The Philip DeFranco Show - Ben Shapiro's ICE Movie is Worse Than You Think

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

Grab Your 4 New http://BeautifulBastard.com Tees! AND just added Crews for you!Just go to https://www.zocdoc.com/phil and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Then find and book a top-rated doctor today! Join http://PhilipDeFranco.com for a free newsletter and Ad-Free Shows!! FAQWhere did you say we could donate to Linz? http://lindsayforga.com/donate & Learn more @ http://lindsayforga.com Where can I grab merch & premium blanks? https://beautifulbastard.com/What's the Semi-Secret Phil Text Line? 813-213-4423 LISTEN TO THE SHOW iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-philip-defranco-show/id1278424954 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ESemquRbz6f8XLVywdZ2VWATCH/LISTEN TO MY OTHER PODCAST (CRASHING OUT) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCergKLoy-Yv9zlPk3XQYK7Q?sub_confirmation=1 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2DkU87umhGH9mH1z24Bi9w?si=6sSdjhVNQjyVeBQDLiXcyg Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crashing-out-with-philip-defranco-and-alex-pearlman/id1843429519 JOIN OUR COMMUNITY 📸Instagram: https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco  🐦Twitter: https://twitter.com/phillyd  🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco TODAY’S STORIES 00:00 - Production Suspended on Daily Wire’s Pro-ICE Film  07:23 - France Closes Hundreds of Schools as Students Protest Education Quality  11:10 - Sponsored by Zocdoc 12:21 - Cornell’s Jane Doe Facing Threats to Drop Suit or Have Identity Revealed 17:38 - Democrats Run Ads Focused on Epstein Files Ahead of Midterms  22:02 - Alleged Chinese Spy Arrested at LAX 23:31 - Zach Bryan Breaks Gillette Stadium Record While Wearing Free Palestine Shirt THE TEAM Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Victor Sledge, Ilana Frost   ———————————— #News #DailyWire #BenShapiro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And then there's more we gotta dive into in just a minute, but first let me thank a sponsor and say, you know, August is a great time for a reset before fall gets chaotic and my closet, it could use some adult supervision. And that's where today's sponsor, Quince comes in. Quince makes fewer better pieces from premium materials, the things you'll reach for constantly. And I really like their staples like organic cotton teas and Mongolian cashmere sweaters at work all day and into the evening. Or basically, clothes that make you look put together without looking like you spend an hour planning it. Their denim and Taylor Chino start at 60 bucks with a fit, structure and quality that you'd expect from a luxury designer brand. And then you've got things like the cotton silk short sleeve crew neck sweater.

I've been wearing that thing everywhere. Though even that is when I'm not living in their performance tanks. Both are incredibly soft, they're comfortable, but also polished enough that I still feel, you know, put together without trying too hard. And personally, as someone that just, I love a deal. I love that everything at Quince is price 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen so you're paying for quality and not brand markups. And hey, while you're at it, they have hotel quality, bedding, bath essentials, cookware, luggage, and travel must-haves. Basically, Quince is the affordable elevated one-stop shop.

So hey, upgrade your every day by scanning that QR code or going to quince.com slash defranco for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. And they're now available in Canada and the UK as well. So that's QU-I-N-C-E dot com slash defranco. Quince.com slash DeFranco. This Ben Shapiro Daily Wire Pro Ice movie scandal is genuinely insane and somehow the movie itself has become a small town crisis. You've got the Cornell 7 case just getting bigger and bigger as more recordings leak. Also, you're seeing Republicans not fully escaping there in Trump's Jeffrey Epstein problem. and you've got thousands of students being arrested

over a massive education crisis. We're talking about all of that even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco's show you daily dive into the news, but first, a quick announcement, self-promo and a great way to support the show. Over on Beautifulbastor.com, we just did a surprise October drop

with one of my favorite designers. So right now you can get your new favorite tea and more, let the world know I used to be on the honor roll, now I'm on a government watch list, or openly wonder how many grams of protein will it take to restore the light in my eyes? You can warn people to do not talk to me about AI. And with the being spooky season,

letting people know there's nothing performance about my love for spooky splendors. All available for you to pick up yours at beautifulbastard.com. But with that fun, lighter note said, there's a lot we gotta talk about today. Starting with this. Depending on where you go online and where you are ideologically, you might be familiar with Ben Shapiro

