The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 04.23 “THAT WHITE DEVIL ATTACKED ME!” Harassment vs Protesting, Biden’s Cannibal Scandal, & Today's News

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Go to https://get.aspr.app/SH9Gz to get 50% off your first order of Sundays for Dogs!  Go to http://rocketmoney.com/PDS to cancel your unwanted subscriptions today. ==== ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Viral Ambush Interviewer Confronts Alec Baldwin About Palestine, Rust 2:51 - Hundreds of College Students Arrested Over Pro-Palestine Protests 9:13 - Sponsored by Sunday For Dogs 10:17 - Nicki Minaj & Luke Bryan Are Latest Victims of Fans Throwing Things at Concerts 11:27 - Papua New Guinea PM Criticizes Biden Over Story About Uncle Being Cannibalized  13:46 - MMA Fighter Gets Lifetime Ban After Kicking Ring Girl, Punching Opponent  17:08 - Sponsored by Rocket Money 18:28 - New Evidence Suggests Russian Role in Havana Syndrome ——————————   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, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve, Jared Paolino Associate Producer on Havana Syndrome: Jared Paolino ———————————— #DeFranco #HarryStyles #Hasanabi ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. I hope you've had a fantastic Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning. You're watching the Philip DeFranco Show, your daily dive into the news. We've got a lot of it to talk about today, so hit that like button to let YouTube know you like these big daily dives into the news, and let's jump into it. Starting with, let's talk about this Alec Baldwin situation. Because if you didn't see, he's in the news today that has even people that have been anti-Alec Baldwin on his side, right? And all of it's connected to headlines you might have seen of Alec Baldwin smacking the phone out of someone's hands. Right, and so let's get into the details on this. Right, there was a viral video posted last night from an account called Crackhead Barney and Friends.

The place is like the Daily Beast describing Crackhead Barney as a performance artist and ambush interviewer known for these sort of provocative online videos. And they captioned this video, White Devil Alec Baldwin attacked me while I was trying to get coffee. And in the video, you can hear the person that's recording bring up not only Palestine, but also the Russ shooting, which of course, Alec's actually going to be going to trial for in a few months over involuntary manslaughter charges. With this encounter taking place at a coffee shop in New York, and it starts like this. Alec, can you please stay free Palestine one time? Why did you kill that lady? You kill that lady and got no jail time? No jail time, Alec?

No jail time, Alec. No jail time, Alec? Alec then walks to the door as someone who appears to be an employee of the shop steps between them, but then it keeps going. Free Palestine, Alec, just one time, and I'll leave you alone. I'll leave you alone, I swear. Just say free Palestine one time. One time. One time. One time, Alec.

You know he's a criminal. You know he's a f***ing criminal. Come on, Alec. Just say free Palestine one time. Free Palestine. F*** Israel. F*** Zionism. Please say it.

One time. And also, notably with this situation, the Daily Beast actually got and published a video that shows the encounter starting earlier, where you see the person recording follow Alec into the coffee shop while asking him to say, Free Palestine. So these clips prompted tons of criticism. People saying things like, Don't even like him, and I would have helped him, not you.

Posts even getting community noted saying, She viciously harassed Alec. Y'all said the likes of Yashar Ali adding, Nothing says Free Palestine like getting in an actor's face and harassing him to say it. You know, once he says it, nothing will change and no one will be convinced by it because they can literally hear you demanding he say it. Then you use the tragic death of his colleague to harass him further. Awful. This isn't activism, it's just gross behavior targeting someone who has no policymaking power and hasn't even been outspoken on the situation in Israel-Gaza. But with this, crackhead Barney defended her actions, giving a statement to the Daily Beast saying,

My performance art and confrontational media is a statement about the double standards of society in the U.S. As the U.S. supports Israel and the genocide of Palestinians, here at home, powerful people maintain a facade of politeness and dignity while we export death and terror around the world. You know, with this situation, I gotta pass the question off to you. Where do you land on this? Do you agree with her statement and defense, or are you of the mindset of, no, she's the bad actor here? Why, why not? I'd love to hear your thoughts. And then, as you've probably seen, pro-Palestine protests on college campuses here in the States are reaching a fever pitch. There were 150 arrests at NYU last night, with videos of students and faculty being zip-tied

by police going viral, with dozens more arrested at Yale and Columbia University, which has arguably become the epicenter of this flashpoint. With the NYPD conducting the largest mass arrest the school has seen since 1968, which is back when hundreds were arrested for protesting the Vietnam War. And all this playing out as yesterday morning, the school also announced that it was moving to remote classes for the entire week, with them then taking it a step further last night, moving all classes to a hybrid model for the rest of the semester, with school officials citing safety concerns as the reason for that decision. They also punished a number of students, including by suspending some. We've also seen photos going viral of alleys absolutely stacked with what people claim to be belongings from their rooms.

