- Today we're talking about what may be one
of the biggest YouTube scandals ever,
as the mom of a huge family vlog channel
has been arrested for abuse.
We've got new huge Andrew Tate War Room leaks,
dozens of new victims allegedly being discovered.
Free my boy Howdy Doody.
We dive deep into what experts say is actually going on
with Mitch McConnell.
And why Selena Gomez has been getting
absolutely slammed online.
We're gonna talk about all that and so much more
on today's brand new "Philip DeFranco Show,"
your daily dive into the news.
So just make sure you're subscribed, and let's jump into it.
Starting with,
this may be the biggest YouTube scandal to date.
Ruby Franke has been arrested for child abuse,
which if you don't know her,
she's known for being a part of a very big family channel
called 8 Passengers,
which chronicled her life with her husband, Kevin Franke,
and their six children.
But according to records
from the Washington County Sheriff's Office in Utah,
Ruby was arrested yesterday under suspicion of two counts
of intentional, aggravated child abuse.
And actually her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt,
was also arrested for the same reason.
And as far as what led to this arrest,
you had Fox 13 in Salt Lake City saying
that a child had climbed out of a window at Jodi's home
and went to a neighbor's home for help,
with the child asking for food and water.
The neighbor noticing the child had duct tape
on their wrists and ankles
and was emaciated, malnourished, had open wounds.
And then after they were taken to a hospital,
a second malnourished child was found in the home
and later treated.
So just absolutely horrifying news.
But notably to many
who had been following Ruby and 8 Passengers,
they weren't surprised.
She had faced tons of criticism
for abusive parenting in the past.
The 8 Passengers channel was even taken offline
earlier this year.
With a lot of attention then turning to Ruby
joining a new channel that was also controversial.
That was called ConneXions, and Jodi was the founder of it.
And on its YouTube page,
it described itself as "a different modality of healing
"that psychotherapy cannot offer you."
And claiming "our training will help you transform your pain
"into joy.
"Choose the life you want to have.
"Exchange your confusion for clarity."
Local news outlets also describing it
as a parent counseling service.
But also with that you had Insider reporting
that many have accused ConneXions of being a cult.
Some even pointing to ConneXions' videos that show Ruby
explaining kind of extreme parenting approaches,
things like in one video where she essentially says
that children do not have a right to privacy.
- They're not concerned about privacy.
That is the last thing they're concerned about.
They're just trying to hold that word over your head.
They're trying to hold you hostage.
In this home, you don't get personal space
'cause this is my space, 'cause I'm the parent.
And as long as you are living in my home,
it is my job to know everything about you.
You don't get to sneak, you don't get to hide,
you don't get to have secrets.
- People also resurfacing old 8 Passengers clips,
like one where Ruby said her six-year-old daughter forgot
to bring a lunch to school,
but she refused to drop one off for her.
- I know that her teacher is uncomfortable
with her being hungry and not having a lunch.
And it would ease her discomfort
if I came to the school with a lunch.
But I responded and just said Eve is responsible
for making her lunches in the morning,
and she actually told me she did pack a lunch.
So the natural outcome is she's just going
to need to be hungry.
And hopefully, hopefully nobody gives her food
and nobody steps in and gives her a lunch.
- You also have people pointing to one clip
where she takes away her older son's bedroom as a punishment
for pulling an elaborate prank on his younger brother.
- My bedroom was taken away for seven months,
and then you gave it back like a couple weeks ago.
- I don't think our viewers know that. (laughs)
- [Person Off Camera] He's been sleeping on a beanbag for-
- I've been sleeping on a beanbag since October.
- He was sleeping on the floor in the family room.
- And with all that, Insider even did a report back then
in 2020 noting that these clips, along with others,
prompted viewers to accuse them of child abuse,
and child and family services even showed up at their home.
But that case was closed
because reportedly the claims were unsupported.
But now with Ruby being arrested,
there have been very notable responses,
including from the family's eldest daughter
who also apparently hasn't been in contact with the family
for some time now
because she wrote on her Instagram story last night.
"Finally.
"Today has been a big day.
"Me and my family are so glad justice is being served.
"We've been trying to tell the police and CPS
"for years about this
"and so glad they finally decided to step up.
"Kids are safe, but there's a long road ahead.
"Please keep them in your prayers
"and also respect their privacy."
And also asking that if anyone has links to any questionable
or concerning content that's been posted in the past,
specifically from ConneXions, to send it her way.
Ruby's siblings also posting to Instagram to say
that Ruby's and Jodi's arrests needed to happen.
Also saying that the kids are currently safe.
And so for now we're gonna have to keep our eyes peeled
for updates.
