The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.12 Shocking Sound of Freedom Abuse Scandal, Hamas Israel War “Doxxing Truck”, Andrew Tate v Ben Shapiro

Episode Date: October 12, 2023

Check out Vessi Styles at http://www.vessi.com/defranco to get 15% off your first order with free shipping  to CA, US, AUS, NZ, JP, TW, KR, SGP Go to http://shadyrays.com and use code PHIL for 50% off 2 or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. Go Buy http://WakeandMakeCoffee.com 50% OFF select orders! This new batch won’t last long. Catch up on our latest PDS: https://youtu.be/MeVWAurJ2ps?si=vgIV96wZK3T0XLyl  Check out our daily newsletter! http://dailydip.co/pds  Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phillydefranco/?hl=en  –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - TikTok Trend Prompts Young Men to Smash Their Jaws For Chiseled Features 04:16 - Israel-Hamas Fighting Sparks Fears of Hate Crimes in U.S. 10:58 - NFL Concerned By Drone Use & Bomb Threats at Games 12:40 - Sponsored by Vessi 13:39 - Bobbi Althoff Criticized For Scarlett Johansson Interview 16:19 - Rep. Scalise Nominated for Speaker 19:19 - Sponsored by Shady Rays 20:23 - The Ugly Truth Behind Sound of Freedom 31:56 - What You All Thought of Yesterday’s Stories ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxx Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  ———————————— #DeFranco #BobbiAlthoff #AndrewTate ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're talking about the absolutely wild dumpster fire situation around Sound of Freedom and Tim Ballard, breaking down the scandal, allegations, and now abuse lawsuits. The horrifying and dangerous bone-smashing trend is back as young men are trying to get more chiseled jawlines. Bobby Althoff has found herself in controversy. Rogue drones at NFL games are stoking bomb threat fears. And the Hamas-Israel war has resulted in hate crime fears sp, doxing, scandal, and even right-wingers fighting amongst each other. We're talking about all that and so much more on today's Extra Large Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news, but quick thing first,

a quick heads up so you know because stuff's going to be selling out. The October Beautiful Bastard Drop drops next Monday, October 16th. But if you want to get to the store first before everyone else knows about it, text me at 813-213-4423. You'll be the first to know when all this goodness is available and you can get in before we sell out. So now you know, but we got a lot of news to talk about today. So let's just jump into it. Starting with, it's just so simple. All you gotta do to look absolutely fabulous is smash your bones with a hammer. Please don't do that. I'm joking. It was a joke. Or rather, I'm telling you not to do it because this is not a joke. Or because this old trend of bone smashing, it's become popular again.

And it still does not work. But according to people who believe in this, you can promote bone growth by subjecting your face to repeated blunt trauma, such as with a hammer. But I'm saying that it's almost like working out your muscles, except now it's your bones and you'll end up with a more chiseled look, a wider chin, or a sharper jawline. And advocates of this idea citing Wolfe's Law,

which notably is a baseless medical theory from the 19th century that suggests bones adapt to stress. But as doctors have told outlets like Vice, while your jaw may look bigger due to inflammation, that's only temporary. Your bones will not grow back harder and stronger, and you may even cause permanent damage by smashing them. Now, I do want to note, it is not exactly clear how much of the bone smashing trend is a joke, but at least some of it does appear to be real. And notably, it is just one facet of a much broader, very real trend known as look smacking, which as the name suggests, is when young men try to max out their looks by any means necessary. So that can mean something as simple as eating healthier or taking care of your skin, but it can also just fall into the extremely bizarre.

For example, there is a trending called mewing, which is an oral posture technique where you rest your tongue against the roof of your mouth to accentuate your cheekbones. There's actually no evidence that doing that would permanently alter your facial structure? Nor is there evidence that taping your mouth shut overnight or chewing on jaw toners actually work? Right, the first might obstruct your airway, and the second could actually destroy your jaw joints. You also have things like this guy in Australia

who's gotten attention for his plan to undergo leg lengthening surgery to make himself taller for the ladies. Right, and that procedure, which is meant for people like trauma patients, not cosmetic purposes, entails breaking your bones, inserting metal pins, and then stretching them over months. And if he does it, it'll cost him tens of thousands of dollars plus years of recovery. You also then have other

examples, including one guy who said he bought filler off the dark web and injected it with an unsterilized needle, which ended up putting him in the hospital. And this other guy who said that he went through a dozen years of plastic surgery and warning others not to do what he did. Saying, anyone here like I was years ago, thinking this will change your life and be some kind of sex god, forget it. And here's the thing, while this stuff used to be relegated to like small online forums, with the rise of quack wellness influencers on TikTok and Instagram, it's all over the place. It's gone mainstream, especially as people feel worse about themselves than ever before. Which I just gotta say to any young men out there who like an Andrew Tate or some fucking alpha influencer, they don't already

