The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 4.1 April Fools Coronavirus "Prank", Joe Biden Accusations & MSM Coverage Controversy & More

Episode Date: April 1, 2020

Enter at https://www.omaze.com/Phil for your chance to win a 2020 Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen with $20k in the trunk and support a great cause, and use code “DEFRANCO50” for an additional 50 entries!   Check out the latest videos on my NEW A Conversation With Clips channel!: https://youtu.be/9MwV3-vFegI WATCH Full “A Convo With” Podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/aconvowith LISTEN On The Podcast Platform Of Your Choice: http://LinksHole.com BUY our GEAR, Support the Show!: http://ShopDeFranco.com   ✩ FOLLOW ME ✩ ✭ 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 IN AWESOME ✩ ✭ Greenland Trailer: https://youtu.be/7s5wGuxzcgY ✭ Rick and Morty: The Other Five (Official Trailer): https://youtu.be/qPDqQDTnJKE ✭ How to be a Successful Wild West Slinger: https://youtu.be/2RwqbfdRVXc ✭ Kristen Bell Breaks Down Her Career: https://youtu.be/Yj2dr_bpYyU ✭ your landlord today: https://youtu.be/fpFtti6zH-4 ✭ Secret Link: https://youtu.be/DbBBU2PvKso   ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩   Calls to Cancel April Fool’s Day: https://roguerocket.com/2020/04/01/april-fools-day-k-pop-stars-stunt-backfires/ It’s Census Day!: https://2020census.gov/en.html Asian People Are Facing Increased Prejudice: https://roguerocket.com/2020/04/01/asian-american/ Malaysia Tells Women Not to Nag Spouses During Lockdown: https://roguerocket.com/2020/04/01/malaysia-women-nag-lockdown/ Former Staffer Launches Allegation Against Biden: https://roguerocket.com/2020/04/01/former-biden-staffer-times-up/ https://roguerocket.com/2020/04/01/media-slammed-biden/    ——————————   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 Production Team: Zack Taylor, Luke Manning, Alex Elnicki, Zach McIntyre   ———————————— #DeFranco #JoeBiden #AprilFools ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you've had a fantastic Wednesday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it. The first thing we're gonna talk about today is, today is April Fool's Day, which in the past was sometimes funny, often annoying,

and this year, ah, is the subject of a broad debate. You know, for some, they think that pulling practical jokes and hoaxes feels completely inappropriate, given the current state of society. But on the other side of this, you have people saying, no, we need some random fun and laughter during this dark time. One of the biggest companies to take a side

in this debate has been Google, a company that has pulled major April Fool's Day pranks for two decades. Earlier this week, the company said that it would, quote, "'Take the year off from that tradition out of respect "'for all those fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.'" And adding, our highest goal right now is to be helpful to people.

So let's save the jokes for next April, which will undoubtedly be a whole lot brighter than this one. Now the brands are likely to follow Google's lead, especially since many people are waiting to call out anyone who they feel has crossed the line. Right, and keep in mind, at this point, we're only talking about April Fool's pranks in general. Right, we're not even talking about April Fool's Day pranks

around coronavirus. Which on the very thought of someone doing that, you may go, hey Phil, who would actually be that dumb to do? Oh, nevermind. I've been an active participant on the internet and realized that stupidity knows no bounds. And this time, one of the examples thrown in our faces came from K-pop star Kim Jae Joon.

He's part of the group JYJ and he told his two million Instagram followers that he had tested positive for COVID-19, writing, "'It is a result of my negligence, "'ignoring the cautionary words shared by the government "'and those around me. "'A person's individual actions can have such a big impact on society as a whole.

I am so sorry to those who may have been infected because of me. My foolish judgment to live as though it couldn't happen to me is why I am like this today." Then going on to say that he was hospitalized, he was reflecting on his choices. Soon after, he was flooded with support and comments, with fan sites even reporting on it.

Less than an hour later, he edited his caption and replaced it with a message clarifying that he doesn't actually have the virus. And instead, he tried to suggest that his prank was intended to raise awareness for the importance of social distancing. Because you know, there's definitely no better ways to have gone about this.

Like if you want to raise awareness for prostate cancer, you do not fake having prostate cancer. You organize a charity walk or a charity livestream or you, I don't know, use the platform where you have two million people following you and you just say, hey, this is important. And the thing is, if the stuff he put in his update is true, he could have done this the right way from the beginning.

