The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 4.13 WOW! NYT Fumbles Biden Allegations, Explaining #FireFauci, Fox News vs OAN

Episode Date: April 13, 2020

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It is Monday, April 13th, 2020. My name is Philip DeFranco. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show, and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today are updates to the Tara Reade-Joe Biden situation. And a few weeks ago, we talked about this in more detail, but to kind of bring you up to speed, a quick TLDR.

Tara Reade is a woman who worked in Biden's Senate office in 1993. Reade was also one of several women who spoke out publicly last year and said Biden had touched or kissed them in ways that they were not comfortable with. Then on March 24th of this year, a podcast clip is posted and there,

Reid spoke publicly for the first time about an alleged assault by Biden in 1993 that went beyond unwanted touching. Reid claiming that Biden had pushed her up against a wall, penetrated her with his fingers and said that she was nothing. Shortly after this, Biden's team issued a statement denying the accusations.

And with this, there's tons of different moving parts, some of which calling into question the accuracy of Reid calling into question the accuracy of Reid's statements, the changing narratives, but mainly one of the major elements of this story was the fact that most of mainstream media was largely silent on this topic. Or we talked about it in the previous coverage.

There was a massive debate and also backlash, people wondering why NBC, CNN, the New York Times, and others weren't reporting on the allegations. A number of people on Twitter claiming that this was because of political bias in favor of Biden and against Bernie Sanders. But you also had other journalists saying that it could be

due to the issue that people that write about these kind of stories for the mainstream outlets have to be incredibly careful. As one argued that that clip from the podcast was posted with little context, few follow-up questions, and no additional reporting. And adding the talking to witnesses and fact checking key details is crucial to reporting sexual assault

allegations. And it's this aspect of the story I want to talk about today because the update that we're seeing is that to reporting sexual assault allegations. And it's this aspect of the story I want to talk about today because the update that we're seeing is that mainstream media is providing coverage. And so the way that this went down is on Thursday, we saw Reid file a formal criminal complaint regarding the alleged assault

with the police in Washington, D.C. According to reports, the complaint does not mention Biden by name, but she has confirmed that it is about him. Now very notably here, the statute of limitations of that alleged incident has passed, and that's something that Reid acknowledged in a tweet saying,

I filed a police report for safety reasons only. With Reid also telling Business Insider in an interview on Friday that part of the reason that she filed the report was due to harassment she received after speaking out last year, saying that she wanted to simply have documentation in case anything happened and adding, I filed it because I had been harassed so badly last April,

I also wanted to make it clear that I would be willing to go under oath or cooperate with any law enforcement regarding it because it did happen, even if it was 26 years ago. And following that, yesterday we saw a couple of mainstream media outlets reporting on this story, this including NBC, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.

All three outlets said that they had interviewed Reid and begun investigating her story after Halper's podcast aired. They also spoke to people who worked for Biden around the same time, as well as those who Reid said that she had told about the alleged incident. And of note there, Reid's brother and an anonymous friend had previously confirmed that she had told them

about the accusations, but also yesterday, all three of these outlets said that they spoke to another person who confirmed Reid and told them about the alleged assault. And finally, all three also reported that multiple Biden staffers told them they had never seen or heard of a complaint Reid said she filed in the Senate in 1993, with other staffers

also telling reporters that they had not heard of the incident or experienced similar behaviors towards women. And regarding the complaint she said she filed, she claimed it detailed harassment, but not the assault. And here both the Times and the Post said they were unable to track down the complaint. Well, NBC reported that federal law at that time would have required a hearing by a board

of independent officers for a sexual harassment complaint, but no such process was initiated by Reid's complaint. Now with this story, one of the things being touched on is not only the conveying of information, but how you convey that. And the how here really got the New York Times in hot water. In the original New York Times piece, they wrote, "'No other allegation about sexual assault

"'surfaced in the course of reporting, "'nor did any former Biden staff members "'corroborate any details of Ms. Reid's allegation.'" And adding, "'The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct "'by Mr. Biden beyond the hugs, kisses, and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable. Which I will say may be in fact the worst possible way

you could have framed that sentence. The Times also tweeting out that quote then later deleting it, saying it had quote, "'Some imprecise language that has been changed in the story.'" In that story they changed that line to "'The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden.'" Right, and following this,

there was a ton of backlash on Twitter I'm saying kissing and touching was an example of misconduct others insinuating that times to lead the line to protect Biden a number of people calling the times hypocritical because of their coverage of Kavanaugh who is conservative others also criticized another line from the times article where they were talking about the criminal complaint and noted that filing a False police report may be punishable by a fine and imprisonment, with some pointing to that line and arguing that it was unnecessary as an attempt to attack and undermine Reid. But ultimately, that is where we are with this story right now,