for a number of different reasons. Where some knowing best is someone who helped promote and then has consistently been destroyed by Candace So-on's on the regular. Maybe you've just stumbled across one of his posts where he's trying to cosplay as a manly man so that fewer Republicans view him as a cuck. Or maybe, especially over the past year and a half,

you've seen him go hard in the pain for Israel as opinions about Israel about Israel have changed drastically in the Republican Party, especially among younger voters. But the reason you have been in the news today is that a company that he's a co-founder of and a co-owner of, the Daily Wire, they're making a movie. Right, and this is a thing that the company does. And while seemingly their viewers and subscribers, they love this sort of content, pretty much everyone else sees it as propaganda slop. And what appears that his latest attempt at making this movie has been such a disaster that the town of Livingston, Montana, at least temporarily, has

shut the production down. And as far as this specific production, reportedly, it is a pro-ice propaganda a film titled pawn shop, right? And they started production a week ago, and there's this scene in it. And it is a scene, whether directly or indirectly, that appears to mock the killing of Minneapolis protester Renee Good. And if it's supposed to be referencing this in any way, it also completely rewrites how it happened. Right. And so as far as the synopsis, that reads, when chaos hits the streets of Minneapolis, a young federal agent is left alone after his partner is seriously hurt and must find a way to survive an increasingly dangerous situation. Seeking shelter inside a neighborhood pawn shop, he becomes trapped with a traditional Hispanic father and his progressive college

age son, forcing three very different men to confront fear, conflicting beliefs, and a crisis that tests their courage and humanity. And then you have the bulwark, adding it there is a, quote, bloodthirsty MS-13 death squad intent on rescuing a man detained by ice. And it's believed of the movie apparently opens up with that Renee good type scene. So the character is named Melanie and she is described as a masked, quote, fat blue hair who blasts NPR as she gleefully kills an ice agent with her Subaru. And so with this, like, it is worth a peek at just how gruesome and if it's supposed to be referencing this, how inaccurate the whole script is. With it She mashes onto the gas as she throws the car into reverse, accidentally slamming Juan out of the way.

He goes flying into the gutter, bleeding, and as the car reverses, Mike fires twice through the windshield. The first shot hits Melanie in the neck below her COVID mask, and the second in the head above her COVID mask, blood splatters on her passengers. Right now, as we know, Good did not kill any ice agents with her car, nor did she even hit the guy who killed her. He shot her through her driver's side window. And her family, actually, they just filed two civil lawsuits against the federal government over this wrongful death. So you've got a lot of people saying that Ben Shapiro's company, The Daily Wire, they're turning an innocent woman who was murdered into a caricature with this scene, right? arguing that's stooping pretty low even for The Daily Wire.

And that's as, since they started filming, you've had people saying the movie crew has just been wreaking havoc on the town, right, disrupting local businesses and scaring residents with dangerous stunts, reportedly without giving any proper notice. And actually, to get an inside look or at least an on-the-ground look to all of this, we spoke with Brooklyn Wild, a Livingston-based content creator who's in the film industry. They're just permitting and closing down, imagine blocks at a time, and even running simulated car crashes and pyrotechnics and gunfire.

I believe in the freedom of speech. But even if this film were anti-ice in nature, I terribly disagree with the predatory practices of the producers on this. On the day that they were filming the Renee Good sequence, you could say, there was a retired bat who has a lot of accessibility needs, and he has a lot of support needs. And he doesn't know, like he's not online. He didn't know that this was just a movie,

but I heard from people that there was a borderline moment of a public crisis, like a public mental health crisis, because this guy was being so actively triggered by a production who didn't tell anyone. So you've got people saying, you know, others are being infected by this in very real ways. And you've had townspeople protesting, singing Ben Shapiro is a cuck or playing copyrighted music.