have their hooks in you. Because while I also advocate for you to take care of yourself, right? Eat good, try and be active, right? All of that's going to be good for your mind and your body. Fucking so much in life just comes down to feeling confident in you. You got to find those things that aren't just superficial because the looks go away, baby. And there's always going to be superficial people. And honestly, I think a lot of people are superficial. It's just like different ranges. Some are a little bit, some are completely. The ones who live around completely, you don't want them in your life. I feel like social media and people being chronically online is just poisoned brains. And a lot of us get pulled into that mentality when you see that

guy with that girl and you're like, how did that happen? He's got to be rich or have a huge dick. But also like, what if he's just like a nice and funny and confident dude? What if he's like a pleasure to be around? Gives you energy instead of taking it away. And again, I also live in the real world. I know that for a number of people, those other things matter to varying degrees. But hopefully we can all agree that if you think that your one shot at love involves you breaking your face and legs, that maybe you've misdiagnosed the problem.

As distant as it may seem, there is going to be someone out there who is ready to accept you for who you are. But there's nothing less sexy than blind rage and insecurity. And also, understand, I know my audience. 90% of you know this. Maybe it helps to hear it again. This is really, though, for those other 10%. And then we've got to talk about huge updates with Hamas and Israel. But here's the thing.

As of recording, there's not actually a ton of updates regarding what's happening on the ground. Other than things like many outlets, including Reuters, saying that Egypt has now rejected a safe passage corridor for Gazans. Instead, saying it's still pushing for aid packages to be sent. So that's something that Israel says will only happen once Hamas releases all the hostages they've taken. Also, you had Israel hitting two of Syria's major airports with missile strikes. With Reuters saying that the intention was to disrupt Iran's supply lines to the region for groups like Hezbollah. But the conflict has sparked a lot of fears outside of the region as well. Right here in the United States, where both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli rallies have happened all across the country,

there's a real fear that hate crimes are going to spike. Authorities in Utah are reporting that several synagogues got bomb threats and were forced to evacuate. In Fresno, California, police launched a hate crime investigation after windows were smashed at a Jewish temple and a Jewish bakery. Meanwhile, New York, Texas, and Seattle are all increasing security at Jewish sites and temples. In Los Angeles, people seem to be worried about both groups with moves to beef up security at both the Jewish and Muslim sites. However, there is a reason places are seemingly bolstering security at Jewish sites way more, and that's because they're targeted at way higher rates. In fact, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at CSU San Bernardino, anti-Jewish hate crimes heavily spike after events

like this, and Israel get headlines. Noting things like between 1991 and 2020, there were 27,751 anti-Jewish hate crimes. And for that same time period, there were 3,895 anti-Muslim ones. Though, to be clear, that does not mean that experts are not worried about them as well. Hate crimes against Muslims do happen and do spike after extremist groups like Hamas carry out attacks, especially when some of the victims are American, like this weekend. And I mean, we especially saw that after September 11th, 2001. And in fact, you have the Council on American Islamic Relations reporting that they're tracking hundreds of social media posts calling for anti-Muslim violence, as well as claiming that Muslim and Arab students are getting harassed all across the country. And according to the Justice Department, one of the hardest things about any of these

numbers is that they are not uniformly tracked by police departments across the country. Often, it's just listed as a hate crime in the database with little clear information to make it easy to categorize, such as the race of the victim. Notably, it's not just hate crimes that the police are worried about and having to deal with right now. One of the other big things being brought up right now being doxing, or with things being reported like over at Harvard, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee put out a statement saying, we, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence. The apartheid regime is the only one to blame. With 34 student groups signing on to that statement, and a lot of people were not happy about it. By Tuesday night, at least four websites had listed

the personal information of students linked to clubs that signed the original statement. And this included things like names, employment, social media profiles, hometowns, class years, everything. And then on Wednesday, a billboard truck was going around the streets near Harvard's campuses, displaying the names and faces of many of these students, along with showing the link of a website with the rest of their information and calling them anti-Semites. Now, the school wasn't happy, and they've moved to try and minimize the damage, but some of the websites featuring students' information being taken down for violating Google's terms of service. Harvard Executive Vice President Meredith L. Wienick also writing an email to students after the truck went around saying,

We do not condone or ignore threats or acts of harassment or violence. Officials within our schools have been in contact with students to ensure they are aware of resources available to them if they are concerned about their physical safety or experience an immediate threat. But they're also adding that police presence would be boosted on campus, although the Harvard University Police Department said that there currently were no credible threats on anyone on campus. There was an additional security measure the school would be closing its gates to anyone without a student ID between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. Still though, tensions are high around the PSE's statement, although some groups have since retracted their signatures. And the PSE itself later clarified that it, quote, staunchly opposes violence against

any civilians. But then at the same time, you also have Harvard-Elel, their Jewish center, saying, we will continue to reject the PSE's statement in the strongest terms and demand accountability for those who signed it. But under no circumstances should that accountability extend to public intimidation of individuals. Such intimidation is counterproductive to the education that needs to take place on our campus at this difficult time. And I will say what's very interesting is this is actually not the first time this stunt has been pulled. For the group behind the billboard trucks is called Accuracy and Media, and they did this to students at Berkeley as well last year after a band of pro Israel speakers. And while of course I want to know your thoughts on any and all of this situation, or really anything

