The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 2.13 The Serial Swatter Problem is Worse Than You Think, Diddy Sues NBC FOR $100M, Pokimane Doxxing, &

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

Subscribe for New shows every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday @ 6pm ET/3pm PST & watch more here: https://youtu.be/RM8XfPqtdxg?si=pWuBlhQbn7GVmgt2&list=PLHcsGizlfLMWpSg7i0b9wnUyEZWI-25N3&index=1&t  Use code “PHIL” for $20 OFF your first SeatGeek order & returning buyers use code “PDS” for $10 off AND your chance at weekly $500 prizes! https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/PHIL https://BeautifulBastard.com Get yourself some of our new shirts, crews, and hoodies! copy pasting old ones will lead to an increase of sales and codes being pushed that are no longer active  – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Serial Swatter Sentenced to Four Years After Calling Cops Nearly 400 Times 04:13 - Pokimane Pays Five Figures a Month to Hide from Stalkers 06:31 - Diddy Sues NBC for Defamation Over “Salacious” Documentary  09:17 - Sponsored by SeatGeek 10:18 - State Dept. Buying $400M in Teslas, House Releases Budget Outline, RFK Confirmed 19:40 - ACLU Sues For Access to Migrants Sent to Guantanamo Bay 25:27 - Comment Commentary ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino  ———————————— For more Philip DeFranco: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-philip-defranco-show/id1278424954 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ESemquRbz6f8XLVywdZ2V Twitter:   https://x.com/PhillyD Instagram:   https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco Newsletter: https://www.dailydip.co TikTok:   https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco?lang=en ———————————— #DeFranco #Pokimane #RFKJr ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We've got a huge political roundup around mass layoffs, huge welfare cuts, several trillion dollar tax cuts, Tesla controversies, and new tariffs. We're talking about all that and much more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news, how it's being covered, and how people are reacting to it, starting with this. Let's talk about douchebag of the day contender,

Alan Fillion, who was just sentenced this week to four years in federal prison over his little swatting obsession. I'm going to commit a mass shooting in the name of Satan. Hello, what's up? So that is just one of the calls that he made complete with fake gunfire sounds. And as far as how often he did this in a plea agreement,

this now 18-year-old who lives in LA County admitted that between August of 2022 and January of 2024, he made over 375 calls to emergency services with the intention of getting a response from them. With his targets, including high schools, universities, religious buildings, as well as government officials. And some of the examples we have are in one instance, he called public schools in Washington state and said,

quote, I am going to commit a school shooting with my AR-15 and Glock. I will kill as many kids as I can. "'I have pipe bombs that I have placed in the bathrooms.'" And worst of all there, he even identified himself as an actual 17 year old kid who went to that school. So he put this kid's life in danger. With him then just two days later,

calling again and threatening to plant bombs on cars in the school's parking lot. And from there, he continued to torment that school with even more calls for about a month. Also in other instances, he essentially demanded ransoms and crypto to stop making threats. He even targeted his own home multiple times in late 2022 in order to test his methods.

You know, these, they're just a drop in the bucket. To get an idea of how prolific he was, you just need to look at May of 2023 when he called more than 20 public high schools across Washington with threats, which forced many of them to shut down. Are you in front of the school right now? Yes, I'm walking in now. Okay, can you stop, please? which forced many of them to shut down. Once I get your IP address through Google Voice, which you have been using,

and get your information because they are subpoenaed, you will be getting charges. So stop calling my school. I am never going to be caught. I am invincible. This idiot was making on average 21 calls a month, and he even reportedly bragged about it on social media, saying that he purposely made up extreme scenarios, which quote, usually gets the cops to drag the victim

and their families out of the house, cuff them, and search the house for dead bodies. With Fillion admitting that the swatting, it started as a power trip, but then he quickly turned it into a side hustle. And actually in an advertisement that he posted across social media, he offered things like prices, $40 gas leak,

fire for EMS, fire gas leak, $35 for returning customers. This motherfucker was essentially offering loyalty member discounts. With other emergencies going up from there with a major police response to the house costing $50 or $40 for returning customers. He'd even call in bomb threats and mass shootings for just $75 or with a small discount for returning customers again.

