The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 1.12 Demi Lovato Banned in UK, Lying Liar George Santos Lied in Fun New Way, New OBJ Bodycam Video & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Did the body cam footage just expose OBJ? Demi Lovato in the hottest of waters? More Biden docs were found? And is George Santos the biggest lying liar who has ever lied? We're going to talk about all of that and more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show, so buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it, you beautiful bastards. We finally got the video! So you may not remember, but there was this incident Thanksgiving weekend with Odell Beckham Jr.

Starting point is 00:00:22 He's a football player, he's currently a free agent, with reports saying that he had to get off an LA-bound flight in Miami because he didn't put his seatbelt on. His lawyer releasing a statement then saying that he had just fallen asleep with a blanket over his head, and that by the time that he was awakened, he was told that he needed to get off the plane for refusing to comply with a seatbelt mandate. And his lawyer saying the flight attendant was overzealous and made everyone de-bored, that at no point was Beckham disruptive or combative.

Starting point is 00:00:41 But now, all this time after, we have newly released police footage. Let's walk through it together. You have the footage starting with him getting woken up. Officers think he seems fine. And we then see a flight attendant saying, Everyone continues talking, saying that it's up to the pilot and the crew as to whether or not he should be allowed to stay on the flight. The police report further explaining that the crew thought something was wrong with him and were concerned that his condition would worsen over the course of the trip, so they decided that he needed to get off. We then hear someone say that the whole plane needs to be deboarded to follow procedure,

Starting point is 00:01:09 and someone later explains the situation to Beckham. People then start getting off, there's a ton of crosstalk and noise in the video. Then it appears one of the passengers calls him out and says something that clearly irks him, because we then hear Beckham respond. Everything wrong with the world. Looking at me to get off the plane for you. I would never... Ever in my life... Get off the plane for you specifically you maybe everybody else you're gonna wait 40 minutes and i'm gonna be on a private plane home enjoy the cheese board on the way home So in response to this, we've seen people calling Odell things like a douche canoe.

Starting point is 00:02:12 That's literally the barstool headline. People also saying he's rude and selfish, noting that he was told everyone else is going to have to deboard if he doesn't go along with it. He says that's fine. But also you have people defending Odell, saying, you know, the cabin crew, they went too far. Some saying it even looks like he was targeted. Regarding him being rude to passengers, people saying, you know, the cabin crew, they went too far. Some saying it even looks like he was targeted. Regarding him being rude to passengers, people saying, you know, you say the ugliest things if you're just woken up. Which is why I'll now pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts regarding this whole situation in the body cam footage with OBJ?

Starting point is 00:02:34 And then, Demi Lovato is a threat to the sanctity of Christianity. That is a take that a number of people have right now. And actually an advertising regulator in the UK has agreed with them. But why on God's green earth would she do such a thing when it's gonna result in millions of dollars of free promos? Ragenomics, baby, but let's just jump into it. So the story centers around Demi's album, Holy Fuck, and a poster with the album's cover art, featuring Demi lying on a cross-shaped mattress while in bondage. But now, the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK, or ASA, released a statement yesterday saying that the posters with that image were banned, with them notably having them in place in six different spots around London for a four-day

Starting point is 00:03:08 period before being taken down. And this after the ASA said they got a whopping four complaints about the poster. Which to put into context is like if I deleted a video because there was one comment that said I don't like this. Just number wise I mean four people in a city of nine million. But yeah their complaints centered around two main issues. One saying the poster was likely to cause serious or widespread offense. And two, saying that the ads were irresponsibly placed where children could see it. And for their part, Demi's record label said they didn't think the poster would cause outrage. And as it turns out, this wasn't the label just like trusting their gut, feeling out the vibes. They even checked with the agency prior to running

Starting point is 00:03:38 the poster to make sure it was, quote, acceptable to run on the proposed sites. But despite the ASA previously giving it the checkmark, they were like, four people, gotta take it down. With the agency saying that it took a handful of factors into consideration, including the language on the poster. Even though the title uses a V instead of a U, the agency said it was clearly alluding to the phrase, holy fuck. And since it appeared in a public place where children were also likely to see it,

Starting point is 00:03:57 the group ruled that it was targeted irresponsibly. And then, regarding religious issues, it said that the image of Lovato on the crucifix bed, along with the holy fuck album title, quote, was likely to be viewed as linking sexuality to the sacred symbol of the Lovato on the crucifix bed, along with the Holy Fuck album title, quote, was likely to be viewed as linking sexuality to the sacred symbol of the crucifix and the crucifixion, and saying it was likely to cause serious offense to Christians. And saying, therefore, it had breached the ad code and cannot appear in its current state without being suitably targeted.