With this, you had wild adding. And this movie was so afraid of us protesters that they actually hired six of their own private security, armed private security guards who were intimidating, and if you go back and watch the city meeting, and anyone can, that's like publicly archived, you can see many citizens were concerned. Like, why does a movie need six armed guys? Right, and so with this, you've had residents complaining to the police department on a daily basis. And apparently, beyond scaring the neighbors, this has been interfering with the town's food bank

Livingston Food Resources. And you actually had them releasing a statement saying, since filming began across the street from our building, road closures and armed security guards have increased the barriers to accessing food. and adding, our clients deserve to feel unequivocally safe accessing this essential resource. And with that, noting that attendance was down 17% last Tuesday and eight-week low from seeing 90 to 100-plus households a day. And so you had all of this leading to the special meeting on Saturday, where the Livingston City Commission unanimously passed a motion in response to the concerns. They're putting production on hold while city leaders get legal advice about whether they have grounds to change or revoke the permit.

And with that, you would wild saying there are a lot of issues with this permit situation. The city's permitting system is not designed for film. while the production I've seen did write out, pyrotechnics, car crash, like we'll call the police before we set off blank gunfire, which is all things that they've been doing. The permit also said, it is encouraged that you reach out to local residents

and business owners to let them know what will happen. And they said we are or we will, and then they never did. And with all this, we should have an update soon, right, there's a follow-up meeting that's actually set for this evening, so we're going to see what happens there. But at least according to Wild, they kept filming after the pause was in place

and that hasn't gone over well. And then also aside from the permit logistics, There have also been a lot of questions and concerns about the behind the scenes of the filming. Because this is a film that's apparently under a conditional start with Sag Aftra and not under an IOTC contract at all. With those being two of the major unions that represent workers in the entertainment industry. And you're seeing conversations about the people involved from the top of the pyramid all the way down to the bottom. Because one of the executive producers on pawn shop is Carter Bohm, who was also an executive producer on Rust, which famously was the 2021 movie where a cinematographer Helena Hutchins was fatally shot after a prop revolver that Alec Baldwin was holding,

fired a live round. And so on top of the safety concerns, you had wild telling us, that several actors and crew members were lied to about the film and taken advantage of. When the production came to town and started hiring background actors for their scenes, they were coming towards people

saying that it was anti-ice in nature. So a lot of locals were hired as background actors and some of them were proud. They were like, go ice and they stayed. They definitely did. One guy, Chris, I think his name is, he found out he was unhappy, he was lied to, he made a scene.

He, like, made sure he could ruin as many takes until they asked him to go. And then, One other person, Quimby, Quimby music is her handle. She was in Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge. So I really loved that she stood down the protest, on the protest mic. And so basically, you have the situation where it's alleged. The facts don't care about your feelings people.

They've both rewritten history in a form of entertainment. And allegedly, they're lying to people about it to get them to participate. Here's what I'll say right now. Everything's really a mess. We're trying to learn more. And there are going to be updates to the situation that start with the permit, right? Whether that's changed or revoke tonight. But then from that, we jump to other news because you have hundreds of schools

shut down, thousands of students arrested, dozens of people injured, and some buildings, they're ransacked and burned because apparently when French high school students protest, they go all out. Because you have much of France right now gripped with student protests over the quality of their education and things, they've been getting heated. You're looking at barricades popping up on the streets, vandalism, fires and fireworks, teenagers taunting police and getting arrested, officers firing tear gas and charging lines. And actually, this whole thing, it started a couple of weeks ago on the outskirts of Paris, where we had teachers and students mobilizing against the lack of staffing at the local high school. But since then, this is,

This whole issue has snowballed and spread across the entire country, resulting in more than 5,000 arrests as a Friday, with most of them actually being minors. And with that, 170 students and 78 school staff members have been injured, according to France's education minister. And that's as, you have them saying that 24 school buildings have been ransacked and burned. Though I will say there was a bit of a lull over the weekend after some 700 of the 3,700 schools in the country were impacted by the protests on Friday. Though that doesn't mean that it's over because organizers call for even more protests

through this week, but accusing the government of a lack of concrete measures in addressing their demands. And so over the weekend, you were the education minister announcing up between 400 and 500 schools would be partially or completely closed going into Monday, citing security conditions of the schools that, quote, have not been fulfilled. And as far as, you know, what these students are demanding, they're kind of hitting a wide variety of issues that are plaguing the French school system, but a big one, it's just staffing. There is just not enough teachers or support staff pretty much anywhere. In fact, the education ministry found that during the 2024-25 school year, nearly 10% of required teaching hours, they went untought in public secondary

