The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 3.14 This Casey Neistat Doc Exposes David Dobrik For Who He Really Is, Jussie Smollet, & Ukraine Russia

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards! Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Quick friendly reminder at the top, you only have a few hours left if you wanna snag something from the MarchBeautifulBastard.com drop. Depending on what final numbers are, thank y'all for making this one of the best,

Starting point is 00:00:12 if not the best drop to date. With that said, buckle up, hit that like button, otherwise I will punch you in the throat and let's just jump into it. Y'all first up today, I'm actually coming back from Texas. I was at the premiere of Under the Influence at South by Southwest. It's the Casey Neistat documentary about David Dobrik.

Starting point is 00:00:27 And I just, wow. I cannot diagnose anyone, but watching this documentary, it's hard not to look at David Dobrik and be like, oh, you are a scumbag sociopath. You've said what you've said publicly, but you behind the scene, you still truly see yourself as the victim of your controversies. Right, and so with this, I can't,

Starting point is 00:00:44 I don't wanna do like a play by play of the movie. It premiered at South with this, I don't want to do like a play-by-play of the movie. It premiered at South by Southwest. I don't know if it's been purchased yet. I don't know when it's going to be publicly consumable. But what starts as something that's meant to kind of showcase the rise of this YouTuber ends up focusing on the SA Dirty Dom accusations, as well as a Jeff Wittig Crane incident. What's really interesting is a lot of public reaction right now is kind of just based off of people

Starting point is 00:01:05 sharing their initial reviews of their like South by Southwest screeners. And so depending on where you're scrubbing on the internet, there are places that are like, Oh my God, you can tell Casey Neistat was never really David Dobrik's friend. He was just trying to use him, waiting to stab him in the back.

Starting point is 00:01:19 And then you go to another comment section, they're like, fuck, I knew it. Casey is David Dobrik's friend. He's really trying to protect David. Which I will say, I don't know what movie those people fucking watched. Though with that, I will say, I understand some of the critiques that I, I hope,

Starting point is 00:01:34 I hope that whoever buys this movie allows Casey to address for the public release. And so this is how I'll say it. One, I think the documentary itself is fantastic. In my opinion, it is the first and only documentary involving like the YouTube social media influencer space that actually still mattered by the time it was released. A lot of the times the subject matter of those docs

Starting point is 00:01:52 are no longer relevant in the mainstream or even online. That is obviously not the case here. Two, I think this is gonna get really good reviews as far as critics. I've only seen really, really positive, right? But of course I'm just talking about mainstream critics there. Also that 90% number is not gonna to include David Stans. They will

Starting point is 00:02:07 protect him from everything. And three, I think the main critiques you're going to see from non-David Stans are from people that are very hyper aware of the David Dobrik situation. I think some people are going to take aim at Casey and say, why didn't he focus on more controversies, right? There was more than just the two. There was the bullying stuff. There was the racism stuff. Though Casey actually addressed that during the public Q&A saying, hey, there is a than just the two. There was the bullying stuff. There was the racism stuff. Though Casey actually addressed that during the public Q and A saying, there is a 12 hour version of this movie, but to make something that's around two hours,

Starting point is 00:02:32 it's very consumable. We had to focus on two things. As well as the critique, and I feel like this one's more justified and I hope that Casey is able to kind of at least provide like three minutes of update footage. I think the documentary could benefit from Jeff Wittek's more recent, more blunt statements

Starting point is 00:02:46 about David Dobrik being a liar. Like if you just look at the section by itself, you could be like, oh, the documentary kind of left it up to the viewer to decide who they believe. But then you look at the rest of the documentary and you're like, oh no, David just seems like a fucking horrible person. Yeah, that's ultimately where I'll leave it.

Starting point is 00:03:00 Cause I don't want to ruin the documentary. Hopefully this thing gets bought up by like maybe a Netflix soon so that this can get out in front of a ton of people. Also, because unfortunately until then, everyone's like basing their reactions off of something they haven't seen, but they're hearing, even this, you know, third party.

Starting point is 00:03:14 And then let's talk about the massive updates around Jussie Smollett, or as Dave Chappelle calls him, Juicy Smooll-yay. With this starting back on Thursday when a judge sentenced him to 30 months of felony probation, including 150 days in jail over his five convictions for staging and lying to police about a hate crime. On top of that, he has to pay over $120,000 in restitution

Starting point is 00:03:31 to the city of Chicago, as well as a $25,000 fine, with Judge James Lynn saying of Smollett, -"You're just a charlatan pretending to be a victim of a hate crime, and that's shameful. You knew this was a country that was slowly trying to heal past injustices and current injustices and trying to make a better future for each other. And it was a hard road.

