The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 11.9 Why Republicans Really Got Humiliated In Midterms, But Desantis Destroyed Dems, Joe Rogan Was Wrong

Starting point is 00:00:00 There's so much news we need to talk about right now, so buckle up, hit that like button, and the first thing we're jumping into is what happened last night, because going into it, there were huge expectations. I think the red wave that's coming is going to be like the elevator doors opening up in The Shining. It's not going to be an elevator. It's going to look more like Deep Impact, the tsunami at the end, but colored red. I'm talking about 100 seats. I'm talking about winning South Texas, the Rio Grande Valley, taking D plus 10, D plus 12 districts. That is not correct. Yikes. I don't know if they could have been more wrong.

Starting point is 00:00:30 Because while there are a number of things still developing, last night did not result in a red wave. This thing was supposed to be vicious. While you likely know most of the results right now because it's hard not to pay attention and you're a well-informed, beautiful bastard bunch, today I want to talk about not only what we saw, but the specifics of it and maybe some of the whys so where I'll start is With the key thing that you need to understand from the get-go and that is what we saw from Republicans was one of the weakest Performances in decades by the out-of-power party against a first-term president's party in Pennsylvania We saw John Fetterman beating out Trump endorsed dr. Oz that actually flipping a seat for the Democrats in the Senate You also had Democratic senators Maggie Hassan and Bennet holding their hotly contested seats

Starting point is 00:01:05 in New Hampshire and Colorado. Meanwhile, Republican candidates J.D. Vance and Ted Budd won their races for seats vacated by GOP members in Ohio and North Carolina. There was also a surprise absolute nail-biter in Wisconsin. The Republican Senator Ron Johnson was able to hold off Democrats. And so right now, control of the Senate

Starting point is 00:01:19 will come down to three states, Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia, all of which are currently held by Democrats. As of recording, Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Mastro was trailing her Republican opponent with around 75% of the votes counted, while Arizona Senator Mark Kelly was leading his with just under 70% reporting. Then, in Georgia, because history always repeats itself, we're headed to a runoff, because even though Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock is in the lead, both candidates were still below 50%. With that, due to the Libertarian candidate there pulling about 2% of the votes,

Starting point is 00:01:44 so if you're in Georgia, get ready to early vote again or vote on December 6th, especially because control of the Senate could come down to Georgia, but it also might not because we don't know what's going to happen in Nevada and Arizona right now. If Dems happen to win both there, they don't even need Georgia, though understandably they would still want it. Now as far as the Senate, a lot of this kind of was expected in a certain range, but what was absolutely not expected is what went down in the House. Following the census, there's been crazy, crazy gerrymandering, especially on the Republican side. In some places like Florida, thanks to Ron DeSantis, the gerrymandering was absolutely ruthless. So you pair that with Biden's current approval ratings, inflation kind of going crazy, people going like, what the fuck's coming next?

Starting point is 00:02:19 And there's this expectation that Republicans are going to take over so many fucking seats, even though they actually only need a net five to take over the House. Which I do want to mention, as of right now, they are projected to take it over, but by a much, much smaller margin than initially projected. Which, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, could also change like what they do in the House. With some believing that if it's a very, very small majority, they may be more moderate. Whereas if there were way more Republicans, they might be kind of more Trumpian. And I don't mean as individuals, I mean like as a collective group. But as far as what we saw, yes, Republicans actually did flip a handful of key House seats. With us seeing this in states like Virginia, and very, very notably Florida and New York.

Starting point is 00:02:53 But Democrats, for their part, also flipped a handful of seats, and in essential battleground states like Ohio and Michigan. And that was in addition to a ton of Democrats holding on to incredibly contested seats that they had very good chances of losing. And even beyond that, you had some Democrats having strong showings in some races they weren't even slotted to be close in. With Easley, one of the most notable being Colorado's third district, which is currently held by insane Trumper Lauren Boebert. This race wasn't at all slated to be close, but with 90% of the votes counted as of recording, she's actually losing to the Democratic candidate. Her night started out like this and ended like this, just praying to be able to pull this thing out. And she's by no means alone there. There are a ton of House races that are on a