Starting point is 00:04:15 So, of course, in response to this, we saw some people supporting it, others mocking the news, others condemning it. With a group called Humanist UK, which says it aims to promote free thinking and tolerance, releasing a statement slamming the ASA. Saying its ruling regarding offense to Christianity is a de facto ban on blasphemy, and adding, regardless of what anyone may think of the language used in Lovato's advert, or its appropriateness for children, religious offense should never be grounds to ban an advert, and adding, in a free society, fear of offending religion should not take precedence over free expression. What one person perceives as offensive may be very important for another person to say and have heard, saying religions in particular are big

Starting point is 00:04:46 Powerful ideas these kinds of regulations take power away from ordinary people and insulate powerful institutions from scrutiny Hey, that's a story now. I want to pass the question off to you Where do you land on this debate and then you remember how Kanye said there's a lot of things that I love about Hitler a lot of things while some of the bad news is that he is not alone in having that sentiment, as we have seen with just hateful people throwing out signs, what's becoming more and more alarming

Starting point is 00:05:13 is anti-Jewish sentiment rising. With a survey between September and October finding that 85% of Americans believe at least one anti-Jewish trope. And that's a big jump from 61% in 2019. And as far as some of the specifics, one quarter of Americans think it is mostly or somewhat true that Jewish people have too much power

Starting point is 00:05:27 in the business world and Wall Street, with roughly the same percentage saying they are so shrewd in business that others don't have a fair chance. And then you've got one in five people agreeing with these statements, that Jewish people don't care what happens to anyone but their own kind,

Starting point is 00:05:38 that they're more willing than others to use shady practices to get what they want, and saying they have a lot of irritating faults. And before y'all go anti-Boomer in the comments, which I know it's easy to kind of jump to that conclusion, one of the interesting aspects of the survey is that they found very little difference of opinion between age groups. And understand, this survey is not happening in a vacuum. We're seeing changes in thoughts and opinions not just in surveys, but also in the headlines we've seen. Right, in recent years, you have things like the neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville to the Tree of Life

Starting point is 00:06:02 synagogue massacre. It's not just Hitler, Love, and Kanye. You've got Donald Trump openly attacking Jews who don't support Israel, perpetuating the trope that they should have dual loyalty just because they're Jewish. And so that's why with this story, of course, I throw out the general question to everyone of what are your thoughts here, especially to those of my audience who are Jewish. What is your reaction to all of this? Right through your own experiences, have you seen a change over the last three, five, 10 years? And if so, what does it look like? And then, no matter the size of the business, January means dealing with customer emails, returns, gift card purchases, and the inevitable increase in postage costs. And that's why I want to thank today's fantastic sponsor, Stamps.com slash Phil. We're all busy enough as is, and personally,

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Starting point is 00:07:00 No guessing, no overpaying, no thinking required. Simply put, Stamps.com saves me time and money. It frees me to spend more time producing the show, working on new merch, doing the next drop, spending time with family. To start this new year right by saving serious money on mailing and shipping, get started with Stamps.com today. Sign up at Stamps.com slash fill for a special offer that includes a four-week trial plus free postage and a free digital scale. No long-term commitments or contracts. That's stamps.com slash phil. And then Biden's lawyers discovered a second batch of classified files. With this revelation coming just days after we learned around 10 classified

Starting point is 00:07:33 files were found in a private office before the midterms and returned to the National Archives. Now, as for the second batch, sources say they were in a different location, came from Biden's time as VP, and were found sometime after the first batch. But as of recording, that's really all we know. Though very little of that matters for the way this looks politically for Biden. Because one time, maybe that's an isolated incident. Two times, it starts looking more and more like a systematic problem. And as rule number one of political scandals tells us, bad news dripping out slowly over a long period of time looks a lot worse optically than one-time revelations, regardless of the nuances. Especially because as long as this stays in the headlines,

Starting point is 00:08:04 Biden's forced to get on the defensive and Republicans have something to hound him on. Right, why wouldn't you try to suck the air out of stories like the George Santos scandal or the Kevin McCarthy fiascos? And now with congressional Republicans moving to investigate the Biden files, you can expect there to be more and more news coverage