in today's show, I'd really love to know your thoughts on this specific aspect of the story, because depending on where you went online, people were very split. Some saying this was disgusting, doxing, intimidation. But then you'd go somewhere else and you'd see a lot of people saying, hey, what happened here is justified. Saying things like, actions and words have consequences. It's about time that these young hate mongers learn that cause and effect applies to them like it does to everyone else in the world. Young and old, no matter what your ethnic background, skin color, religion, sexual orientation, or politics are. Time to grow up, folks.

And a lot of their general arguments being, you didn't sign on to this thing anonymously. Or you're part of a group making a public statement and other people are just spreading the word that you said it. So with all that said, which of those camps do you personally land in and why? Also what's been interesting to watch is online, everyone going after one another. And while a lot of the focus over the past week has been like left versus right, and then really even more so leftist versus liberals, we've also seen people on the right going after one another. For example, one of the people we've seen inserting themselves into many of the narratives being Ben Shapiro, right? He's a right-wing pundit, he's an Orthodox Jew, and he's long supported some of Israel's most

controversial policies towards Palestinians, such as settlement building. With people pointing to things old and new, like on the topic back in 2010. He said Israelis like to build, Arabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage. This is not a difficult issue, hashtag settlements rock. And then also more recently, after a UN group called for a truce because of the fighting and intense bombing of Gaza, Shapiro replied with, and they can fuck right off. But then that actually got a response from none other than Andrew Tate, who wrote, Mr. Tough Guy, let me assure you, as someone who has done his own fighting, as opposed to excitedly encouraging others to do it for him while sitting at home in a comfy chair, peace is always worth a conversation, which immediately resulted in

a mixed reaction, some mocking Tate, some defending him. Though Shapiro seemingly did not like Tate's input, and he responded, let me assure you, as someone who has not pimped women and bragged about it, the morality requires that those who rape women and kid responded, Let me assure you, as someone who has not pimped women and bragged about it, the morality requires that those who rape women and kidnap children must be eradicated, not negotiated with. Then you had Andrew's brother Tristan chiming in, responding to that, saying, A Jewish man speaking of eradication of a race of people. 2023 is a scary time to be alive.

And saying, I wonder how many of the women and kids who are soon to be obliterated, kidnapped or raped anybody. My guess is zero. With Shapiro then responding, I called for those who rape women and kidnap children to be eradicated. So not only are you immoral, you are apparently illiterate. But then you also had people pushing back against that saying, oh, do you know about bombs that only hit the baddies? But in general, not only were they going after each other, their audiences were as well. Though notably, in addition to all this, there's been a lot of discussion around this situation. Like for example, you had Representative

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez writing that Israel's decision to cut off essential supplies to Gaza was, quote, collective punishment and a violation of international law. And saying, we cannot starve nearly a million children to death over the horrific actions of Hamas, whose disregard for Israeli, Palestinian, and human life overall could not be more clear. But then also here, we saw Shapiro respond, why it's almost as though all the water and power would be back on tomorrow if Hamas, the government of Gaza, turned over the children, women, and men it is holding hostage. But you don't care about that, of course.

And again, as we've been seeing on social media, the reactions to those comments are all over the place. And unfortunately, what we've been seeing more and more of, it feels like it generally lacks any kind of understanding of due wants. And it's often just vile hate speech and calls for violence from both sides. And then I would like to apologize to you for the fact that I'm about to put this into your brain. Have you ever been in like a big crowded place like a sporting event, concert or festival and you see a drone flying high above and you're like, I do not like that at all. Well, if that's the case, you are in good company because both the NFL and members of Congress aren't fan of this phenomenon either. With NBC even putting out a report now about how drones pose a threat to places like football games. But venues and local officials have little power to actually do anything about it. But I'm noting that there were 2,500 drone incursions over NFL stadiums last

season, which was well above the 1,300 that happened the year before. Games have also been interrupted, right? There were cases where drones dropped leaflets over games. With Kathy Lanier, the NFL's chief of security, telling NBC, that could have been anything. To me, it feels like a big hole in our fence. And Michigan Senator Gary Peters telling the outlet that there are concerns people could attach a bomb to a drone and cause damage and death. But here's the thing. Only the FBI and Homeland Security actually have the authority to take down a rogue aircraft in cases like this. While they cover major sporting events, they don't send teams to every normal game.

