- Today, we're breaking down what's really going on
with this messy Selena Gomez scandal,
talking how big or small it is
that Trump just lost an abuse and defamation case,
really concerning news coming out of Pakistan.
We're talking all of that and so much more
on today's brand new "Philip DeFranco Show,"
so buckle up, hit that like button,
and let's just jump into it, you beautiful bastards.
Starting with, please brace yourself
for without a doubt the weirdest phone call
to be leaked in 2023 so far.
(phone line ringing)
- [Alex] Hey brother, how you doing?
- [Tucker] Hey Alex, it's Tucker.
Do you have a minute to talk?
- [Alex] Absolutely.
- I was thinking we could do a show together
where we're topless and we suck each other's nipples
and sort of play with them a bit.
It would be a comment
on gender roles. - That's a really great idea.
- Sort of a funny parody thing.
- So Alex Jones there is real.
That's actually him.
But Tucker's voice is not.
Instead, that was an AI voice clone
created by Canadian prankster Chris James,
also known by the streamer name Prank Stallone.
He apparently somehow got the phone numbers
for both Jones and Carlson,
faked being Carlson to call Jones,
with Alex initially buying into it
but eventually realizing the trick and then hanging up.
Which is where it might have ended
had not Jones then devoted a whole 30 minutes of his show
to talk about the incident
and even threaten James with litigation.
- Hey, let me tell the little prankster,
Prank Stallone, something.
Tucker Carlson's lawyers are involved
and what you did, we believe, is a crime.
So I think, even though you think you're safe up in Canada,
that you're gonna get arrested for what you did yesterday.
So keep laughing, you little arrogant person.
- And after that, he goes on
to rant about the dangers of misinformation,
which we're just, he's the best guy for that,
right, been ordered to pay over a billion dollars
to the families of Sandy Hook victims.
But, that said, while he is someone
who peddles it for a living,
yeah, the dangers of AI misinformation
and deepfakes is a real thing.
We've talked about this on the show for a while.
Which, if anything, the bad news is that this is, like,
the least horrible use of AI voice cloning or deepfakes
or misinformation that we've seen recently
and it's really only gonna get worse.
And then, Americans are on edge right now.
One of the ways we're seeing that play out
are all these innocent folks just getting shot up
for the dumbest reasons by paranoid maniacs.
It feels like the things that used to shock us
have now made us numb and have become normal
and we've now got yet another story in this category,
this time with a guy who shot a little girl
in the back of the head
for playing hide-and-seek on his property.
All right, reportedly 58-year-old David Doyle
says he took out his gun
when he saw, quote, "Shadows outside his home,"
in a rural Louisiana town.
So he went out there, saw people running away from his house
and he just let the bullets fly,
with them hitting the 14-year-old,
though luckily her injuries
were reportedly non-life threatening.
But of course he's now been arrested and charged
with several counts of aggravated this and that.
But the American crazy train also doesn't end with him.
Because we're also hearing about 22-year-old Seth Pointe
who was waiting at a stoplight in his blue Mustang
when he just fucking snaps.
He rear ends the SUV in front of him,
then lurching back
and slamming into the pickup truck behind him.
And as the woman in the SUV gets out,
he apparently tries to drive away
but crashes into a box truck in another lane instead.
But it's not over yet 'cause he backs up,
going over the median and smashing into a Porsche
driving in the opposite direction,
with him then coming full-circle
with all the grace and elegance,
once again plowing into the first SUV,
forcing it forward several feet.
And so now Seth has been charged
with felony assault with a deadly weapon.
And this guy just seemingly filled with so much rage
and it also doesn't feel like he's alone.
Even if it's anecdotal,
it just seems like there's an extra amount
of people out there right now
responding to the tiniest defense with the nuclear option.
And with all this chaos happening,
I feel like I have a new best trait.
Like, I used to feel bad
that I was this non-confrontational introvert,
but apparently that's a fucking superpower
in America these days.
Right, I grew up seeing any interaction
with another human being as, like, exhausting work.
Turns out my subconscious self-defense system: S tier.
So yeah, I guess the moral of this story
is be careful out there, America.
But also, don't be careful in the overly aggressive,
crazy way that we've seen other people be careful.
And then, are you a stan or are you just a lame ass bully?