And another thing that was really interesting here is that in July of 2023, about halfway through his bullshit, Fillion was actually visited by the FBI despite multiple layers of VPNs and text-to-voice software that was meant to obscure where the calls were coming from. His family was even told that he was the one who called the swatting on their own house,

but he quote, falsely denied any involvement. And so he just got to continue putting other people in danger for about six months before he was arrested in January of 2024. And from there, what we saw was that in November of 2024, he decided to plead guilty to four swatting charges out of more than 375 instances of it. And while it was technically possible

for him to get five years per count, instead, it was announced this week that he was just facing four years total. And so with that, I'll leave you with two things. The first is, I'd love to know your thoughts here on just the situation in general, as well as the punishment. Let me know what you're thinking,

whether you agree or disagree with me. But two, as far as my opinion, for you beautiful bastards who have been with me for a long time, this is not gonna be shocking. I think this is too light of a sentence. I do not care that he is only 18 years old. Now, when you do these sorts of things, when you're calling in fake bomb threats and fake shootings, I see this as attempted murder. You are setting up all the dominoes for

someone to get shot and killed. And in fact, we've covered stories in the past where someone got swatted and someone got killed. And you know, I understand the aspect that prosecutors and judges, they really want to incentivize plea deals to save the court money, but this motherfucker put so many people in danger and he's lucky no one got killed. But that's the news, my personal take. And of course, I'd love to hear from you. Also moving on, you know,

while we're talking about swatting, we should talk about a sort of partner doxing. Right in that, because you have many talking about online creator, Pokimane, going on Colin and Samir's podcast. And during that interview, she revealed that she spends a ton of money to make sure that this kind of crap doesn't happen to her.

And she noted that one of her biggest expenses is actually an online security team, which she doesn't usually talk about. And adding, Over the last two years, I've had to get in touch with, honestly, not even one, but like numerous companies, numerous teams

who can just get different things done in order to help protect me online, whether that's against doxing or deep fakes or people misusing my name or likeness or copyright or what have you. And that's like a five figure plus monthly expense. Like I literally have people that I have to pay monthly to essentially scour and see whether my address is online anywhere and then take it down. Like those kinds of things. And I'm like, well, I wish that wasn't the case. With Poki noting that because of security issues, she can't really live in a house or with other people because she needs to live in a building with security. With her adding there that it's

also an ordeal if she moves. Anytime I move into a new apartment, I have to hire people to take down every single photo of that apartment that exists anywhere. And if anything makes it very unique, I have to change those things. Like in my last apartment that I lived in, it had a very unique like booth and like color scheme in the kitchen. And I had to repaint everything. Because if anyone finds that one photo online of that apartment, they piece it together so quickly. Right. One of the other things that Pokimane hit on was the fact that, you know, she hasn't really had to deal with this throughout her whole career,

but digital security has changed so much. They're pointing to things like AI and having to pay people to remove deep fakes of her or her voice that float around so she can protect her image and safety and brand. And obviously the more high profile you are, the bigger a problem it might be. But this is, of course, it can happen to anyone, right?

I mean, no one is immune to the dark sides of the internet. You know, while platforms like Twitch do have guides to try to help people prevent themselves from becoming victims of things like swatting and doxing, these are obviously still huge, major forms of harassment. Especially, because like I said, it's not just a creator thing. I mean, hell, last year you had Education Week

putting out a tip for teachers to help them avoid doxing. And this, as we're seeing things like in 2023, research found that it was increasingly being used to target academics, especially women in academics. I mean, we even see these doxing and security concerns popping up in high profile trials. So it really begs the question of, is anyone actually safe?

But then switching gears to big legal and entertainment news, Diddy's now suing NBC for $100 million. Right in that, because NBC aired a documentary about Diddy called The Making of a Bad Boy on its streaming service Peacock last month. And so you have Diddy alleging that this defamed him by accusing him of horrible crimes,

including serial murder and sexual assaults of minors, knowing that there is not a shred of evidence to support them. You know, with that, you might be thinking, you know, we've been following this Diddy case for a while, allegations of sexual assault. They've been one of the core pieces of this case, but serial murder?

