The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 2.12 Jussie Smollett HIT WITH 6 COUNTS! The Hunt, & How Bernie vs Pete Will Play Out

Episode Date: February 12, 2020

Do your hair a favor! Grab our new Beautiful Bastard Shampoo & Conditioner! Use Code NEWBB30 and Get 30% OFF your order: https://beautifulbastard.com/ Check out my Conversation With James Charles: https://youtu.be/7dJJnw8GJPw Follow On The Podcast Platform Of Your Choice: http://Anchor.fm/aConversationWith   Check out the latest Rogue Rocket video: https://youtu.be/O6crD96JifM   ✩ FOLLOW ME ✩ ✭ TEXT ME: 813-213-4423 ✭ TWITTER: http://Twitter.com/PhillyD ✭ INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco/   ✩ SUPPORT THE SHOW ✩ ✭ Buy Merch: http://ShopDeFranco.com ✭ Lemme Touch Your Hair: http://BeautifulBastard.com ✭ Paid Subscription: http://DeFrancoElite.com    ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Jussie Smollett Indicted: https://roguerocket.com/2020/02/12/jussie-smollett-indicted-again/ Universal Moves Forward with the “The Hunt” After Cancellation: https://roguerocket.com/2020/02/12/the-hunt-is-back-on/ Bernie Sanders Wins New Hampshire Primary: https://roguerocket.com/2020/02/12/bernie-sanders-wins-new-hampshire-primary/    ✩ MORE NEWS NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ Internet Users Criticize $36K Donations for Dancer Who Fell From 15-Foot Pole: https://twitter.com/TheRogueRocket/status/1227703328869691392?s=20 —————————— Edited by: James Girardier, Julie Goldberg Produced by: Amanda Morones Art Director: Brian Borst   Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Cory Ray, Neena Pesqueda, Katie Calo ———————————— #DeFranco #JussieSmollett #NewHampshire ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards. Hope you've been a fantastic Wednesday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. And two big notes before we get started. One, I'm excited to announce after a long, long road over at beautifulbastard.com, we have now officially launched the brand new shampoo and conditioner.

They've easily been the most requested product from people that already use our fantastic pomades and beard oils. I've been using them for a while now. I swear by them. It feels like my hair is less oily. I have less dandruff. Overall, it's softer and easier to style.

They're also all natural, ethically sourced, cruelty-free, vegan-friendly, color-safe, and we don't use parabens, sulfates, silicones, gluten, or harsh detergents. And I've come to learn that things like that are incredibly important. Harsh detergents, for example, the kind that you find in most shampoos.

It can strip your hair of its natural oil, leaving the scalp irritated and unbalanced, causing an overproduction of oil, leaving you with greasy hair, dandruff, frizziness, a whole list of problems. And best of all, to celebrate this launch, because I wanna get it into so many hands so that people can kind of try it,

see why I love it so much, I'm launching it with coupon code NEWBB30, where for the next 48 hours, you can get 30% off your entire order. And of course, as always, whenever there's a new launch like this, it's first come, first served, so get in while you can. And then the second update before we jump into it, I just launched a brand new podcast actually right

before uploading this video. It's over at youtube.com slash convo with and it is a conversation and a podcast with James Charles. It was a really interesting one for me. I didn't know what to expect. I highly recommend you check it out over at youtube.com slash convo with or one of those links down below for the audio podcast platform of your choice. I can speak words. But with all of that said, buckle up, hit that like button and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today is Jussie Smollett is back in the news. This is definitely one of those situations

where I was kind of like, whatever happened, well, it's not over. And kind of just a quick refresher, because this happened just over a year ago, back in January of 2019, Smollett, who is black and gay, said that two men attacked him in a hate crime. He claimed that the men that did this yelled racist and homophobic things at him,

beat him, tied a noose around his neck, poured chemicals on him. This story understandably blew up. It looked like a hate crime against a known celebrity. So police officers in Chicago, where the alleged attack happened, started to investigate. But then they said that Smollett actually staged the attack and paid two men to carry it out.

Claiming that his motive in doing so could be to garner public sympathy. That could maybe lead to him getting a raise on the show that he was on, Empire. And from there, things got even messier. Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx, whose office was assigned to the case, ended up recusing herself.