Starting point is 00:03:51 And you took some scabs off some healing wounds and you ripped them apart for one reason. You wanted to make yourself more famous. And for a while it worked. But still with that, as he's been doing this whole time, Jussie defended himself, claiming that he was innocent. If I did this, then it means that I stuck my fist in the fears of black Americans in this country

Starting point is 00:04:08 for over 400 years and the fears of the LGBTQ community. Your Honor, I respect you and I respect the jury, but I did not do this and I am not suicidal. And if anything happens to me when I go in there, I did not do it to myself and you must all know that. You also had several statements read during the sentencing in support of Jussie, some of which argued that his race, sexuality,

Starting point is 00:04:28 and Jewish heritage could put him at risk in prison. But Judge Lin said all of that was taken into consideration and argued that what Jussie has done to himself is actually worse than anything that might lie ahead. The story then continued into the weekend because Jussie's brother, Jaquis Smollett, posted a video to Jussie's Instagram saying that the actor is in a psych ward at Cook County Jail

Starting point is 00:04:43 and adding, What's very concerning is that there was a note attached to his paperwork today and put on the front of his jail cell saying that he's at risk of self-harm. I wanna just make it clear to folks that he is in no way, shape or form at risk of self-harm. And he wants to let folks know that he is very stable,

Starting point is 00:05:02 he is very strong, he is very healthy and ready to take on the challenge that ultimately has been put up against him. You also have his sister and actress, Journey Smollett, posting a free Jussie image on her Instagram this weekend, writing, Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at nearly five times the rate of white Americans.

Starting point is 00:05:18 Jussie is innocent. And you don't have to believe in his innocence to believe he should be free. As well as his former co-star Taraji P. Henson sharing that same image and writing, I am not here to debate you on his innocence, but he should be free. As well as his former co-star Taraji P. Henson sharing that same image in writing. "'I am not here to debate you on his innocence, "'but we can agree that the punishment "'does not fit the crime.

Starting point is 00:05:30 "'Emmett Till was brutally beat and ultimately murdered "'because of a lie and none of the people involved "'with his demise spent one day in jail. "'I think that no one was hurt by what Jussie did "'and arguing. "'To me, as an artist not able to create that in itself "'is punishment enough. "'He can't get a job.

Starting point is 00:05:42 "'No one in Hollywood will hire him and again, "'as an artist who loves to create, that is prison. My prayer is that he is freed and put on house arrest and probation because in this case, that would seem fair. You know, with sharing her words, I do feel like I need to point out that I think her argument makes no sense.

Starting point is 00:05:56 Like Emmett Till is a 14 year old boy who is actually the victim of a hate crime, a horrible murder that people try to justify with lies. That feels like an immense disservice to Emmett Till. Emmett Till is a martyr, a hate crime, a horrible murder that people try to justify with lies. That feels like an immense disservice to Emmett Till. Emmett Till is a martyr, a child martyr, an unwilling martyr. Jussie Smollett tried to fake a hate crime to be a living martyr.

Starting point is 00:06:16 I don't know what's hard to understand about when you fake a hate crime, you make it so much harder for the real victims that are out there, who are actually out there. So forgive me if I don't think, oh, he's not gonna be able to book an acting gig as like the proper punishment. But hey, this is the Philip DeFranco Show.

Starting point is 00:06:31 I gave you the news, I gave you a little bit of my reaction to it. And now I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here? What are your thoughts regarding anyone defending Jussie here? What do you think about his sentencing? Is it fair, too little, too much?

Starting point is 00:06:42 Any and all thoughts you got on this, I'd love to know what you're thinking and why. But from that, I wanna take a quick second to thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show, SeatGeek. Summer concerts are here, people, and that means that you can get $20 off tickets at SeatGeek when you use promo code Phil. And if you don't know what SeatGeek is,

Starting point is 00:06:55 they're a ticketing app that makes buying tickets super simple. I've got the app on my phone, and it is by far the easiest and best way to buy tickets. In fact, I recently used SeatGeek to go to the Super Bowl. Plus, with so many amazing concerts and festivals happening right now, you're not gonna wanna miss out.

Starting point is 00:07:07 I'm talking about The Weeknd, Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber, Bad Bunny, and so many more. And SeatGeek wants to make sure you're getting a good deal. So when you're on the app, look for the green dots. Green means good deal, red means bad. And also, hey, you got the hookup. Use code Phil for $20 off tickets at SeatGeek. It's $20 off your first purchase with promo code Phil.