That one, you know, we don't hear about every day. But according to the lawsuit, the doc suggested that Combs is responsible for the death of Kimberly Porter, his longtime girlfriend who he shares three kids with, despite the fact that the coroner's office said that her cause of death was low-bar pneumonia. Though I will say, for the people

that are really in the weeds on this case or Diddy's life, it is a conspiracy that you may have run into before, right? It's made headlines in the past. And this doc, it includes interviews with Al B. Shore, who asserted that Porter was murdered as well as an interview with an attorney who questioned how she would have really died of pneumonia. It also then mentions other people in Diddy's circle who died, including Biggie, with sources sometimes casting doubt on whether

or not Diddy played a role in those events and claiming that, quote, he shamelessly advances conspiracy theories that lack any foundation in reality, repeatedly insinuating that Mr. Combs is a serial killer because it cannot be a coincidence that multiple people in Mr. Combs' orbit have died. And then regarding claims that Diddy sexually abused minors, the suit claims that the documentary based this quote entirely on a false claim by an anonymous source. And then further adding that by releasing this film, NBC sought only to capitalize on the public's appetite

for scandal without any regard for the truth and at the expense of Mr. Combs' right to a fair trial. Right, and accusing them of a rush job with them pointing to an interview executive producer Ari Mark did with The Hollywood Reporter where he said, it's really competitive and I think that is why it wasn't enough to be fast. It was also necessary to be distinct. And saying there's no time and this was an extremely fast turnaround. With The Hollywood Reporter noting that there have already

been docs released on Diddy with more on the way, which would add to the pressure of getting something out there fast. And so now, all in all, you have Diddy seeking $100 million in relief over these defamation claims. With them listing NBC, Peacock, and the production company Ample Entertainment as defendants, and his attorney, Erica Wolfe, giving a statement to People magazine saying that, grossly exploiting the trust of their audience and racing to outdo their competition for the most salacious Diddy expose, defendants maliciously and recklessly broadcast outrageous lies in the documentary. Now with that, so far, NBC hasn't publicly responded to the allegations, but you do have the New York Times noting it, this lawsuit kind of shows that Diddy is starting to go

on the offense of his allegations against him continue to grow. For example, back in January, he also filed a lawsuit against a man who was given media interviews claiming he has tapes of Diddy's freak-offs. So you have some saying this is kind of a continuation of that effort, but of course, right,

the cases where Diddy is on the defense, they're not going anywhere. While he has denied all the allegations against him, he's still awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, which he has pleaded not guilty to. And this is he's also facing dozens of civil lawsuits and new ones are being filed pretty regularly. In fact, I mean, one was just filed this week,

accusing him of drugging and raping someone in 2022. So you have Diddy's legal team denying those claims is ridiculous. And then we'll get to more news in just a moment, but you know, it's been really cool working with SeatGeek on the $500 weekly giveaway and seeing how y'all have been using your winnings. From concerts and Broadway shows to sporting events,

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several trillion dollar tax cuts, and a big old Tesla controversy because the political news just does not stop. Starting with Trump's announcement on Truett Social, today is the big one. With them then unveiling a plan to impose reciprocal tariffs on every country that has tariffs on US exports. Whereas if another country taxes American goods,

even if they're an ally, the US would tax them right back at the same rate. Though it's not clear whether it'll be simply one-to-one tariff to tariff because they also said they would counteract non-tariff trade barriers such as burdensome regulations, value-added taxes, government subsidies, and exchange rate policy. But either way, we're potentially looking at tariffs

on China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the European Union, among others. Now with all that, the changes are not going into effect immediately, but the White House told reporters they could begin within weeks as Trump's team studies bilateral tariff and trade relationships. And this, as officials said,

they'd start with what they call the most egregious issues first, namely countries with the biggest trade surpluses and highest tariff rates. And this also notably coming after Trump already imposed a tariff on all steel and aluminum imports starting March 12th, a 10% tariff on goods from China

and a 25% tariff on most goods from Mexico and Canada that's been paused until March. As well as there being some potential tariffs on cars, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals that Trump said that he was considering Monday. All of which have opinions sharply divided, right? On one side, you've got critics claiming that tariffs will drive up inflation and damage relations with the rest of the world. And this is on the other side, you have people arguing that tariffs will improve national security and strengthen America's economic position in the long term. But whatever the case, trade experts agree that this will be a colossal undertaking

for the Trump administration. For example, one explaining to Reuters that each of the 186 members of the World Customs Organization have different duty rates. And adding at the international level, there's something like 5,000 different descriptions of the six digit product subheading level. So 5,000 times 186 nations.