Then that March, Smollett ended up being indicted on 16 counts of disorderly conduct for falsifying a police report, which he pled not guilty to. And then just a few weeks later, in kind of the most shocking turn, unexpected turn of this story, the charges against him were abruptly dropped

by the Cook County prosecutors. And the circumstances around it were bizarre. As part of the deal, he had to forfeit his $10,000 bond and perform community service. But even though it appeared that that was a penalty of some sort, he also didn't have to admit any wrongdoing. This despite the fact that the prosecutors maintained

that there was nothing wrong with the investigation and that the charges were not dropped because of a lack of evidence. With this, you had Smollett and his team saying that this was a win, claiming that he had been truthful the whole time. Meanwhile, Chicago police were incredibly upset. You had Chicago police commander, Edwin Nicky,

calling it a punch in the gut. Then Mayor Rahm Emanuel calling it a whitewash of justice. Following this, the city of Chicago filed a civil suit against Smollett, demanding that he cover the $130,000 that was spent in overtime pay to investigate his report. And then Smollett sued the city for malicious prosecution. So it was a mess, it was all over the place.

Also understand a lot of that is very top level, but it ultimately brings us to today. Because in the past day, we've learned that Smollett has now been indicted on six new charges for disorderly conduct for falsifying a police report. This reportedly coming after special prosecutor Dan Webb led a six month investigation into the case.

Back in August, a judge appointed him to look into whether or not Smollett should still be prosecuted as well as Cook County State's attorney, Kim Fox's investigation into the case. Back in August, a judge appointed him to look into whether or not Smollett should still be prosecuted as well as Cook County State's Attorney, Kim Foxx's handling of the case. So with this, we saw Webb's office release a statement saying, the grand jury's investigation revealed that Jussie Smollett planned and participated

in a staged hate crime attack and thereafter made numerous false statements to Chicago Police Department officers on multiple occasions, reporting a heinous crime that he in fact knew had not occurred. Therefore, Mr. Webb has determined that reasonable grounds exist to further prosecute Mr. Smollett.

And also adding that further charging Smollett is in the interest of justice. As far as the other part of the investigation, whether or not Cook County State Attorney's Office mishandled the case, there have been no full conclusions yet. That aspect of the investigation is still ongoing. But at the very least, we do know that he disagrees with their decision to drop charges.

Following this, we saw a number of responses and reactions. First, coming from Kim Foxx in her office, because something worth noting about Foxx is that she's running for reelection and the primary is just around the corner in March. The Smollett case, easily one of the biggest hurdles of her campaign. After the indictments were dropped,

her office released a statement saying, "'The Cook County State's Attorney's Office "'charged Jussie Smollett with multiple counts, "'and today the special prosecutor did the same.'" What's questionable here is the James Comey-like timing of that charging decision just 35 days before an election, which can only be interpreted as the further politicization of the justice system.

Also upset with the indictment was Smollett's legal team, with them also mentioning the upcoming election. You had attorney Tina Gladion say, "'The charges were appropriately dismissed the first time "'because they were not supported by the evidence. "'The attempt to re-prosecute Mr. Smollett one year later "'on the eve of the Cook County State's attorney election is clearly all about politics, not justice. And with this, you also had the city of Chicago release

a statement of its own clarifying that on top of these new charges, Smollett is still facing the civil suit filed against him. But ultimately, that is where we are right now. Smollett is expected to appear in court on February 24th. But yeah, we'll have to wait and see what happens from here. But with all of that said, I'd love to know your thoughts on this story in those comments down below. And then let's talk about The Hunt. And I'm also just realizing that an accidental theme of today's show is in large part things that almost happened

are now happening again. And with The Hunt, if you don't remember it, it's a movie starring Hilary Swank, Emma Roberts, Betty Gilpin, among others. Back in July of last year, Universal Studios dropped a trailer for the movie. And in that, we saw Gilpin's character in a gas station, seemingly kind of confused of where she's at.

She's then attacked by the station's owners. She manages to fight back, ultimately kills them. Pretty standard stuff for a movie trailer. But if you don't remember, the movie actually stoked a lot of political division. And that's because it appeared that the plot of the movie was essentially a group of rich elites hunting another group of people

who were described as rednecks. Those rich elites being characterized as elite liberals, the rednecks mostly being from conservative states. Those elites also another group of people who are described as rednecks. Those rich elites being characterized as elite liberals, the rednecks mostly being from conservative states. Those elites also refer to the people that they're hunting as deplorables, seemingly in reference to the Hillary Clinton comment back in 2016. You know, to just be grossly generalistic,

you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. And while the hunt was marketed as a satire, it still angered a lot of people, including President Trump. He actually tweeted about the movie, writing, liberal Hollywood is racist at the highest level and with great anger and hate. They like to call themselves elite, but they are not elite.

In fact, it is often the people that they so strongly oppose that are actually the elite. The movie coming out is made in order to inflame and cause chaos. They create their own violence and then try to blame others. They are the true racists and are very bad for our country. You also saw the likes of Franklin Graham,

son of televangelist Billy Graham saying, "'To plant the thought in someone's mind "'that it's okay to shoot a person "'because they wear a MAGA hat "'or hold conservative viewpoints "'that may differ from theirs "'is reckless and reprehensible. "'That's not satire or entertainment.