Starting point is 00:07:23 So make sure you click that link in the description to download the app. And then, of course, we need to go through a weekend's worth of updates regarding the war in Ukraine. So first off, Russia has managed to only capture about two larger cities and install a puppet mayor in one of them. Beyond that, Russian advances seem to have stalled,

Starting point is 00:07:36 with Putin seemingly growing frustrated over what was supposed to be an easy victory in sacking generals and intelligence officials. And their current efforts seem to be centered around circling Kyiv as well as continuously shelling other cities. But at the same time, there's this constant flow of videos and pictures showing captured

Starting point is 00:07:49 and abandoned Russian vehicles. As far as casualties go, the UN has confirmed at least 596 civilian deaths and over 1,000 wounded since the conflict began. However, UN officials still think that the actual casualties are considerably higher, which makes sense. It is difficult to confirm every death in the middle of a war zone.

Starting point is 00:08:03 As far as those deaths, most of them have been attributed to weapons that affect wide impact areas, which make their destruction hard to control, right? You have things like rockets, heavy artillery, missiles, and airstrikes. As far as military deaths, President Zelensky said on Sunday that at least 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers have died, although American military authorities estimate

Starting point is 00:08:19 that number to be 2,000 to 4,000. And those who have died fighting range from all walks of life, from some of Ukraine's poorest classes to even one of its most famous actors. And then regarding the Russian side, you have Ukraine claiming that 12,000 Russians have died so far, though American military authorities say, "'Hey, we think that number's between 5,000 and 6,000

Starting point is 00:08:35 "'that have died.'" The war has also led to a huge wave of refugees, with that number now ballooning to nearly 3 million people, with many more expected to flee, especially as Russia begins to heavily target locations in the relatively peaceful parts of Western Ukraine. And that last part has actually led to some serious worries about the war escalating into a conflict

Starting point is 00:08:50 between NATO and Russia. Russia was targeting places in Western Ukraine to try and stop supplies coming from places like Poland. And the issue is that some of the targets are only like 15 miles away from the Polish border, with Russia claiming that it destroyed a cache of weapons supplied by the West alongside 180 foreign mercenaries. Which quickly, on that note,

Starting point is 00:09:05 it's estimated that nearly 20,000 foreigners with military experience are fighting for Ukraine now, which is a very big deal because Ukraine has very little time to properly train domestic volunteers. And hey, it is pretty rare for a rocket or a missile to miss by miles, but NATO has been very clear that if a single Russian toe crosses the border or a single bullet somehow finds its way across,

Starting point is 00:09:24 then there is going to be hell to pay. Russia is gambling a lot by hitting targets so close to NATO. However, in some ways, Russia is already at war with NATO, an economic one. Right, we've known about the sanctions effectively cutting off Russia from the world economy. Though, even with that, there are some ways

Starting point is 00:09:37 that Russia could escape sanctions things, you know, like buying stuff through third parties, such as Israel and China. But for its part, Israel just announced that it wouldn't be helping Russia to do that. And US officials are meeting with Chinese counterparts in Rome to try and convince them in joining the sanctions. Also warning that China could face consequences

Starting point is 00:09:51 if it helps Russia dodge the international sanctions. The economic war may have also taken a turn for the worse. If you're Russia, after oil prices dropped over the weekend to just over a hundred dollars a barrel as of this morning, helping the Dow open up 400 points higher though to be clear, commodity prices can be very volatile. So right now, we don't know if this is a temporary thing or, you know, the trend is going to continue around the corner.

Starting point is 00:10:09 But if it is a trend that continues, that would mean that Russia's threat to cut off other commodities is not as effective as they've hoped. Then, as far as everyday Russian people, they might not even know why their economy is so in the garbage right now. Or at least, the real reason. And I say that because Russia has moved to ban social media platforms and news sources

Starting point is 00:10:25 that don't spread Russian propaganda. Facebook and Twitter are already largely cut off in the nation. Now Instagram was just banned, cutting off 80 million Russians, which is in no way surprising as reportedly 80% of Russian users followed accounts outside of Russia on top of the fact that it was widely used

Starting point is 00:10:38 to show dissent from the war, including from Russian oligarchs and their families. However, it's not just the Russian people being hit with Russian misinformation. Here in the US, we've seen the usual suspects pushing around the claim that the United States is funding secret bioweapons labs in Ukraine. Now, very notably here,

Starting point is 00:10:53 propagandists actually were spreading this claim as early as the literal first day that Russia officially invaded Ukraine in an attempt to justify the move. And shortly after that, the misinformation was then amplified by InfoWars and began to take hold and fringe far-right conspiracy groups, including COVID-19 conspiracy theorists and QAnon.

