The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 1.8 Scam Targeting Youtube Fans, Surviving R. Kelly, Trump Address To The Nation Controversy

Episode Date: January 8, 2019

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Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you're having a fantastic Tuesday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. And a little quickie note before we get started. This morning, as I promised, we had the first of the extra Tuesday, Thursday morning news videos posted. After today's show, I highly recommend it. These kind of deeper dives have been what we've been trying to build more and more over the past year and a half. And I'm really excited that we get to do it, that it's been received so well, and that we are finally doing it. But, with that said, this is the Tuesday Philip DeFranco Show and let's just jump into it.

The first thing we should talk about today is all of this R. Kelly craziness in the news right now. So if you didn't see, over the weekend, Lifetime premiered its six-part docuseries titled Surviving R. Kelly. And the series covered the musician's long-running history of sexual assault and domestic violence accusations from multiple women.

And it tells those stories through over 50 interviews with his accusers, witnesses, and people who were close with him. Allegations that R. Kelly serially preyed on young women were first reported in December of 2000. I mean, there were even rumors of Kelly's abuse that stem back from 1994 when the 27-year-old married then 15-year-old singer Aaliyah.

And since then, there have been dozens of allegations of physical, sexual, and mental abuse against Kelly, many of which came from women who said they were underage when they became involved with him. But as he had done before, Kelly denied those accusations, stating that the subjects interviewed made false allegations in order to gain fame. And those accusations, stating that the subjects interviewed made false allegations in order to gain fame. And in fact, ahead of the show's release on Thursday, TMZ reported that Kelly's lawyers sent Lifetime a letter warning that Kelly's camp would sue if the network aired the series. But in a statement released later that day, Lifetime responded by saying, quote,

Lifetime has always been a brand that champions women's stories. The documentary will air as scheduled. And they did, and that first night's installment covered Kelly's experience of sexual abuse as a child, as well as his relationship with Aaliyah. The second night's episode detailed Kelly's child pornography case and sex tape scandal. As some of you might remember, in 2002, Kelly was charged with 21 counts of child pornography related to a sex tape with an underage girl

where he's seen urinating in her mouth. Although he was later acquitted in 2008 after a jury decided they could not be sure of the identity of the girl on the tape who did not testify. And then the final night's episodes covered the more recent allegations that Kelly had been holding young women captive

in his Atlanta and Chicago homes. And those being the sex cult accusations we covered back in 2017. Now Kelly has consistently denied the many accusations against him over the years and has continued to gain success and critical acclaim despite them. But overall, the series showed that Kelly's behavior

was enabled by his fame and the people surrounding him. And something really interesting about this series were the interviews and more importantly, the people being interviewed. They interviewed his own brothers, fellow artists, producers, assistants, and other business associates. People who, in different ways and for different reasons, allowed this alleged behavior to continue.

And that's something that a lot of people on social media really focused on, right? People saying, why did you know and stand by? You allowed this to happen. And also, why weren't these women believed for so long? And this conversation was also fueled by a partial statement Chance the Rapper made in an interview back in May

that was used in the documentary. A Rolling Stone article quoted Chance in the interview saying, I didn't value the accuser's stories because they were black women. But with that part explained, it's also incredibly important to note that he then later took to Twitter to explain that this quote was taken out of context,

writing, the quote was taken out of context, but the truth is, any of us who ever ignored the R. Kelly stories stories or ever believed he was being set up slash attacked by the system As black men often are we're doing so at the detriment of black women and girls I apologize to all of his survivors for working with him and for taking this long to speak out and his point that the Rolling Stone article misinterpreted his point that he was taken out of context was actually backed up by the journalist who he conducted the interview with Jamila Lemieux writing FYI. I conducted the interview with. Jamila Lemieux writing, "'FYI, I conducted the interview with Chance in May.

He spoke clearly and unequivocally in support of black women and the victims." Also adding that this apology from Chance the Rapper is not something that just came out after the documentary. This is something he said before, writing in May, "'He apologized in an interview that didn't run due to my exit from the publication I was working for at the time.'"

And it ended up getting to a point where Chance just tweeted out a longer clip so people could see. of the whole world, you know? Maybe I didn't care because I didn't value the accusers' stories, like, because they were black men. And following that, there was an even longer video released from Cassius where you can see more of the conversation. And following all of this, Rolling Stone magazine then updated and edited their article. But also, I mean, just looking at this part of the story,

it really shows you how things can just run away from you. Like I'm not saying any docu-series creator, any publication is perfect, but it's important to look at situations like this and understand that there is a part of the population now that just think that Chance the Rapper said this. I mean that out of context quote is their reality now moving forward.