Saying it's almost an artificial intelligence project. But then in addition to that, we also got to talk about Elon Musk buyout offer. But as you might remember on January 28th, the White House sent most of the federal workforce an email offering to continue paying them through September if they resigned now. Or with the implicit threat being that

if they don't take the offer, they might get laid off later on anyway under less generous terms. But then we saw last Thursday, nine days after it started, a judge halted the program. And this is he considered a lawsuit from unions representing more than 800,000 federal workers. But yesterday the judge dismissed the suit,

arguing that his court actually lacked jurisdiction and the unions, they lacked standing. So the buyout offer was back on the table, meaning that any workers who hadn't yet accepted it should have been able to. Then the White House announced that as of 7 p.m. yesterday, the offer was closed. With reportedly about 75,000 people taking the buyout

in the end, which is less than 5% of the federal workforce. A percentage that notably falls short of the administration's goal of between 5 and 10% to resign. In this, as you have some saying, it's possible that many of those who took the offer would have resigned or retired anyway later on this year. And that because in the 2023 fiscal year, 116,000 federal workers, or nearly 6% of the workforce,

reportedly resigned or retired. With that, now that the buyout's done, you have the White House moving on to a legally more thorny stage two, mass layoffs. With Elon Musk's underlings reportedly going after probationary workers first, since they're typically less protected from being fired without cause

and make up around 7% of the government. And you have sources telling the Washington Post that White House officials are eyeing cuts to agency budgets of between 30 and 40% on average, centered on significant staff reductions. Though this is reportedly departments that Trump likes are expected to be exempt, such as defense and Homeland Security.

But already we've seen lots of confusion around who's getting fired and who isn't. With, for example, probationary workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reportedly getting an email notifying them that they'd been terminated. But this is a notice that unfinished placeholders addressing it to employee first name, employee last name, and noting, I am removing you from your position of job title. And then, at the Small Business Administration, probationary workers reportedly got emails on Friday telling them they were fired, and then a second wave of emails saying they weren't fired, and then a third round telling them they were, in fact, actually fired.

But with all that, as we've seen with USAID and the buyout offer, many federal employees are now walking out the workplace door and straight into the courtroom. And on that front, we've got yet another lawsuit from eight inspectors general who were fired by Trump last month, with them claiming there that Donald Trump kicked them out

without justifying their removal or giving Congress 30 days notice and adding, "'The purported firings violated unambiguous federal statutes, each enacted by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed into law by the president to protect inspectors general from precisely this sort of interference

with the discharge of their critical nonpartisan oversight duties.'" And even for the buyout offer, the judge only dismissed the union's particular lawsuit, right, he didn't rule on the program's legality. So we saw the unions responding in a statement saying, we continue to maintain it is illegal to force American citizens

who have dedicated their careers to public service to make a decision in a few short days without adequate information about whether to uproot their families and leave their careers for what amounts to an unfunded IOU from Elon Musk. Though obviously not everyone sees it that way, with Republicans framing these moves

as merely downsizing a bloated, unelected and corrupt bureaucratic machine. I mean, even at Fox news, referring to those unions as big labor and highlighting Trump's support from numerous state attorneys general. But then right, moving on to the next big slice of political news, we just got our first glance at what kind of legislation the Republicans

are planning to pass through with their razor thin majority in Congress. With us seeing House Republicans yesterday unveiling a budget blueprint, which is the first step toward hammering out an actual budget. And first off, we're seeing $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. Though to be clear, that is not 4.5 trillion on top of Trump's 2017 tax cuts. We're just simply preserving those cuts

that could cost over $5 trillion. So this new budget plan would mostly just do that and maybe a little more. But also, as we heard from Elon Musk Tuesday, the party claims to be very concerned about the debt and the deficit. So to mitigate the fiscal impact of the tax cuts, they're pairing them with a range of cuts to spending,

specifically the social safety net. By far, it appears that the biggest target is Medicaid, which covers nearly 90 million Americans, with a blueprint instructing the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the program, to come up with at least $880 billion in cuts. So with that, we're gonna have to wait to see

if they do that by chipping away at benefits, imposing work requirements on enrollees or some other avenue. And then it appears that their next target is SNAP, right? The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, which helps feed more than 40 million poor Americans. With a blueprint asking the Agriculture Committee,

which oversees it, to cut $230 billion. And then lastly, for the big stuff, the Education and Workforce Committees have been asked to cut $330 billion. And this is defense and immigration enforcement would get a $300 billion spending increase. So when you tally it all up, you get $1.5 trillion in spending cuts overall. So that means that this budget, if it got through, would add roughly $3 trillion to the deficit over a decade,

which is also why it proposes raising the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. And if all of these numbers sound big to you, also keep in mind that this is actually a compromise. Some Republicans wanted even deeper cuts. Like specifically, those in the House Freedom Caucus, they called for $2.5 trillion in spending cuts. With them arguing last week, quote, we should not be negotiating with ourselves

on how little to cut from Joe Biden's insane spending levels. But this also is on the other side, you had more moderate Republicans in politically vulnerable districts kind of skittish about cutting too much from social programs that directly benefit their constituents. And you know, across the spectrum,

you have different lawmakers trying to squeeze in their own particular favorite tax cuts, while party leaders try to keep the overall number from growing out of control. And that's without mentioning Trump and his campaign promises to end taxes on things like tips and overtime pay. But one way or another, they're gonna have to agree on a blueprint.