You know, all of this really began last week when students at Columbia set up an encampment in the middle of campus to demand that the university divest itself from Israeli ties, with some students also saying they'd faced anti-Palestinian harassment and even death threats. But the timing of all that scene is notable because it happened just as Columbia University President Manoush Shafiq spoke to Congress last week about anti-Semitism on college campuses, which we covered on the show, and just a day after that, police were called to break up the new tent city, with the university saying they hadn't asked for authorization to hold the protest, which is required under new university rules that the university put in place after months of October 7th related protests. Additionally, they were chanting the phrase

from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, which as we've covered in the past has been a very controversial point with one side saying it's anti-Semitic, another side saying it's not. Congress, of course, does think that it's anti-Semitic and Shafiq promised that she'd crack down on anti-Semitism. And in the end on Thursday, 108 people were arrested and told to get off the campus. But that also barely lasted because on Friday, another tent encampment was erected and as of recording, it's still active. But also as everything's been playing out, we've also seen videos of blatant antisemitism from the campus going viral online, right? People seeing Jewish students being screamed at. There was also another video that went viral from just outside the campus with someone telling Jewish students,

Never forget the 7th of October! That will happen! Never forget the 7th of October! Not one more time! Not five more times! Not ten more times! Not a hundred more times! Not a thousand more times!

Not ten thousand more times! And so videos like that have led to widespread criticism for the protests and fear among Jewish students and faculty. You also had Rabbi Eli Buechler, who's with a major Orthodox Jewish union at the campus, telling students to stay away as their safety couldn't be guaranteed. Although the organization itself said that students shouldn't be forced to leave and instead the school needs to do more. You also had Representative Virginia Fox, the Republican chair of the House Education Committee, warning Columbia that it's, quote, continued failure to restore order and safety promptly to campus constitutes a major breach of the university's Title VI obligations, upon which federal financial assistance is contingent and which must immediately be rectified. Which if Shafiq had largely skirted criticism for her responses in Congress on Thursday, that is definitely no longer the case, with some lawmakers now calling for her resignation. We've also seen the situation get the

attention of the White House, with President Biden noting that this comes as the major Jewish holiday of Passover started yesterday. And with that saying, silence is complicity. Even in recent days, we've seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews. This blatant anti-Semitism is reprehensible and dangerous, and it has absolutely no place on college campuses or anywhere in our country. With the men going on to say, my administration will continue to speak out and aggressively implement the first ever national strategy to counter anti-Semitism, putting the full force of the federal government behind protecting the Jewish community. And this morning, we also saw former President Trump outside the courtroom of his trial,

framing the protesters as, quote, very radical people wanting to rip the colleges down. But I'm also taking the opportunity to take several swipes at Biden and trying to pin what's happening on him. What's going on at the college level and the colleges, Columbia, NYU, and others, is a disgrace. And it's really unbinding. And I can tell you, he's no friend of Israel, that's for sure. And he's no friend of the Arab world.

However, with all this, we've also seen protesters pushing back against the claims of anti-Semitism, with one of the defenses being that there's a clear distinction between those who are a part of the official encampment and those coming to the campus to cause trouble, Or with even Columbia saying that many non-students were coming to the school. And others pointing that many of the pro-Palestinian protesters are

actually Jewish students themselves. With many openly celebrating Shabbat at the protest with no issues. And one student organization even posting on Instagram, we firmly reject any form of hate or bigotry and stand vigilant against non-students attempting to disrupt the solidarity being forged among students. Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, Black, and pro-Palestinian classmates and colleagues who represent the full diversity of our country. And actually with that, we've seen the likes of streamer and political commentator Hassan Piker talking yesterday to two protesters from that organization, with him emphasizing that statement, giving a virtual tour around the encampment, and one saying, So the front gate have our proud and beautiful jewish voice for