With Lanier telling NBC that since 2018, when those departments were given drone mitigation authority, they have only been able to approve 77 out of 121,000 requests to send teams to stadiums. So now we're seeing a push from some lawmakers for legislation that would allow state and local enforcement agencies to bring down rogue drones. And here's the key thing. It's already against the law for those drones to be going over those events. It's just people like Linear want a mechanism to enforce it

and saying, we've got to stop kicking the can down the road. Policy is not keeping pace with technology and that's a problem. And the only thing that I can really say at the end is, yes, something has to be done because the only thing that is surprising about this story is that something horrible has not happened yet. Like I remember years and years ago before drones became mainstream and it was really just more of a hobbyist thing. Just talking to people in that

community and them going like, this is going to be potentially a really big problem. But with that said, what are your thoughts here? And then I got to share this story with you real quick. A friend of mine has been in New York for a minute and he had several offsite meetings scheduled on the day the rain was coming down sideways. But luckily, he remembered he had a pair of Vessi sneakers. I mean, I told you they're good for travel and he slipped them on and ventured out. And he actually hit me with a text because he was amazed at how dry his feet were through all of it, which also I will say when he called me, I let him know, hey, anytime you want to say the words thank you and you were right, I'm all ears. And so thank you to Vessi for not only being a sponsor of today's show, but also for making me seem like the smart friend.

If even just for a moment, because he's actually smarter than me. But I do have to add, Vessi's latest sneaker, the Soho, might be my new favorite. They've elevated their sneaker game here while still keeping your feet dry and super comfortable. And they seriously look good in both dark and light colorways. Also, my buddy was suitably wearing the Storms that rainy day in New York. Which also reminds me, you've got to check out their stretchy knit waterproof gloves as well, with insulated lining to keep your hands warm and dry. So what are you waiting for?

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very deadpan, sometimes almost rude. It's all kind of just meant to make it feel awkward. What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees

on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver. Have you ever ridden a horse? Yeah, you tried to kill me. I can see why. Right, and what the podcast is doing, she's gotten a lot of big names on the show. You just saw Shaq, there was also Drake, Offset, Jason Derulo, Tyga, and more. Notably, one of the growing criticisms about her is that it feels strange that it largely involves her just kind

of being awkward with or even kind of condescending towards specifically black men. And you stack that on top of other clips going viral, like her posting that she was at a Drake concert and really not seeing what all the fuss was about. And people being like, okay, so is the gimmick like you don't feel comfortable in black spaces? Not even kind of growing to a point where there was a clip recently of Offset kind of giving her shit back that went absolutely viral. Like, yeah, he's not taking it. He's throwing it right back in her face.

And all of that has now brought us to this moment where Bobbi teased an interview she did with Scarlett Johansson. And a lot of people think that her tone with Scarlett is different based on a snippet Bobbi shared where the two were discussing hair products. They were telling me there's like something for slicked back.

Sure, you could slick back your hair. Or you can use this. This. Can I put some of that on your hair? Cause there's a piece that's like something for slicked back sure you could slick back your hair or you can use this this can i put some of that on your hair because there's a piece that's like is there yeah would you i would love to thank you thank you why is it driving you crazy a little bit look at that is it better that's amazing not bad right wait look at that it's like smoother oh it's like perfect also with this i will say it's important to note that bob Bobby tagged the hair care brand that they were using in the caption saying, Hey, the products are currently available. And wouldn't you know it, that beauty company was co-founded by Scarlett Johansson. But it wasn't so much the sneaky advertising that was pissing people off.

It was more the way that she was interacting. People thinking, it seems like they're just being girls. Bobby's touching and fixing Scarlett's hair, thinking it felt a lot different than how she talked with her black guests. Which is why you saw tweets popping off saying things like, Landing an interview with a white woman and immediately dropping her entire gimmick and just being nice instead is so insane. As well as she completely changed her tone. As a result, I want y'all to ignore her forever. Her schtick is giving racism. So there you had some pushing back saying, hey, this is more about a woman on woman thing.

Arguing that she's done her whole awkward condescending schtick with white guests like Charlie Puth and Mark Cuban. But with all this, I gotta ask, what are your thoughts here? Do you think this is a nothing situation that people are just kind of trying to stir up to have some fun with drama? Or do you see this as a big issue, or does it rub you the wrong way? Or is there possibly an answer in the middle? Like, maybe this is the beginning of her pivoting away from a shtick that maybe gets stale pretty fast? Although, I mean, if we're being honest, it's not like a new shtick. Zach Galifianakis did a great version of it, but with Between Two Ferns.