Otherwise, they can't use the special legislative procedure known as reconciliation, with that being a key thing that allows them to push through the bill on a simple majority vote. Thing is there though, that the House and Senate are split on how to accomplish this. Because while House Speaker Mike Johnson says that one giant budget bill is the best way

to smooth out differences within the party, Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham is skeptical that the House can pull together and agree. So you have him saying that if they can't get something passed quickly, it'll be time for plan B, meaning two bills dealing with spending and taxes separately. And in fact, his committee moved forward with the spending half of that on Wednesday, proposing $175 billion for plan B, meaning two bills dealing with spending and taxes separately. And in fact, his committee moved forward with the spending half of that on Wednesday, proposing $175 billion

for border security, $150 billion for defense, and $20 billion for the Coast Guard. So, you know, the GOP is going to be sorting all that out for a while, likely several weeks at least. But they're also not the only ones thinking about spending right now. Because the media, they got their hands on a State Department document detailing procurement for fiscal year 2025, and one particular expense caught their eye. These reports said that they found a $400 million order for armored vehicles from Tesla, with the document not appearing to specify which vehicle, though some guessed it was the Cybertruck.

And so naturally, accusations of conflict of interest, if not outright corruption, went flying. Isn't it great and definitely not at all illegal or profoundly corrupt for the president to put someone with billions of dollars in government contracts personally in charge of deciding what happens to government contracts. Then we saw the State Department defending itself, saying that the plan stemmed from a request

from the Biden administration to explore interests from private companies to produce armored electric vehicles. And notably, that document was first published in December before Trump took office. The department also adding, "'The solicitation is on hold "'and there are no current plans to issue it.'" And this is reportedly some other car makers were also set to receive contracts

for armored vehicles, although much smaller ones. BMW, for instance, expected to supply about $40 million worth of SUVs. But then also last night, the document was reportedly edited to remove the word Tesla and simply say armored electric vehicles. And then less than two hours later, Elon Musk responded to Rachel Maddow with, hey, Maddow, why the lie? So that's why with all this, if you look online, you have some saying, you know, this is a win for Musk and a war on facts, while others are saying, you know, it's irrelevant to the allegation that there is a clear conflict of interest. But then finally, with this batch of news, we need to talk about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

And that because today the Senate voted 52 to 48 to confirm him as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, with a lone Republican voting against him being Mitch McConnell, who is notably a survivor of polio. So with that, he declared in no uncertain terms, "'In my lifetime, I've watched vaccines save millions "'of lives from devastating diseases across America "'and around the world. "'I will not condone the relitigation of proven cures, "'and neither will millions of Americans

"'who credit their survival and quality of life "'to scientific miracles.'" And this, as we talked about yesterday, McConnell was the only Republican to also vote against confirming Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. While with this, we've seen a number of Democrats commending him for this move, you also have others saying, well, too little, too late.

With many pointing back to January 6th, where McConnell condemned the president's actions there verbally, but he declined to convict Trump after the House impeached him. A move that allowed Donald Trump to run for office again, and why McConnell finds himself in the position he's in today. But then, shifting gears to other news, migrants are now being detained at Guantanamo Bay and no one has any idea how long they'll be there and what conditions or whether they'll have any means of communicating with their families and attorneys.

