- You, please tell me what is wrong with people?
(car skidding)
(car clanging) (car tire screeching) (glasses breaking)
So that, I've seen people referring to it as a stunt,
but it's really just a hit and run,
that happened shortly after midnight
yesterday, near downtown LA.
And according to the LAPD, the car was a rented 2018 Tesla
and whoever was behind the wheel took off
after the crash, leaving it abandoned on the scene.
And while police have said they don't currently
have a description of the driver,
they did say that the person
will face misdemeanor hit and run charges.
But one of the more interesting
and key things with this story
is that there were so many witnesses
at the scene at the time of the incident.
If you go in social media,
there are a crazy number of angles of this jump,
with local outlets reporting
that multiple people were there,
recording it on their phones.
One of the main people there that documented this
was YouTuber Alex Choi, a creator who reportedly
has a show revolved around car shenanigans.
With Choi putting out a video titled,
Jumping a BRAND NEW $150k Tesla 50ft Into The Air *TOTALED
with a description reading,
"I'm glad to say, luckily, nobody was hurt.
I was not the one driving.
One wrong move, and many people could have been killed.
Please do not try this at home."
And adding, "I had no idea this dude
was going to jump his Tesla immediately after I showed up.
I do not condone reckless behavior
that endangers the lives of others."
In closing, "Please let this video serve
as a learning lesson, and I hope everyone impacted
by this receives their form of justice."
And as far as more details, in the video,
he says, "This random dude wanted to show me
the place David Dobrik jumped his Tesla,"
referring to this old clip, that, happening back in 2020.
However, according to Choi, this driver,
he just floored it up the hill without any warning.
You then hear people yelling,
"Check the car, check the car,"
seemingly concerned for the person that just yeeted
themselves into a failed rendition of I Believe I Can Fly.
With Choi and others, then, driving down
to the crashed car, wreckage just lining the road.
By the time they arrive, the driver's gone.
Meanwhile, the car is just mangled in the front,
bits of it and trash cans everywhere.
And as if this wasn't up fucked up enough,
Choi and his team even said they found
a stray cat in the car, saying that they believe
that the cat was actually in the car during the jump.
However, they did know that it is uninjured.
Choi, himself, saying of the jump
that he thought it was going to be much less
than it actually was and adding,
"I never wanna ever see anyone die in front of me.
That is my worst living nightmare.
Think twice before you do anything stupid.
Let none of us, none of the YouTube clout-chasing
influencers like me become any motivation for you guys."
We've also now since seen a guy
who says that he owns one of the damaged cars
that the Tesla slammed into, now speaking out
and in a GoFundMe that man, Jordan Hook,
recounted his version of the hit and run that night,
saying that the sound of the crash woke him up.
He went outside to find people scrambling
out of the crashed Tesla and into others.
Adding that his Subaru is now un-drivable,
but also one of the biggest accusations that he makes
is that Choi issued a copyright strike
against the video that Hook posted to YouTube
as part of his GoFundMe, saying,
"Alex Choi had the audacity to have
my first video removed for copyright infringement,
because I used a clip he took of the Tesla jump
he coordinated, documented and bragged about."
Though, I do wanna note, it has not been 100 percent
confirmed yet that Choi himself
or someone on his team issued the strike
and according to Choi's own account,
he coordinated the larger Tesla drive,
but not the jump which happened later.
Still, I reached out to Choi to see if he would confirm
or deny this aspect to the story
or give a comment in general.
As of recording, he has not responded,
but still, on social media,
you have people saying things like,
"Alex Choi should be ashamed of himself,
especially since Hook's just trying
to get help to fix his car.
Though, on that note, while Choi has not addressed
the copyright strike against Hook,
we have seen him acknowledging the GoFundMe
and saying that he's donated $2,000,
posting an Instagram story of the GoFundMe, writing,
"Dude's car that got hit by the flying Tesla lol,"
and pointing to his donation and comment where he wrote,
"Hope you get your justice serviced.
Here is probably all the ad revenue I'll get from my video."