No, he later mentioned how it was devastating to see people just walking around like nothing was happening. Meanwhile, he has family and friends getting sick, going on to say it's never just someone else's problem. And yeah, he could have just said that instead of crying wolf about getting the thing that to date has killed over 44,000 people.

He eventually uploaded a longer apology, but in the now deleted post where he admitted to lying, he said, quote, I will accept all punishment I receive from this post. But also regarding a punishment of some sort, governments worldwide have actually been taking steps to combat this issue. Police in Thailand, for instance,

warned that anyone disseminating false information about the coronavirus on April Fool's Day could face up to five years in jail and a fine of up to $3,000. Taiwan's president warning similar things, people could face up to three years in jail, $99,200 in fines. Germany's health ministry also issuing a warning.

Meanwhile, authorities in South Korea have said misinformation related to the virus would fall under laws on obstruction of official duties and defamation. And once again, for those who may do a coronavirus prank in person, keep in mind people who threaten or attempt to spread COVID-19 in the United States

can and have been hit with terrorism charges. Which brings us to the main point of this story. Don't be stupid, stupid. And also to tag something to the end of this story, I think in this day and age, we need to start as consumers treating every day like it is April 1st. Right, on April Fool's you wake up,

sometimes you already know to be skeptical or maybe the first thing you see, it catches you off guard. Then you remember, oh wait, I need to be skeptical of everything, double check stuff, yes. We all get caught or duped on something eventually. Anyone that denies this is lying or trying to sell you something. But it's about actively doing our best

to limit the number of times it happens and to limit the damage that we may cause. But with that said, a question I did wanna pass off to you. What do you think about the situation with the K-pop star? Do you get why he did it? Is it excusable? No, it's not excusable. He should be punished.

Well, where do you kind of land on this? And then briefly, we should talk about the important news. If you are an American, today is Census Day. So for those who don't know, the census happens every 10 years. It's incredibly easy to be a part of, and it is incredibly important. And it's essentially your once a decade chance

to be counted for your local community. The census count is used to distribute more than $860 billion in federal funding for schools, health systems, infrastructure like roads and bridges, as well as determining the number of representatives a state gets in the US House of Representatives. Now notably, and actually very importantly because of this coronavirus pandemic,

this is also the first time that you can complete the form online, by phone, and by mail. And I say that this is more important than ever because usually in a year where there is not the coronavirus pandemic, this is also the first time that you can complete the form online, by phone, and by mail. And I say that this is more important than ever because usually in a year where there is not the coronavirus pandemic, you'd have in-person events, block parties, the government would hire thousands of people to knock on doors. As far as what the form looks like,

it's just a basic survey, which notably I wanna mention, does not, and I mention this because there was a lot of misinformation about it, does not contain a question about citizenship. You might recall our previous coverage, the Trump administration has unsuccessfully tried to add that question. And so, hey, if you live in the United States,

you're watching this video right now, meaning you have the ability to do something like this. You also really don't have any excuse not to go to 2020census.gov after this video. You can do it right on that site. It also provides information if you wanna do it by phone or by mail. And if you don't, I will find you

and make you watch one of those videos where celebrities say the same thing over and over to drive a point. It makes a difference. It makes a difference. It makes a difference. A difference you can make, fuck. But in their defense, it does. Also, Janelle Monáe, I love you. Eliza Kosha, you're a great person. And Tom Hanks, I'm very glad you're doing better. Also, if you happen to catch this video on April 2nd or after, do not worry. April 1st is a reference date, not a deadline, but get to it ASAP. And then let's talk about some general COVID-19 news

we're seeing in the US and internationally. Internationally, as of 4 p.m. Eastern time, we had 911,308 confirmed cases, 45,497 confirmed deaths, and 191,673 recoveries. And in the United States, we had 203,608 confirmed cases, 4,476 deaths and 8,413 recoveries. In the United States, we've also seen Pennsylvania and Florida become the two newest states

to issue stay-at-home orders. That means that as of right now, there are only 16 states that have not done so. As far as politics, we're now seeing New York and West Virginia delaying their primaries. Yesterday, we also saw Trump finally joining Fauci in trying to get Americans ready for the impact we're about to see. We're going to go through a very tough two weeks.

