The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.22 Why People Are Freaking Out About Amy Schumer, NYPD Recall Explained, & More

Episode Date: October 22, 2018

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Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you're having a fantastic Monday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show and let's just jump into it. The first thing we're going to talk about today is there is already a controversy around Super Bowl 53, which of course doesn't even happen until February of next year. While this was already a situation that was slowly developing, the reason it blew up over the weekend was because of Amy Schumer. Schumer on Instagram posted this picture with a caption that took aim at white NFL players, as well as Maroon 5, writing,

I wonder why more white players aren't kneeling. "'Once you witness the truly deep inequality "'and endless racism people of color face in our country, "'not to mention the police brutality and murders. "'Why not kneel next to your brothers? "'Otherwise, how are you not complicit?' And then also adding, "'I think it would be cool if Maroon 5

"'backed out of Super Bowl like Rihanna did.'" And then adding as far as what she's doing, she wrote, "'I personally told my reps "'I wouldn't do a Super Bowl commercial this year. I know it must sound like a privileged ass sacrifice, but it's all I got. Hitting the NFL with the advertisers is the only way to really hurt them. I know opposing the NFL is like opposing the NRA. Very tough, but don't you want to be proud of how you're living.

Stand up for your brothers and sisters of color. And following this post, as you'd expect, there were some people that were supportive and some people that trashed her. And as far as my personal takeaway from this, I have thoughts on two fronts. The first being Amy Schumer's decision to not do a commercial because in that way, she would be profiting off this thing that she doesn't support. Cool, that's great.

It seems like you're standing by what you really believe in there. It's where you live in a free country, you should be able to make that decision. Now I don't know if she had a Super Bowl commercial lined up or she was in the running. I know she's done them in the past. But at any point, fine, that's great.

But as far as the angle that you're pulling yourself out of contention for a hypothetical commercial that we don't know if was really a thing is going to hurt any point, fine, that's great. But as far as the angle that you're pulling yourself out of contention for a hypothetical commercial that we don't know if was really a thing is going to hurt the NFL, I think that falls short. Like you not taking money for a thing you don't support, I get, but I don't think you're getting the desired impact that it seems that you're mentioning in this post. But then too, on the note of Amy Schumer seemingly trying

to shame white NFL players, saying that they are complicit in all this horrible stuff, as well as with Maroon 5 trying to shame them, I can't help but think that's kind of a dick move. Obviously that is her right, freedom of speech. She can say whatever she wants, but just kind of dragging other people into a political mess that maybe they've tried

to stay out of seems not like the best way to get those people on your side. But that is my personal takeaway, and I'm completely okay if you disagree with it. And that's actually why I wanna pass the question off to you. Whether you agree or disagree with me, I'd love to know your thoughts, especially on the point of Amy Schumer shaming white NFL players in Maroon 5.

Do you think it's a good, valid move that ultimately it ends up being the right move? Right, and part of the debate I've seen here, and I'd love to know your thoughts, is that we live in such a polarizing time that by even trying to not be political, that action or inaction is actually political. Right, this idea that there is no

and should not be a non-political zone. Or no, are you on the other side of this? You disagree with her move, that you're essentially just dragging people that don't wanna be a part of this really polarizing thing into a conversation? Any and all thoughts here, I'd love to know. And then let's talk about this story with the NYPD.

And I find it interesting in general, but I also wanted to talk about it because there is this false narrative that has been slowly growing. So if you didn't see the news, the NYPD has pulled just under 3,000 body cameras from use. And so this has led some people to say, oh, the NYPD, they're trying to hide the truth.

What are they trying to hide? That is not the case, and I'll explain the full situation. So yes, the NYPD has pulled 2,990 body cameras from use, but this was after officials revealed a potential for the battery inside the camera to ignite, adding that the cause and the scope of the defect are currently being investigated. And in fact, over the weekend, there was news that came out

that a police body camera in New York reportedly exploded while in use on patrol on Staten Island. The officer using that camera was reportedly on graveyard shift when they noticed that smoke was coming from the body of the camera, and after removing it, it reportedly burst into flames. So they pulled these body cams, and you had police commissioner James P. O'Neill

saying that further use and distribution of the camera had been suspended, quote, "'Out of an abundance of caution,' adding, "'Nothing is more important than the safety of our officers "'and equipping NYPD with the best equipment "'is a paramount priority.'" And that camera in question is the VIVEU LE5, which is a model that was introduced in October of 2017.

And reportedly 16 NYPD commands were using the camera before the battery mishap. It uses a lithium ion battery that allows the camera to record for 12 hours and 1080p and these batteries in very specific conditions and circumstances can be prone to issues including exploding or catching fire. This can happen if it's mishandled, it's punctured or it's overworked in a certain device. You might remember the Samsung Note 7 situation. But also with the LE5s there is a reason that there is an extra bit of controversy. Notably, there were people back in 2016 and 17 who were skeptical about the LE5s, there is a reason that there is an extra bit of controversy. Notably, there were people back in 2016 and 17 who were skeptical about the LE5 and questioned its quality.