Starting point is 00:03:28 razor's edge right now. It could go either way, and we're waiting for the votes to fully get counted. Also, beyond the national races, there were a ton of really important statewide contests in this year's midterms. I mean, there was a whopping 36 gubernatorial races taking place. And like the House, Republicans were expected to have solid ground here to take some of those spots. But according to FiveThirtyEight, as of this morning, only two governorships have flipped, and both by Democrats. And a key significant thing here is that Republicans, but especially Trump-backed Republicans, didn't gain more traction. Right, while results in some key races are still trickling in, Democrats have officially beat prominent Trump-backed candidates in multiple battlegrounds where the election was

Starting point is 00:03:58 challenged, including Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. With the election denying Trump in that last race, Doug Mastriano getting especially whooped. That wasn't a beatdown. That was an ass whooping, Doug. But on the other side, because there wasn't just one story here. We also saw plenty of Republican governors clocking very solid wins,

Starting point is 00:04:13 including Kemp in Georgia, Abbott in Texas, and DeSantis in Florida. And a very key thing here, I don't know if anyone won yesterday more than DeSantis. While it was already kind of leaning that way, Florida is no longer a toss-up state. It is a solid GOP state. With DeSantis calling While it was already kind of leaning that way, Florida is no longer a toss-up state. It is a solid GOP state. With DeSantis calling this a win for the ages and saying,

Starting point is 00:04:30 we have redrawn the political map. Which I would say, actually very true and not just in the way he gerrymandered Florida. On a statewide level, he has moved the needle. Which is also part of the reason you have so many more people today saying, is he the future of the Republican Party? There's already been so much talk of him being Trump without the baggage. And while DeSantis hasn't really spoke on any of that, it appears that it's definitely getting under Donald Trump's skin.

Starting point is 00:04:51 The other day, Trump calling DeSantis desanctimonious. There have been reports that sources were saying Donald Trump has been livid about DeSantis. But also, I don't think Trump's really making a secret of it. There was a report yesterday where Trump said of DeSantis, if he runs, he runs. If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won't be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife who is really running his campaign. And this could be in

Starting point is 00:05:13 part due to Donald Trump worried that people were going to blame him for what happened. And actually regarding if he should get credit or blame, before the results came in, he actually said this during an interview. Tonight, win or lose, the results for Republicans, how much of that will be because of Donald Trump? Well, I think if they win, I should get all the credit. And if they lose, I should not be blamed at all, okay? But it'll probably be just the opposite. And so the question now is,

Starting point is 00:05:39 with Trump getting increasingly and transparently aggressive towards DeSantis, does this make Republicans go, A, oh, he really is more about person than party. Is he holding us back and DeSantis could actually take us further? Though I still stand by the idea that I would be shocked if DeSantis decided to take on Trump.

Starting point is 00:05:55 Like obviously there are a number of his supporters that want him to run for president. Even as he was announcing victory, you had his supporters chanting two more years. Two more years, two more years, two more years! Two more years! Two more years! An obvious acknowledgement that he is meant for bigger things. But I just can't imagine a world where those two run against each other, and then, like, everything is still okay for the Republicans.

Starting point is 00:06:15 But hey, like we often do with that conversation, we're getting far too ahead of ourselves. Also, jumping back out of Florida this year, there was a lot of focus on attorneys general and secretaries of state. Because in the post-Roe, post-insurrection world, there are a lot of concerns, with some finding it pretty fucking terrifying that someone who has denied the results of an election possibly getting the authority to regulate them. And while well-known election deniers were kept at bay for AG and Secretary of State in Michigan, we're still waiting for results for other crucial states. Which means, on that note, according to the New York Times as of this morning, more than 210

Starting point is 00:06:41 Republicans who questioned the 2020 election have won seats in the U.S. House and Senate and in state races for governor, secretary of state, and attorney general. And a very key thing is that two dozen of those people specifically won top state-level spots. Also across the country, we saw a number of ballot initiatives, with voters in California, North Carolina, and Vermont all voting to enshrine abortion protections, while voters in Kentucky rejected an anti-abortion amendment. We also saw marijuana on the ballot in a few states, while both Dakotas and Arkansas rejected the measures, we saw Maryland and Missouri voting to legalize it, meaning that 21 states will now allow recreational use. We also saw voters in Alabama, Tennessee, Vermont, and Oregon approving measures that took out exceptions for anti-slavery laws that were still in their state's

Starting point is 00:07:16 constitutions, moves that will effectively ban forced prison labor. Meanwhile, voters in Louisiana rejected a similar initiative, though that's because prison reformers argued that the way that it was written would essentially just replace one slavery exception for another. And while obviously there are a ton of other important issues and races that I haven't even talked about yet, though I will try and talk more about it as we get more information and more time throughout the week, where I want to end this is with some of the whys as well as some key things that really do matter moving forward. And we'll start with the first reason, you. And obviously that can't be universal, we have people outside of the United States, different age groups, different demographics, people that believe in different ideologies.

