The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 11.18 I hate having to talk about this, but its important we do...

Episode Date: November 18, 2020

Shoutout to Keeps! Go to https://www.keeps.com/defranco to get 50% off your first order of hair loss treatment.  WATCH My NEW iJustine Podcast: https://youtu.be/T34mowNvSfE  -- WATCH Full “A Convo With” Podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/ACW  LISTEN On The Podcast Platform Of Your Choice: http://LinksHole.com WATCH the ACW Clips channel!: https://youtube.com/ACWClips -- 00:00 - Why I'm struggling with story selection right now 01:27 - Trump Fires Head of CISA 05:14 - Trump Keeps Losing Lawsuits 07:09 - Sponsor 08:00 - Michigan Election Board Members "Hesitate" to Certify Votes 12:42 - What Now? 16:19 - My Final Thoughts -- ✩ SUPPORT THE SHOW ✩ ✭ BUY our GEAR, Support the Show!: http://ShopDeFranco.com ✭ Lemme Touch Your Hair: http://BeautifulBastard.com ✭ Paid Subscription: http://DeFrancoElite.com  ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩  Trump Fires Nation’s Top Election Security Director for His Efforts to Debunk Election Fraud:  https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/18/krebs-trump/ Trump Campaign Presses Ahead With Lawsuits Despite Major Losses: https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/18/trump-campaign-lawsuits/  ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ Apple Will Cut Its App Store Commission Fee in Half for Small App Makers: https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/18/apple-commission-fee/ Pfizer Says Its Vaccine Is 95% Effective, Will Seek FDA Approval:  https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/18/pfizer-vaccine-will-ask-fda/ Thai Pro-Democracy Protesters Shot After Clashes With Police and Royalists Near Parliament Grounds https://roguerocket.com/2020/11/18/thai-pro-democracy-protesters-shot/ ——————————     Edited by: James Girardier, Julie Goldberg, Maxx Enright Produced by: Amanda Morones Art Director: Brian Borst  Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Cory Ray, Neena Pesqueda, Brian Espinoza Production Team: Zack Taylor, Luke Manning  ———————————— #DeFranco #2020Election #DonaldTrump Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Huh. So figuring out how to make a show this week has actually been very hard because as I try to talk about other things in the world, it feels like we have this crazy man at the gate shaking them, yelling pure insanity at times. And also that man technically until January 20th is still president of the United States.

You just have lie after lie after lie. Some, he doesn't even sprinkle in truth anymore, just pure lunacy. So I think a lot of people trying to cover and comment on the news responsibly go, do we give any of that craziness any oxygen, more oxygen than it really deserves and talk about other things?

Or is it still incredibly important to talk about, provide more context, debunk the lies that are being kind of thrown out there still? Because no matter what happens from here to January 20th, trust in democracy, trust in reality, is being permanently damaged. Especially at a time where more people feel more unreachable than ever,

and it's impossible to keep up with the number of lies. So you have to kind of pick and choose what you go after. Because you enter this situation where no matter how many things you debunk, they still go, well, what about? Even though the list of things that have been debunked the list just goes on and on. So know that that at times is what I struggle with

when choosing kind of what to cover or how often to cover things. I'm not worried about people that maybe watched the show a year ago going, ah, you're biased because I'm not going to treat something as valid or as an equally equivalent argument when it is a bad faith argument or a lie or completely misleading.

And so with all that said, where I wanna start today is by talking about the nation's top election security official, Chris Krebs, or I guess rather the nation's former top election security official. And I say former because yesterday on Twitter, we saw President Trump firing Krebs from his position as director of the Cybersecurity

and Infrastructure Security Agency, AKA CISA, which sounds like the sassiest of government agencies. I believe their agency motto is, hey CISA, soul, no, that's stupid. But more specifically, CISA is an agency under the Homeland Security umbrella that Trump himself signed into law back in 2018. Now, as far as why Krebs was fired,

Trump seemed to indicate that it was based on a recent statement that he made. As far as that statement goes, look, CISA has consistently been very clear that there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in this past election. For example, they even created a rumor control page that debunked a number of election fraud claims.