And in fact, the controversy got to such a point that the city's controller blocked the deal. And it only ended up being pushed forward because the mayor and the police defended the product and pushed it forward. Now of course, with this story, that is only one part of the conversation. Now the other part of this story involves people saying

that, you know, this is bullshit, this is just the NYPD trying to make it so that no one has body cams. And on that note, I would say not really. There are fewer body cameras in the moment, but no. Yes, while nearly 3,000 LE-5s are being removed from service, it doesn't mean the NYPD is fully stopping body cams. While officers are bringing back their LE-5s

and those officers will not have body cams at this time, they still have around 12,500 cameras in use using the older LE-4 model. So main point here is yes, technically there are fewer body cameras on the streets of New York, but to position this story as the NYPD completely suspended their body cam program is bullshit.

Also, what's pretty interesting is looking at the situation, this probably won't even be devastating for the company. VIVEW is owned by Axon, formerly Taser, and Axon makes their own body cameras, notably the popular Axon Body 2 and Body 3 models, which are used by some of the largest police forces in the United States.

And so if the trust around Viview is gone, one of their main competitors are themselves. Although on that note, there's been a question that's popped up regarding what batteries Axon Body 2 and Body 3 use. They, like the Viview LE5, also claim 12 hours of battery life thanks to a lithium ion battery.

And the answer to that is not necessarily, but we don't know. But it's also why we called Axon and Vibu asking if they use the same battery, to which they politely refused to comment over the phone saying that they'd only do so via email. So we reached out to them and they responded by email that the Vibu LE5 and Axon Body 2 camera batteries

are not the same, they are from different manufacturers. And so that's fantastic news because otherwise this somewhat limited story becomes a much bigger story, but ultimately that's where we are with this one right now. And then finally, once again, let's talk about this Khashoggi situation, which we've talked about a lot in the past and there have been some major developments.

If you are unfamiliar with this story, one, how dare you not watch my shows last week? And two, to get up to speed to this point, I highly recommend you watch last Friday's video. We did a big 14 minute focus on it. We're going to make it one of the top links in the description down below, but let's talk about everything new.

Early Saturday morning, Saudi Arabian time, Friday afternoon, our time, the Saudi foreign ministry finally issued a statement admitting that Khashoggi was killed in their consulate in Istanbul. And in this statement, their story changes from Jamal Khashoggi left the consulate to Khashoggi had discussions with suspects

that didn't go as required or expected. And that led to a fight that then led to Khashoggi's death and then the suspects attempted to conceal what happened. A statement then going on to say, The source added that while the investigations are still ongoing into the case with the 18 Saudi detainees, the kingdom expresses its deep regret at the painful developments that have taken place and stresses the commitment of the authorities in the kingdom to bring the facts to the public opinion, to hold all those involved accountable, and bring them to justice by referring them to the competent courts in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. to the public opinion, to hold all those involved accountable, and bring them to justice by referring them to the competent courts in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

And among those detained are reportedly the 15 people sent to confront Khashoggi at the consulate, a driver, and two other consulate staff members. Also as part of this announcement, five officials have been dismissed, including at least two high-ranking officers. One is Saad al-Qahtani, reportedly a close aide to the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

He reportedly knew about the operation and was specifically fired as an advisor to the royal court for contributing to an aggressive environment that led to Khashoggi's death. The other person fired was Major General Ahmed Al-Asiri, who was deputy director of Saudi intelligence. He reportedly organized the operation and dispatched the 15-man team.

Also, according to reports, a Saudi official speaking anonymously to the New York Times offered some more detail on the official statement, saying apparently a general order to return dissidents abroad was misinterpreted as it went down the chain of command. And that official also reportedly saying that Khashoggi was ultimately strangled to death

in a struggle and that the body was given to a local collaborator who then disposed of it. And I know that I usually save my opinion towards the end of it, but just on all of these points, I have to chime in. The explanation that Khashoggi died because a brawl ensued reeks of bullshit. Their explanation is that a 59 year old journalist

got into a fight with essentially a 15 man hit team. And that in this brawl that ensued, he just happened to die. In my opinion, that is a bat shit crazy explanation. If there was any fight whatsoever, it was most likely Khashoggi trying to fight for his life as people were trying to kill him. So I just want to get that part straight first because the explanation is incredibly minimizing.

So there's that, but also you had Saudi Arabia's foreign minister appearing on Fox News for an interview Sunday night. And in this interview, we hear a key term used that Donald Trump kind of prepared us for last week. Even the senior leadership of our intelligence service was not aware of this. This was an operation that was a rogue operation.