That is what an ACLU led coalition is alleging and why they're now suing the Trump administration and they're demanding access to the detainees so they can provide legal assistance. With the complaint specifically alleging that the US is holding them incommunicado and further claiming this isolation is no coincidence. And adding, Guantanamo is home

to one of the most notorious prisons in the world, used when the US government has attempted to operate in secret without legal constraint or accountability. And notably, these organizations are saying they're only resorting to litigation after the government failed to respond to a letter sent last week to the secretaries of defense, state and Homeland security,

requesting immediate access to the migrants. And with that, you have the deputy head of the ACLU's immigrantsigrants Rights Project saying, "'By hurrying immigrants off to a remote island cut off "'from lawyers, family, and the rest of the world, "'the Trump administration is sending its clearest signal "'yet that the rule of law means nothing to it.'" And saying, "'It will now be up to the courts

"'to ensure that immigrants cannot be warehoused "'on offshore islands.'" But of course, in the meantime, it's already happening. Trump announced his plans late last month to house up to 30,000 unauthorized immigrants at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba. And while the US government has taken migrants picked up at sea to Guantanamo to be processed before,

it's never taken people who were already detained on American soil and therefore have constitutional rights to a detention facility overseas. And so of course, as we've talked about, the plan immediately sparked backlash. With some saying what Trump was describing sounded a whole lot like a concentration camp and others highlighting the allegedly cruel and humane and degrading treatment suffered by those detained in the

Guantanamo Bay military prison in the past. With the seeing legal experts noting, Guantanamo is a black hole designed to escape scrutiny and with a dark history of inhumane conditions. It is a transparent attempt to avoid legal oversight that will fail. But then with all that, in its defense, you have the Trump administration claiming that the detention of migrants at Guantanamo, it's one, only going to be temporary. It two, would only be sending the quote, "'Worse criminal illegal aliens'." And three, that deported migrants wouldn't be held in the military prison.

And we'll have to wait to see whether the detention is truly temporary. We're already seeing evidence that those other claims just aren't true. And on February 4th, for example, DHS released images of the first flight of migrants being deported to Guantanamo and claiming that they were all part of a notorious Venezuelan gang.

But when presented by the New York Times with evidence suggesting that at least one of the deported individuals had no ties to the gang, however, a DHS spokesperson reportedly responded, "'During further assessment, "'intelligence officers could not definitively determine "'whether the individuals is or is not "'a confirmed member of the gang,'

saying, "'He may very well be a member "'of this vicious gang. "'He may not be.'" With her then later saying in a follow-up reply, "'The New York Times is more interested "'in writing sob stories about its disgusting members than justice for its victims. And with that, we've seen this DHS spokesperson

responding similarly to the ACLU-led lawsuit, saying in a statement, if the American Civil Liberties Union cares more about highly dangerous criminal aliens, including murderers and vicious gang members than they do about American citizens, they should change their name. But again, with that, right now,

there's no evidence that's been shown that all of these detained are murderers and gang members. Right, and congressional staffers were reportedly told that the criteria for transfer to Guantanamo is currently just Venezuelans in ICE custody. And this is notably people in that category have been difficult to deport in recent years because of a breakdown in diplomatic relations.

Though, I will say with that, Venezuela sent two flights to pick up some of its citizens who were being deported this week, so that may be changing. But in any case, in general, ICE has arrested scores of migrants who have no criminal records despite the administration's claims that immigrant enforcement would prioritize dangerous criminals. And it's seeming to be no different with Guantanamo.

Based on what we're seeing, it wasn't just one non-gang member getting caught up by accident. According to reporting by CBS, based on conversations with US officials and internal government documents, the Trump administration is sending multiple non-violent, low-risk migrants, with government guidelines defining low-risk detainees as those who haven't been arrested or convicted of violent offenses or other serious crimes. So government guidelines defining low-risk detainees as those who haven't been arrested or convicted of violent offenses or other serious crimes. So notably, here, US officials say they could also be migrants who lack any criminal record whatsoever.

And also something else worth noting is not all migrants in ICE detention even entered the United States illegally. Some, for example, requested asylum at the border, but were eventually rejected and stayed anyways. And as of right now with that, the government reportedly hasn't offered evidence that all of the men taken to Guantanamo had sneaked across the border.

In fact, according to the New York Times, spokespeople for the administration have been unwilling or unable to answer detailed questions about what is happening to migrants at the base. For example, with the ACLU-led lawsuit, the rights groups are asking that at minimum, attorneys be allowed to communicate with the migrants via phone calls, video conferences, or email.

And with that, you're the DHS spokesperson saying there is a system for phone utilization to reach lawyers, but then provided no additional details. And this is the government has also not released the identities of the migrants sent to Guantanamo. And several of the family members reportedly say that they've made repeated calls to ICE to ask about their relatives to no avail. And notably, as well as leaving families with little idea of where their loved ones are being held, this is another factor complicating lawyers' efforts to challenge their detention. And with that said, I will say at least two detainees have been identified by their relatives through pictures released of that first flight.