schools. And a big chunk of that was because they just couldn't find substitutes. And so the lack of teachers means massive class sizes. We're talking 30 to 40 students per class. And that also doesn't even touch the facilities themselves. Right, because you've had the students also highlighting that a lot of their buildings, they're just crumbling. They're saying they roast alive in the summers and they freeze in the winters. And that's when the buildings are at least upright. They're saying that some schools, they're leaking, decaying and collapsing. And that's on top of the reported infestations of rats and roaches. Rayhood, one student that was protesting in the northeast of France telling a local outlet. There are 35 of us per classroom, 95 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. It's unbearable. There aren't enough

toilets and there are water leaks in some rooms. The building is falling apart. The cafeteria is too small. There's zero budget, zero resources, not enough supervisors. And you would another protest are adding, today our school is paralyzed due to a lack of resources, teachers, and not enough desks. We don't have nurses or supervisors and all they do for us is take away our phones. And it's not just inside of individual schools that's the problem. The students are also taking issue with the system at large. There are some also calling for the abolition of state-run admissions platforms or higher education and universities that they call unfairly selective. Or you have them saying that social background and determined success, meaning that kids growing up disadvantaged, they don't have the same opportunities.

Now with this, something interesting is that the students have gotten a lot of support from local unions as well as what's been described as France's far-left party, France Unbound. And so you've had their leaders and rising stars showing up to these protests and condemning what they're calling the savagery of the police in their response to the protests. But that support has also led to France Unbound's critics, accusing them of fanning the flames and manipulating the students for political gain. And in fact, you had the education minister saying, there are activists, particularly from the far left, who have infiltrated the high school student movement, hijacked it from the student's themselves and engaged in extreme violence.

And that's as you've had other French officials saying that while the students' grievances, they're legit, the protests, those have devolved into riots and senseless violence. That said, France Unbout has denied the accusation that they're manipulating anything, saying that while they support the movement, they don't have any hand in its organization anyway. But I will say it is worth mentioning that they do stand to gain something from offering their support here. Because among other things, their leader, Jean-Luc, Melanchon, he's making a fourth run at becoming president, and he's spending a lot of time wooing the younger voters.

Right, he's not being subtle about this agenda. In a statement last week, he came out of the statement. and all but said that he wants the young voters to remember his party's support here and saying, what we want is for the country's young people to emerge from this episode with their heads held high, having won something and learned something and to remember it when they cast their ballots. And so that's going to be a thing to remember, right? However these protests shape up in the coming days and weeks and maybe months, it's become very clear that it's going to be a major piece of the political conversation heading into the election. And then there's even more we've got to dive

into in just a minute, but first a quick word from a sponsor. You know it's wild? The hardest part about needing a doctor sometimes isn't the appointment. He's trying to find one when you actually need the help. I was talking to a friend recently that injured their Achilles tendon. So they needed to find a sports medicine orthopedic surgeon quickly. So he did what most people do. He searched for a highly rated doctor called the office and immediately hit a voicemail. Or the message basically saying, due to a high number of calls, leave a message and we'll get back to you.

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or to get started and to get that appointment off your to-do list today. That's ZOCDOC.com slash Phil. But then jump it right back into the news. Today, we've got to talk about big updates around the so-called Cornell 7 and the alleged sexual assault. Because among other things, you have Jane Doe now facing threats. There are reports of an alleged cover-up, and there's new phone call recordings that have leaked. And just as a quick refresher, last month, a Jane Doe found a lawsuit claiming that she was gang raped by seven fraternity brothers at Cornell. And as you've had the story growing and growing, there have been a ton of new narratives and responses,

including people that are blaming Jane Doe and trying to identify her. And so with that, yesterday you had her lawyer telling CNN. There are people out there trying to track her down. They've tracked down the wrong women, at least three of the wrong women that I've heard about. They said, we're going to shut you up. You're going to be, still get hurt by us. You're going to pull this lawsuit out or we're going to do something to hurt you even more. She's received multiple threats and women who aren't even Jane Doe have received threats about

what they're going to do to her. And in fact, this morning I received a threat. And that actually wasn't the only major allegation that he drunk. Because you also had him telling Jake Tapper that given the way that the case was mishandled by both Cornell and the DA, they are likely missing key pieces of evidence. And you have him saying that he believes that because so much is missing and Doe has such a hazy memory of that night, even though we refer to the accused as the Cornell 7, the number of perpetrators could be even higher.