And then hopefully, as the experts are predicting, as I think a lot of us are predicting after having studied it so hard, you're going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel. But this is going to be a very painful, very, very painful two weeks. With the data projecting that the virus could kill 100,000 to 240,000 Americans, even with the current social distancing guidelines. Also, seemingly during the event, acknowledging that he has been downplaying this virus. This is one of the most drastic changes in what Trump has been saying publicly about this, since, I mean, if you consider it, he was still publicly minimizing the impact this could have in March. That said, I hate this situation,

but I am happy that Donald Trump is finally saying things like this. Hopefully this new message connects to his supporters that even in March, we're still thinking this was a small deal. Also something we're seeing with the coronavirus are reports of racism both in the United States and internationally skyrocketing.

The number of Asian people reporting discrimination and violent hate crimes is being blamed for the coronavirus pandemic. Among the things we've seen, you had the FBI describing a Texas stabbing of Asian people reporting discrimination and violent hate crimes as they're being blamed for the coronavirus pandemic. Among the things we've seen, you had the FBI describing a Texas stabbing of four people, including two young children, as a hate crime. The FBI is saying in a document, With the FBI also warning that hate crime incidents against Asian Americans likely will surge across the United States. This is due to the spread of coronavirus disease endangering Asian American communities.

And adding the FBI makes this assessment based on the assumption that a portion of the US public will associate COVID-19 with China and Asian American populations. We've also seen police in Australia arrest a 17 year old girl after a viral video showed her berating and spitting on two Asian women in public. With that woman now facing the charges

of three counts of common assault, use of offensive language in slash near public place, and two counts of attempts to stalk, intimidate, intend fear of harm. To which I say, good, I hope she's held accountable. She's a scumbag. And keep in mind, these are just two stories in the much larger story of general increases in hate crime.

But then finally regarding these updates, we look to Malaysia, because in addition to Malaysia ordering citizens to stay at home to curb the spread of the virus, the country's Ministry for Women, Family, and Community Development posted online posters offering advice for how women can contribute to a happy home during the lockdown. With one advising,

"'If you see your partner doing something wrong, avoid nagging. Use humorous words like saying, "'This is how you hang clothes, my dear.'" With this actually accompanied by the hashtag women prevent COVID-19. And this piece of advice was also paired with another gem, recommending women use a high-pitched squeaky voice instead,

specifically imitating the popular Japanese cartoon character Doraemon and follow your statement with a giggle. And following this, the advice was mocked, there was also a lot of outrage, especially because this advice being thrown out by a government organization also comes as, you know, we talked about earlier this week,

during a time where internationally we are seeing a rise in domestic violence. And ultimately the massive reaction to this by a government organization also comes as, you know, we talked about earlier this week, during a time where internationally we are seeing a rise in domestic violence. And ultimately the massive reaction to this resulted in the ministry apologizing. Yeah, that's ultimately the end of the story. I just don't know how they were like, yes, this is a good idea.

Because if this is remotely about domestic violence, it's essentially like, hey victim, don't do things that could make you a victim. But also annoyingly locks women in a box of they're supposed to be these professional placaters around their potentially violent, oogaoga booga caveman husband. Right, essentially also labeling men these dangerous, could go off at any moment time bomb.

Yeah, there was all of that. And then, let's talk about one of the most requested non-coronavirus stories this week, the allegations around Joe Biden and the controversy around the whole situation. Now there are a lot of moving parts, a lot of different elements, and so we're gonna try and break it down piece by piece.

So the story actually started last year when several women spoke out publicly about Joe Biden and said that he had touched or kissed them in ways that they were not comfortable with. And one of those women was Tara Reid, who worked in Biden's Senate office in 1993. And in an interview, Reid said that Biden had touched her several times in ways that made her feel uncomfortable.

Also claiming that her responsibilities at his office were cut back after other staffers told her that he wanted her to serve drinks at an event because he liked her legs and she refused. So after the accus staffers told her that he wanted her to serve drinks at an event because he liked her legs, and she refused. After the accusation and the article that brought some attention to her, as well as attention to a now-deleted Medium post

where she wrote favorably about Vladimir Putin, saying she left DC amid concerns over American imperialism and xenophobia towards Russia, which also prompted accusations that she was a Russian asset and questions about her credibility. And after that, it appeared that she had largely been quiet. But then last Tuesday, her story surfaced again when the Intercept reported that the organization Time's Up,

which was of course founded at the beginning of the Me Too movement to help accusers get their stories out, had refused to help Reid. According to the author of this article, Ryan Grim, Reid, quote, decided that she wanted to continue telling her story and push back against what she saw as online defamation, saying she went to get help from the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund,

a nonprofit housed within the National Women's Law Center. Saying she spoke to a program director in January who referred her to some attorneys. With Grimm saying that Reid was encouraged by that conversation and that Time's Up was not worried about the fact that she was a vocal Bernie Sanders supporter. But then in February, Grimm says that Reid was told