Though there, I'm not gonna accuse Bobby's version of it, but with Between Two Ferns. Though there, I'm not going to accuse Bobby's podcast of being of that comedic level. But I don't know. What are your thoughts? And then we should talk about this mess regarding the House Speaker. Because yesterday, House Republicans officially nominated Representative Steve Scalise to be Speaker of the House in a closed-door party meeting. With Scalise narrowly beating out Representative Jim Jordan by just 113 to 99 votes. Though also, very notably, almost a dozen other Republicans also voted present or for another candidate entirely. Now, historically, once a party nominates a speaker internally, everyone else falls in line and honors that decision in a

full floor vote. But of course, none of that really matters when you live in the age of unprecedented shit. And so in an expected, but again, totally unprecedented move, some members are refusing to back Scalise's speaker. So as a result, as I'm starting to record this story, his nomination has not yet been brought up for a full vote yet, with Republican leadership trying to whip up enough votes to avoid an open mutiny on the floor. But also, it is genuinely unclear right now

if Scalise can get enough votes, and it increasingly looks like he won't. There's no world where Democrats back Scalise, and the GOP majority is so slim that the whole thing falls apart if even five Republicans vote against the nomination. But as of recording, at least 16 Republicans have indicated

they will not back Scalise. And it's not just one faction of the party that's opposed to his nomination. Right on one side, you have far-right members who back Jordan and say they'll either vote for him again on the floor or just vote against Scalise. This also despite the fact that a spokesperson for Jordan said that he would actually back Scalise in the floor vote. Also, I just gotta mention this because it was the funniest fucking thing I saw. Yesterday, Nancy Mace was on CNN talking to Jake Tapper, and she was like trying to make up really, but describe this world where Democrats actually like Jim Jordan, which resulted in this back and forth. I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility. Jim Jordan?

Yes. I've talked to Democrats over the last week on who do they trust, even though they wouldn't agree with him on many issues. The Jim Jordan from Ohio? Oh, yes. The Jim Jordan from Ohio. Democrats in Congress? Yes. They can work with him and those that I've talked to.

Name one Democrat from Congress that trusts Jim Jordan. I'm not going to name people off the record. They trust him more than they trust the former Speaker. I just loved it so much. But back on track. A part of the group saying they will not vote for Scalise include classic assholes who thrive off dividing their own party like Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

But then also on the other side of the Republican Party, you have some Kevin McCarthy loyalists who are still mad that he was ousted and saying they will not back Scalise on a full floor vote. And then at the same time, there are also a good number of Republicans who say they won't support Scalise for totally different reasons. This including the man-boy who was never told a lie, Representative George Santos, who tweeted that he won't support Scalise because Scalise hadn't taken the time to reach out to him personally. What? Not even a bottomless brunch, Scalise? Also, Representative Ken Buck said he won't support anyone who refuses to clearly say the 2020 presidential election was not stolen from Trump, which notably, Scalise has refused to do so. And then finally, Representative Nancy I-Don't-Understand-The-Scarlet-Letter-Mace,

who notably was one of the eight Republicans who voted in favor of ousting McCarthy. And she has said that she won't vote for Scalise because he attended a white supremacist conference two decades ago and once compared himself to David Duke. Which, you know, I can criticize her and make fun of her for other things, but solid reasoning there. Also, on the note of those eight Republicans that ousted McCarthy, it's actually been reported that they have largely agreed to back Scalise. But ultimately, as of recording, we don't know what's actually going to happen. We're just kind of watching the Republicans roll around in their shit.

Meanwhile, the House is basically unable to function at all, which notably means they can't make key decisions on things like aid to Israel or preventing a government shutdown next month. But yeah, all we know is that something will happen at some point. And if things stay on trend, just expect it to be stupid and or horrible. And then, y'all, are you looking for some quality, cool, stylish shades? Well, thanks to the sponsor of today's show, Shady Rays. They've got you covered.

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code Phil for 50% off two or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. And then we should talk about Sound of Freedom because over the summer, while everyone was really focused on Barbenheimer and understandably so fantastic movies, there was also a lot of conversation around Sound of Freedom, though it felt like a lot of people's understanding of it was really based off of headlines they saw passing on Twitter. And so I want to break that down as well as the things that we have learned since. So the movie tells a story of a US federal agent who quits his job to save children from sex traffickers in Colombia. Right on the surface, it's a pretty generic action movie with a modest budget of less than $15 million. But then it suddenly exploded into a box office hit with

Hollywood absolutely shocked. I mean, the film grossed more than $183 million domestically since July, beating out the new Mission Impossible and Indiana Jones. And it actually became the 19th highest earning independent movie of all time, which of course leads to the question of why is this film so popular? What in the world was driving that? And on the journey to try to understand it, we ended up discovering that the story of this movie is so much more than just this movie. So if you will, over the next few minutes, let's go down this rabbit hole. And so to start things off, we have our main protagonist, Tim Ballard, the real person whom Sound of Freedom was loosely based on. He was born in California and says he became a CIA officer in 2001 for less than a year,

though Vice said they were unable to confirm that. Then he worked at Homeland Security for a decade, but says that he became increasingly disgruntled at how little he could legally do to combat trafficking abroad from his U.S. office. And according to his account, everything changed when he learned about a missing Haitian boy by the name of Gaurdy Marty, and DHS wouldn't let Ballard work on the case. So the story goes, he founded Operation Underground Railroad, an anti-trafficking organization, in 2013. With a group of so-called operatives, he ventured to Haiti in search of the

boy, whom they have not found to this day. But nevertheless, the mission has helped them raise tens of millions of dollars and, according to OUR, rescued thousands of children. But the group's stories are about as cinematic as they are difficult to fact-check. With two vice reporters, Anna Merlin and Tim Marchman, trying to do just that. While they found few outright falsehoods, they documented, in their own words, a pattern of image burnishing and mythology building. A series of exaggerations that are, in aggregate, quite misleading. Let's take the example of Liliana, the pseudonym of a trafficking victim whose story Ballard would repeat frequently over the years following 2019.