Frankly, I don't, I'm not even sure we have everybody who participated in this assault because my client was blacked out during periods of time. And that's reported in these statements. We don't even know the people we have or the people we definitively know. If you ask me, I believe there were more. So you think it's more than seven? I think so, but we'll never know. And so you have all of that, as ABC News is reporting that Frat Brothers and Kai Fai,

they were doing damage control to contain the allegations and even convinced Doe that nothing bad happened. Because you had the outlet reviewing materials from Cornell's investigation, and according to those records, one of Doe's friends told campus officials, they tried to contact Jane almost every day after it happened to, I guess, keep them on her good side and keep her happy and not upset about the situation. And during investigative hearings, Doe said that the boys had attempted cover-ups on campus. Because one of the key conversations that you're seeing happening around this case is how long it took Doe to understand that she was allegedly assaulted, which, according to experts, is something common among victims. And with that, you with the New York Times doing this massive piece last week, timelining how she came to the conclusion she was raped. And you had that story knowing that, well, some of the women around her were quick to say that they viewed the events as sexual assault. So herself was dealing with, quote, shame and humiliation before she began to consider herself an assault victim. And you had a roommate saying that Doe would initially tell the story as a, quote, sort of crazy thing that she had done. But as time went on, she, quote, came to realize that it was. was something bad and that she really didn't enjoy her time there.

And you had one roommate even saying, I'd have conversations and she would describe a part of what happened and I would tell her that that is what could be classified as rape. And then you also had her perception of events seeming to change as she talked with the alleged perpetrators. Right, a few days after the incident, one had texted her to, quote, apologize for how things went down and she responded by saying that it was not illegal.

Also, as rumors were spreading about her, she then got more concerned, but agreed when one of the accused told her that it would blow over. But then eventually, she wrote to one, let's be clear that 90% of what happened that night was not consensual. And adding, I was given more ketamine than I can remember, and I know that I told you I felt uncomfortable and didn't know anyone in the room. Now you have ABC News obtaining a phone call that appears to show a similar sentiment. The call in question is between Doe and Matthew Ingalls, who was one of the accused and also the frat brother that she was specifically visiting that night.

And in that call, she said that she needed to know what happened that night to heal from it and specifically referred to the encounter as a gang rape while Ingl's tried to convince her that it was harmless. And a quick note here is that while we hear Matthew's voice, ABC had their anchors read Doe's part, likely to keep her identity concealed. She said, if I wanted to take this somewhere, what y'all did would be classified as gang rape. You already knew when I came in, I was 10 shots deep. Engels responded with a different recollection. You did tell me you were sober, by the way. You did. You said you hadn't been anywhere. Jane Doe said she was 100% sure, she told him she had been at a bar for a sorority event,

and I never lie. You then also had her asking how the encounter, which started as a threesome, began. She also asked him to help her identify all the men who later joined, saying she remembered four in the bed, and more. standing around the room. Engels seem to suggest both of their memories may not be accurate. I have wrapped my brain for this mystery. You know, it's possible, but both of us, like, remember this and it's not true.

Jane Doe pushed back, saying, no, because I remember looking up and being like, that is too many people. She then asked, do you remember how any of these guys walked in? The party was sort of, like, crowded, so people started, like, filling up the balcony. just because there was nowhere else to go. But what he didn't say there is that he had invited them, sending his Snapchat to a nearly 60-person chat, advertising her as free pussy.

And while Ingalls, he reportedly didn't give a comment to ABC for their report, in Cornell's investigation, he reportedly suggested that he was too intoxicated to consent to sexual activity and that actually Jane Doe assaulted him. Right, but then in addition to all that, you're seeing this growing outrage over how Cornell and the DA handled the case. Right, last week you had the New York Times reporting

that when Doe first reported the claim to Cornell, investigators condensed her 120-page transcript into a six-page statement to send to the DA. And with that, they omitted the part where she said, quote, I can say with 100% confidence, I was raped. And then over the weekend, you had NBC News further reporting that the DA did not review witness statements and other evidence Cornell police had collected.