But for now the driver is still unknown,
though that hasn't stopped douchebags
like Durte Dom, of all people,
from claiming on TikTok that he was the driver
and even though Choi has tried to reign in
that narrative as a clout-chasing narrative on Instagram,
you did have the LAPD saying they're considering
Dom a person of interest based
on the public postings of his account.
And I've tried to wrap my head around
why Dom would lie about this, though.
I mean, one, clout chasing in general,
but two, he probably wants the attention
for a reason that's not him being accused of rape,
but to Durte Dom or whoever it is,
and I really do hope the truth comes out,
you are insanely fucking stupid and that's why
you are our douchebag or douchebags of the day.
But with all of that said, I'd love to know
your thoughts on any aspect of that story,
whether it be the Alex Choi part, the Durte Dom,
the jump in general, anything and everything.
Let me know what you're thinking.
And while you're, maybe, clickity-clacking that keyboard,
I'll say, "Oh, hi, welcome back
to the Philip DeFranco Show.
I hope you had a good weekend.
Buckle up, hit that like button.
Let's just jump into it."
And then let's talk about major updates
around the very, very public mess
that is going to be the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial
that starts in just a month.
For the last couple of years,
there have been so many updates,
other cases happening on the sidelines,
tons of controversies and people just wondered,
"Is this trial going to happen and if so,
what is it going to look like?"
And now, thanks to a new report from Deadline,
it appears that we have some answers to those questions.
Starting off with that it appears
that there is a pretty star-studded witness list
that includes the likes of James Franco,
Paul Bettany, Elon Musk, as well as reps
from Disney, Warner Bros., and the LAPD.
And on top of these big names testifying,
private correspondence between Depth and Heard
and Hollywood stars are gonna be laid out publicly.
As far as why some of these people have been called,
Depth accused James Franco and Elon Musk
of having affairs with Heard so they're on the witness list
and are going to appear in court via video.
And then you have Paul Bettany on Depth's witness list
with a report noting the text between the two
were read at a previous trial that showed them
talking about burning and drowning Heard
and then Depth specifically saying
that he would have sex with her corpse.
With that correspondence
being on Heard's exhibit list.
But her exhibit list also including texts
from Jason Momoa and director James Wan,
as well as messages with Zach Snyder and more.
And for those that don't know,
all these legal battles stem from the $50 Million lawsuit
that Depth filed against her over an op-ed
that she wrote for the Washington Post
describing herself as a domestic abuse victim.
Heard then later countersued for $100 Million
and both have tried and failed to kill the other suit.
Bam, we have some more information,
but ultimately, we're gonna have to wait for April 11th.
That's when the trial starts in Virginia.
And as far as what happens from there,
we're gonna have to wait to see,
especially because some reports have claim
that the trial will be at least partially televised,
but we need to get close to the date.
But with that said, we haven't checked in
on this story for a while,
so I do wanna pass a question off to you.
What are your thoughts as now it's actually happening?
What are your thoughts on this situation?
But from that, I wanna take a second
to thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Keeps.
Did you know that two out of three guys
will experience some form of male pattern baldness
by the time that they're 35?
And maybe you have that friend or that family member
that's dealing with hair loss right now,
and you don't have to just wait for that to happen to you,
because now is the time to do something about it.
Keeps helps you stop hair loss before it's too late
with a scientific and affordable approach to treatments
that are up to 90% effective at reducing
and stopping further hair loss.
And Keeps offers generic versions of the only two
FDA-approved hair loss products that are out there.
So some of you may have already tried them before,
but probably never at this price.
And you get these products delivered directly to your door.
That means no more going in person
to the doctor's office for your prescriptions,
saving you both valuable time and money.
So if you're ready to take action and prevent hair loss,
go to keeps.com/defranco,
or just click that link on the description
to get 50% off your first order.
And then today is the start
of one of America's biggest circuses,
and that is a Supreme Court Justice confirmation hearing.
It has now officially begun and in the hot seat,
you have 51 year old Ketanji Brown Jackson,
who, if confirmed, will be taking over for Justice Breyer.