But as far as the docu-series as a whole is concerned, for the most part, the series was met with support, especially for the victims. The show title was trending heavily over the weekend. It broke a network record. Reportedly, Thursday's premiere drew in 1.9 million total viewers, making it Lifetime's best performance in more than two years in all key demos. It also appeared to have a ripple effect with the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network saying calls to its national hotline increased 27% since the show aired. Additionally, a lot of people have been giving praise to John Legend for being one of the musicians to speak out against Kelly in an interview for the documentary. On Thursday night John tweeted,

To everyone telling me how courageous I am for appearing in the doc, it didn't feel risky at all. I believe these women and don't give a fuck about protecting a serial child rapist. Easy decision. And while it may have been easy for John Legend, an important thing to note is it clearly wasn't for others. Dream Hampton, who's one of the executive producers of Surviving R. Kelly said that it was difficult to get people who collaborated with him artistically to come forward, saying, "'We asked Lady Gaga, we asked Erykah Badu, "'we asked Celine Dion, we asked Jay-Z, "'we asked Dave Chappelle,' adding,

"'There are people who have been critical of him. "'That makes John Legend even more of a hero for me.'" But also, in the days since the documentary aired, John Legend has also been forced to comment on an old photo of him with Harvey Weinstein that has resurfaced. One social media user tweeting the photo at him with the caption, John Legend, please explain. I don't remember you publicly denouncing this man. To which John responded with, I took a photo with and worked with Harvey on several occasions

before his abuse was known to me and the rest of the world. Since his being exposed, his company and career have rightfully been destroyed and he's been indicted. Sounds like something that should happen to R. Kelly. If y'all want to cape for R and discount all these women's stories, just say it. Don't bring up some old want to cape for R and discount all these women's stories, just say it. Don't bring up some old pics of me and somebody else. Also on a different note, after the series finale, we saw TMZ reporting that Kelly was reportedly disgusted by the show. According to their sources, Kelly views the series as a vendetta against him by producers and others who have hated him throughout his professional career. Also going on to say that his team claims Kelly doesn't know half the people who appeared on the show. Also claiming there were various people who wanted to go on camera and defend him but were shut out by producers. We also saw another TMZ report from yesterday that said that Kelly has

vowed to expose his accusers for their blatant lies. Also writing that his camp was in the middle of launching a website called survivinglies.com, a site that was reportedly meant to expose all of his accusers and reveal their motivations behind their allegations. But also of note there, there was already a Facebook page with that same name that was already public with posts that discredited victims. And they included things like photos of alleged text messages between the victims and Kelly, their criminal records, videos from people in their lives who have tried to discredit them.

But regarding that page, Facebook ended up taking it down yesterday for violating its community standards against bullying and sharing private contact information. And as far as other big reactions from the entertainment industry, we had people like Daymond John. He put out a tweet that he then later paraphrased to TMZ Live.

I think I said something like, please don't take the easy way out and take your life right now. Make amends with the families, make amends with the survivors, then go to jail, serve your time, and then take your life. And those comments seemed to gain enough attention where Daymond John then went on to kind of apologize. Tweeting, You also have the likes of Jada Pinkett Smith speaking out specifically that it appeared that this had actually been somewhat beneficial for R. Kelly. Because according to reports, sales and streams

of R. Kelly's music have actually gone up since the first episode. But ultimately, that is where we are with this story now. It will be very interesting to see what happens from here. But while we watch, while we continue to wait to see what happens next, I do wanna pass the question off to you as far as what are your thoughts around this? And among the many things that you could comment on

with this story, because there are a lot of different angles, a lot of big notes, I do really wanna hear from you as far as why do you think that R. Kelly has been able to publicly survive all of this? But also just really any and all thoughts on this story. Then in kind of quickie news, but it is also incredibly important since you may end up being part of the story,

this is not a completely new situation But it appears that over the past month and specifically this past week There has been a massive uptick in it if you are getting an email that looks like this I've seen all different versions James Charles has shared an album with you Philip DeFranco shared an album with you MKBHD and the list goes on and on and on and it says $100 gift card giveaway see link and comment That is not coming from any of us That is a scam email. And in general, whenever a creator is made aware of this,

they'll try and tweet out like, "'Hey, this isn't me.'" But really just to supercharge the message getting out there to add my kind of bullhorn to the mess. I don't want you to get screwed over and James Charles probably wouldn't want you to get sister scammed. But main point, now you know, spread the word, stay safe.