peace students who have volunteered to help with security keep the community safe from anti-semitic attacks by the zionists against our anti-zion and against islamophobic attacks apparently there was like some kind of uh like antisemitic sign that snuck through or something and then everyone was pointing to it to be like this entire protest is actually antisemitic like people hyperventilating about this sort of when the obvious protests are about israel's actions in in gaza and divesting and making sure that the columbia university divests from uh the the genocide genocide that Israel is conducting in Gaza. And all of that culminating yesterday when hundreds of faculty members staged a mass

walkout in protest of the student arrests, with many criticizing Shafiq for calling the NYPD and what they argued were nonviolent protesters. A lecturer at the law school saying it didn't seem like any kind of measures were taken to de-escalate. Shafiq did announce yesterday that she's bringing school leaders together to try to find a solution to what she described as this crisis. And adding, I know that there is much debate about whether or not we should use the police on campus, and I am happy to engage in those discussions. But I do know that better adherence to our rules and effective enforcement mechanisms would obviate the need for relying on anyone else to keep our community safe. You know, we're gonna have to wait to see what happens from here if Colombia tries to remove

the 10 encampments again, and if it'll lead to more protests, especially because with the nature of these protests, it feels like putting one down leads to two more cropping up at other campuses. For example, UC Berkeley established their own encampment yesterday. Cal Poly Humboldt has also now shut down classes through Wednesday after protesters barricaded themselves inside of a building. Nine more arrested just this morning at the University of Minnesota after forming an encampment. And then you even had protesters marching on NYPD headquarters last night after the mass arrests at NYU. As we watch the situation grow and develop, I got to ask you, what are your thoughts on all this? And then, as most of you know, my dogs are a huge part of our family and

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Harry Styles has gotten hit so many times. He is not the focus today. Instead, that's reserved for Luke Bryan and Nicki Minaj. Nicki, because while performing in Detroit, singing her song Starships, all of a sudden it appears like a bracelet's thrown at her. She blocks it and throwing it back in the audience. But then, the more spectacular incident involved Luke Bryan in Vancouver,

because while performing, all of a sudden you see him take this random fall, he lands on his back, and it turns out it's because someone threw their phone on the stage, and he stepped on it and slipped on it. Though notably, since that, Lucas has since said that the slick stage might have actually been more at fault than the phone itself. Though this also is a fan who was at the show told Good Morning America that this came as people were actually throwing phones, water bottles, and cowboy hats at the stage, right? All apparently in hopes that Luke would sign them. You know, while I'm tempted to end this segment by going, hey, don't throw shit at people, especially when it's people you paid to see. But honestly, like what would be the point of that? That would just be more for me than the people that need to hear that advice. It's like when I

talk to my dogs, like it's for me, especially because I've never been good at training animals. And then did you know that Joe Biden's uncle was eaten by cannibals? Or at least that's the story President Biden has repeated twice last week while campaigning in Pennsylvania. With him explaining how his uncle was a serviceman in World War II, whose plane went down in the Pacific off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Truck Month is on at Chevrolet. Get 0% financing for up to 72 months on a 2025 Silverado 1500 Custom Blackout or Custom Trail Boss. With Custom Trail Bosses available, Class Exclusive Duramax 3-Liter Diesel Engine and

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they called him Bozy. My uncle Bozy, he got shot down in New Guinea. And they never found the body because there used to be a lot of cannibals for real in that part of New Guinea. Now with that, some have said, you know, that's just 19th century racism. People saying Biden was just a step away

from saying they had bones in their heads and they went ooga booga. Though notably there as a political scientist at the University of Papua New Guinea explains, we know there was some cannibalism among some communities in some specific context at the time. For example, eating a deceased relative out of respect to prevent their body from decomposing.

