It’s Monday, June 1. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Peter Savodnik meets the man behind “Latinos por Pratt.” Coleman Hughes and Aman Verjee on whether AI is the next great bubble. A former Scripps finalist on why the spelling bee may be America’s purest meritocracy. And much more.
But first: Graham Platner’s latest scandal(s).
How many scandals can one Senate campaign handle? Graham Platner, the progressive Democratic Senate candidate in Maine, may soon find out.
Platner had already faced his fair share of controversy. This is the candidate with the Nazi tattoo on his chest (now covered), who may not be quite as blue-collar as he makes out, who used assorted slurs and masturbation jokes in trollish posts on Reddit, who smeared cops as “trash,” who. . . you get the picture.
This weekend that list got a little longer. The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that last year Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, found sexually explicit texts between Platner and several other women. The Journal also found that Platner has an active account on Kik, a private messaging app. In his profile picture he is shirtless with a towel around his waist.
“No marriage is perfect, and I don’t want a perfect marriage. I want my marriage,” said Gertner in a selfie-style video Sunday.
Today, we’re publishing two perspectives on Platner and his candidacy.
The first is about another Platner controversy that got a bit less attention than the salacious sexting story. In comments made on a 2024 podcast that resurfaced recently, Graham Platner suggested that Chris Kyle, the legendary “American Sniper” made famous by the 2014 movie of that name, targeted innocent Iraqi civilians to boost his kill numbers.
Kyle died in 2013 so cannot defend himself from these claims. But his friend and former platoon commander, Leif Babin, can—and does in The Free Press today.
“Those accusations are absolutely false,” writes Leif. Read his full response to the “slanderous accusations” of an “aspiring politician” and the toll they have taken on Kyle’s wife and children.
Our second Platner story comes from River Page, and it is an answer to a simple but central question: Why does none of this seem to be hurting Platner? River’s theory gets to the heart not just of this crucial Senate race, but the dynamics driving so much of our politics.
—Oliver Wiseman
Last week, a California eighth-grader won the Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling 32 words in 90 seconds—including such words as chikungunya and bromocriptine. Mitchell Robson, a finalist in the 2016 Bee, makes the case for why the spelling bee is one of the few true meritocracies left. Unlike so much else in American life, he writes, the bee can’t be gamed: “There are no points for almost getting a word right. There is only the contestant, the word, and his knowledge of the dictionary.”
In 2020, Adrian Alvarez was so panicked Trump would win he wound up in the hospital. Now he is the leader of “Latinos por Pratt” and makes AI videos boosting Spencer Pratt’s mayoral bid. On the eve of the election, Peter Savodnik talks to Alvarez about the race, and whether Latino Angelenos will break for the reality TV star bidding to topple Karen Bass.
What if financial bubbles aren’t the catastrophes everyone seems to think they are? In the latest Conversations with Coleman, venture capitalist Aman Verjee—who joined PayPal in its earliest days alongside Peter Thiel and Elon Musk—sits down with Coleman to discuss five centuries of financial manias—and why financial crashes, painful though they may be, often give rise to transformative technologies—like AI.
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THE NEWS
A D.C. district judge ordered Trump’s name removed from the Kennedy Center on Friday, ruling that only Congress—not the center’s board—has the authority to rename the venue. The decision also blocked the planned two-year closure for renovations. Trump responded Saturday by calling the judge “an anti Trump Hater” and warning the center will “soon be closed, probably never to open again.”
After several musicians dropped out of “The Great American State Fair”—a celebration of America’s 250th anniversary on the National Mall—over the event’s ties to Trump, the president announced Saturday he would headline it himself. Trump dismissed the departing acts as “Third Rate ‘Artists.’ ” Event organizers confirmed Trump will kick off the festivities on June 24.
Federal ICE agents agreed to withdraw from the parking lot outside a Newark immigration detention center Friday, ceding control to state troopers after days of clashes with protesters. The ACLU says hundreds of detainees inside had been staging a hunger strike over spoiled food and poor medical care—a claim that the Department of Homeland Security denies.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered troops deeper into Lebanon on Sunday, expanding the ground offensive against Hezbollah despite a ceasefire that has been in place since mid-April. Israeli forces seized Beaufort Castle, a 12th-century fortress in the deepest incursion into the country in 26 years, just days before Lebanon and Israel are set to hold direct talks in Washington.
A potential U.S.-Iran peace deal remained unsigned Sunday after Trump asked for significant edits to a draft agreement, sources with knowledge of the matter told Axios. The president wants stronger language around Iran’s nuclear stockpile and the Strait of Hormuz, but a response from Tehran could take days—“They’re literally in caves and they’re not using email,” a senior administration official said.
Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League victory over Arsenal on Saturday sparked widespread rioting across France, with 780 people arrested as fans set off fireworks, torched bikes, and clashed with police. Authorities had deployed thousands of officers after similar celebrations turned deadly when PSG won last year.
A meteor exploded off the coast of Massachusetts on Saturday afternoon, rattling windows and shaking homes across the region with a boom heard as far as Rhode Island. “The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT,” NASA said.
The San Antonio Spurs are headed to the NBA Finals after ousting the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7 on Saturday night. They will now face the New York Knicks, who won the Eastern Conference Finals. The last time the two teams met in the NBA Finals, 27 years ago, San Antonio won, four games to one.
I just wish he would put his dam shirt back on.
I'm going to have some outdoor construction work done in my backyard this summer and have thought about a porta potty when we are gone. Funny, I have an image I just flat out CANNOT erase from my mind!