And then let's talk about the situation around a man by the name of Edward Buck. Now at 1.05 a.m. on Monday morning, a man was pronounced dead at the apartment of a large Democratic Party donor in West Hollywood, who we now know as Edward Buck. A man who has been especially active in local politics, reportedly having given more than $500,000

to Democratic groups and candidates, as well as being a prominent member of the LGBTQ community. Now as of right now, information about this death is somewhat limited because investigators are looking into what happened. For example, we don't even know the name of the deceased. But with that said, here is what we do know. At around 1 a.m., 911 was called because there was an unresponsive man in Buck's apartment,

although we do not know who called 911. Also, it appears that the man wasn't there for too long, with a witness saying that he had entered the apartment at 1220 a.m. Before police arrived, whoever called 911 reportedly attempted to perform CPR on the man. Police arrive at 105 a.m. Shortly afterwards, paramedics arrive on the scene as well, and attempted to perform CPR on the man. Police arrive at 1.05 a.m. Shortly afterwards, paramedics arrive on the scene as well, and they pronounce him dead at the scene. As far as who was there, reportedly Buck was at the scene when the man died.

Although an important note here is it's unclear right now if anyone else was there too, or if it was just Buck and this man. And according to reports, the body has been taken to be autopsied by the coroner, the scene has been cleared, and Buck has not been arrested. And according to Seymour Amster, who is Buck's lawyer, "'From what I know, it was an old friend

"'who died of an accidental overdose, "'and unfortunately, we believe that the substance "'was ingested at some other place than the apartment. "'The person came over intoxicated.'" And then adding this in an interview. This is not a situation where Mr. Buck has caused the death. This is a situation where Mr. Buck has had longtime friends who unfortunately do not handle their life well.

But with all of that said, the reason the story is becoming a much bigger issue is that whoever died at Buck's place is not the first person to do so. 18 months ago in July of 2017, 26-year-old Gemma Moore was found dead at Buck's apartment. Now that death was eventually ruled to be an accidental drug overdose and Buck was never charged with a crime, but you're talking about a second possible drug overdose in the same man's home in an 18-month period. And so unsurprisingly, this led to questions for many, especially among the LGBTQ community, with many feeling that this recent death

adds weight to Moore's. With the situation around Moore's death, we have more information available, information that resulted in many feeling that it was already clear that Buck was culpable for the death before because of evidence at his home. Things like the fact that Moore was found on a mattress, naked and surrounded by drug paraphernalia

in the living room of Buck's two bedroom apartment. There was also the following evidence that was found in Buck's apartment. 24 syringes with brown residue, clear plastic bags with white powdery residue, five glass pipes with white residue and burn marks, and a clear plastic bag with a piece of crystal-like substance.

There was also this journal entry Moore wrote in 2016 that was found among his possessions at Buck's place, text reading, I've become addicted to drugs and the worst one at that. Ed Buck is the one to thank. He gave me my first injection of crystal meth. I just hope the end result isn't death. If it didn't hurt so bad, I'd kill myself, but I'll let Ed Buck do it for now. However, even with all of that, the district attorney felt they couldn't charge Buck with even possessing and providing drugs to Moore, saying in a statement that there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Buck is responsible for the death of Gemmel Moore. But now with his most recent story, people are demanding that the investigation into Moore's death be reopened and that these deaths be taken more seriously.

With people also making accusations that this isn't just a situation of insufficient evidence. You have people accusing Buck of getting away with these potential crimes because of his political connections, his class, his race, a combination of all these things. This is something that was hit on by Tyson Lord Gray, who was an activist at a vigil and protest outside of Buck's home on Monday night. It won't take long to tell you Neutrals ingredients. Vodka, soda, natural flavors.

So, what should we talk about? No sugar added? Neutral. Refreshingly simple. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. This was a black man and there were two white bodies found in his apartment. There is no way that he would not be in the jail right now, lawyer or not. We've also seen groups like the Los Angeles LGBT Center

issuing a statement calling for the Sheriff's Department to fully investigate this tragedy and aggressively seek justice wherever the investigation might lead. And this story really gained traction when members of the black community across America were able to spread their concerns about Buck's connections through social media.

Artist, Ferrari Shepherd tweeting out, "'Two young black men died in the home "'of a wealthy older white man, "'both of quote accidental overdoses. What are the chances? An activist George M. Johnson tweeting, If you believe that black lives matter, then that means black gay and queer lives matter. Everyone should be up in arms that Ed Buck is being shielded by his whiteness and proximity to the Democratic Party as a donor.

He is drugging black boys. But ultimately that is where we are right now. We're gonna have to wait to see what happens with this investigation. It also strikes me as interesting, obviously the stories are different, but this makes me think of the girl from Saudi Arabia story we covered yesterday. I mean it makes me wonder how many times, how many stories would there have not been, right, actions not taken, if people on the internet did not take it upon themselves to say, hey, what's happening here? Obviously, especially with situations like the one we're talking about now, we need to make sure there is an investigation. But to me personally, looking at this story, there just appears to be a lot of smoke for there to be no fire whatsoever.

