The Philip DeFranco Show - Charlie Kirk Meme Scandal is Insane, Zohran Mamdani's Fake News Problem, & Donald Trump Goes Nuclear

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

The MKBHD Pod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUYu6OSlnXs Kickstart your passion project with a free trial today: https://www.Squarespace.com/Phil & enter offer code “Phil” to get 10% off your first purchase!   LISTEN TO THE SHOW iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-philip-defranco-show/id1278424954 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ESemquRbz6f8XLVywdZ2VWATCH CRASHING OUT w/ PHILIP & ALEX 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 WATCH/LISTEN TO MY NEW PODCAST w/ MKBHD Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2CePXwDrvdQTes844wflKp?si=55a6b6049c4841ed Youtube: https://youtube.com/acw?sub_confirmation=1 iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-good-faith-with-philip-defranco/id1827016835 JOIN OUR COMMUNITY 📸Instagram: https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco  🐦Twitter: https://twitter.com/phillyd  🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco  TODAY’S STORIES 00:00 - Charges Dropped Against Man Who Spent Month in Jail Over Charlie Kirk Post  04:29 - Trump Tells Pentagon to Immediately Resume Testing Nuclear Weapons 08:13 - Sponsored by Squarespace 09:20 - Newspaper Tricked by Fake Bill de Blasio Spreads Anti-Mamdani Comments 11:27 - Former Illinois Deputy Found Guilty of Murdering Sonya Massey 15:34 - MKBHD Breaks Down the Controversy Around the NEO Home Robot 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, Jared Paolino   ———————————— #DeFranco #CharlieKirk #DonaldTrump Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That's annoying. What? You're a muffler. You don't hear it? Oh, I don't even notice it. I usually drown it out with the radio. How's this? Oh, yeah.

Way better. Save on insurance by switching to Bel Air Direct and use the money to fix your car. Bell Air Direct, insurance, simplified. Conditions apply. Trump's fun, new nuclear threats and what it means for you, the man jailed over Charlie Kirk memes was just freed after a month in jail.

The Zoran Mamdani Bill de Blasio scandal shows why healthy skepticism is healthy. And then, I got a final awesome thing for you today. But we're talking about all of that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show you daily dive into the news, starting with this. A guy who got arrested over social media post that he made following Charlie Kirk's death was just released from jail. Because we're talking about Larry Busshart in Tennessee, who got taken into custody on September 22nd with him just getting released today, so he was

in there for over a month. Right, and Larry, he's a retired police officer. He's known to talk politics online and post liberal memes. Right, according to reports in the days after Charlie was killed, Larry was doing just that posting a ton on Facebook, including in the comment section of a post in a group called What's Happening in Perry County. And the post was about a vigil to be taking place to honor Charlie in a town called Lyndon. And Larry posted a slew of memes asking who gives a shit that Charlie died, mocking Cash Patel's Valhalla, comment, and more. But also, the one that got him in the most trouble was where he referenced Donald Trump's own words.

Or with there being a photo at Trump's face, alongside the quote, we have to get over it. With a meme noting that Trump did in fact say that one day after a shooting at Perry High School in Iowa. And above that, the meme said this seems relevant today. Right. So to most people, it would seem like the meme is suggesting that if Trump is telling people to get over school shootings then the public should also get Oaker Charlie Kirk. But also a thing here is that the local high school in the town there, it was called Perry County High School. And there had also

recently been an alleged threat against it. And so the Perry County Sheriff claimed that this caused panic, saying that parents and students and teachers were concerned that he was talking about a hypothetical school shooting at the local Perry County High School in Tennessee. And so Larry, he ends of getting charged with threatening mass violence at a school and he gets held on two million dollar bail. With that truly shocking Larry, according to body cam footage published by the Intercept. Threatening mass violence at a school. At a school. It's referring to a school.

I have no idea. That's what they've called us for. And I ain't get a clue. I played on Facebook. I'm not saying you did. I didn't do anything. No, I did do anything. No, I did.