But that's not the problem that people have had with what Biden said. What a number of people have found offensive is the implication that Pacific Islanders would have just gobbled up some random white guy who fell out of the sky. It's the fucking craziest lie that I've ever read. Also, notably, military records don't back up Biden's claim

or even make a mention of it. In fact, it's not even clear if his uncle's plane was shot down, with records just more simply stating that he and the rest of the crew had to ditch the aircraft for unknown reasons, and adding that they failed to emerge from the sinking wreck and were lost in the crash. And so naturally, some residents of Papua New Guinea were offended by the story,

that including most notably the nation's prime minister, James Merapi, with him writing, President Biden's remarks may have been a slip of the tongue. However, my country does not deserve to be labeled as such. With him then adding that Uncle Bozy's delicious body isn't the only thing that the Americans left behind during the war, saying his country and the Solomon Islands are still littered with wartime human remains, plane wrecks, shipwrecks, and tunnels, as well as leftover bombs that still kill people.

So he actually took the opportunity to call on the United States to help clean up the region. Though all of this was playing out as there were people that were less angry and more kind of just amused. Like Alan Byrd, for example, the governor of a province who was recently selected as the alternate prime minister for the opposition. I am lost for words, actually. I don't feel offended. It's hilarious, really. I'm sure when Biden was a child, those are the things he heard his parents say, and it probably stuck with him all his life. But regardless, all these reactions

come amid competition between Washington and Beijing to influence the country. In fact, just last year, the US signed a defense cooperation agreement with them, and the Chinese foreign minister just met with its prime minister on Sunday to discuss building closer economic ties. Plus, China already had a security pact

with the Solomon Islands. So with what seemed like maybe a harmless story in the moment could actually turn to be not just economic ties. Plus, China already had a security pact with the Solomon Islands. So with what seemed like maybe a harmless story in the moment could actually turn to be not just offensive to this country, but also damaging to the US strategy in the Indo-Pacific. And then, so you've probably seen this video by now, and if you haven't, don't worry, we're about to walk through it.

Because you've got a lot of people saying this Iranian MMA fighter, Ali Hebati, that he went after this ring girl because she wasn't wearing a hijab. With this video showing what happened just before his latest match last week in the Russian Hardcore Fighting Championship. With him initially given a quick scolding while the woman named Maria walked off in disbelief. Heybody was then beaten real bad by his opponent and was TKO'd with just 30 seconds left in round

one. Only for him to then sucker punch his opponent. And then as he was leaving the ring, a mob attacked him for what he did to Maria. With eventually that brawl being broke up and then in a video, Hey Body gave an apology, which was surreal. Right in it, Maria's standing next to him, clearly uncomfortable that she had to be near him. As he said,

I didn't act right with her. The reason was that before the MMA fight, there were a lot of fist fights. I stayed there in the cage and just wanted to go out and fight. I was tense, and as most understand, emotions flourish in the fight. So before the fight,

I acted badly towards Maria. I want to publicly apologize to her. I am a married man, so I respect the female gender. And in the end, the HFC didn't feel like his apology was sincere enough, and they banned him for life, saying, What happened in today's live broadcast is beyond all moral and ethical standards. No one has any right to touch, let alone beat, the staff, employees, and partners of hardcore media. They also said that they'd be looking for the men who attacked Hey Body after the matches. They also would get lifetime bans from attending events. However, after hearing all that, it makes you wonder why so many people online

were quick to say that Hey Body went after Maria because of how she was dressed. While he was obviously the bad guy in the situation, what he did was wrong. He never specifically mentioned anything like that. But it was probably so believable to so many people because of what a hot button topic hijabs have been in Iran.

There have been widespread protests that have been heard around the world. And while many of those were crushed by the regime there, it still continues to be a major issue that flares up. With women continuing to stand up for themselves and protesting the rules despite clear repercussions if caught by the morality police, which isn't going away anytime soon. And with this, you know, over the weekend, we saw President Ibrahim Raisi

actually say that he wants to not only keep strict hijab-related laws in place, but also expand their use. Although notably, that is not how most Iranians seem to feel. I mean, recently the government actually tried to have a pro-hijab rally, which barely anyone went to despite widespread advertising. And also, this isn't just about the hijab, but rather fundamental differences in how parts of Iranian society view women or relations between the genders.

I mean, take this recent example from a soccer game, where a female fan ran onto the pitch after a soccer match to hug a player. The player was nice enough to indulge this fan, only to then get harassed by the morality police on the spot as touching between the sexes is forbidden, you know, outside of family and marriage. But that's a prohibition on paper, and many Iranians have far more lenient views on stuff like hugs, which led them to chanting shameless at the police, which seemed to have caused them to back off. And I know that some of this may seem like a tangent for a story that started out with, wow, that MMA fighter was making a fucking ass of himself.