Starting point is 00:11:07 But the false claim really began to take hold after Senator Marco Rubio asked Victoria Nuland, the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, whether Ukraine has biological or chemical weapons during a congressional hearing to which she responded. "'Ukraine has biological research facilities, "'which in fact we are now quite concerned "'Russian troops, Russian forces,

Starting point is 00:11:23 "'may be seeking to gain control of.'" And adding that the US was working with Ukrainians to prevent them from gaining control of the research material. And some of the key things here are specific words and specific things that are getting referenced to, right? The State Department later clarifying that Nuland was referring to diagnostic and biodefense laboratories,

Starting point is 00:11:37 which not only are different from biological weapons facilities, they're meant to counter biological threats. But even Rubio himself making that same exact distinction in another hearing on Thursday, noting that quote, "'There's a difference between a bioweapons facility "'and one that's doing research.'" But despite this, a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson

Starting point is 00:11:54 quickly used Nuland's remarks to claim that the comment was proof of America's illegal and criminal activity on Ukrainian soil. A claim that was then spread by numerous conservatives, including Kukur Tarleson, who echoed the Russian talking point the same night on his show, with Russian state TV then featuring Carlson's segment the next day.

Starting point is 00:12:08 But Carlson wasn't alone here. We also saw Tulsi Gabbard going on his show to discuss the matter, suggesting at one point that there was a possible coverup aimed at hiding dangerous pathogens in the Ukrainian labs. But they're also doubling down on those Russian talking points on Twitter yesterday, claiming that there were US-funded bio labs in Ukraine,

Starting point is 00:12:22 which if breached, would release and spread deadly pathogens to the US or world. Trump Jr. also tweeting out the conspiracy to his 7.4 million followers, as did sitting Congressman Thomas Massey. Though we did see some pushback like that from Mitt Romney, who tweeted Tulsi Gabbard as parroting false Russian propaganda.

Starting point is 00:12:37 Her treasonous lies may well cost lives. As well as as the propaganda began to spread, we quickly saw Ukrainian President Zelensky, the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department all debunking the claim, noting that like basically every country on earth, Ukraine has public health laboratories that work to research and prevent the spread

Starting point is 00:12:52 of dangerous diseases. Some of those labs also receive funding from the US, the EU, and the WHO, which again is the case with many other countries. According to a fact sheet released by the DOD on Friday, in 2005, the agency under the Republican George W. Bush administration began providing backing for institutions in Ukraine to, quote,

Starting point is 00:13:08 support peaceful and safe biological detection and diagnostic capabilities, and to reduce the threats posed by pathogens. And adding that since then, the US has invested approximately $200 million supporting 46 Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and diagnostic sites. With it going on to note that when Russia declared war,

Starting point is 00:13:23 Ukraine's Ministry of Health ordered the safe and secure disposal of samples, limiting the danger of an accidental release of pathogens should Russia's military attack the laboratory. So not a coverup is definitely not a Russian asset Tulsi Gabbard has claimed, but rather a government directive to ensure that the outbreak she falsely was warning about

Starting point is 00:13:38 does not happen. Additionally, the same year that the US began this program, the DOD signed an agreement saying that it would assist the health ministry to make sure that the country's labs studying disease would not be used to make biological weapons. And beyond that, the assertion that these US-backed labs are somehow secret and hidden from the public, it's a total lie.

Starting point is 00:13:53 They are literally part of the Biological Threat Reduction Program, an initiative with the goal of reducing deadly outbreaks. And the US Embassy of Ukraine literally has the information about them on their website. But despite all this evidence, the misinformation is their website. But despite all of this evidence, the misinformation is still spreading, showing the power of Russian propaganda,

Starting point is 00:14:08 which to a certain degree makes sense. For years, Russia has been planting seeds for this claim that former Soviet Union nations make biological weapons at US funded labs, despite the fact that experts and journalists have never found evidence. But ultimately that is where that story and today's show ends. As always, thank you for watching, liking, subscribing

Starting point is 00:14:24 for these daily dives into the news. Also, friendly reminder, you only got about eight hours left to jump in on the beautiful bastard March drops. Snag it while you can because it's about to go away. 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 3.14 This Casey Neistat Doc Exposes David Dobrik For Who He Really Is, Jussie Smollet, & Ukraine Russia

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