That's what I'm saying. I'm not saying you did and did not commit a crime. I may have been a asshole, but I'm... That's not illegal. Right, and with this, you've had many questioning if this post even caused the mass panic the way the sheriff claimed that it did. With the senior attorney, for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression telling USA Today that he filed open records

requests with Perry County Schools, asking for communications laying out the so-called hysteria that Larry allegedly caused. But they apparently had none with him explaining. I never heard anything back at all from the county and all the school said was that the sheriff handled the case and there are no records. And on top of that, well, some of Larry's other comments actually got traction and responses, that mean one was apparently ignored on Facebook. And so in reports of his arrest made local news, many were just confused and argued that the sheriff was violating free speech by arresting Larry, right, many thinking that the sheriff, who also posted, seeming to grieve Charlie Kirk, willfully misinterpreted Larry's words. Right, and then you had a Facebook page called

Justice for Larry Busshart being made and support, calling for him to be free, condemning the sheriff for the arrest, defending Larry's remarks is non-threatening. And then all of it bringing us to yesterday where we got the news that the charges against Larry had finally been dropped after again, he had been locked up for a month because of this, with Larry walking free and telling reporters, thanks to all and any supporters out there and very happy to be going home. I I didn't think to be a media sensation. And as far as why these charges were all of a sudden dropped, it's not clear right now.

Though you do have some noting that it came not long after reporting on the case from The Interceptive in News Channel 5 and Nashville brought a ton of attention to the case. Right, and specifically with that, there was an interview that News Channel 5 did with the sheriff of Perry County that caused a ton of outrage. Because you see, in that interview, he continued to say that the arrest was due to public concerns,

while also seemingly admitting that he knew Larry wasn't actually threatening the school. 35 days over a main, a meme well it's a it's a it was a series of post but yes the one post that he made was the the one with Donald Trump that got everybody's attention and was considered a threatening that led people to believe in our county that he's talking about Perry County High School because it doesn't say Iowa either but but you also knew this was an existing meme that was already out there on the internet correct and so it's clear he's not talking about County High School.

We knew. The public did not know. In the interview, it doesn't go well. And again, it brings us to today where Larry is out. He is free. But also, like, it can't be dismissed. He was in jail for over a month over this. But hey, that's a story, a little bit of my take,

and now, of course, it passed the question off to you. Whether you agree or disagree with me, I'd love to know your thoughts, opinions, and reactions here. But then, next up in the news, Donald Trump just ordered the Pentagon to begin testing nuclear weapons again for the first time since 1992. Which was actually really cool news to see after I had just finished a house of dynamite on netfully. Right, but we should talk about what this means and how it happened, because he made this announcement just minutes before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

With Trump riding, the United States has more nuclear weapons than any other country. This was accomplished, including a complete update and renovation of existing weapons during my first term in office, and then going on to say, because of the tremendous destructive power, I hated to do it, but had no choice. Russia is second and China is a distant third, but will be even within five years, and then finally adding, because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our nuclear weapons. on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately. Okay, so a few things to mention a few issues with what he said. One, just to be exact, and for the sake of accuracy, the exact number of nuclear weapons held by each country, it's not 100% no. But it's actually Russia that has the most, according to estimates by groups, including the Federation of American Scientists and

then two, it's not exactly clear why the order was given to the Pentagon when America's nuclear arsenals maintained by the Department of Energy and a semi-autonomous agency within that's known as the National Nuclear Security Administration. And then three, and this is a big one, neither Russia, China, nor and any country on Earth, except North Korea, have live tested a nuclear weapon in this century. And so with that, it seems like it's possible that Trump's actually conflating the testing of missiles that deliver a nuclear warhead

with the testing of the warheads themselves. Right, and in that case, this might all actually be a response to Putin announcing earlier this week that Russia had tested a new nuclear-powered cruise missile and an atomic powered underwater drone, both capable of delivering a nuclear payload. And a big thing, right, with that missile, is it's reportedly been engineered

to evade defense systems being developed by the United States. Namely, Trump's so-called Golden Dome, which the Kremlin sees is an effort to develop first strike capability over Russia. And so actually, you know, with that, I think it's worth noting that like Russia, the US military military already regularly tests its own missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload. We actually tested one just last month. And so again, it's not clear right now what starting tests on an equal basis, as Trump said, would really mean in the future. Though you should not take any of that as a reason to dismiss the seriousness of the situation. It's still nukes we're talking about. And even separate from this announcement, I mean, you've had many arguing for a while that we're in the midst of a new nuclear arms race. Because the thing is, Russia and China, they've been aggressively expanding their nuclear stockpile in recent years. and the US has also been spending massively to upgrade its arsenal.