But I also think it's important to take deeper dives on these kind of surface level stories that we treat like candy. Because otherwise the world is just black and white. You paint situations with a broad brush. Just because you see a Muslim man being a complete ass towards a woman, that it shouldn't be assumed that it's because of his religion. I know fantastic and completely shitty people of all faiths or no faiths. It's just as likely that this guy is being a massive asshole because he's just a massive asshole. And going back to this specific situation, we've seen countless Muslim men across Iran having come out in support of their mothers, sisters, and friends. And I also think that it serves as a reminder that people are just people.

When someone says, I hate Iran, that what they're saying is, I hate the Iranian government. I hate the ruling class there because any place you look, you will find no shortage of people that are victims of that ruling class. That is true at home. That is true abroad. That will be true forever and always. And then,

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Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash pds. That's rocketmoney.com slash pds. One more time, rocketmoney.com slash pds. And then we're going to talk about this new investigation that recently became public. With it coming from the insider in collaboration with 60 Minutes and Der Spiegel. With it uncovering new evidence linking Russia to the phenomenon known as Havana Syndrome. And specifically finding that this mysterious illness may have its origin in the use of, quote, directed energy weapons wielded by members of a GRU hit squad simply known as Unit 29-155. And not only that, but this investigation found reason to believe that the U.S. government not only knows more than it's letting on, but is actually intentionally misleading the public.

But with all that said, just to kind of jog your memory, right, this all started back in 2016. Because that's when several U.S. diplomats stationed in Havana, Cuba, as well as CIA agents acting undercover as diplomats, started reporting strange symptoms that seemingly had no explanation. With many saying that they were alone in their homes or hotel rooms when they suddenly heard a strange sound. And then suffering hearing loss, nausea, headaches, or some other ailment. And so this mysterious illness, these unexplained anomalous health incidents, or AHIs as the U.S. government calls them, came to be known as Havana Syndrome, with some anonymous U.S. officials soon speaking to the press to say they had been targeted with an advanced device that operated outside the range

of audible sound, and also saying that the investigators were looking into the possibility that the attacks were carried out by a third country, such as Russia. You know, since then, evidence to support that theory, it's been very hard to come by. And that is even more cases were reported elsewhere, with the most well-documented being in China in 2018. The U.S. even walking back on its claims that these were attacks at all, with some even suggesting this whole thing was a breakout of mass psychogenic illness. It was even saying things like this one Vanity Fair piece

that claimed to have the definitive real story behind Havana Syndrome, arguing that it was just the result of, quote, psychological contagion. Though I should note that even before this investigation, there were real problems with that theory, or at least with it being the only explanation. As you know, at least 100 AHI cases have been reported worldwide, affecting American spies, diplomats, military officers,

their families, and even household pets. And many of them have actually been diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injuries. And in fact, some have suffered from such severe long-term effects, they can, quote, no longer function on a day-to-day basis and have been medically retired from government service. And actually, when the State Department convened a meeting of academic and government experts to review the Havana cases, one of these experts

said, there was not one individual on the team who was not convinced that this was a real thing. Well, David Relman, a Stanford University professor who led another study on Havana syndrome, said they found clear evidence of an injury to the brain. One of the ways this investigation has actually connected Russia to these injuries is by geolocating known Russian operatives to places around the world just before or at the time of reported incidents. And these operatives, as mentioned, are part of Unit 29-155, which, unlike other units within Russia's intelligence services, is devoted exclusively to so-called kinetic or, in other words, violent military operations,

with that including assassination, sabotage other words, violent military operations. With that including assassination, sabotage, and political destabilization. With a former high-ranking CIA officer telling the insider, their mission is to find, fix, and finish, all in support of Vladimir Putin's imperial dreams. In one instance, a high-ranking member of the unit named Igor Gordienko, he was in Frankfurt the same time a US government employee reported symptoms consistent with what came to be known as Havana Syndrome. And that notably being in 2014, a full two years before everything happened in Cuba. And it happened after that government employee had an encounter with a man with a Russian accent acting suspiciously across the road from the consulate residential complex. And when the investigation showed the employee a photo of Gordienko, he, quote,