People wondering with this situation what's happening
with the father, Kevin Franke.
And actually with that,
you had Insider reporter Lindsey Dodgson tweeting,
"Kevin Franke is no longer an employee of BYU,
"a spokesperson told me.
"His employment ended there in spring, but it's unclear why.
"It's not yet known if he's also been arrested."
But we'll be following the story here,
and so when we know, you'll know.
And then, y'all, 45 new victims have allegedly been ID'd
in new leaked chats from Andrew Tate's War Room,
with there now reportedly being
over 12,000 leaked War Room messages showing the tips
and tricks members shared for coercing, grooming,
and forcing women into sex work.
And what's scary is that number could actually be far higher
considering these messages are just
from between March of 2019 and April of 2020.
Also, if you're new to this situation,
you're like, "What even is the War Room?"
It's a private telegram group chat
for Tate's biggest followers,
with 'em reportedly paying some serious money
just for that access.
It costing at least $8,000 a year.
Well, that seemed to be a healthy revenue stream for Tate
because at the time of those messages,
434 people were paying for that access, which is wild,
'cause without considering all the other stuff,
that's nearly $3.5 million a year.
And reportedly one of the biggest names
in the channel was one of his generals, Miles Sonkin.
They messaged new members a reading list
and a manifesto outlining the group's agenda.
And part of that included their PhD program,
AKA their pimpin' hoes degree.
And in one message he made it very clear
about how to go about isolating women
from their support groups.
You know, normal, non-crazy predatory behavior.
Saying it all starts with a coffee date.
And "after that it becomes a series of gradual steps
"to remove her entire support structure from her life.
"Then we punish her for a transgression, real or imagined,
"by having her get our name tattooed on her,
"leaving her family's home, apartment, town, country.
"Webcamming, stripping, walking the track for us,
"getting us girls, escalate, escalate, escalate."
And from there,
they'd reportedly take what money these women earn.
With one woman the BBC spoke to saying she was forced
to give up $95,000, that was 80% of her earnings,
to two War Room members.
Also, other leading War Room members
would post images of women with serious signs of abuse
such as cuts and bruises.
Another describing how a woman complained to him about work,
so quote, "I took her keyboard
"and hit her in the head with it."
And saying she then went into the room
and worked seven hours without any break.
And if any of that sounds familiar,
well, it's because that exact playbook is pretty much
what Romanian authorities are claiming Tate did
in their scheme to traffic women.
Though notably on that note, right?
None of these messages that we're talking about today
are Tate directly saying anything.
But instead of the Tates noting that
and distancing themselves from this new report,
they're calling bullshit,
with Tate telling the BBC its findings were quote,
"another brazen attempt
"to present one-sided, unverified allegations."
And a spokesperson adding,
"The BBC's findings not only present false accusations
"but insult the massive community
"that considers Andrew Tate a life-changing positive force."
Their statement also adding that Mr. Tate is quote,
"prepared to take all necessary legal actions
"to defend his innocence
"and hold accountable those responsible
"for defamatory claims."
But as far as how everything's gonna play out from here,
we're gonna have to wait and see.
And then, ooh, people were coming for Selena Gomez.
So currently you have the writers and the actors
on the picket lines,
they're taking a big stand against the studios.
And one of the big updates is that the public is largely
on the workers' side here,
with a recent Gallup poll finding
that 72% support striking writers,
with just 19% supporting the studios.
And then with the actors, the numbers slightly dip
with 67% supporting the SAG strike,
24% siding with the studios there.
And this notably coming as there's potential friction
within the studios,
with Deadline reporting that many executives
of major studios met yesterday
amid growing speculation of internal divisions
and a lack of any apparent path forward to end the writers
and actor strikes,
with big names like Netflix's Ted Sarandos
and Warner Bros.' David Zaslav apparently being part of it.
Disney, Amazon, and Universal also throwing some execs in.
And remember this as we are 120 days into the writer strike
and at nearly 50 days for the actors.
So I guess also prepare for a content drought.
But also with the strike news today you had some celebrities
making some headlines, both for backlash and praise.
On the backlash front, you had Selena Gomez
because she posted and then deleted a video on Instagram
that seemingly promoted "Only Murders in the Building"
with the video showing behind the scenes clips
alongside the caption,
"missing and wanting @onlymurdershulu."
That post getting a million likes
by the time that it was taken down.
According to the Los Angeles Times,
it was on her grid for at least 15 hours.
And even though reportedly the video was not a commercial
or anything like that,
it's still against strike rules to promote projects,
and especially since she tagged the show's
official social media handles, it looked like promo.
And so the responses to her have varied,
with some describing this as an honest mistake saying,
you know, this is kind of more of a throwback,
but also a lot of others calling her a scab.