And so now with all this, in addition to everything, you have large protests being planned on the campus. Also overnight, someone vandalized the school's main administration building smashing a window and spray painting at Cornell. Rapists are protected. Protesters are expelled. So for now, this story continues to grow and grow, and we'll see what comes from here.

But then, jumping from that, So other news, let's talk about this big situation connected to the midterms. Because in these final weeks, before the midterms, you've got Democrats launching a new wave of campaign ads that are targeting Republicans on a key issue that they think will move voters, and that is Jeffrey Epstein. Right, you're seeing things like just this morning, a Democrat running for Congress in a competitive Colorado district, releasing an ad that features the family of Virginia Jufray, who of course is one of the most prominent Epstein victims. And that ad comes from Jessica Killen, who's running to unseat Republican Representative Jeff Crank in Colorado's fifth district. Right. And specifically, the ad features Dufray's brother Sky Roberts and his wife Amanda, who very notably are actually constituent. of Crank. My sister, Virginia, was one of Jeffrey Epstein's victims.

She spent her life trying to expose the truth. After she died, we promised to carry on her fight. But our own congressman, Jeff Crank, refused to meet with us. Then, when he had the chance to expose the truth and release the Epstein files, he repeatedly voted to cover them up. Virginia deserved better. Jeff Crank covered up Epstein's crimes to protect Donald Trump. He has no business being in Congress.

Right, not only did Crank refuse to sign the dish, charged petition that forced to vote on the release of the Epstein files, but he also actively voted to block consideration of the legislation on the House floor. And while he did eventually join nearly every member of the House to approve the release of the files, it was only after there was sweeping public pressure and Trump himself urged lawmakers to pass the measure. Even though, of course, remember, Trump has gone out of his way to ruin the Republicans who initially got it to this point. Meanwhile, the Roberts is saying that they spoke with about 20 lawmakers from both parties, but their own congressmen refused. And while they eventually did meet with his district director,

Amanda said that it wasn't enough telling reporters. At the end of the day, the bare minimum of this job in this role is to hear your constituents. How can you stay with your constituents and vote according to their needs if you have no idea what their needs are? So this ad ends up being very significant because it's reportedly the first in this election cycle that features an Epstein victim or their family. But of course, it's also far from the only time of the topic has been a focal point of political ads. Depending on where you live, you get and serve different kinds of ads. But Epstein, he's been a major issue throughout this cycle. With candidates nationwide hitting opponents over their attempts to stop the release of the files and ties to donors or supporters connected to Epstein.

In fact, according to Ad Impact, there have been nearly 70 ads worth more than $36.6 million that have mentioned Epstein since the midterm cycle started. And actually recently, you had the Democratic Senate Majority Pack unleashing a new flood of Epstein ad slamming Republicans in some of the most important races that will determine control of the upper chamber. And you're seeing that pack targeting Senator Dan Sullivan in Alaska, Senator Susan Collins and Maine, and Representative Ashley Hinson, who is running for Senate in Iowa. Dan Sullivan took thousands in cash from Epstein Associates and voted to keep the files hidden

from the public. Even after he knew 14-year-old girls were raped, Dan Sullivan had the power to release the Epstein files and protect the victims. Instead, he protected his donors and his friends. Susan Collins voted with Trump to cover up the Epstein files. She knew 14-year-old girls were raped. Every time it matters, Susan Collins does what Trump says, even protecting child predators. Ashley Hinson took nearly $90,000 from people in the Epstein files and voted to keep those files secret. I would like to tell Ashley Hinson that I don't trust you. If you can't stand up for girls and women in Iowa and the rest of this country, why should I ever vote for you? And then beyond that, you have that same pack also running ads with the Epstein class messaging in North Carolina and Texas,

and you have sources saying that they intend to roll out even more ads in the coming weeks. But of course, with all this, there is the very big question of does it actually move the needle with key voters? And well, at least according to the polls, it indicates that it might. Right, for example, you had an NBC News decision desk poll finding that 71% of Americans, including more than a third of Republicans, disapproved of how Trump has handled the Epstein files. And according to internal polling from the Senate Majority Pact, a 44% plurality of voters, including the same percentage of swing voters,