And just last week, a committee made up of officials from CISA called the election, quote, "'The most secure in election history,' adding, "'There is no evidence that any voting system "'deleted or lost votes, changed votes, "'or was in any way compromised. We even saw yesterday morning, Krebs himself again hammering that message home,

saying, on allegations that election systems were manipulated, 59 election security experts all agree, in every case of which we are aware, these claims either have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent. Hashtag protect 2020. A statement that, shocker, delusional Don was not a fan of

calling it highly inaccurate. With Trump again going on to baselessly claim that there were massive improprieties and fraud and then reciting off a list of his favorite hits saying that dead people voted, that poll watchers weren't allowed into polling locations, that glitches in voting machines changed Trump votes to Biden votes.

Also regarding Krebs, him being fired, that wasn't a massive blindside, that was something that he saw coming. Or the same day that CISA statement went out, Reuters even reported that Krebs expected to be fired by Trump for debunking his whole election fraud conspiracy. Also, regarding that expectation, last week, an unnamed DHS official telling NPR

that Krebs' firing would rock CISA, saying of him, "'Chris has earned the trust of staff all across the agency. He's easily been the most competent and able of any political appointee I've worked with. But that opinion seemingly echoed by numerous members of Congress. Yesterday evening, for example, we saw Senator Elizabeth Warren saying,

"'Christopher Krebs got fired because he did his job "'to protect our elections and stood up "'to Trump's conspiracy theories. "'This is a disgusting abuse of power "'by a weak and desperate president "'who undermines our democracy and national security.'" It also wasn't just Democrats who had Krebs being heavily praised by Republicans,

including Senator Ben Sasse, who said Chris Krebs did a really good job, as state election officials all across the nation will tell you, and he obviously should not be fired. You also had Senator John Cornyn saying this just adds to the confusion and chaos, Senator Mitt Romney calling it a terrible mistake. I mean, part of the reason that Krebs

is so highly respected here is because in his role, he was intensely nonpartisan. And on top of that, CISA has been widely credited with helping to ensure that the 2020 election was free of foreign interference. And actually, following his firing, we saw Krebs himself responding on Twitter saying, "'Honored to serve. We did it right.

Defend today, secure tomorrow.'" Also telling NBC News that he's proud of the work he did at CISA, with another source telling the outlet that Krebs didn't actually find out that he had been fired until he saw Trump's tweet and adding that it was upsetting for him because he took his work seriously.

Now, with all that said, as far as what happens next within CISA, Krebs' role would normally fall to his deputy, Matthew Travis, except last night, acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf reportedly called Travis and told him that the White House had overruled CISA's line of succession, which is also why from there we saw Travis resign,

with Trump now designating CISA Executive Director Brandon Wales as the agency's new acting director. But also, look, it's not just Krebs and Travis. Last week, CISA's Assistant Director Brian Ware, he handed in his resignation, with it being reported that the move came after the White House specifically asked for his resignation. And really, I mean, all of this can be best summed up

by Adam Kinzinger, who's a GOP representative from Illinois who earlier today described all of these firings as a loyalty purge by the White House. But also, I mean, like we've talked about before, this isn't just about Trump trying to fire anyone that's not parroting him and saying what he likes. He's been lying and lying and lying. His campaigns filed a ton of lawsuits

aimed at overturning the results of the election. And I mean, really here, the strategy appears to be throw as much shit against the wall and see what maybe sticks, which, surprise, surprise, that isn't working out well for him. And as Harvard Law School professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos told reporters earlier this week,

there have been something like 30 or 40 of these lawsuits filed in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and so on. And noting, to this point, dozens of defeats have piled up for the Trump campaign. Right, but it goes even further than that because it's not just that major losses are piling up. I mean, the Trump campaign's been dropping some cases

as well because they pretty much have zero chance of standing up in court. And all of this happening while lawyers and in fact, entire law firms who have been bringing these cases up for Trump are withdrawing from the legal fights, leaving his campaign scrambling to fill those spaces and key suits with Rudy Giuliani. Or in fact, a lawyer who said a few weeks ago

that Biden had won and that lawsuits will not reverse this election. And I mean, just yesterday we saw two more massive losses for the Trump campaign. The first being in Pennsylvania where the state Supreme court ruled five to two to strike down yet another Trump lawsuit.