And so actually with that, you had Putin signing a bill back in 2023, revoking his country's ratification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, claiming that it was necessary to put Russia on equal footing with the United States, which had signed but never ratified the treaty. Right next year, you have the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the United States and Russia set to expire.

And, like, you maybe know, because we actually did a whole deep dive on this subject in the past. A key takeaway on this subject and the situation is that you have experts saying it, thanks to models and simulations and other techniques that we have now, there's no point in actually live testing anymore. Especially given the potential downside, and so you've had experts saying the goal of conducting a fast-track nuclear test can only be political, not scientific.

And actually adding to that in response to Trump's announcement, you had the head of the Washington Base Arms Control Association calling the president misinformed and out of touch and arguing. The US has no technical, military, or political reason to resume nuclear explosive testing. Then claiming it would take at least 36 months to resume contained nuclear tests underground at the former test site in Nevada. And adding, by foolishly announcing his intention to resume nuclear testing, Trump will trigger strong opposition in Nevada from all U.S. allies and it could trigger a chain reaction of nuclear testing by U.S. adversaries and blow apart the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. And so at that point, you've already had the Kremlin warning that if the U.S. resumed nuclear testing, Russia would follow soon. And at least for now, Trump really hasn't offered any clarity about his remarks, only speaking

to reporters and doubling down. They seem to all be nuclear testing. We have more nuclear weapons than anybody. We don't do testing. But with others doing testing, I think it's appropriate that we do also. And then with that, he says that future testing will be announced, so look forward to that, I guess. And then there's more we're going to dive into in just a minute, but first let me say, listen up, right? I'm talking to you right now. And specifically, you with that passion project, that side hustle, that list of business ideas that just keep rotten away on your notes at. Let today be the day that you commit to making that thing real. You know, I totally get it. I procrastinated on building my book club website forever. But also, and I kid you not, the DeFranco Book Club, it went from someday to launch an under an hour with today's sponsor, Squarespace.

Because it could not be easier to build a site to showcase things or start selling content, courses, physical or digital products, whatever you've got in mind. Want to charge a one-time fee, offer a subscription, both done and done. And they've got beautiful templates that look like you hired a designer and their fluid engine editor. It lets you drag, drop, customize, no coding, no stress, no excuses. My team even uses Squarespace or our daily dip newsletter where tens of thousands of y'all every day get your PDS fix in your inbox. Things that add on to this show, news polls, giveaways, PDS, show notes, all run through Squarespace. Right, it went from idea to reality just like that, and your project vision could be next. All you got to do is take the first step today with a free trial at Squarespace.com slash fill or scan a QR code.

Right, today is launch day. And all I ask is, when you're ready to go live, just use code fill to get 10% off and let him know he's sent you. Check out the big stars, big series, and blockbuster movies. Streaming on Paramount Plus. Cue the music. Like NCIS, Tony and Ziva. We'd like to make up your own rules. Tulsa King.

to take out the competition. The substance. This balance is not working. And the naked gun. That was awesome. Now that's a mountain of entertainment. Paramoose. You know what's better than the one big thing?

Two big things. Exactly. The new iPhone 17 Pro on Tullis' five-year rate plan price lock. Yep, it's the most powerful iPhone ever. Plus, more peace of mind with your bill over five years. This is big. Get the new iPhone 17 Pro at tellus.com slash iPhone 17 Pro on select plans.

Conditions and exclusions apply. But then next up in the news, this Zoran Mamdani Bill de Blasio scandal's kind of fantastic. Rick's former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio seemed to be a fan of Momdani. Then you had the Times of London reporting that he was starting to question if Momdani's policies were actually feasible and saying,

while the ambition is admirable, the cost estimates reportedly exceeding $7 billion annually rest on optimistic assumptions about eliminating waste and raising revenue through new taxes. And adding, in my view, the math doesn't hold up under scrutiny and the political hurdles are substantial. And this was seemingly such a big shift and such a big statement that Andrew Cuomo's team, they pick this up. And they said that de Blasio realized that Mamdani's policies were stuff like free buses. It was just glitter and vibes. Except, little tiny baby issue, Bill de Blasio came out and said he never actually spoke with the Times of London.