According to him, she was kidnapped in Central America at the age of 13, though 11 and later retellings then smuggled across the U.S. southern border to New York. There, he says that she was forced to have sex with men 30 to 40 times a day. Then Operation Underground Railroad helped her escape that hell and took her into its care while she healed.

But Ballard's recounting reportedly plays loose with the facts big and small. In reality, Liliana came from Mexico, not Central America, and she was 14 years old at the time, not 13 or 11. Also, the 30 to 40 number is more than double the 15 to 20 that Liliana herself testified during trial, not that it makes it any less horrific. Also, strictly speaking, she wasn't kidnapped against her will, but rather became romantically involved with a 17-year-old boy whose family convinced her to follow them to the U.S. for a better life. And that's an important detail that's been very focused on, because a common criticism of OUR is that it puffs up these sensational stories of just brazen kidnappings and heroic rescues

that obscure the actual reality of how most sex trafficking works, with it usually involving the victim being trafficked by someone that they know, who exploits their emotional and financial dependency to manipulate them into doing sex work. And then lastly, Ballard's claim that OUR helped Liliana escape is just flatly untrue. She bravely left her abusers on her own without anyone's help at the age of 17 after years of rape, psychological manipulation, and physical violence. With her only meeting OUR representatives years later as she was preparing to testify in court, though it's not clear how much the group was actually involved in her case. But OUR has used her story in fundraising materials

to attract donors, and Ballard has used it to promote Trump's wall at the southern border. Which may sound weirdly unrelated, but it signals how Underground Railroad's work is fundamentally a right-wing project. Because unlike Liliana's story, most of OUR's public image rests on the dramatic stings it conducts abroad. Those missions following a tradition of what critics have labeled a media-friendly militarized humanitarianism. With this being where operatives, mostly white, religiously devout men, go undercover in foreign countries and then have the police burst in and haul off all the bad guys in a dramatic raid. Meanwhile, you've got the cameras rolling to capture the whole experience

so that donors back home can cheer it on and feel good about themselves. But this is critics point out that the women supposedly saved by this aggressive raid style approach might suffer additional trauma from the experience. Plus, they actually frequently end up facing arrest or deportation.

And this has been the model for many faith-based anti-trafficking organizations since the 1990s. And critics going on to say that unlike the established network of groups that work closely with government agencies to offer professional help, these groups don't know what they're doing. With people pointing to things like two people who worked with OUR on overseas operations telling Vice it had no meaningful surveillance or identification of targets, no development of

assets, no validating that people they sought to rescue had in fact been trafficked, or the people they were targeting were indeed traffickers. And that in addition to no meaningful follow-up with people who had been rescued on the missions. Instead, as these sources and public accounts and videos of OUR missions show, these ops consist of guys just walking into a town and flashing thousands of dollars at clubs and bars. And then when they find pimps offering women of legal age, they push for girls who are younger, which is actually a method anti-trafficking experts have criticized, saying that it could inadvertently increase demand for trafficking. With their argument being that rather than finding minors who were already being trafficked,

requesting younger victims could cause traffickers to then try and find people to fill that request. And this is most of the law enforcement agencies and anti-trafficking groups that Vice reached out to said that they had no idea what OUR is or have extremely thin connections to it. But then when you go deeper, OUR's methods have been described

as unprofessional and downright bizarre. In 2014, Ballard said he got a tip that Garty Marty, the Haitian boy we mentioned earlier, and several other trafficked children were being kept in a Haitian village. So he and a group of operatives swooped in under the cover of a medical team to attempt a rescue operation, with Ballard even calling Marty's father, who had been searching for his son for years, and telling him they knew where he was. And then finally, Ballard reveals who gave him the tip, with two people who were there independently verifying the same story,

and one telling Vice. Tim shows up with this woman, this very sheltered-looking, soccer-mommish woman from Utah, and he's being very defensive and won't let anyone talk to her. After a couple of days, I figured out she's a fucking psychic. That's his fucking source. Her name was Janet Rustin, a medium from Utah who claimed to speak to a Mormon prophet from 600 BC named Nephi. And reportedly, OUR relied heavily on her so-called visions, both to locate children and to plan operations. Unsurprisingly, the missions turn up no missing children, but what's worse is the operatives caused a huge fuss in the village

with another person who was there telling Vice he's making decisions like a reality TV producer, and so he starts running around the village like an idiot. The cameras are following him. He's drawing so much attention to himself. And then OUR learned that a rumor had spread that the medical team was there to identify who was infected with the virus.