And actually this case, which was brought against Philadelphia's election board is one that we talked about last week, right? In that the Trump campaign alleged that Republican observers watching ballots being counted in Philadelphia were kept 15 to 18 feet away from the election workers, which they claimed was too far away to see if there were irregularities in the process.

What we saw happen is a lower court denied that request. The Trump campaign appealed it. An appeals court ruled in favor of them and allowed the observers to stand six feet away as long as they abided by COVID safe guidelines like wearing masks. The election board then appealed that decision to the state Supreme Court,

which ultimately upheld the first court's decision. And saying in that decision, they ruled that Philadelphia's election protocols were set up with quote, "'Careful consideration of how it could best protect "'the security and privacy of voters' ballots, "'as well as safeguard its employees and others "'who would be present during a pandemic

"'for the pre-canvassing and canvassing process.'" Also noting that observers were directed to do just that, right, observe the process, not audit the ballots for irregularities. And noting they were very much able to observe election workers performing their duties as required at the safe 15 to 18 foot distance. While obviously in Pennsylvania,

that was a huge loss for the Trump campaign. We also saw a second major upset yesterday, though it didn't actually come from a legal case, but rather a decision made by an election board in Wayne County, Michigan, which is home to Detroit. Right, because there you had two Republican members of the election board, Monica Palmer and William Hartman, refusing to certify the election results,

with them arguing that some precincts in the county, specifically in Detroit, that the number of recorded votes did not line up with the number of voters who were listed as having shown up to vote. But also, notably, you had a lot of people pushing back against this heavily, including the Michigan Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson,

and other top officials, who pointed out that most of these discrepancies at the precincts involved a very small number of ballots. Noting that these small blips likely just stemmed from easily explained situations like a voter leaving a long line or an absentee ballot kicked out of a tabulator because a voter decided to cast their ballot in person.

With Benson, who agreed to a comprehensive audit of the Detroit precinct, specifically saying, "'All the evidence they currently have "'shows that the election had been run cleanly, "'that there was no evidence of fraud, "'and that these issues were just due to clerical errors. Adding that it was irresponsible for the Republicans to refuse to verify these legal votes

because of such a minor thing. And that was also echoed by other voters, activists, and community members, with many pointing to the fact that Monica Palmer even argued at one point that the results should be certified in one of the predominantly white suburbs outside of Detroit, even though it actually had an even bigger variance in ballots cast to voters

who turned out. This including Ned Stabler, the chief executive of Tech Town, which is a high-tech business incubator in Detroit, who really went in on these two in a now viral video. We also know that the Secretary of State and the Attorney General have already tweeted out that your legal arguments are rubbish and you're going to lose when it comes to court. So

we're not worried about that at all. I'm also not worried about any of your old things are bad, so we can't certify arguments because that's just ridiculous. You certified in August when they were worse. Less than 50% of the ballots were recountable. Now over 72% are 58% of them were even balanced when it was less than 30% last time. So it's doubled. It's gotten way better because the Secretary of State actually jumped in and did her job, unlike you. But I know it's not going to change your opinion. You talked about not certifying Detroit, even though you acknowledge that Livonia, a city, by the way, I know you know is 95% white, had bigger variances than Detroit, which is 80% black.