Starting point is 00:07:49 But the age group that watches this show are being heavily credited with the reason these races have gone the way they have. With around 44% of this group saying abortion was a top issue for them, and among this age group they voted 65 to 35% in the favor of the Democrats. But also beyond the age group aspect, abortion by itself was massively important. With exit polls showing that it was a top issue for people, they were voting for Democrats 76% to just 23% for Republicans. And not only was this an issue that resulted in more people voting for Democrats, it resulted in more people just getting out the fucking door. With Democrats absolutely smashing their voter participation records from back in 2018.

Starting point is 00:08:20 It also wasn't just the Dems, independents played a major role here. With exit polls currently showing that independents favored Dems 49% to 47%. Well, that may not seem huge. That is so incredibly rare for a midterm election, especially one that's seen as a referendum on the first term president in their party. And the final why had to do with just candidate quality. A lot of the candidates that Trump handpicked, endorsed, and promoted just weren't that strong. And here, I'll also call myself out when I'm wrong. You know how the Democrats were pushing for like the more extreme Republican candidates in the primaries? They're actually throwing money behind it. All the people that were aware that they did that to have lost, with a more moderate voter seemingly turned away from the crazy. Though, I still do stand by the

Starting point is 00:08:56 fact that it's like playing with dynamite. But the last thing that I'll end on is something that's not great news for Democrats. Well, Democrats showed up and voted. They're also losing support among some key groups. Comparing 2018 to now, you had preliminary CNN exit polls showing Democrats losing support among women by age, by race and gender at different rates, fewer moderates supported Democrats.

Starting point is 00:09:14 Now, notably here, these voter blocs still do favor Democrats and in some cases overwhelmingly, but while some of the drops may seem small, it's like a thousand small cuts. It will continue to add up and be absolutely devastating if Democrats don't show out like they did. But all of that said, hopefully I made this clusterfuck consumable. There's still more we'll talk about. We'll get to that later on. But where I'll leave you for now is with any and all aspects of this, what are your thoughts and feelings about what happened last night and what we're going to see moving forward, especially in these select

Starting point is 00:09:42 few races left? And then I want to take a second to tell you how I've improved my sleep this year with today's sponsor, Beam. You know, I started adding Dream's Beam Powder to my nightly routine back in March, and I've had noticeable impacts on my quality of sleep and energy levels. I find myself winding down faster, sleeping better, and waking up actually feeling refreshed.

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Starting point is 00:10:17 Plus, Beam's Dream Powder is now clinically shown to help you sleep better. So if you're someone who struggles with sleep, you should give it a try. Also, I will warn you, do not wait. The White Chocolate Peppermint flavor sold out faster than expected last year. And right now you can get 50% off your first order plus 20% off all following orders. This is the best deal they've ever done, so you should jump on it now. Just head to shopbeam.com slash DeFranco to get 50% off your first month subscription and 20% off all recurring orders. And then people are pissed off right now about Casey Anthony and no, you did not just magically

Starting point is 00:10:44 teleport to 2008. But rather, this new anger is around Peacock's new three-part docuseries, Casey Anthony Where the Truth Lies, that also just released a trailer. Casey interview? ABC marker? Sawsticks? Why talk to me now when you're not getting creative control? When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill.

Starting point is 00:11:12 When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer. So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus, enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Also, a key thing here to refresh you on exactly who Casey Anthony is. Her story begins back in 2008 when she revealed to her mother that her two-year-old daughter, Kaylee, had been missing for a month. The police then investigate. Suspicions quickly turn toward Casey as she

Starting point is 00:11:44 repeatedly lies to the cops, with a lot of the evidence making her look super, super guilty. At this time, you have people saying she was strikingly calm and seemingly even happy during this period. And that's in addition to people saying, why did she wait so long to say anything about Kaylee's disappearance? We also see a nationwide campaign to search for this child kicking off, but eventually her remains are found in a wooded area close to the Anthony home with duct tape on her face. Casey then goes on trial for capital murder. She claims that her daughter accidentally drowned in the pool, and it becomes this absolute spectacle, like on the scale of the O.J. Simpson case.