And for those who don't remember,
she was picked as a nominee by President Joe Biden
last month as part of his promise
to appoint a black woman to the highest court.
While many praised Biden's commitment to making the court
more reflective of America's demographics,
there were some who questioned the legitimacy
of limiting his pool of potential nominees
solely based on race and sex,
but this is also a matter that Senate Republicans,
while some were speaking out, have largely been silent on.
Reportedly, they are afraid of how it would look
in the polls if the public assumes
that they're opposing Jackson solely because of her race.
I mean, just take a look at how bluntly
Senator Susan Collins put it last month,
saying, "The idea that race and gender should be number one
and number two criteria is not as it should be.
On the other hand, there are many qualified black women
for this post, and given that Democrats
regrettably have had some success in trying
to paint Republicans as anti-black,
it may make it more difficult to reject a black Jurist."
And so instead, what we've seen are Republicans
pushing a narrative that Jackson's backed
by so-called dark money groups,
talking about organizations such as Demand Justice.
And this is how Senator Charles Grassley put it this morning
when referencing Jackson's past appointments.
- The Obama White house records indicate
that a co-founder of the Demand Justice
played an important role in Judge Jackson's nomination
to the Sentencing Commission and the District Court.
The Demand Justice co-founder even interviewed Judge Jackson
about the nomination to the Sentencing Commission.
It would be helpful to know what Demand Justice co-founder
learned from that process and why
they strongly support Judge Jackson.
- However, there is a glaring issue with this narrative
and that's because all the Supreme Court Justices lately
have been pushed with the help of dark money groups.
This is true, whether it's a liberal
or a conservative justice,
and while Demand Justice appears to be backing liberals,
on the conservative side, you have The Federalist Society.
But also beyond having a hand in the nomination process,
these groups don't seem to have any power
over a justice once they're on the bench,
because once they are appointed,
Justices are pretty much unshackled,
and we've seen that to a certain degree with Kavanaugh
and Barrett becoming, what's been referred to
as the ideological center of the court,
voting against other conservative members at a higher rate.
But, all that said, the question won't just be
about alleged ties to Demand Justice.
There will also be plenty of questions
about her judicial record and views.
And so as far as who is Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson,
I mean, some of the things we know,
she's from Miami, Florida, she's been serving
on the Federal Circuit Court in D.C.
In total, she's been a federal judge
for about nine years and before that,
was a clerk for Breyer,
a public defender and had a private practice.
And the thing is, the bulk of the Senate already knows
a lot about her, including all her appointments in the past.
I mean, this will be the fourth time
the Senate has scoured her record
with her judicial philosophy pretty well attested to
with over 600 decisions across various types of cases.
And as for her record, you can expect
to hear a lot about her decisions on crime,
which Republicans claim she is weak on,
where leading up to the hearings,
you had Senator Josh Hawley going around saying,
"The facts are the facts.
Judge Jackson sentenced below the sentencing guidelines
for every single child porn offender
that has come before her."
And in an op-ed, pointing to a case
where she sentenced a man uploading this type of content
to just three months in prison,
rather than the normal eight to 10 years.
However, we've seen pushback against this
from the likes of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki
pointing out, that quote, "In the vast majority of cases
involving child sex crimes, the sentences Judge Jackson
imposed were consistent with or above
what the government or U.S. probation recommended."
But beyond that, there will also likely
be scrutiny about her past work,
with Republicans already setting up questions
about her decision to represent detainees at Guantanamo Bay,
with Senator John Cornyn telling CNN,
"If somebody is assigned to a job as a young lawyer,
you don't get to pick and choose your clients,
but if you're volunteering for it
because you're a true believer, that's a little different."
However, this could also be flipped to be a testament
to how much she believes in the constitutional right
that everyone get fair representation.
For example, most praise President John Adams
for his decision to defend the British soldiers
from the Boston Massacre when he was an attorney
due to this exact same belief.