We understand. And you now added your name. So I'm not going to try to change your mind. I just want to let you know that the Trump stick, the stain of racism that you, William Hartman and Monica Palmer have just covered yourself in is going to follow you throughout history. Your grandchildren are going to think of you like Bull Connor or George Wallace. Monica Palmer and William Hartman will forever be known in southeastern Michigan as two racists who did something so unprecedented that

they disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of black voters in the city of Detroit because they were ordered to. Probably, I know, Monica, you think Q told you to do it or some other crazy stuff like that. But just know when you try to sleep tonight that millions of people around the world now on Twitter know the name Monica Palmer and William Hartman as two people completely racist and without an understanding of what integrity means or a shred of human decency. You, the law isn't on your side, history won't be on your side, your conscience will not be on your side,

and Lord knows when you go to meet your maker, your soul is going to be very, very warm. And actually what we ended up seeing is because of this massive backlash from Stabler and others, we actually saw the two Republicans reversing their decision and agreeing to certify the results. Right, so just another massive loss for Trump, who had actually just taken to Twitter

to praise the Republican board members initial decision writing, "'Having courage is a beautiful thing'," to, I guess, just interject here, "'Courage to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of predominantly black voters.'" Cool, that's great. But also as far as Trump's reaction after the reversal,

ah, another shocker. He was not happy with Trump taking to Twitter this morning to lash out at both Michigan and Pennsylvania in a series of highly repetitive tweets that were pretty much all flagged by Twitter. Tweets that, in my opinion, sound more like a man who is in a padded room than the person who should be in the highest office in the land, right?

Tweeting out multiple posts, claiming that he won Michigan, falsely claiming that there were more votes than people. Also posting about the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision and claiming that poll workers weren't even let into the building in Pennsylvania, which not only is false, but doesn't even make any sense. Because their whole argument in that actual lawsuit is that they were in the building,

but they just weren't allowed close enough. And then of course, just going for the classic from the most stable man in the world, claiming with no context, also no validity, and I won the election. Voter fraud all over the country. Right, but with all of that said, let's start winding down. Let's bring it back around.

I mean, obviously these losses are taking a toll on the president. His legal strategy, if you can even call it that, is headed into a tailspin. Meanwhile, even as those close to his campaign have reportedly been privately acknowledging to reporters that there is very little evidence to support his claims. Multiple people close to the president

have also anonymously told numerous outlets that Rudy Giuliani has encouraged Trump not only to believe a number of conspiracy theories about voting irregularities, but also that the other people around him have been lying about his chances of winning these legal battles. But I mean, there, all you have to do

is look at the absolute catastrophe yesterday that was Giuliani's first time appearing before a judge on Trump's behalf. Also, the first time appearing before a court in decades's behalf. Also the first time appearing before a court in decades, period. And to use, I guess the technical term here, he made a complete ass out of himself. Right at the same time that Pennsylvania's highest court

made that ruling, Giuliani had just finished his opening arguments in a federal court elsewhere in the state. And the case that Giuliani was making there, though at times he appeared to be confused as to which of the many lawsuits he was talking about, was narrowly focused on whether election officials in Pennsylvania should have given voters the ability to fix issues

with their mail-in ballots after submitting them. Some counties in the state allowed voters to fix the issues, others did not. And so the Trump campaign was arguing that that was unconstitutional and were attempting to block Pennsylvania's Secretary of State from certifying the election results. Or I guess what I should say is that was

what they were supposed to be arguing. Instead, what we're seeing yesterday was Rudy Giuliani making some wildly baseless claims, totally unrelated to the lawsuit. Saying with of course, literally no evidence that there was a massive conspiracy behind Biden's victory, saying it's a widespread nationwide voter fraud. Also accusing local election officials

of being part of what he called a little mafia and preventing Republican observers from watching the ballot counts. This, despite the fact that the same lawsuit Giuliani was arguing had previously made that same claim, but there the lawyers who were running the case until Giuliani took the reins dropped that part because they knew that it would not hold up.