And now we're seeing the New York Times obtaining and publishing the names of 53 men who have been taken to Guantanamo. And notably, while the Trump administration has portrayed the detainees as legally in the custody of immigration and customs enforcement, they're actually being guarded by troops rather than civilian immigration officers.

And more specifically, they're reportedly being held in Camp 6, which is a prison building where until recently, the military held foreign terrorist suspects. Though with that, as of Tuesday, the other 45're reportedly being held in Camp 6, which is a prison building where until recently, the military held foreign terrorist suspects. Though with that, as of Tuesday, the other 45 migrants were being held in a lower security building on the other side of the base. And the names of those migrants

were not on the list obtained by the Times. But as far as those at Camp 6, one person familiar with the operation reportedly noted that the facility is in disrepair with broken showers and doors and other faulty equipment that make parts of it unusable. And two people with knowledge of the prison operations also reportedly said that the detainees

are being fed prepackaged military rations. And so with all this, as with so many of the things we've talked about with Trump over the past three weeks, there is a big question about the legality of any of this. The Supreme Court has ruled that the government has lawful authority to hold Al-Qaeda suspects

in indefinite wartime detention at Guantanamo. But it's currently not clear what legal authority the Trump administration has to hold people arrested in the United States for immigration detention purposes. But in the meantime, there's no reason to expect that this is going to slow down, right? I mean, like I said, Trump has promised that Guantanamo would hold tens of thousands of migrants. And to get ready for that, several hundred US military service

members have reportedly been deployed to the base and more than a hundred green army tents have been erected in fields near an airstrip there. But ultimately, we're gonna have to wait to see how this plays out both in the courts and actually on the ground there. Moving forward, will Guantanamo be and how long will it be this massive migrant detention facility that's being promised? Then finally today, let's talk about yesterday in some comment commentary brought to you by beautifulbastard.com, where in addition, you can get not only some of our newest graphic tees, hoodies, and crews, but right now you can get $45 off our two-pack long sleeves and three-pack short sleeves, as well as $20 off our premium

flannels. I'm wearing the red one, but we also have black. So treat yourself, get what you want while you can, and it also helps support the show. But that said, let's talk about yesterday. And unsurprisingly, a lot of the comments were about Elon Musk. We're all saying things like, saying unelected officials have too much power while being an unelected official with too much power is just so gross. And hearing Elon Musk talk about unelected bureaucrats while himself being completely unelected and getting seemingly infinite power is going to drive me to the brink of insanity. Though I kind of went more broad with their comments saying,

"'It's really starting to hit that laws only work "'if everyone in a society agrees on them.'" To which Homeless Romantic replied, "'It's sort of like how you're conditioned "'not to think about how a front door only protects you "'as long as no one tries to kick it down "'or buys a $5 lock-picking kit.'" People then also just copy pasting

one of my favorite Brennan quotes. Laws are threats made by the dominant socioeconomic ethnic group in a given nation. It's just a promise of violence that's enacted and police are basically an occupying army. You know what I mean? You also had a lot of people saying that it feels more like Musk is the one that's in control.

Writing things like, it was really nice of President Elon Musk to allow Vice President Donald Trump to sit behind the desk during this press event. Also, pre-, appreciate this comment. You took different parts of the show, brought it into one comment. Lam saying Phil's toilet last night with his food poisoning is still better than our government at the moment. Y'all, this is gonna be TMI. I lost seven pounds in water weight last night. I thought I was on the bounce back. Jersey Mike's was a bad idea.

But then finally, there's also some conversation around Kanye, but it was largely just people done with him. Timbis saying, what offends me is that Kanye is now claiming to be autistic. I'm autistic. A lot of autistic people have a strong sense of injustice. At the age of 10, I went to South Africa and my mother recalled was horrified by the racism of apartheid.

So sorry, Kanye, autism doesn't make you a Nazi. Your love of Hitler does. But that, my friends, is the end of your Thursday evening, Friday morning to the news. I will end on an update or announcement next Monday's show, which is President's Day, the team has off. So I'm still gonna be uploading, but it's gonna probably be three deep dives

into topics that are not breaking news that day. Important things, interesting things, things that I wanna talk about, but that's why it'll be a slightly different. But with that said, of course, remember I got a brand new show for you every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific.

Thank you for watching. I love your faces, and I'll see you right back here on Monday.