Time's Up couldn't help her because Biden was a candidate for federal office and they could risk losing their nonprofit status if they went forward with her case. With Grimm concluding the story, the public relations firm that works on behalf of the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund is SKD Knickerbocker, whose managing director, Anita Dunn, is the top advisor to Biden's presidential campaign.

And the day after Grimm publishes his article, podcaster Katie Halper shares a clip from her upcoming episode of The Katie Halper Show where she spoke with Reid. And there, Reid spoke in detail about an alleged sexual assault by Biden in 1993, saying that she did not speak about this before because the backlash from her speaking about the harassment

last year was so severe she felt silenced. With Reid saying she had gone to give Biden his gym bag, but when she got to him, she ended up pushed against the wall with Biden touching her with his hands and then. He went, oh. Truck month is on at Chevrolet. Get 0% financing for up to 72 months on a 2025 Silverado 1500 Custom Blackout or Custom Trail Boss.

With Custom Trail Bosses available, Class Exclusive, Duramax 3-Liter Diesel Engine, and Z71 Off-Road Package with a 2-Inch Factory Suspension Lift, you get both on-road confidence and off-road capability. Dirt road ahead? Let's go! Truck Month is awesome! Ask your Chevrolet dealer for details. When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer. So download the app and get delivery

in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus, enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver. He went down my skirt, but then up inside it, and he penetrated me. With Reid saying he did so with his fingers, and then after a while, she pulled away from Biden, who seemed frustrated, saying he thought that she liked him. It's like he implied that I had done this. I don't know. And for me, it was like everything shattered. I looked up to him. He was like my father's age. He was this champion of women's rights in my eyes.

And I couldn't believe it was happening. It didn't seem, it seems surreal. With Reid saying that after it was over, Biden told her that she was nothing to him and that she was going to be fine. But added that after she came out with her allegations last year, she did feel like nothing, which is why women often choose not to speak out.

As far as how corroborated this story is, Reid claims that she told three people after this happened, her mother, her brother, and a friend. Her mother, who has since passed on, she said encouraged her to contact the police. Her brother, however, said that he told her to just let it go. Helper and other reporters spoke with him and the friend

to verify that they were told this in 1993 and they confirmed this. But on the other side of this story, we saw a denial from Biden's team, with deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield saying, "'Women have a right to tell their story "'and reporters have an obligation "'to rigorously vet those claims.'"

And adding, "'We encourage them to do so "'because these accusations are false.'" We also saw Marianne Baker, his former executive assistant who worked for Biden for nearly 20 years in the 80s and 90s say, "'In all my years working for Senator Biden, "'I never once witnessed or heard of or received "'any reports of inappropriate conduct, period.

"'Not from Ms. Reid, not from anyone. These clearly false allegations are in complete contradiction to both the inner workings of our Senate office and to the man I know and work so closely with for almost two decades. Now following this, you had a lot of people online talking about it using hashtags like I believe Tara, times up Biden, with people tweeting things like

we need to stand with women such as Tara Reid, Lucy Flores, and all sexual violence survivors. People calling for Biden to drop out. But on the other side, you had Biden's voters thinking the allegations are not substantial and that Reid is not telling the truth, saying that she's contradicted herself. Some claiming that she's a Russian asset

and this is just a Russian smear campaign against Biden. And while all of this was happening, you also had a number of people wondering why there wasn't a ton of mainstream coverage of this. It's a massive accusation against the presumed Democratic nominee. A number of people wondering, how is this not plastered all over CNN, NBC, even Fox News?

And so you had a number of people, including YouTuber Mikey, tweeting at major news organizations and politicians to report on this, saying, "'If the delegate count were reversed "'and then these accusations came out against Bernie, "'his campaign would be gone overnight "'because media would cover it, "'and we'd say, no way is this candidate safe to beat Trump.'"