Starting point is 00:12:11 But in 2011, thanks largely to her remarkably talented legal defense, the jury acquits her and she goes free, shocking everyone. And so now, 11 years later, Casey's given her first on-camera interview since the trial, and Peacock's releasing it on November 29th, with the director, Alexandra Dean, saying, since the acquittal, public opinion of Casey Anthony has largely been shaped by the media convinced of her guilt. And adding that the series will show what she called a startling psychological portrait of Casey and a complete narrative of what she says happened to her daughter weighed against multiple sources of potential evidence. And saying, I believe the

Starting point is 00:12:39 result will surprise many and cause the American public to look at this story in a new light. With Dean also claiming that Casey had no editorial control, but if you look at the comments on this, people are up in arms. People saying things like, are we just going to give her another chance to tell us about how she's really the victim in all this? And no one wants to hear Casey continue to lie about what happened to Kaylee, as well as hope this isn't going to be the new trend. We shouldn't allow monsters to profit off their murders and networks to make money off of victims' gruesome killings. And so now you have thousands of people vowing to boycott the streaming service unless it pulls the plug on the series.

Starting point is 00:13:07 But as far as if that'll actually happen, we'll have to wait to see. Oftentimes what we actually end up seeing with these controversies is that it backfires. It generates a conversation around the topic, there's a bigger spotlight on it, and it drives more eyes to the thing in question. And I'd love to know in those comments down below if you think that's going to be the case here, or really any thoughts you have on this story. And then, the Nikita Dragun situation got way worse. So we talked about her yesterday. She reportedly was walking around her hotel naked, blaring loud music. And when

Starting point is 00:13:31 approached by security and police, she allegedly threw a water bottle at them and slammed the door in their faces, leading to her arrest and charge of felony battery. Well, obviously, that is a key part of this story. There's now a new angle to this because a video has now surfaced of a Zoom meeting allegedly between Nikita, who is trans, and a judge. And your Honor, may I ask one more question? May I? Do I have to stay here in the men's unit still? Yeah, I don't make the rules up there,

Starting point is 00:13:55 but I need a possible accommodation for you. Nikita's a separate area. Right, so Nikita seems to be asking the judge, do I actually have to stay in the men's unit, with the judge apparently saying that she doesn't make the rules, but going on to discuss the possibility of another accommodation. We've also begun to see things like photos of what appears to be Nikita's arrest report, labeling her as a male. With NBC reporter Kat Tenbarge also posting a photo of Nikita's affidavit this morning with it reading, The above listed individual appears as a female, but would like to be recognized as a male.

Starting point is 00:14:20 With Kat then citing the video and saying that the clip in this affidavit, at least on the surface, appeared to directly contradict one another in how Nikita wants to be identified. Which is why you had people who were even like, yeah, if she did what it says that she did, she should be held accountable. Saying there's absolutely no excuse that she should be treated like this. Saying the system is transphobic and it's unnecessarily putting her in extra danger. But also at the same time, you had people pushing back at that. With some trying to use Nikita's own tweets to try to justify her placement in the men's unit. Or things like day before her arrest she tweeted bottom line. I see a man put hands on a woman Please call the cops cuz need you forget

Starting point is 00:14:50 I know I look like a doll on the outside But I still hit like a dude though Also, it appears that a number of people on this side that were sharing stories around this have been misgendering her on purpose saying Things like I think he'll be fine. Yeah, this is still developing We'll have to wait to see but in the meantime I'd love to know any and all of your thoughts and then Mark Zuckerberg is killing his company because of his love of the metaverse. With meta announcing today that it was laying off 13% of its workforce, which is around 11,000 people. Well, this news definitely sucks for those people, even if Facebook's offering a ton of services and benefits for a few months to try to make the transition easier.

Starting point is 00:15:19 It's also in no way surprising. In late October, there was an earnings call where the company made it clear that it's been a rough year and they expected a shitty Q4. With that, scaring investors leading to Meta stock crashing about 20%. And as far as Zuckerberg's version of things, he says this all happened because he gambled that e-commerce sales would continue like they did during the pandemic and because ad revenue was down. Which I will say, I do not doubt that those things did not have an impact, but he didn't blame the Metaverse. And right now, for anyone that has eyes and ears, that seems like the obvious answer. It has been an absolute money sink for meta costing them 9.4 billion dollars in just 2022 alone and understand those losses are expected to grow significantly year over year and this