Starting point is 00:08:16 of this, even if no more documents are discovered. And even with understanding these don't appear to be one-to-one situations, it makes sense for them strategically to do this. Right, the worse they can try to make this seem for Biden, the harder it makes it for Mayor Garland to criminally prosecute Trump. Because even though, given what we currently know, Trump's actions were far, far, far worse, a different thing, Garland is extremely cautious about appearing impartial. So there's a concern that by prosecuting only one of them, it could weaken the DOJ's perceived

Starting point is 00:08:39 legitimacy and give Republicans even more to be aggrieved over. Though with all this, I will say it is fascinating that people for a year who said it was no big deal that Donald Trump had these files apparently now have so many security concerns about Biden. Because personally, I'm of the mindset of, yeah, let's find out what the hell is in Biden's files. The more we know, the better we can judge and compare situations.

Starting point is 00:08:58 Otherwise, you really don't care about the truth and you're just trying to weaponize oversimplified headlines to falsely equate them. But hey, that's a story and then just this fucking dummy's opinion. And then we need to talk about Representative George Santos because I need everyone to understand how ridiculous and egregious this situation really is. And at this point, you've probably heard at least some of this story, but just I'm not even going to be able to get to everything and I want you to buckle up.

Starting point is 00:09:21 So Santos is a newly elected congressman. He flipped a seat for Republicans in New York, helped them secure their narrow house majority. You know, this guy seemed like a godsend for the Republican Party. He's a bright young 34-year-old, the son of Brazilian immigrants, the grandson of Jewish Holocaust survivors, the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a non-incumbent. He's a self-made man who beat all the odds after being forced to leave one of New York's best private schools because his family couldn't afford it. He instead attends public college. He marches forward.

Starting point is 00:09:47 He's still able to become a successful financier and investor working for some of the top firms in the world. And that ain't all. He has a big heart, soft spot for cute, fuzzy animals. His animal rescue charity saved more than 2,500 dogs and cats. Except, as it turns out, all of that is total bullshit. Once again, it doesn't even touch on all the lies. Right, so toward the end of December, before Santos was even sworn in, the New York Times published an absolute nuke of an investigation that indicated large chunks of his resume were just made up. Right, specifically, the Times reported that the leading financial firm,

Starting point is 00:10:13 Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs, where he claimed to have worked, had no record of his employment. Also, Baruch College, where he said he graduated in 2010, had no record of anyone with that name and birthday graduating that year. The same was true for records of his attendance at NYU, where he had allegedly done a stint, according to his biography on the National Republican Congressional Committee website. The Times also found almost no evidence that his animal rescue charity, Friends of Pets United, was a tax-exempt organization, and the IRS didn't have any records of a charity registered with that name. And beyond that, the outlet claimed

Starting point is 00:10:40 that Santos hadn't listed any of the 13 properties he had bragged his family owned on his financial disclosures for his most recent campaign, as well as an earlier failed campaign. And reporters couldn't even find any evidence those properties existed. They also couldn't find any public assets belonging to Santos' self-described family firm, the Devolder Organization,

Starting point is 00:10:56 despite the fact that Santos said that the Capital Introduction Consulting Company managed $80 million in assets. And he also didn't provide any information about clients on financial disclosures as required by law. That also doesn't even touch on a bunch of other financial-related sketchiness, like where he got enough money to loan $700,000 to his own campaign when he reported earning $55,000 in 2020, as well as his employment at a company accused of operating a Ponzi scheme. Also, while something he technically didn't lie about, the Times brought up information that

Starting point is 00:11:21 voters should probably know about their own congressman. Or things like how Brazilian court records show that he was charged with fraud after confessing that he stole the checkbook of a man that his mom was caring for and made fraudulent purchases. Once again, there is so much more. I'll link down to the investigation in other articles. Because remember, that investigation was just the beginning and shit just kept snowballing after that. With several outlets, including the Forward and CNN, looking into Santos' claim that his mother's parents were Jews who fled persecution in Ukraine, survived the Holocaust, and eventually settled in Brazil.