think that the Epstein issue is serious in that Republicans need to be held responsible. But as far as, does that change how people vote, right? Does it actually move the electorate? That remains unclear. And personally, I'm of the mindset of it might move maybe some people that are genuinely torn still, But my feelings on this are that elections are usually decided on two to four core issues. A lot of them repeat each cycle. Maybe they change, you know, what's the most important. But I think right now, you know, it's economy and affordability. Though things like the Epstein

files and how they handled it, I think it shows just what a shit show this administration has been and just what liars they are. And that also extends to Trump advertising himself as the peace of president of no more wars and then having a war of choice in Iran, which then ends up also being more connected to the key issues of affordability because that fucked a lot of things up. And then diving right back into the final block of today's show. Let's just talk about some news you might have missed. Because first up, you've got a Chinese spy getting busted as she was about to board a flight from LAX to Shanghai, except she wasn't spying on the U.S. instead, 34-year-old Waniying Heather Zhang. She was reportedly tracking Ting Yu Lai, the son of Taiwan's

president. And Lai studied to be an engineer in the U.S. works for Phillips and has a U.S.-born son. And so a big thing is that the FBI wasn't actually shocked that he was being tracked with one special agent writing. If the People's Republic of China wished to obtain leverage over the president of Taiwan during any potential conflict, the location and pictures of the close relatives of a high-ranking Taiwanese government official, including pictures of their homes and cars, could be useful to the PRC. Zhang seems like an unlikely spy, which is a real estate agent in the Irvine area, which is this very rich suburb between Los Angeles and San Diego. But for whatever reason, she and someone identified as individual one flew from Las Vegas to Seattle, rented a car, and then drove to Lai's home,

where they took photos and videos of Lai, his wife and child coming home that evening. Erwuzhang then sending text and voice recordings to her Chinese handlers saying, saw him, young male, it's that young one, followed by their license plate numbers. And it appears what really undid, Zhang, is that instead of keeping the as, on the Chinese-controlled Wii chat. It was backed up to her iCloud account and the FBI searched that. Though a big thing I have to add here, if you were even remotely paying attention to Chinese spying, you know, this is not shocking. Right, nearby to this story in Arcadia, the mayor was charged with acting as a Chinese agent. And that's on top of the Chinese government

having this history of harassing the Chinese diaspora in the United States. Or like in 2020, they had what was an unofficial Chinese police station in Manhattan that they used to target Chinese dissidents. And it might actually get worse as they're planning to start forcibly repatriating Chinese nationals around the world. But then, last step for you today, just a few weeks after Robert Kraft blocked Maclemore from opening for Ed Sheareran at Gillette Stadium, right, because of his support for Palestine for Palestine. Musical artist Zach Bryan, he just broke the stadium's attendance record while wearing a free Palestine t-shirt. We're in the stadium that Kraft owns. After calling out McElmore for what he called anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery, saying that the stadium isn't a platform for hate speech and that having him at shiren's show would have crossed that line, right?

All bogus things if you actually watched what McElmore did. But then this weekend you had Brian skirting all that and just letting his shirt do the talking for two nights in a row. And actually at least two of his band members did the same. With his drummer even wearing a jersey that had the name of a five-year-old girl who was living in Gaza and reportedly was killed by Israeli fire. Well, right now, Brian hasn't come out addressing any of this, and we haven't heard from Kraft either. Brian's a Navy vet who's been openly critical about what he called the fading of the red, white, and blue. And in the past, he even criticized ICE in a song, which got a lot of people upset. But that, my friends, beautiful bastards is the end of your Monday show.

Thank you for watching, like, and subscribe into these daily dimes and the news being a part of what we've been doing here for 20 years now. Also, as of Saturday night, the tour is done. I just have to say to the just thousands and thousands of people that was in front. of and got to meet. Thank you. Well, touring on top of everything else happening in life right now is very tiring. Just being with you, it just energizes me in a way I really can't describe. And it all genuinely has me more fired up than ever. So hey, I love your faces. Take care of yourself. And I'll see you right back here tomorrow.