Writing, I want to be 100% clear, the story in the Times of London is entirely false and fabricated. It was just brought to my attention, and I'm appalled. I never spoke to that reporter and never said those things. Those quotes aren't mine, don't reflect my views. With him later adding that he very much supports Mumdani's policies. And so instantly, you had people questioning, what the hell happened here? Right, what would a pretty well-respected paper with 240 years of history put out something that's just fake? And well, according to them, it's because they were lied to and they ended up taking the piece down just two hours after it was published. And saying they did this after discovering that a reporter had been

misled by an individual falsely claiming to be the former New York mayor. Then leading to headlines saying British newspaper dupes by someone impersonating former New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio. But here's the thing, Bill de Blasio doesn't see it that way. Because it turns out there's just another guy in New York with that name named Bill de Blasio. He's a 59-year-old wine importer from Long Island and he spoke to semaphore about this situation. And what he claims is that just some reporter from the Times, they hit him up for his opinion about the race and added. I never once said I was the mayor. He never addressed me as the mayor, so I just gave him my opinion. With him then pointing out, I could have corrected him. It was all in good fun. I

never thought it would make it to print. And then it's just kind of a fun showery on top. His criticism of Mumdani's plan wasn't even his own and study just went to chat GPT to figure out what to write. Well, personally, I wish this isn't where the story ended and it turned out it was actually a third guy named Bill de Blasio who spoke to Semaphore. This unfortunately serves as yet another reminder

that you should be skeptical that the first thing that you read and also everyone in the industry should vet their sources. But then next step of the news, the cop that shot Sonia Massey was just found guilty for murder, though her family says that's not enough. Because if you don't remember the details, last year,

36-year-old Sonia Massey called 911 in the middle of the night because she thought someone was lurking outside of her house in Springfield, Illinois. But then two sheriff's deputies responding, one of them being Sean Grayson. Right and Grayson and the other deputy, they searched the property and after not finding anyone, they knocked on the door to talk to Sonia. From there, they went inside, they had a cordial conversation, that is, until Grayson saw a boiling pot of water on the stove and he asked Sonia to take it off the burner. Right, and that is when the potty camp footage shows that things take a turn. What are you going?

Oh, wait from your hot steam and water. I'm away from a hot steam of water? Yeah. Oh, I was rebukes you in the night. Right. And that's where you got. I'll shoot you around your face. Okay, I'm sorry. Drop the fucking talk.

Right, and from there, I can't show the footage, but you can find it. Sonia apologizes, ducks down, and that's when Grayson ends up shooting her three times. Then afterward, the other deputy trying to give Sonia for her say, but Grayson then also reportedly tells the guy not to bother that Sony's injuries were just too severe. Also, I'll say, worth noting here, is that it actually wasn't Grayson's body cam that caught this whole interaction. It was the other deputies. Right, and that, because Grayson's wasn't turned on. Also, as far as Sony here, I feel, like it's important to mention that she had been reportedly struggling with some mental health issues

in the weeks leading up to her death. And in fact, the day before that she was killed, Sonia's mother called police saying that her daughter was having a mental breakdown and asked police not to hurt her when they responded. But then with this, after Sonia was killed, there was an investigation into her death by the Illinois State Police and the local state's attorney office. With that investigation then leading to Grayson's indictment, which then led to him being fired and then just a whole bunch of backlash for the sheriff's office for him being even hired in the first place. Because it turns out, Grayson had a spotty history at best with two DUI convictions, one of which led to his discharge from the Army for serious misconduct, as well as a documented history of impulsive decision-making

and filing inaccurate reports as a law enforcement officer. In this whole situation, it just reignited protests across the country about the way that law enforcement treats black communities as well as those having mental health crises. You even had Joe Biden, who was president at the time, saying that Sonia should still be alive. But then with this, you had Grayson's defense successfully getting his trial moved out of Springfield to Peoria about 70 miles away. That trial that ended up lasting about a week with the defense making the case that the shooting was actually justified. When he took the stand in his own defense, you had Grayson reportedly arguing that he was afraid for his safety when Sonia grabbed the pot of water, saying, In this situation, unfortunately, I matched the threat level. And one of his attorneys adding that what happened to Sonia was, quote, tragic, but it was not a crime.