So soon after, villagers gathered, some reportedly with shotguns, and they began yelling and getting riled up, with senior elders asking the team to leave. And as they did, several cars followed them out to make sure they didn't come back. Which is why some have said if you look behind the facade of Valiant Heroes saving children from evil kidnappers, you find a profoundly unserious joke of an organization. Which, along with its right-wing themes, is why critics find OUR's comparison of itself to anti-slavery activists in the 19th century especially insensitive. Right, and to illustrate that

point, OUR began marketing a painting for sale back in 2017 that depicts Tim Ballard, his wife, and a third figure carrying sleeping black children down a railroad track while Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Tubman look on approvingly. With anthropologists Bradley Kramer saying in response, it's almost like a parody of the white savior narrative, saying it steals the imagery and the power of the underground railroad narrative and transforms it into this Trumpian fantasy of brave, powerful white dudes rescuing black people from their squalor. But all that said, despite all of its detractors, OUR has enough of a fan base,

especially as the Trump years unfolded to justify a movie about Ballard. With Sound of Freedom focusing on one mission OUR was involved in that did actually happen, though the film heavily fictionalizes it. You've got Ballard canoeing into the Colombian jungle alone to rescue a little girl, fighting her trafficker in hand-to-hand combat

and ultimately killing him. And to play Ballard, the film casted Jim Caviezel, who was a controversial figure in his own right. You may know him as Jesus from Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, a film that, along with its director, was widely accused of anti-Semitism. But now, more recently, he's gotten attention for his strong belief in QAnon, which, in case you forgot, somehow revolves around the belief that Trump and the military are locked in a secret cosmic war against a cabal of satanic, cannibalistic pedophiles

who control the world. And one of the conspiracy theory's wackier ideas is that these elites maintain their life force by harvesting adrenochrome, a stress hormone they believe is excreted by tortured children. And so when Caviezel was promoting sound of freedom at a conference dedicated to election and COVID denialism, he talked about how Ballard couldn't attend because he was saving children from the darkest recesses of hell where they were being murdered for their adrenochrome. Then on Steve Bannon's podcast, he said the whole adrenochrome empire is driving demand for trafficked children. And even Tim Ballard himself told Jordan Peterson

that he condemns most conspiracy theories, but that the children in Africa are being harvested for their adrenochrome. Which is also why a lot of QAnon followers ended up being disappointed to find that Sound of Freedom didn't explicitly mention adrenochrome or any specific QAnon beliefs. Though that could also be because the movie

was filmed back in 2018, before the conspiracy theory really took off. But still you have people pointing out that the film plays into the theme of kidnapped child sex trafficking victims being rescued by a vigilante hero. So there were some concerns the sound of freedom would introduce relatively moderate conservatives to a watered-down version of QAnon, easing them into the more insane parts of the conspiracy. And actually sure enough those concerns appear to be vindicated when the film burst into the mainstream as a surprise box office hit. And that largely due to effective marketing that painted it as a film that Hollywood doesn't want you to see. With a number of conservative outlets, pundits, and politicians promoting it. And so much of the

audience became not just like going to a movie, but a way to maybe save the children and stick it to the shadowy elites. Hell, even in the movie itself, Jim Caviezel appears on screen at the end and urges viewers to buy more tickets so others can see it and help end child trafficking. And so with that huge financial success, Tim Ballard's anti-trafficking empire reached its peak. But since then, it's kind of just gone downhill. To start off, we learned last month that Paul Hutchinson, an executive producer on Sound of Freedom, groped the naked chest of an apparently underage trafficking victim during a 2016 undercover operation in Mexico with an OUR operator capturing footage of the incident as well as a phone call between Hutchinson and Matt Osborne, then an operative and now the president

and chief operating officer of OUR. And in that, Hutchinson expresses concern that he'll get in trouble with Mexican authorities, and Osborne tells him not to worry, but to keep the video away from the U.S. embassy. Unfortunately for them, however, the Davis County Attorney's Office and the FBI opened an investigation into it, though notably they closed it this year without filing charges. But regardless, it exposed evidence that OUR lied to the public about the nature and effectiveness of its work and misused donor funds, with many former employees describing how the organization would do very little actual work on the ground rescuing kids, as its marketing suggests, and instead saying it donated money and equipment to foreign law enforcement agencies

and then took credit for those agencies' work as if it was directly involved. But Hutchinson, as it turned out, was only the tip of the iceberg. The real big fish that agents were probing was none other than Tim Ballard himself. In June, just before the film released, he left the organization that he founded, and last month we finally found out why. An internal investigation had been looking into sexual misconduct allegations against him by at least seven women, with sources telling Vice News that Ballard would invite women on undercover missions to play his wife, and then coerce them into intimate situations like sharing a bed or showering together to fool traffickers. Sources

also told Vice that he had sent photos of himself in his underwear wearing fake tattoos to some of the women. He also allegedly invoked his own divinity and the connections to the Mormon church to persuade women that testing their sexual chemistry with him was in essence approved by God. And according to conservative personality Eric Moutzis, who says that he has spoken to at least four of the victims, Ballard exploited not just his relationship with President M. Russell Ballard, a powerful figure in the church whom he's not related to despite sharing a last name, but also psychic readings from Janet Russen. So last month, a Utah attorney representing the women accused Ballard of sexual harassment, spiritual manipulation, grooming, and sexual misconduct.