"'That's sowing seeds of discord and violence.'" Now the counter argument to that in general was one, yes, that it's satire, but also two, people saying that if the movie ends up being what you're saying it is, it seems to go against those general ideas because if anything in that trailer, it seems like the elites who are hunting

other human beings are bad guys. Or essentially saying if anything, it demonizes elites. But still with that said, the criticism and hate for this movie was heavy. On top of that criticism, there was also the timing aspect of this. Around this time, you had the news that a gunman had killed 22 people

at a Walmart in El Paso on August 3rd. Next day, another gunman in Dayton, Ohio killed nine people. Right, and so following those shootings, Universal dropped promotion of the film. And in fact, ultimately, we ended up seeing Universal pulling the plug on the movie altogether, with Universal releasing a statement, saying, while Universal Pictures had already paused

the marketing campaign for The Hunt, after thoughtful consideration, the studio has decided to cancel our plans to release the film. We stand by our filmmakers and will continue to distribute films in partnership with bold and visionary creators, like those associated with this satirical social thriller,

but we understand that now is not the right time to release this film. And at that time, Universal didn't announce any plans to release the movie at a later date or in another way. Also following that decision, we saw Hilary Swank say in a statement that she supported Universal's decision, feeling like the choice was necessary, adding that the country should focus on healing

and other things like kindness, sensitivity, and humanity. And this whole thing at the time, of course, was received with mixed reactions. Some happy to see it go, others saying that this was essentially censorship, giving in to a mob. And that is pretty much where the story ended, until yesterday.

Because yesterday we saw an announcement. The film is back on and it's set to be released next month. And with the announcement, we saw the film's producers kind of playing damage control for both sides. Producer and co-writer Damon Lindelof telling Variety, "'This is not a dangerous movie. "'This is not a provocative movie. "'This is not a divisive movie.'"

Also telling the New York Times, "'This movie didn't strike me as third rail. "'I wish that Trump had seen it. "'The movie he was talking about was not the movie "'I feel that we made.'" Producer Jason Blum also telling the Times not one frame was changed. This is exactly the same movie. Continuing to push the movie as satire and even though reportedly the movie itself is unchanged, what we did end up seeing is a change in how the movie was being

marketed. First off, now going with the tagline, the most talked about movie of the year is one that no one's actually seen. Right, touching the note that people had mass reactions even though they didn't see the film itself. Though the counter argument to that is we were reacting to the trailer that you released. But regarding that point, they've also now released a new trailer and it has a completely different feel.

Instead of seeming more like a straightforward horror murder pornish movie, the trailer shows a lot more of the comedy elements, also plot elements. Going off the trailer, unless it's a misdirect, it appears that this situation is kind of a prank gone wrong. In fact, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, part of the plot appears to involve

a reality TV show gone wrong. Yeah, ultimately that's where we are. As far as my reaction to this, I mean, I'm gonna watch a movie, one, because I'm intrigued to see what the hell this thing actually is. And also, two, kind of regarding that, no, this is gonna be a fantastic marketing test case.

When you look at how they're promoting the movie now, just look at the poster. Instead of the five star reviews, it's just all the negative stuff said about it. Hitting you almost dead center underneath the name, decide for yourself. Right, what kind of box office numbers from this movie are we gonna see?

They got so much free press, even if there's a ton of people saying, I will not watch this movie, the budget for the movie was only $15 million. It was gonna be one of those test cases of, can all this negative that was associated with this movie turned into a very profitable positive? As long as things stay the same

and they don't cancel the movie again, it looks like we're gonna learn on the weekend of March 13th. That said, of course, like with every story, I'd love to know your thoughts on this. Are you happy to see this movie coming back? Do you think that it should have stayed canceled? Why, why not? Any and all thoughts, let me know down below.

And then let's talk about the New Hampshire primary, which luckily went better than the garbage fire that was the Iowa caucus. And on that note, as we were recording, we saw the Iowa Democrats say that they are willing to do a partial re-canvas of some of the caucuses. But in order for that to happen, both Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg

would have to give the go ahead. So while that whole situation still seems to be a mess, it's a good thing New Hampshire was not a total disaster. And because it was not a garbage fire, we actually get to start our coverage this time with the results. With 98% of precincts reporting, Bernie got 25.7%, followed by Pete Buttigieg with 24.4%,

followed by Amy Klobuchar, who just surged to 19.8%, and then followed with Warren at 9.2% and Biden at 8.4%. Regarding those results, I'll say, I think it's a really important note. Say what you want about Joe Biden, but it seems that his slow burn campaign of telling people to just go and vote for someone else, it's working. I mean, this is, I mean, this is really bad for him. But joking aside, in New Hampshire, we saw Bernie Sanders deliver a speech.