Starting point is 00:11:47 Instead, finding zero evidence of Jewish ancestry. In fact, genealogy websites reviewed by those outlets found that his mother's parents' grandparents were born in Brazil and have no Ukrainian or Jewish roots. CNN also reporting that a spokesperson for the esteemed private school he claimed he had been forced to leave because of financial problems had no record of his attendance. Beyond that, the Daily Beast found court records that show Santos, who again centered his campaign on his identity as a proud, openly gay Republican, failed to tell the public that he had been married to a woman until 2019, with his divorce reportedly only finalized 12 days before his first congressional

Starting point is 00:12:15 run in 2020. While the congressman says that he's now married to a gay man, his partner has been largely kept out of the public eye, even during major events like Santos' swearing in. The Daily Beast also not able to find a marriage record for him in New York. And then in addition to all of that, you have people calling into question claims that he's made, like his mom was a groundbreaking executive who died as a result of 9-11. He also claimed having employees that died in the Pulse nightclub shooting. And as far as what Santos has had to say, he has copped to some of the lies, with him reportedly telling the New York Post at the end of last month, my sins here are embellishing my resume, I'm sorry. Specifically confessed he never worked directly for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, saying the outright lie was a poor choice of words,

Starting point is 00:12:49 and saying that he had actually worked at a company that helped make capital introductions between clients and investors, including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Also admitting that he never graduated from any college and that he lied about owning 13 different properties. Instead, saying he actually owns no property and literally lives with his sister. Also of note, while he did confirm he was married to a woman, he said they divorced in 2017 and again asserted that he's now married to a man saying, I'm okay with my sexuality. People change. I'm one of those people who change.

Starting point is 00:13:11 Though easily my favorite thing, I saved the best for last as far as things that he has addressed, is that Santos, a man who said he is a proud American Jew and was elected to lead a district that is 20% Jewish, said, I never claimed to be Jewish. I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background, I said I was Jew-ish. And even without, once again, reconsidering all the other things he lied about,

Starting point is 00:13:31 I think you can say, you know, him saying that he was embellishing his resume, that's not it. Though in the face of all of this, Santos is still defending himself and saying that it will not impact his ability to lead, and adding, I campaigned talking about the people's concerns, not my resume. But the counterpoint to that is something that should be on your resume is it's impossible for you to say three things without two of them being a lie. Like, I genuinely don't know if he has lived a life on this earth

Starting point is 00:13:51 where he woke up, he went to sleep, and in between he did not lie. Because every day something else comes out. I mean, part of the reason we're even talking about this story is yet another lie has been reported. With the chairman of the Nassau County Republican Party saying that Santos had lied to him about being the star of a volleyball team of the college that he didn't attend. But that official saying told me, I remember specifically I'm into sports a little bit, that he was a star on the Baruch volleyball team and that they won the league championship.

Starting point is 00:14:18 What can I tell you? With a key thing here, that same official, along with other leaders of the whole County Republican Party, also calling on Santos to resign, saying that his campaign was one of deceit, lies, and fabrication. And that's one of the key reasons I'm covering it after all of this. We are now seeing the most concerted campaign to get Santos to step down from his post, and that's also coming from Republicans, including some of his key allies. In addition to the party chair, four other newly elected congressmen from New York called on him to resign. And beyond that, just this week alone, two formal ethics complaints have been filed against him, one by Democrats in the House and

Starting point is 00:14:47 another by a watchdog group with the FEC. And that's on top. We're just stacking this shit so high. He's also being investigated by both federal and local prosecutors. And Brazile has said it will reopen the fraud case concerning him. So there's a question of will he eventually resign? But for now, he's refusing. And I wouldn't count on anything. With him doubling down on a tweet yesterday. And then, of course, yeah, you have House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. He kind of couldn't care less. Right, not only has he refused calls to boot Santos, he still plans to seat him on a congressional committee. With McCarthy telling reporters yesterday the voters elected him to serve and adding that Santos has to answer to the voters and the voters can make another decision in two years.

Starting point is 00:15:19 And so where I'm gonna leave this story is with two notes. The first is let this be a reminder that liars and cheaters never prosper except literally always. And two, you should never expect actual accountability when it comes to politicians and politics because if you can distract everyone else with us versus them rather than the fucked up shit that you did, you can get away with it. And it's why you often see politicians kind of just try to deal with stuff until focus can go to something else. Whether it be an issue that becomes national news or something more local like in LA, Kevin DeLeon. And that is actually where I'm going to end today's show. As always, thank you for watching, liking, and being subscribed to these daily dives into the news. What I'll say is while you leave that comment down below on the stories that matter

Starting point is 00:15:54 most to you, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you Sunday.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 1.12 Demi Lovato Banned in UK, Lying Liar George Santos Lied in Fun New Way, New OBJ Bodycam Video & More

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