And the idea that the lack of media coverage here is because of political bias in favor of Biden against Bernie is a fairly common belief among Bernie supporters. We've also seen many more conservative people saying that it's to protect Biden's campaign and because the coverage from mainstream outlets has been so glaringly light, we've also seen a number of pieces written about why this maybe has not been touched on. There's a piece in Salon that a number of people have been linking to saying that it could be a credibility issue, noting that journalists like Ronan Farrow and others who report on assault are so meticulous and are this way for a reason. Writing, Women who tell these stories inevitably get blasted by skeptics who pick their stories apart.

So it's critical for their safety that the reporting holds up under close scrutiny. And adding, That's only going to be more true when the story has major political implications or confusing twists that could be interpreted as red flags or both like this one does. Though we've also seen people criticize this tape with pundits like Crystal Ball criticizing the story's writer, Amanda Marcotte. And this is where things get complicated for Marcotte because many of the troubling red flags that made Tara's story so allegedly sleazy are some of the very same red flags that Amanda seemed to understand were a baseless distraction when it came to covering Trump and Kavanaugh accusers. Also, we had a number of people bringing it back to Grimm's article in The Intercept and saying things like, Tara Reid allegation that was quashed because Time's Up Legal Defense Fund's PR firm

managing director Anita Dunn is a major Joe Biden campaign advisor. With another tweeting, so Tara Reid went to Time's Up in January, then SKDK's Anita Dunn was elevated to run the Biden campaign in early February. Time's Up didn't disclose their connection to the Biden campaign while stringing Tara along until March. How is this not a catch and kill operation? But in the Salon article, the writer seems to try to provide a little more context. There, she says that Reid told Salon she was not interested

in suing Biden, that she was trying to find a lawyer to stop the smears about her being a Russian agent. And she says that at least one firm confirmed they did not take the case, and another indicated they did the same thing. Marcotte then goes on to write, Reid indicated that she was less interested in legal action and more in public relations representation. And adding, but Time's Up is primarily a legal organization and is not in the business of running PR for accusers who aren't going through the court system.

That, however, got some pushback from both Grimm and Crystal Ball. With Grimm tweeting a screenshot from the Time's Up website that said they would help fund media and storytelling. And Ball saying Marcotte argues that Time's Up doesn't assist victims with PR efforts, something which the organization itself never argued and which is in fact belied by the mission statement which is posted on their website. But Marcotte then responded to Grimm saying that PR was only for people with legal cases and no lawyer would take read-on as a client. Also providing a screenshot and a link to the website for Time's Up legal defense where they clearly state that in order for an accuser to get PR work from SKDK, you must have an attorney to complete the evaluation and qualify for assistance. There's also an article by Emily Alford on Jezebel who wrote, Part of the media silence about the podcast is perhaps not because of any fealty to Biden,

but because of the way Halper, who also co-hosts Rolling Stone's Useful Idiots podcast, aired the allegations with little context, few follow-up questions, and no additional reporting. Adding interviewing witnesses and fact-checking dates, locations, and other relevant details while reporting a sexual assault allegation is crucial in the effort to shield victims, who are often maligned and harassed by those who would use any inconsistency in their stories to discredit their accounts.

Also, while looking for what major outlets have written about this, Fox News has kind of covered it, but have not full-on run with it. They note that the allegation has gone unmentioned in interviews that Biden has done, but in an article they wrote from four days ago, they said they reached out to Reid,

but they were unsuccessful. But even still, with all of those arguments, you have other people making comparisons to other situations where sometimes the accuser wasn't even named, but their accusations against a non-Joe Biden have been widely reported. But ultimately, that is where we are with this story right now,

and it will be interesting to see if we have any developments from here, whether it be information coverage also potential impact of this situation We have places like the Guardian arguing that it is unlikely that Reid's accusations will damage Biden This is because allegations of sexual assault certainly did not hurt Trump Additionally the allegations against Kavanaugh did not stop him from becoming a Supreme Court justice So with this story, I'd also love to know your thoughts on that argument

Do you personally find that to be true in general or maybe just with others? And that is where I'm going to end today's show. And of course, as always, if you like diving into the news with me, hit that like button. Also, if you're new here, definitely hit that subscribe button,

tap that bell to turn on notifications. Also, if you're looking for more to watch, maybe you missed yesterday's show or you wanna watch those new clips with Anthony Padilla, you can click or tap right there to watch those right now. 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.