That's the question at the center of this news
around Selena Gomez fans.
'Cause apparently they're no longer focused
on bullying Hailey Bieber
and instead are focusing on Francia Raisa.
Right, and Francia, if you don't know,
she's an actress, she's on "How I Met Your Father,"
but a lot of people, especially Selena's fans,
know her as the friend who donated her kidney to Selena
amid her lupus diagnosis in 2017.
Right, an absolutely monumental thing to do for anyone,
and Francia at the time called it
a life changing experience.
But in the years since that happened
there have been headlines and rumors
about drama between the two,
people wondering if they're throwing shade at one another,
if they're even friends anymore,
do they hate each other, right, stuff like that.
And so recently TMZ was like, "Let's get the answer
and/or just instigate something."
And so they saw and/or tracked down Francia on the street
and they started asking her questions about this.
But she was plainly refusing
to answer questions about Selena.
- [Reporter] How's everything going with you and Selena?
I know you unfollowed her. You still don't follow her.
Are things good with you guys?
- Sunday is so fun.
It's my day of rest. (reporter laughing)
- [Reporter] Do you guys talk at all?
Are you willing to follow her back?
Will you follow her back eventually?
- What kind of tree do you think this is?
It's some of kind, probably avocado, no?
- All right, she's just dodging questions left and right
and Selena's fans seemingly didn't respond well to this.
And if you head to her Instagram,
it's not hard to find people saying negative,
nasty, horrible things to her.
Which us to yesterday,
with TMZ posting a clip of her
talking to that same paparazzo,
with her telling him that their previous conversation
caused a big mess for her.
- [Reporter] I didn't mean to do all that,
but, you know, it happens.
- Yeah, I mean, I'm sure no one means to do anything,
but, you know, now I'm being bullied like crazy.
- He then asks what kind of comments she's been receiving,
to which she said.
- I think the one the one that probably hurt the most
was, "I hope someone goes up your (beep)
and rips out your other kidney, you (beep) whore."
- With her adding that given everything
she doesn't feel like talking to TMZ,
but the only thing she wanted to add
was that bullying is never okay.
- In no way, shape, or form does anyone condone bullying.
- [Reporter] Yeah.
- Especially Selena.
She literally has a whole nonprofit dedicated
to mental health.
She's literally out there saying, "Please stop."
- [Reporter] Uh-huh.
- So I don't understand why it's not stopping.
Not just for me-
- [Reporter] Yeah.
- But for others that are also being antagonized online.
- Right, and that last bit likely referencing
the Hailey Bieber drama from earlier this year,
with tons of people attacking Hailey
in the defense of Selena,
but it got so out of hand that Hailey got death threats
and Selena had to tell her fans to knock it off.
Which, yes, this is a story about Selena Gomez's fans,
but it's also a conversation about stan culture in general.
Right, because there's really been no shortage of examples
of how quickly people move to bully and harass others online
and how people are using fandoms as a weapon.
All right, you've seen Taylor Swift stans
going after the men they think her songs are about.
In the same vein,
you had Olivia Rodrigo fans going after her ex,
Harry Styles fans going after Olivia Wilde,
and often these things just take on a life of own.
Even when you have people like Selena saying, "Stop it,"
you end up seeing examples of stans breaking down
the way she said it and did she actually mean it.
Was she actually calling it for this
or was it actually another jab?
And understand, I'm not saying that if you're a fan
of any of the people mentioned
or, you know, there are so many people
we didn't even mention in this story,
I'm not saying, like, "You're a bad person."
I understand why so many people don't speak out against this
because it's horrifying to see a massive mob go after you.
That's why with this whole situation,
I gotta pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts on this?
Right, and I ask this whether you're a part of
or outside of general stan culture.
And then, okay, picture this,
you, you're on a business trip, it's late, you're tired,
you peel off your socks,
you flop into bed at a cozy Hilton hotel,
you fall into a deep sleep,
and then you have a weird dream.
All of a sudden, you feel wet,
there's, like, wet sounds, your feet kinda tickle.
And when you wake up, you realize,
"Oh, I'm not in a dream, I'm in a nightmare."
Because you find a man at the end of your bed
actually licking your toes.
What do you do in this situation?