So that is, you had the prosecution arguing that Grayson needlessly escalated the situation by failing to follow any of his training and acting unreasonably. Or with the top prosecutors saying, we are here because of the actions of the defendant and Sonia Massey is dead because of the defendants. And anyone else, anyone, and Sonia Massey is alive. These were not the actions of a scared young police officer doing a dangerous job. These are the actions of a bully. And as far as the charges, Grayson was charged with first-degree murder, but the jury was also given the option of considering a lesser charge of second-degree murder instead. Or which can apply when a defendant faces a serious provocation or believes that their action is justified even if that belief is unreasonable.

And after nearly 12 hours of deliberation, that is what the jury convicted Grayson on. So instead of the 45 years to life in prison that comes with first degree, Grayson is facing up to 20 years. Well, technically, probation is an option under a second-degree murder conviction. you have experts saying it's unlikely in this case. But also, I will say, not off the table. And so as a result, you had an uproar among Sonia's family and her supporters

with her father even calling this a miscarriage of justice. Dadding, Sean Grayson should be able to get out of jail when my daughter can get out of that burial vault and walk out of Oak Hill Cemetery. And Sonya's mom saying, anybody who watched the video and thinks that this was partly Sonia's fault is inhumane. For them to not give him life and Sonia got life and death,

I can't wait until he goes to hell. And you also had Sonia's cousin saying, I'm fueled by rage right now. You get an officer that says he's going to shoot you in the face and then he shoots you in the face and you only get second degree? The justice system did exactly what it's designed to do today. It's not meant for us.

And then as far as the prosecution, they said that the verdict wasn't ideal, but it is a measure of justice. And adding, accountability has begun and we now hope the court will impose a meaningful sentence that reflects the severity of these crimes and the life that was lost. But I will say, it's gonna be a while till we know

because the sentencing hearing is actually not scheduled till January. Of course, while we wait to see that, I'd love to know your thoughts, opinions, and reactions here, as well as what you think we're going to see with the sentencing. But then, finally, today, I almost feel like I have a guest toast because he did such a good job here. This morning, I spoke with Marquez Brownlee, MKBHD for the In Good Faith podcast, which right now it's up. You can get the full hour-long thing, links in the description. It's a really fantastic episode. We go super tech, Apple, Tim Cook, AI, and jobs.

We get personal, get YouTubey. But what I'm going to include here and today's show on is him walking me through this whole controversy around this new, $20,000 in-home robot servant situation. This is the pitch versus the reality. So the pitch is there's a 5'5 foot six humanoid robot that lives in your house. And when you leave in the morning, it unplugs itself and gets off the dock and walks around and does your chores. It does the laundry.

It does the dishes. It vacuums. It puts stuff away. It finds the remote between the cushions. It puts your keys back where they belong. Like it does everything. It's a nice little helper. And no matter how slow it does it, it's in the background.

You're at work. It's doing all of this for you. Immense value, right? The reality is that requires an incredibly complex neural net and a model of your house and knowing all these household objects. And that doesn't exist yet. So there is also the ability for a teleoperator to come in and work through the robot to do these tasks for you. Which represents, obviously, a totally different privacy situation, a totally different comfort level for a lot of people.

and, oh, by the way, you can give us your money today and pre-order it and we'll ship the version with the teleoperator now in hopes that maybe someday we'll get to the version that's super advanced, that can do it all on its own. So if you're a tech bro, if you're really in the thick of this, if you're on Twitter thinking this is amazing, then you're actually willing to let that teleoperator do the task and hopefully contribute kind of as a beta tester. But if you're a little bit more unplugged, a little bit more of a normal person, you might say. This is an almost unfathomable product

that should never be in your house and what if it falls and what if it lands on my dog and what if it creeps out? What if it strangles me? Like, there's all kinds of questions people have that you just immediately think like a normal person. You're like, this sounds insane. That is where I'm going to end this video.

Though, again, much more to watch just to click away. The full hour, the newest episode of In Good Faith, this one with MKVHG, you can click or tap right here. I got links in the description or top comment. and or you can watch the newest Philip DiPranco show that you haven't seen yet right here. But no matter what you do, let me just say thank you for watching. I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here next time.