Right, so we see him say rogue operation. Last week we had Donald Trump saying. It sounded to me like maybe this could have been rogue killers. Who knows? Right, and so this is part of, and what many people would argue, the bigger part of the story as far as how connected is Mohammed bin Salman. Many experts have said it's an incredibly unlikely scenario that Mohammed bin Salman would not be aware something like this happened. But we're seeing the defense being that these were rogue operators, that there was miscommunication. This is something that is separate. But one of the big questions with this situation is if, okay, the leadership in Saudi Arabia, they want to handle this situation,

they want to hold those accountable who did this, then why have we seen public denial after public denial from the Saudis? On October 3rd, the Crown Prince had an interview with Bloomberg where he said that Khashoggi left the consulate after a few minutes or one hour. October 8th, you had the Saudi government stating that the Turkish accusation that Khashoggi was killed in the consulate was baseless. October 16th, after Mike Pompeo met with leadership of Saudi Arabia, he said they denied all of the allegations. But the one possible cover, the one possible explanation they have

comes from information we just started seeing come out this morning. CNN spoke with a Turkish source that provided more surveillance footage from around the consulate and the city. And that footage appears to show someone entering the Saudi consulate at 11 a.m. who then leaves at around 3 p.m. wearing Khashoggi's clothes.

And so that would be about an hour and a half after Khashoggi entered. And then later in the day he's also seen at Istanbul's Blue Mosque still wearing Khashoggi's clothes. And after visiting the mosque he's then seen wearing his original clothes as well as with an alleged accomplice who's carrying a plastic bag, possibly with Khashoggi's clothes inside.

And this so-called body double was also previously identified in Turkish media as one of the 15 hitmen sent to the consulate. And while this is being used as a potential explanation as far as why Saudi leadership didn't know about this, they were shown something, maybe they were misled. Well, to that note, one, anyone paying attention can see

that is not the same person. And two, if anything, this seems to suggest even more that this operation was premeditated. And ultimately, as far as what we know, that is where we are as of right now, although there could be updates just in the next few hours. And that's not just because this is still a developing situation,

but because there has been this seemingly purposeful, slow leak of information. And by releasing the information this way, it stays in the international conversation for even longer rather than just, here's a big, giant dump of info. But I mean, hey, you live in 2018, there's a new massive story every two to three days. Like just overwhelmingly large.

Whoever's operating the spotlight of 2018 is gonna have carpal tunnel. But while that is where we are right now, there's of course the question of, okay, what happens next? And a massive part of that conversation involves President Trump. On Friday when this news was coming out, he said this was a first good step.

He then reiterated the importance of the arms deal with Saudi Arabia. And as far as what action we might see, he mentioned Congress. Congress is very interested in as what action we might see he mentioned Congress Congress is very interested in this one and will be working with Congress, but I would prefer If there is going to be some form of sanction or what we may determine to do with anything But I would prefer that we don't use as retribution Canceling a hundred and ten billion dollars worth of work

Which means six,000 jobs. But on Saturday in an interview with the Washington Post, we saw him seemingly criticize Saudi Arabia, saying, "'Obviously there's been deception and there's been lies. "'Their stories are all over the place.'" Also, Trump today, when speaking with reporters, said he was not satisfied with Saudi Arabia's explanation, but also saying at the same time, he, quote,

"'Doesn't want to lose all the investment "'that's being made in our country. "'I don't want to lose a million jobs.'" We also saw members of Congress chiming in. We saw the likes of Bob Corker, Republican Senator of Tennessee. They've lost all credibility as it relates to explaining what has happened. I can understand the president wanting to keep open channels, but I think those of us who wanna speak directly to this know that it's just not credible. We also had Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska saying.

Saudis got a lot of explaining to do, and I think everything should be on the table. I think the cover stories from the Saudis are a mess. You don't bring a bone saw to an accidental fist fight inside an embassy in Turkey, or a consulate in Turkey. So the Saudis have said a whole bunch of crap that's not right, accurate or true. We also the deputy head of Turkey's ruling party expressing skepticism, saying it's not possible for the Saudi administration to wiggle itself out of this crime if it's confirmed.

Also saying that eventually they would share evidence of Khashoggi's murder. Today we also saw the spokesman of the ruling party call Khashoggi's killing plans in an extremely savage manner. And also, as previously mentioned, a big part of this story is the money. The foreign investment initiative in Saudi Arabia has continued to see executives and governments withdraw

But as a result of that the event hasn't been cancelled What we're seeing is that Middle Eastern, Russian and Japanese companies are making up a larger portion of the attendees for the event For example the Russian direct investment fund put together a group of 30 entrepreneurs and investors to go Additionally more speakers from Arab countries have been added Although that's not to say that this is not negatively impacted Saudi Arabia It has in fact been a terrible month for the Saudi investment market. Reportedly foreign investors sold $1.1 billion of Saudi stocks last week, and the Saudi all share index is down 4.4% this month.

But ultimately that is where we are with this story. Now we're gonna have to wait to see how it develops. And that's actually where I'm going to end today's show. And of course, a big part of this show is I want to hear from you. So whether it be this last story we just talked about, the first one, anything in between, let me know what you're thinking in those comments down below. Also, while you're at it, if you like

these daily dives into the news, you like this show, hit that like button. If you're new here, you want to see more, hit that subscribe button. But with that said, of course, as always, my name is Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.