Then very briefly, we should talk about what's gonna happen later tonight. Three to four hours after today's show is up, President Trump will be addressing the nation on many major networks, namely CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News, Fox Business, and CNN. With the president saying that it would be about what he called the humanitarian and national security crisis on our southern border.

With the White House telling the networks that this will not go past eight minutes. Now it had been reported that there was some debate about whether these major networks would be playing this lie. Which while I personally found unlikely that they wouldn't, also would not have been unprecedented. People pointing to 2014 when President Obama reportedly wanted to give a presidential address about immigration policy. According to reports, ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox all declined at that time. This because reportedly it was expected to be an overtly political speech, but Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC all did air it live. But fast forwarding to the present, one of the big reasons for this debate is, I mean, you had people saying that they think that this speech is going to be overtly political. And there was also a massive concern for many that you'd essentially be allowing the president

to speak on immigration without having someone there to fact check him. Which it appears is also why we got the recent update to this story, that at the very least, NBC, CBS, and CNN will be airing a democratic response right after. And reportedly this will be delivered by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Which once again, we're not in unprecedented territory here. Back in 2011, Republican and then Speaker John Boehner issued a response after President Obama spoke. As far as my personal opinion on this, I'm somewhat torn. These networks are being put in a very odd position, right? I understand why there are a lot of people saying that these networks should not air this live, they should record it, break it down, fact check it,

and then report on it, especially since so many people at networks said that in the lead up to the 2016 election, one of the biggest issues was that their network just aired Trump rallies. Just raw and unedited, no fact checking. And here's the thing, this is just the facts of the situation. President Trump and his administration have at times

misrepresented and other times just outright lied about immigration. There are no shortage of examples, but for the sake of time, we will just include the latest. This week we saw Sarah Sanders seemingly try to pave the way as far as a national conversation is concerned for Donald Trump to declare a national emergency tonight, or if not to declare a national emergency, which would be the more extreme

of the potential outcomes here, attempting to build up and validate the president's plea that we need to get a southern border wall. Last Friday saying this on Fox & Friends. Last year alone, there were nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists that CBP picked up that came across our southern border. This wasn't a one-time thing. This is something she said once again on Sunday, once again on Fox News, but this time with Chris Wallace, who fact-checked her. But special interest aliens are just people who come from countries that have ever produced a terrorist.

They're not terrorists themselves. And the State Department says that there is, quote, their words, no credible evidence of any terrorists coming across the border from Mexico. We know that roughly nearly 4000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally. And we know that our most vulnerable point of entry is at our southern border. Wait, wait, wait, because I know this statistic. I didn't know if you were gonna use it, but I studied up on this.

Do you know where those 4,000 people come, or where they're captured? Airports. And then to get even deeper into the numbers, NBC reported that CBP told Congress it, quote, "'Encountered only six immigrants at ports of entry "'on the U.S.-Mexico border in the first half "'of fiscal year 2018, "'whose names were on a federal government list of known or suspected terrorists. Which is

also why days and days after these numbers were just being thrown around publicly, Kellyanne Conway came out classifying the claims as an unfortunate misstatement. All right, so you just had that lie or unfortunate misstatement allowed to run wild uncontested for how long in so many places? And so I understand that there are going to be people that say that the networks are complicit in helping spread lies if lies are said or things that are misrepresenting the situation are said. But at the same time if you're one of these networks your mindset might be well we should air this because people are gonna be watching this no matter what. If they end up watching this through us then we can fact check it right after. We'll have the eyes, we'll have the attention. But what I will say in my opinion, I think the worst thing that these networks could do is if they air the presidential address,

they then air the democratic response and then they kind of go back to what we've seen for however many years where they make it kind of a he said, she said or it's all about like the them versus them, right? Or who seemed like what or or what something felt like, and just fact check. We'll see. And actually, I'll pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this? Because as far as the content of whatever is said or happens tonight, very likely we're gonna be talking

about that tomorrow. But as far as everything else involved in the situation, I'd love to hear from you. And that's where I'm going to end today's show. And of course, remember, if you like this video, you like these daily dives into the news, let us know, hit that like button. Also, if you're new here, you love it,

you want more of it. Hit the subscribe button, click that bell to turn on notifications for these daily weekday Philip DeFranco shows and those extra morning news videos. Also, before I go, a quick thank you to First Recon, Lilith, and all you other beautiful bastards supporting over at defrancoelite.com.

I wouldn't be able to pull it off without you. But with that said, 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.