Starting point is 00:15:54 in the face of meta facing a massive uphill battle right zuckerberg's version of the metaverse has been widely mocked by the people most likely to be early adopters with people saying even after a graphics update it looks worse than vr chat and is reportedly a worse experience despite having more features. Which, if you've ever experienced VRChat, you know is saying something because it's a complete shitshow. But still, you had Zuckerberg also announcing that the company would be hyper-focusing on the metaverse and other long-term projects. So right now, one of the main questions is, where is the bottom for meta? Because all of this is happening for a company whose stock lost like 70% of its value this year. And I mean, depending on what happens, Zuckerberg is

Starting point is 00:16:25 either going to look like a genius or like the biggest fucking clown in the world, which I will say is really saying something because there are a number of billionaires right now buying for that position. And then also, I guess, since we're talking about that grand prize, we should talk about Elon Musk in the news today. Twitter today changed, then unchanged, then changed again. I woke up this morning, I checked Twitter, and I had two check marks, just double checked up on a Wednesday morning. I had that regular check mark, but then also I had an official check mark, which appeared to be a special check mark they were giving to public figures as well as politicians. With easily, though, the funniest thing about this being that

Starting point is 00:16:57 John Green had a special check mark, but Hank Green didn't. I imagine because despite Hank Green being a very successful and good author, he didn't write a book about kids with cancer that made us all cry. Side note, if you haven't already read An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, I highly recommend it. Fantastic books despite Hank being a non-checkmark normie. But yeah, main thing. On Twitter this morning, there was a lot of, What the fuck is this?

Starting point is 00:17:18 A lot of mockery. Like, it just looks stupid. It made it so incredibly obvious this checkmark thing is just a bullshit way for him to and drum up some money it was unnecessarily taking up space it all just looked ugly and then in like an hour it all disappeared elon musk replying to mkphd and confirming that he just killed it which is so ridiculous it's amazing that it's really happening elon is legitimately running twitter like he's a 2002 forum mod who's still figuring out settings and this very much appears to be what we should come to expect. With Elon going on to tweet,

Starting point is 00:17:46 Twitter will do lots of dumb things in coming months. We will keep what works and change what doesn't. But yeah, for now, we'll have to wait to see what happens with Elon Musk's hands on the wheel of this clown car. And then, the situation in Australia is absolutely evil. Last month, a group of hackers infiltrated the Australian private health insurance company, MetaBank, with them threatening to release sensitive health information,

Starting point is 00:18:04 including from notable people like politicians, actors, and activists, unless they paid a ransom, to which the company reportedly called their bluff, not believing they actually had sensitive data, and holy shit, were they wrong. Because the hackers began dumping health records for 10 million Australians onto the dark web. We're talking about 40% of the entire country, even going pure fucking evil and organizing the data in what they deemed naughty and nice lists. With a naughty list including people suffering from stuff like drug addiction, eating disorders, and HIV. As well as releasing other information like customers' names, birthdates, addresses, and passport numbers.

Starting point is 00:18:33 All of which can be used to extort innocent people. And unfortunately, this is probably just the beginning. It's believed the hackers will continue posting records and they claim that they'll leak keys for decrypting credit cards next. Though, MetaBank denies that they have access to that. Right now, this is still a developing situation, right? We're already learning which lawmakers were caught up in the hack. With one of the biggest being Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. And as far as who is responsible for this, we don't know for sure.

Starting point is 00:18:54 But, the dark web domain where they leaked everything used to be run by the Russian rebel ransomware gang. And while, of course, everyone's outraged at these hackers, many are also pointing their finger at MetaBank for being too slow to respond. Plus, despite being an insurance company, it doesn't have cyber insurance, so it's expected to lose tens of millions of dollars, and that's before the lawsuits that are already being prepared against them. And notably, all of this comes just weeks

Starting point is 00:19:13 after Australia confirmed legislation that would increase the maximum penalties for serious or repeated privacy breaches. So now, you have the country's federal police investigating, but I mean, once again, this is likely going to get worse over the following weeks. Absolute insanity. But that brings us to the end of today's show.

Starting point is 00:19:26 Thank you for watching, liking, and subscribing to what's now the Sunday to Thursday Philip DeFranco shows. I'm a glutton for punishment. Maybe we'll even make it to seven days. But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 11.9 Why Republicans Really Got Humiliated In Midterms, But Desantis Destroyed Dems, Joe Rogan Was Wrong

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