [bleep] I don’t know how long ago. Of course, this was the same New York Times that was fainting in the street about Clinton and wrote 6,000 editorials and stories. This is the same New York Times that ran the Judy Miller story about weapons of mass destruction on the front page, probably did more to cause the start of the stupid jackass Iraq War than anyone else. And I don’t think these reporters want to do this. I think they’re being told to do it. They’re going, Oh, well, yeah, but you know, he was a guy that – he’s [bleep] up. He’s having trouble adjusting. So I understand that. And all you ivory-tower [bleep] that sit there and don’t even try to do a story – why don’t you do a story on the mental effects of four combat deployments? And as opposed to shoving this guy on the side who served his country, served it with distinction, maybe the best thing to do is put him in the Senate and remind people. Now, you know, the tattoo is very troubling, you know. But [bleep], people getting drunk. I – you know, he regrets it. I’m sure he does. But that’s why I never got a tattoo. Oh, [bleep]. I wake up in the morning, I try to forget the night before. I don’t want to be tattooed. But at any rate, I understand he’s flawed. I understand he’s [bleep] up. And then you got John Fetterman. What the [bleep] is this [bleep] going to – what’s he done? Charge a machine gun nest in his cargo pants and his fat-ass stomach? The [bleep] has he done? So I’m just telling you, if I were voting in Maine, I would have voted for Janet Mills, okay? But I didn’t get the candidate. But I would easily do anything, because if you believe, as I do, that the country is in imminent peril – I mean imminent peril – who is most likely to slow this criminal in charge? Susan Blueberry Jelly Collins or five-degrees-off-dead-center Graham Platner? I think it’s Graham Platner. And, you know, if Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill could work with Joseph Stalin – who, by the way, well, I’ll tell you this: he was a bad guy. He was a really bad guy, all right? Then I can overlook a tattoo, you know? I don’t know how to tell The New York Times this, but boy puts hand on girl’s titty, girl moves hand, boy walks away rejected and despondent. It happens. I’ll break the news to you, but sometimes there’s things out there. And of course now all the people they interview come back and say, Ah, that’s not exactly – I don’t know, man. I don’t care. If he committed a crime, then charge him and throw his ass in jail. But so far, we have none of that. We got a [bleep] up guy, who could be a hundred times more [bleep] up than he is, and he’d never be as [bleep] up as what we got in Washington now anyway. And I just – and we’ve got to do this, and we’ve got to be fair. You know, James, if a Republican did what Graham Platner did, you would be outraged. Yeah, I would. But what I’m more outraged about, and what I have to consider first, is this country is about to lose it. The whole goddamn thing. Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus. Why? Because he had to win a goddamn war. Okay? We’ve got to win this. And if we got a person who’s understandably got issues, yeah, good. And maybe people ought to see it. And maybe we ought to just be reminded of what these stupid wars have brought about, and the consequence of said stupid wars that stupid Susan Collins has been for all of her political life. So I ask all of you to consider the candidacy of Graham Platner. I ask all of you to understand his flaws and understand the peril that this nation is in, and maybe he might be the right guy at the right time, for all I know.

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