And then actually when questioned by the judge as to whether Giuliani was bringing new claims of fraud that were not mentioned in the suit at hand. He then admitted it wasn't a fraud case, but continued to complain about the fraudulent process, which resulted in the judge responding, so you were alleging a fraud and then telling Giuliani such claims would need a higher standard

than just baseless suspicion to make a real case. But I mean, that utterly embarrassing showcase and all of Trump's other losses haven't stopped the Trump campaign from filing more absolutely bonkers lawsuits. I mean, just yesterday in Nevada, the campaign literally asked to be declared the winner of the election in Nevada.

Or alternatively, if that does not work, because usually judges don't go, "'Okay, you know what? "'I'm feeling kind of bad for you. "'You can win a whole election.'" The Trump campaign wanting the results to be annulled so that no winner is certified by the elections board. With that lawsuit claiming, again, without evidence,

that fraud and abuse renders the purported results of the Nevada election illegitimate. Going on to make claims that a signature verification machine in Clark County, the most populous county in Nevada, was flawed. Also claiming that poll watchers were denied meaningful access to the ballot counting process, which, I mean, once again,

does not appear to be a valid argument. And you even had a Clark County election official saying that the Trump campaign inaccurately described these claims, noting that regarding both issues, state and federal courts have already rejected their allegations. But now with all that said, there may be this question that's actually been in your head

for a while now. How long will we have to deal with this? Will they keep doing this garbage until inauguration day? Well, I've said in the past, pre and definitely even more in the post election, you should expect everything to be chaotic, a lot of flailing, a lot of damage to be done. For a number of the specifics

that we're talking about today, there is a legal stopping point on December 8th. Right, because December 8th is what is known as the safe harbor deadline, which is the date by which all legal challenges and recounts must be settled and electors must be solidified by states. And while yes, Trump could still technically file

a lawsuit after that, it would almost certainly be tossed out immediately. Also, another important thing to remember here is that even if he ends up winning some of these smaller lawsuits, right? Just something tiny, they get to claim a win. It is extremely unlikely that he will be able to overturn the will of the people.

And that is where we are with all of this today. But the important thing I want to hit on there is that the work here is not done. Even with this president super sloppy attempted, I mean, I'm just gonna call it what it looks like, a sloppy attempt at a coup taking L after L, it is incredibly troubling for the American democracy. Something that recently stood out to me

was this tweet from Max Fischer. He writes a lot about the crumbling, the erosion of democracies internationally. And he said, "'Whatever happens now, we may spend the rest of our lives dealing with the party-wide normalization of refusal to concede losses, refusal to transfer power,

efforts to overturn election results, illegitimation of out-party governance.'" And noting, "'It is very hard to unring this bell.'" And the only reason it feels like our democracy is not being completely shattered in this moment is that there are still enough people willing to put country over party, just enough.

And that in itself is incredibly concerning. And it really becomes a question of, will it just get worse from here or will things calm down? Because, you know, I mean, for example, just to note something from a new Reuters Ipsos poll that was released today, about half of all Republicans believe President Donald Trump rightfully won the US election,

but that it was stolen from him by widespread voter fraud that favored Democrat President-elect Joe Biden. Which, I mean, you could read one of two ways. One, that is a hell of a lot of people, but also two, that is a hell of a lot less than what I think a lot of people thought it would be. For the past four years, Donald Trump has enjoyed one of the highest favorability ratings in the Republican party.

So there is a potential argument to be made here that more people are actually reachable than what you might think. And that Donald Trump's fire hose of misinformation and lies might actually have a more limited audience, at least than expected. But of course you have to keep in mind that things can change over the years.

I mean, just think of where the political conversation was just four years ago compared to what has been normalized now. But yeah, that's where I'm gonna end this one. I apologize to anyone that was hoping for something light and maybe celebrity focused, but you know, there's a time and a place and kind of like I touched on in the beginning here, it just didn't feel right today. And of course, as always,

thank you for being a part of these daily dives in the news. I appreciate you being here. Also, if you're looking for more to watch, maybe you missed yesterday's Philip DeFranco show. You should definitely check that out. Or maybe you need something different. I have a brand new conversation with iJustine that dropped today at youtube.com slash ACW.

Click or tap right there, or it's in the description down below. But either way, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.