But all that said, this entire process
will likely take some time,
with the hearing alone set to last four days.
But from that, we'll just have to watch, wait and see
if Jackson will be our newest Supreme Court Justice.
And then let's talk about the awful, tragic news
coming out of Southern China today.
With Flight MU 5735, a passenger plane carrying 132 people,
taking off this afternoon, local time,
for a flight to Guangzhou, but an hour and a half later,
the airport's app marked the plane out of reach
and that's because it disappeared,
but we now know what happened.
The plane nose dived into a mountain in Guangxi Province,
all but certainly killing everyone on board.
The aviation data is showing that the plane was cruising
around 30,000 feet when it suddenly plummeted,
crashing into the earth around 90 seconds later,
catching fire and setting the surrounding forest ablaze,
which firefighters who first arrived
at the site quickly extinguished
and around six were more emergency responders
reportedly going to help, though,
they found no signs of survivors.
And so as of now, the authorities
are still investigating what happened,
with President Xi personally ordering them
to look into any safety hazards
and calling for an all-out effort in the rescue operation.
Also, as far as the plane at the center of all this,
it's a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800,
which, just to be clear, is different from the 737 Max
that made headlines when a faulty software
brought two of them down a little over three years ago.
But the 737-800 is an older model,
though, both of them are part of Boeing's
next generation, narrow-body jets.
And so for Boeing, this is another deadly instance
for a company that's already paid $2.5 Billion
in a fine to the U.S. Justice Department early last year
to resolve criminal charges
that it conspired to defraud the FAA.
Following this crash, some of the things we've seen,
Boeing's stock tanking Monday around 5%
by the time that the market opened
and now China Eastern Airlines
grounding all of its 737-800s, as well as setting up
an emergency hotline for the families of those
who are on board and giving its condolences.
But really the last thing I'll touch on
is how rare this is for China.
They actually have a good record with aviation safety
with the last major accident happening 12 years ago
and that, because the country's air safety standards
have improved dramatically since a string
of crashes back in the 1990s.
But ultimately with this story,
we wait to see what information we can get
from the investigation, what we can learn
and in the meantime, our well wishes go to those affected.
And then of course, let's talk about updates in Ukraine
as Russia's war enters its 26th day.
Where, as the fighting continues across the region,
we've seen Russia continuing
what appears to be nothing more than just senseless attacks
in civilian infrastructure and neighborhoods.
On Sunday, Russia launched a missile strike
on a major shopping center in Kyiv,
leaving much of the area in rubble
and killing at least eight in what's been described
as one of the strongest bombings of Ukraine's capital
since the beginning of the invasion.
And with this, you had the mayor of Kyiv
imposing a curfew on the city,
requiring all residents of the capital to stay at home
or in shelters from 8:00 PM on Monday to 7:00 AM Wednesday
and mandating that all stores, pharmacies,
gas stations and government offices close on Tuesday
with the mayor insisting that the shopping center attack
is not a coincidence saying that,
"Putin wants to starve the civilians
to make them pressurize their leaders."
And with this latest strike, as well as others
on apartment buildings, residents in the capital
are worried that if Russian forces continue to close in,
Kyiv could see attacks like those in Kharkiv and Mariupol
where Russia has launched onslaughts in civilian populations
to make up for slow progress in the region.
And that concern is especially heightened
as British defense officials have warned
that Kyiv remains Russia's primary military objective
and adding, "the troops are expected to prioritize
an attempt to encircle the city in the coming weeks."
Also, on the note of major military objectives,
I wanna hit on updates in Mariupol.
Right after weeks of attacks
on the strategic Southern port city,
we saw Russia yesterday offering an ultimatum, saying,
"If the city surrenders, it will allow civilians
to leave and humanitarian aid to enter."
Though, on Monday, Ukrainian officials
rejected the ultimatum,
but you did see Ukrainian President Zelensky
saying he would be open to negotiations to end the fighting,
but it's also unclear how sustainable
the situation on the ground is.