And let me say tonight that this victory here is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump. With victories behind us, popular vote in Iowa and the victory here tonight, we're going to Nevada, we're going to South Carolina, we're gonna win those states as well. We also saw Buttigieg celebrating a very close second place, congratulating Bernie on his win, but also saying that his movement is divisive.

In this election season, we have been told by some that you must either be for a revolution or you are for the status quo. But where does that leave the rest of us? Most Americans don't see where they fit in that polarized vision. And we can't defeat the most divisive president in modern American history by tearing down anybody

who doesn't agree with us 100% of the time. We also saw Klobuchar for her part, very excited about her third place. And also here noting kind of a grab for the people that are more moderate. We have beaten the odds every step of the way. Because of you, we are taking this campaign to Nevada. We are going to South Carolina.

And we are taking this message of unity to the country. Donald Trump's worst nightmare is that the people in the middle, the people who have had enough of the name calling and the mud slinging, have someone to vote for in November. So those were your top three, but we also saw a shakeup of people that really weren't polling well.

We saw Andrew Yang and Michael Bennett announce they were dropping out of the race. You know, I am the math guy, and it is clear tonight from the numbers that we are not going to win this race. I am not someone who wants to accept donations and support in a race that we will not win. And so tonight, I am announcing I am suspending my campaign for president. Also, as far as Joe Biden, it appeared that he knew things weren't gonna go well in New Hampshire. Announcing that he was gonna be leaving early, that he wasn't gonna stay for his primary party,

instead going to South Carolina to campaign. And from here, depending on who you are, it's gonna get very scary or very interesting. Right, only two states in, you have Bernie and Buttigieg at the top with delicate counts of 22 and 21. A lot of people surprised how well Buttigieg has been doing so far.

Though, many experts here say that those elections are not indicative of how well he's going to do moving forward. You have the Nevada caucus in less than two weeks, the South Carolina primary at the end of the month. And those two states specifically are gonna be the most critical stress test for him because as NPR explained,

Buttigieg has won in two of the whitest states in the country and has strength with white voters with college degrees. But he struggled in the polls with voters of color. And then noting Nevada was 41% non-white in 2016 and 61% of South Carolina Democratic voters were African-Americans. But for Sanders as well, that's gonna be a big test

because last time, 2016, those states did not go with a more progressive candidate. And we've also seen a conversation coming up of do more candidates need to drop out before Super Tuesday? And Super Tuesday, if you don't know, it's March 3rd. It's when 1,357 delegates will be up for grabs. So just that day can be a make or break moment for the candidates.

You need 1,990 delegates to win the nomination. And right now, looking at the candidates, it appears that there is a huge fight of who Democrats are moving forward. And more progressive candidates like Sanders and Warren, and more moderate like Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Biden. Here you have people looking at the results in New Hampshire saying it's actually an argument

for a more moderate candidate. People like Tim Nichols tweeting, "'Bernie plus Liz equals 35%. "'Pete plus Amy plus Joe, 53%.'" Right, and so essentially it becomes an argument of, do certain moderate candidates need to fall on their sword so a more moderate candidate can poll higher? Right, the belief is that they're all splitting the vote

because we're in a very odd place where there are so many front runners. But then adding confusion to that whole situation and debate, you have Michael Bloomberg who has spent greatly on specifically Super Tuesday states. The counter argument to the progressives aren't as popular and the moderates are just splitting the vote is that people are saying people don't just vote that way.

Or you might have people that love Klobuchar, but they think that Buttigieg is a rat, Biden's a joke. If Bernie has that steam and Klobuchar drops out, maybe some of the voters go there. Also, something to mention about the number of candidates, if people do not drop out, FiveThirtyEight.com has noted that the possibility of a contested convention is increasing, that being we're going

into the Democratic National Convention that there was no pledged delegate majority, something that if it happened, could be incredibly divisive to Democrats. But ultimately, that's where we are, those are some of the projections thus far, and it's gonna be interesting to see what happens from here. That said, I'd love to know your thoughts

on this whole situation. Also, something that I would find interesting, if you're a Democrat, who's your number one ideal scenario now? And if that person could not get it, who would you jump to for number two? Right, and for me, that's to kind of see would the progressives have to stay

with the progressive candidates, would the moderates definitely stay with the moderates, or would they jump ship? Yeah, I'm just trying to get a feel for what people are thinking in this mess. And that is where I'm going to end today's show. And hey, remember, if you liked this video, hit us with a like.

If you're new here, be sure to subscribe. Also, if you're not 100% filled in, you're looking for more to watch, you can check out that brand new podcast I did with James Charles or maybe dismiss the yesterday's Philip DeFranco show you wanna catch up. You can click or tap right there to watch either of those. 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. I hope you liked this video. Subscribe if you like it.