Well, for Air Force veteran Peter Brennan,
who this was not a hypothetical question for,
his answer was to scream,
with this all going down at 5:00 a.m.
at the Hilton Downtown Hotel in Nashville.
And this wasn't some random passerby
that found his way into the room.
He sees a man in a uniform with a name tag
and so he yells, "Who are you?
Why are you in my room? What are you doing here?"
The man actually did talk to him,
but he didn't give any substantive answers.
The intruder then fleeing,
with Brennan going to hotel security,
but saying that they didn't take him seriously.
So instead he calls the cops and after investigating,
they find that the suspect was actually David Neal,
the hotel's night manager,
with Brennan believing
that this creep made a clone of his keycard
to get into his room
and so now he's suing him and the hotel.
So, one, I'm sorry if I just unlocked a new fear
or possibly kink for some of you.
Which, remember, it's only a kink if it's consensual,
otherwise a crime.
And two, apparently use every latch thing,
whatever you can put on a door
and then maybe even barricade it.
'Cause apparently at some point in the last decade
all the weirdos were like, "Now's my time.
I'm gonna go for it."
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And then, Trump was just found liable in a civil rape trial,
with the jury awarding E. Jean Carroll
with $5 million in damages.
Now, notably, this verdict,
which came after just three hours of deliberation,
is civil, not criminal.
Meaning that even though the accusation at hand
is about a rape,
Donald Trump here has not been convicted
and doesn't face any jail time for this.
And as The New York Times explained,
Carroll alleged that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her
in the dressing room of a luxury department store,
with Carroll suing Trump for battery and defamation,
with the defamation claim stemming from a 2022 post
on Truth Social in which Trump called Ms. Carroll's case,
"A complete con job," and "a hoax and a lie."
And with this story breaking just before I uploaded today,
obviously, we're gonna have to keep our eyes on this,
both for this specific situation,
but also to see what else comes from this
because, of course, at least 26 women
have accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct or assault,
especially as even part of this Carroll suit's
only been made possible recently.
As Axios noted, Carroll was only allowed to sue Trump
for battery as of last November
because that's when New York's Adult Survivors Act
went into effect, which allows adult survivors
of sexual violence to sue over attacks
that occurred decades ago.
And then, new battle over food delivery
is currently underway.
Right, in places like New York City,
tens of thousands of food orders are made every day,
despite the fact that officials
are actively working against the delivery workers.
The city of New York reportedly placed
more than 30 million delivery orders
in the last three months of 2021 alone,
and the Upper West Side, specifically,
placed 1.2 million orders in that time
which comes to around 14,000 orders per day.
But despite, or maybe even because these millions of orders,
members of the Upper West Side neighborhood civic panel,
Community Board 7,
they've been actively working against delivery workers.
I mean, they're messing with every opportunity created
to help them, including vehemently opposing
a non-binding resolution which would encourage restaurants
to allow delivery drivers to access their restrooms,
with the resolution suggesting
that if the restaurant refused it should be noted
when the business asked for the support
of the community board
in applying for a street cafe or liquor license.
But that's just one example.
Community Board 7 also voted against
the transformation of a vacant newsstand
into a rest and charging station for delivery workers,
as well as delaying a plan
for protected crosstown bike lanes.
And as these numbers surfaced,
we saw more conversation coming out
about the struggles of being a delivery worker in the city,
with the executive director
of Workers Justice Project saying,
"These numbers confirm what we already know,
delivery workers brave rain, snow, and sleet
to fulfill millions of deliveries and keep New Yorkers fed,"
which is also why you have activists advocating
not only for places to rest and recharge
and protected biking infrastructure,
but also for fair compensation,
which, when you look at the numbers, it makes sense.
According to the Department of Consumer
and Worker Protection, delivery workers' base pay
was just over $7 an hour in the last quarter of 2021.
And with that, a number of solutions have been offered.
I mean, one of the big swings,
there was a proposed rule for a $23.82 minimum wage
for food delivery workers introduced last November.
Though recently, back in March, that got revised,
dropping the number to $19.96 an hour by 2025.
Which, hey, I'll say, I have no idea
what the proper pay rate should be for this job.
But this whole situation, I think,
does highlight an issue we see kind of pop up
over and over in different places:
people or groups of people who use a service
making life harder for the people
that actually provide that service.