But then as far as celebrities getting praised,
you had a group of late night hosts launching a podcast
to benefit the writers on strike,
with those being Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon,
Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Myers, and John Oliver
all going behind the mic for "Strike Force Five,"
which actually came out this week.
And according to the Washington Post,
it's gonna have at least 12 episodes.
And reportedly the money made on that show
are gonna go to the staffers on their shows
who are currently out of work.
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And then, I've got four very quick news stories
that are completely unrelated to one another
that vary in levels of seriousness that I wanna give to you.
One, in the most important news of the day,
a car with a giant bull sitting in the passenger seat
named Howdy Doody was pulled over by police in Nebraska.
And the man who was driving and Howdy Doody
were pulled over after some snitch called the police.
But the police actually didn't even give him a ticket,
they just gave him some warnings
and asked him and Howdy to leave the city,
'cause as it turns out, Howdy Doody's actually
kind of a local celebrity there.
Performs at a lot of parades and fairs.
Two, Russia's demanding that Norway pay them $4.4 million
'cause 42 reindeer crossed the border into Russia.
And as far as why $4.4 million,
they say that the money's compensation
for the reindeer eating Russian grass.
That's some expensive ass grass.
And as far as how this happened,
supposedly a gate that separated the two countries
and kept reindeer out of Russia just broke.
Also, don't worry about the reindeer, they're fine.
Actually, no, they're not.
40 of the 42 reindeer have now been killed
in fears that they'll cross into Russia again.
And while I personally hope
the two remaining reindeer exact some revenge,
Norway has just asked its citizens
to keep their reindeer in check.
But I think main thing, Santa's gonna be pissed.
Three, Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to death
for criticizing the Saudi royal family on Twitter.
They charged him with betraying his religion,
disturbing the security of society,
conspiring against the government,
and impugning the kingdom and the crown prince.
And this guy just had 10 followers,
so he was essentially tweeting to no one.
But who's actually surprised here?
Killing people for tweets
is just yet another human rights violation
from the champions of crimes against humanity.
I mean, I get the sportswashing is working,
but Saudi Arabia also funded 9/11,
genocide at Yemen, aided ISIS, and killed Jamal Khashoggi.
And four, Niger has stripped the French ambassador
of their diplomatic immunity
and have ordered the police to expel them.
And they obviously can't go into the embassy
as that would be a major breach of international norms,
too far even for them.
But police in Niger are now searching all vehicles
leaving the embassy.
You know, it really cannot be understated
how absolutely ridiculous this is,
with it widely believed that if they managed
to get their hands on the ambassador,
France isn't going to ask for them back.
They're just gonna bomb the country into oblivion.
And isn't there already enough suffering
without more stupid shit?
And then, so by now you've seen this concerning
and disturbing situation around Mitch McConnell,
but we need to dive deeper.
'Cause there's this now viral video
of senate minority leader McConnell appearing
to have a medical episode while speaking to reporters.
- What are my thoughts about what?
- [Reporter] Running for re-election in 2026.
- Oh, that's...
(clock ticks)
- Did you hear the question, Senator?
Running for re-election in 2026?
All right, I'm sorry, you all.
We're gonna need a minute.
- So that alone is super concerning,
but it's even more concerning
'cause this is at least the second time it has happened.
He had a public episode like this
just in the last few weeks.
- A string of...
(clock ticks)
- [Team Member] Are you good?
- But despite the fact
that one of the single most powerful people
in the country right now
is seemingly having real medical events in full public view,
McConnell's team has not at all been transparent
with the American people about what's going on,
'cause McConnell's office has provided
exactly 0.0 information about the incident,
with the spokesperson for McConnell only telling reporters
that the senator just felt lightheaded
and that he would see a physician before his next event.
While I was recording,
we got the news that the attending physician
to Congress issued a statement saying he consulted
with leader McConnell and conferred with his neurology team
and adding that he told McConnell he is medically clear
to continue with his schedule as planned,
but the physician also didn't provide any information
about what happened,
just reiterating the whole lightheaded bit,
saying lightheadedness can be expected
as a result of dehydration or recovery from a concussion,
with that in reference to a bad fall McConnell had
during a GOP fundraiser back in March
that resulted in him being hospitalized with a concussion.
So we still don't have much to go off of.
But also that is at least more than what we were told
after the first event.
'Cause after the first time,
they wouldn't even answer questions
about whether he saw a doctor following the event,
with McConnell himself returning to that presser
after being escorted away saying oh, he was doing fine.
He was able to do the job on the Republican leadership team.
And after both incidents,
McConnell's allies pointed to the fact
that he resumed answering questions after each time
and continued on with other planned meetings and events.