According to reports, hundreds of thousands of civilians
remain trapped in the city with no electricity
and rapidly diminishing supplies of food and water.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian military and city officials
have said that the battle has devolved
into street-to-street guerrilla fighting
and the Russian forces have encircled the city
and are currently occupying all civilian neighborhoods,
with a top EU Diplomat going as far to accuse Russia
of committing a massive war crime in its attack of Mariupol.
And understand, what happens here is absolutely massive.
If Russia seizes Mariupol,
it could mark its first real strategic victory in a war
that has resulted in stalemate after stalemate
on many other fronts, which, on that note,
while Russia has ramped up shelling in recent days,
a U.S. defense official told reporters
that Russian forces have shown almost no signs
of advancing into Ukraine over the last week.
And to that point, as the Russian military
remains stalled around many areas
and have failed to take control over any major cities,
Ukrainian officials are looking
for new possible fronts that Putin might open,
specifically because Russia has been more successful
in the south where Mariupol is,
officials are closely watching that region.
But beyond that, there are also concerns
that Russian and possibly be Belarusian troops
might try to open up a new front
along Ukraine's northern border with Belarus,
with the governor of Rivne, as city alongside that border,
announcing that it has been struck by two missiles.
And these worries over new areas of attack come
as millions of people are already being
displaced and fleeing the country.
Yesterday, you have the UN reporting
that more than 10 Million or one in four people in Ukraine
have been displaced since the beginning of the invasion.
And just today saying that more than 3.4 million refugees
have fled Ukraine since Russia launched the invasion,
describing this situation as the fastest growing refugee
crisis in Europe since World War II
and with this refugee crisis, we're seeing European cities
accepting the fleeing Ukrainians hitting their capacity.
Like the Polish capital of Warsaw, for example,
where the mayor is now warning
that the city of 1.8 million is on the brink
as over 300,000 refugees have sought safety there.
Also of note here, according to a non-governmental
organization dedicated to protecting children,
1.5 million of the refugees
who have fled Ukraine are children.
And for those who have not fled,
humanitarian workers are worried that things
will get much worse for those trapped in the country,
especially as hundreds of hospitals and medical centers
have either been damaged or remain in danger.
And while those medical centers
should be protected under international law,
basically Russia has clearly shown
that it doesn't care about the rules of war.
Plus, in additions to attacks on civilians,
we've now seen multiple reports
of Russia blocking essential aid.
Just today, for example, we saw Zelensky claiming
that Russians hijacked a relief convoy near Kharkiv, saying
that officials had lost contact with six people,
implying that they had been detained.
But ultimately the last thing
that I wanna talk about here
are the updates on the ongoing negotiations.
Yesterday, we saw Zelensky making
renewed calls for peace talks,
but the two sides appear to be so far apart.
Speaking to CNN yesterday,
he said that he would reject any peace agreement
that requires Ukraine to recognize the independence
of the two Russian-backed separatist regions
and adding that to end the fighting,
Ukraine would need, "security guarantees, sovereignty,
restoration of territorial integrity
and real guarantees for our country."
With all this, continuing to urge NATO
to accept Ukraine into the alliance,
but also stating that if that did not happen,
he would seek a more limited coalition of countries.
With him also going on to emphasize
the importance of negotiations saying,
"I think that without negotiations,
we cannot end this war," and adding,
"But if these attempts fail,
that would mean a third world war."
Meanwhile, President Biden is now making
his biggest diplomatic push so far,
traveling today to meet with the leaders
of France, Germany, Italy, and Britain.
After that, he's expected to travel to Brussels
to meet with NATO and EU leaders on Wednesday
then to Poland on Friday,
with one of the most significant topics of discussion
at those summits likely to be Poland's proposal
to launch an international peacekeeping mission in Ukraine,
because although NATO has undertaken
these missions in Europe before,
they were done after the fighting had ended,
which is part of the reason why, already,
the U.S. has rejected that idea,
saying yesterday that it has ruled out
any U.S. military participation.
But ultimately, that is where
that story and today's show ends.
I'll see you tomorrow.