did not hesitate in confirming that Gordienko was the suspect skulking around outside U.S. consulate housing. We saw much of the same thing in a 2021 case in Georgia, where the wife of a U.S. official was taking her laundry out of the dryer when she felt a sharp pain in her left ear, followed by a piercing headache. And when she looked outside, she said she saw a black Mercedes parked

directly opposite her laundry room and a man standing nearby. And while she photographed the car, she wasn't able to get a picture of the man before he drove away. But according to two U.S. government officials and other reporting, it may have been a guy by the name of Albert Averiano,

who's the son of the founding commander of Unit 29155, who's been groomed for espionage since childhood, and whose email activity and other evidence placed him there at the time of the attack. And again, when the woman was shown a photograph of this man, she recognized him immediately. Notably, this woman has some of the most severe injuries of any victim, having undergone two surgeries already,

and actually now needing a third to address the rapid deterioration of her temporal bone, which is a condition that she says her neurosurgeon cannot explain. Now with this, you know, obviously these are just two cases and the investigation didn't necessarily place a Russian operative at the scene of every single reported attack. One thing that does connect almost all of the attacks is that they involved U.S. personnel with subject matter expertise in Russia or operational experience in countries such as Georgia and Ukraine, which are two former Soviet states that have undergone pro-Western revolutions. And Greg Edgreen, who led the military investigation of Havana syndrome, saying,

Consistently, there was a Russia nexus. There was some angle where they had worked against Russia, focused on Russia, and done extremely well. And in fact, Edgreen also told 60 Minutes that if he was wrong about Russia being behind anomalous health incidents, he would come on the show and eat his tie. And importantly with all this, the investigation also uncovered actual documents indicating Russian involvement. This including something written by a high-ranking official and former KGB agent, which said that hundreds of employees of foreign intelligence services have been identified and neutralized in recent years. And that also including a document showing senior members of Unit 29-155 being tasked with and rewarded for successfully testing, quote, non-lethal acoustic weapons. You know, notably, there's a well-documented history of Russia trying to develop these types of weapons. I mean, as far back as 1974, a Soviet patent was issued to a military unit that developed and claimed to have successfully tested, quote, a non-lethal device inducing sleep in the target via the use of radio waves. And in 2010, according to another document uncovered by this investigation, research had taken place in Russia on the development of basic technologies

for the creation of a new generation of sonar and acoustic weapons systems. And so basically, all of this together, testimonies from victims, placing Russian operatives at the scene of attacks, the history, and these other documents, they paint a pretty convincing picture of Russia being behind this in one way or another. But despite that, in March of last year, the U.S. intelligence community issued a report stating that it was very unlikely that AHIs were caused by a foreign adversary, saying that the symptoms were probably due to pre-existing conditions, conventional illnesses, and environmental factors. With that notably seeming to directly contradict a report from a year earlier. With that earlier one finding that

AHIs had, quote, a unique combination of core characteristics that cannot be explained by known environmental or medical conditions and could be due to external stimuli. As well as going against what their own people who investigated the matter had said, like Greg Edgreen. So of course, for many of the people who have always believed that they were attacked, this all felt like a slap in the face. But the investigation also reported that many felt betrayed by their government. It's in fact saying that a consensus has formed among them that the U.S. government, and the CIA in particular, that they're hiding the full extent of what they know about Havana syndrome. This including the first CIA officer to be affected in Cuba who told the insider, either the intelligence community is incapable of carrying out its most basic function,

or it has worked to cover up the facts and gaslight injured employees and the public. And Mark Lindsay, the State Department official who was allegedly attacked in China, he says that U.S. government personnel have actually privately acknowledged that his illness was the result of some sort of energy weapon. And as far as like what reason would the U.S. government have to cover this up? One theory is that this could arguably be considered an act of war. They'd much rather handle things behind the scene rather than things blowing up publicly. The second main theory is that it could limit recruitment to the CIA and State Department. But I do want to stress with all of this said,

there's still so much we do not know. For example, the investigation notes that it's still unclear exactly how the attacks were carried out or whether multiple types of devices have been used. With some skeptics still arguing that building a weapon like this that could be easily transported is a technical impossibility. And so while this investigation has revealed so many things, in many ways, this is still very much a mystery. But with all that said, I now want to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts with all this? Let me know what you're thinking in those comments down below. That is where today's show is going to end. And just remember, my name is Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.