But here is the incredibly important thing.
You have experts and doctors saying
just because he was able to carry on with his day
after these episodes doesn't necessarily mean
that they weren't serious medical events.
This including Dr. Sujay Kansagra,
a sleep doctor and pediatric neurologists at Duke
who explained...
- In the neuro world we say these are stereotype episodes.
They occur the same way each time
or roughly the same way each time.
And it's kinda the hallmark of epilepsy,
so this is likely focal seizures.
The fact that he stops talking can be for two reasons.
One, he could have impaired awareness during the seizure
or two, it could actually be affecting the speech centers
of his brain in charge of actually expressive speech.
This also explains why they didn't rush him off
after the first episode to a nearby hospital
to get a full workup.
It's probably 'cause he's been having these all along.
He's had multiple of these, they already know about them.
And so they didn't feel the need to go rush him off
for a CT scan.
- The possibility that McConnell had a seizure
was also parroted by other doctors
after the first event last month with many of those experts
also saying it could have been a mini stroke,
which is also called a TIA.
But notably, you also have others pushing back
against both of those possibilities
like CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Gupta explaining what he thought was going on yesterday.
- There's a lot of things that can sort of come to mind.
The more you know about the various neurological conditions,
the longer the list is.
But certain things like stroke
or things like that are probably less likely.
He walks away, and he's moving his arms
and his legs as he walks away.
Seizure is less likely.
- But he also went on to say that whatever this is,
it's more serious than his team's repeated excuse
of just lightheadedness, with him also echoing the point
that it seems like this is something that happens enough
that McConnell's team is clearly aware of it
and knows what's actually going on.
- I think what really struck me,
and I think Mano alluded to this,
is that, you know, his aides don't seem
that surprised by this.
So we've seen this episode a couple of times,
but you get the impression that it happens more often
'cause this is something that they're used to dealing with.
So while it's, you know, as you say, hard to watch,
it doesn't seem like this is just lightheadedness,
seems to be something that is really ongoing.
Someone who has a Parkinsonian-like condition, for example,
whose medications are wearing off or something like that.
That's something that could sort of explain this behavior.
But as I said, Jake, it's a long list of possibilities here.
- But to be clear here, all of this is speculation,
and many of these experts emphasize the fact
that we really don't know what's going on.
But that is also what happens
when there is a total lack of transparency.
And all of that is just renewing questions
about McConnell's health
that were already circulating earlier this year.
Because keep in mind, these two events come
just a couple of months
after McConnell had such a serious fall
that he required hospitalization.
And while he was released five days later,
he was away from the Senate for nearly six weeks
while he recovered.
And according to reports, since that March fall,
McConnell has also had at least two more falls,
but neither were reported by his office,
with him also reportedly being witnessed struggling
at times following that first fall.
And while he's always walked very carefully
due to the fact that he overcame polio as a child
before there was a vaccine,
many have noted that he's been even more cautious
since his fall, with him also taking a less predominant role
in leading his party,
letting McCarthy take the wheel on key negotiations,
as well as speaking less during weekly GOP luncheons
according to people who attend them.
And all of this is McConnell is 81 years old
and the longest serving party leader in the Senate ever.
So you have all of that
and you have an absolute tidal wave online
of people saying he is just too old to be leading the party.
Many calling for him to retire.
And that notably including prominent conservatives
like Bill O'Reilly
and even Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Also with this, it's important to keep in mind,
this is not just a left wing, right wing thing.
Many specifically pointing to Senator Diane Feinstein
who's the oldest member of Congress
and who has faced widespread calls to step down
because it's abundantly clear she literally has no idea
where she is half the time.
And as we see more and more of these things happen,
it adds to the arguments that people have
for needing term or age limits.
If you try to pass a law in the Senate,
I don't know how many people would vote for them
because the average age for a senator is 64 years old
with more than half of all members clocking in
at 65 or older.
I mean, McConnell's not even a boomer.
He's older than the boomers!
He was born in 1942
back when the real world was still black and white.
He's part of something called the silent generation.
And you can call this ageist all you want,
but look at what the fuck is happening.
I feel like we're gonna see head in jar "Futurama" senators
before there's actual age limits.
But yeah, that's the news that's going around now,
a deeper dive into it.
And now I pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts here?
What do you think about the McConnell
and Feinstein situations?
And do you think there should be age
or term limits in Congress?
And that is where today's dive into the news is gonna end.
But for more news you need to know,
I got you covered right here.
You can click or tap or I got you in the links.
And as always, my name's Philip DeFranco,
you've just been filled in.
I love yo faces.
And I'll see you right back here next time.