And then, Hell may have frozen over
because some Texas lawmakers
are at least considering some changes to their gun laws
and it's not like every baby gets a free AR-15-style weapon.
Instead, in the House,
two Republicans on the 13-member House Select Committee
have broken with their party
and voted with their Democratic colleagues
to push a bill that would raise the age
of buying AR-15-style weapons from 18 to 21.
This was a really unexpected surprise for Democrats
in the Republican dominated House,
as the committee wasn't even scheduled to meet yesterday.
Though, to be clear,
this does not mean it will be smooth sailing from here.
The bill still has to actually pass the House
before its legislative session ends this Thursday,
although the Dems think
they have some procedures to extend that to the 29th.
But even that, it would have to then get to the Senate
and then survive any vetos from Abbott.
And even then, while it is some sort of gun reform,
it's not what many gun control activists really want.
It doesn't change the type of firearms
that are available,
their calibers, the size of their magazines,
or a plethora of other features they've sought to ban.
But considering this is Texas we're talking about
and literally any type of potential restriction
on a firearm, still unexpected.
And then, I've got an absolutely insane update today
to one of the weirdest stories we've covered.
You know, about two weeks ago,
I talked about that crazy Kenyan death cult
that encouraged its followers to starve to death.
Although, on that note, autopsies are revealing
that they didn't just let followers starve.
Instead, some were just strangled to death.
And it also increasingly is looking like killing them
wasn't just for some twisted religious reason,
with those same autopsies also showing
that many victims are missing organs,
leading police to believe
that the cult was actually engaged
in forced organ harvesting.
And so taken all together, police claim
that this cult was a highly organized crime syndicate
and that there were likely more graves out there
which could bring the death toll to well above 133.
And then, is this a political witch hunt
or just consequences for our action?
We're talking about Pakistan's former prime minster,
Imran Khan, being arrested today,
and all across the country his supporters
have brought things to a standstill,
with Khan's arrest coming as part of an investigation
into the role he and his wife allegedly played
in the Al-Qadir University Trust.
Which, a quick version, is that Khan and his wife
allegedly made a quid pro quo deal with a real estate tycoon
for land in order to build an educational institute
for the trust,
and in the end,
that supposedly cost the country $239 million.
Though Khan has denied any wrongdoing
and everything about this case has been very controversial.
For starters, his supporters claim
that these charges are just politically motivated,
as Khan was only ousted from power last year
in a parliamentary no-confidence vote
that he claimed was a plot by opposition parties,
the military, and even the US.
Although, he later withdrew his accusations against America.
And on top of that,
there's a question about the legality of the arrest itself.
Right, under recently rules changes,
those accused by the country's anti-corruption authorities
can only be arrested if they've ignored
multiple warnings from the agency
and intentionally avoid getting arrested.
Now, government officials,
they claim that Khan had been given multiple notices
and that an arrest warrant was issued on May 1st,
and saying that because he allegedly refused to cooperate
they had to send the police to forcibly arrest him.
However, Khan's supporters and his party
are adamant that there were no warnings ever sent
and that an arrest warrant was never actually issued.
Which, of course, would make this arrest illegal,
some even claiming that this man was just kidnapped.
So it's not surprising to see
that throughout every major city there,
his supporters have poured onto the streets.
And while things have been relatively peaceful
in most cities, in others,
protesters have ransacked military officials' houses
and there are increasing reports
that police and protesters are clashing.
But also, the much bigger general reality
is that the entire situation is incredibly tense
and things could easily escalate.
Especially when you consider
that this is just the start of the problems for Khan, right?
Since losing power last year,
the Al-Qadir case is just one
of over 100 cases being brought against Khan,
with him also being accused of pretty much everything,
corruption charges, terrorism, even blasphemy.
But for now, we're gonna have to wait to see
what happens here, both for Khan,
but also for Pakistan itself.
Right, we're talking about a situation
that could destabilize for a number of reasons.
That's actually where today's show ends.
But, friendly remember,
you're getting two for the price of one,
which his also free,
because in addition to your daily "Philip DeFranco Show,"
I've been giving you morning news videos.
So just click or tap to get to that
or I'll include a link in the description down below.
But as always, I gotta say, my name's Philip DeFranco,
you've just been filled in,
I love yo' faces, and I'll see tomorrow.