And the total number of women involved is believed to be higher than seven, as that would only account for employees, not contractors or volunteers. Now with that, Ballard has flatly denied all these accusations. But then, on Instagram, he posted a video defending what he called the couple's ruse, where a male operative pretends to be romantic with a female operator to fool traffickers. But Monday, five women filed a lawsuit in Salt Lake City, accusing Ballard of exploiting the couple's ruse to sexually assault them, where he allegedly told them that having sex with them would help improve their real marriages, but that they still shouldn't tell their husbands. Also allegedly asking them, is there anything you

wouldn't do to save a child? And the women also claiming that when he spoke to Nephi, right, that centuries-old prophet, he was actually getting ketamine treatments and making up prophecies about how he would become the future U.S. president and ultimately usher in the second coming of Christ. But with that said, you know, some of his former backers like Mormon leaders have denounced him, while other right-wing figures have defended him. For example, you had Charlie Kirk, who compared Ballard to Elon Musk and Russell Brand, both men accused of what he referred to as sex issues or fake financial crimes, and adding, if you effectively speak against the regime, they will crush you. Now, with all that said, in the meantime, Ballard appears to have founded a new

anti-trafficking organization called Spear. And so he appears to still be chugging along, though for the other star, Jim Caviezel, Sound of Freedom's commercial success doesn't seem to reverse kind of his estrangement from mainstream Hollywood that he's felt since Passion of the Christ. Though, understand his career is going to be fine, not only because they're making Sound of Freedom 2, but because Mel Gibson has cast him in a sequel to Passion of the Christ. But with now all that said and us hopping out of the rabbit hole, at least for a little bit, I got to now pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here? And then let's talk about yesterday today, where we take a look back at yesterday's show where we covered so much news. We then dive into those comments and we see which

stories stood out to you, what your thoughts were, what your opinions are. Sometimes you share experiences. And yesterday there was actually a pretty decent spread on what y'all were commenting on the AI news. Some of you were concerned. Some of you excited about the prospects. But some of you said, I hope Phil is comforted by the fact that AI could never accurately fake his hands when talking. We would know. Which, ooh, baby. Which I will say, you know, we have actually looked at how we could incorporate AI into the show. So it's largely connected to voice cloning.

Because, you know, sometimes like a Friday, a Saturday, or Sunday, I'm not just locked in this little box of a room. I'm like actually outside doing things with family so I can't record. And so we've tested AI voice cloning, but it's not fully there. Like here's a sample. I really wish my AI voice was better because then I could do the only thing I love more than my job, which is not doing my job. It's like 90% there. Then of course, the scary side of that is then someone can just make you sound like you said a thing you didn't say. Also in more serious news, you did have people leaving comments around Hamas and Israel, with a lot of people really focusing on Bernie Sanders' statement. Y'all saying things like,

Senator Bernie Sanders captured my views to the point. It's imperative that we understand and acknowledge the complex history and conflict between Israel and Gaza without advocating for all the tragedies and horrors occurring. If at any point you're disregarding the tragic loss of life as justice, then you may be contributing to the cycle of hatred and mindset that influenced this conflict. Some of y'all also sharing your personal experiences, saying things like, My friend is a Palestinian born in the U.S., saying he's horrified

by what has happened, and today he learned his uncle was shot in the head while attempting to flee to Jordan. He wasn't Hamas, he wasn't a terrorist, and didn't harbor any hate for Israelis, and yet he was killed. So many innocent people are going to continue to die, and I can't stop crying. You know, that person sharing that personal story, it feeds into the kind of the general feeling that I saw a lot of people have, which is comments like whoever wins between the Israel Hamas conflict, the innocent civilians on both sides will be the biggest losers. And that's the saddest part. But then finally, another story that got a lot of attention was George Santos and those new charges with really people just kind of still shocked that he is a member of Congress. So I will say if you've watched

this show for long enough, you've been a part of this community for long enough. How are you surprised? Accountability is like just not a thing that happens in Congress. Like sometimes, but especially not when every single vote counts. There's a lot of willful blindness. There's some saying George Santos is a perfect example of why government officials need more in-depth background checks, better qualifications, and can be fired without pay. I will say if he is found guilty, the pay is the least of his worries. But in the meantime, you know, we live in the world where someone can do something horrendous and despicable, but you get to just say fake news. That's just the playbook now. So we're gonna have to wait to see how the legal process plays out. And that actually brings us to the end of your daily dive

into the news today. Now, remember, if I haven't completely melted your brain for more news, you need to know I got you covered right here. You can click or tap or I got links in the description. And of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you right back here next time for more news.