and we're gonna have to wait to see what happens from here. Then, quickly, and I don't even know how to transition from that to this, today we saw Bernie Sanders endorse Joe Biden. So today I am asking all Americans, I'm asking every Democrat, I'm asking every Democrat, I'm asking every independent, I'm asking a lot of Republicans to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy, which I endorse, to make certain that we defeat somebody who I believe, and I'm speaking just

for myself now, is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country. We've got to make Trump a one-term president, and we need you in the White House. So I will do all that I can to see that that happens, Joe. Which, of course, like a lot of news, that is kind of the show and dance of primaries was expected. But of course, it's still a big deal.

It is a notable moment. Right, it's Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden trying to unite the Democratic Party. And I will say for me, it'll be interesting to see how that is received over the next day, as well as week and coming months. Right, and I say that in part because of how much of the rally cry around Bernie Sanders

was the Democratic establishment doesn't want us. Right, something that a lot of people have argued, you know, really fuels that Bernie or bust mentality. That's gonna be a really interesting thing to watch out for. And then let's talk about this fire Fauci business that perhaps you've seen trending and also Donald Trump's relationship with Fox News.

And we'll start here with the hashtag and the push to fire Fauci. This of course, in reference to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who according to a number of polls is the most trusted person in this coronavirus pandemic. And if you've been watching my show over the past few weeks, you know a few weeks ago we talked about this, this new, odd, concerted effort

trying to smear Anthony Fauci. Right, and a lot of that seemed to be based off of the fact that he wasn't blindly parroting what the president was saying, sometimes having to kind of rein in what he was saying, clarifying things using facts and details. And while yes, you could find reports that Donald Trump was privately aggravated with Fauci,

we never really saw that in the public. But that seemingly changed over the weekend. All right, so on Saturday, the New York Times puts out this report saying that top administration health officials, including Fauci, concluded on February 21st that the United States would need to move toward aggressive social distancing, even if it would disrupt the economy

and millions of American lives. Also noting, the National Security Council office that tracks pandemics received intelligence reports in early January that predicted the virus would spread to the United States. But despite that, the White House did not ultimately announce social distancing guidelines until March 16th. And regarding this, over the weekend, we saw this back and forth between CNN's Jake Tapper and Dr. Fauci. But the administration didn't announce such guidelines to the American public until March 16th, almost a month later. Why? You know, Jake, as I've said many times, we look at it from a pure health standpoint. We make a recommendation. Often the recommendation is taken. Sometimes it's not. But it is what it is. We are where we are right now.

Do you think lives could have been saved if social distancing, physical distancing, stay at home measures had started third week of February instead of mid-March? You know, Jake, again, it's the what would have, what could have. It's very difficult to go back and say that. I mean, obviously, you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously, no one is gonna deny that. But what goes into those kinds of decisions is complicated. But you're right. I mean, obviously, if we had, right from the very beginning, shut everything down,

it may have been a little bit different, but there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then. And you know, there has been a lot of focus regarding the timeline of this story and the US's response to the pandemic. And this in part because in the United States there have been over 550,000 confirmed cases,

over 22,000 dead. Right, and also a thing to understand regarding the focus of this timeline. It's not like Donald Trump only had one warning as of February 21st. There were reports that Donald Trump was warned repeatedly throughout January and February. First known case of COVID-19 reaches the states January 15.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar briefs Trump about this threat on January 18. The warnings then keep piling up throughout January and February. All the while you have Donald Trump saying in January we have it totally under control. In late February we have Donald Trump saying, And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is gonna be down to close to zero, uh, that's a pretty good job we going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done. And on the 28th...

It's going to disappear one day. It's like a miracle. It will disappear. And another important note about this timeline is that Donald Trump does want some credit, saying that he jumped in and he banned travel from China. Now what I will say here is I'll actually credit Donald Trump with a travel ban being helpful. Now to the degree at that point, that's debatable. But also even with crediting him there, there are a few things to note. One, it wasn't like this full outright ban. To clarify, what he did was he blocked foreign nationals

who had been in China in the past 14 days from coming to the United States. According to a report on April 4th, 40,000 Americans and other authorized travelers made the trip from China to the United States, and many making this trip with what was called spotty screening. Now let's say that Donald Trump's travel ban

was an impenetrable wall. No way seems like it, but let's just say that. And let's disregard the fact that COVID-19 was already getting a foothold in other countries and other travels not affected by this ban would be able to bring it in. The only thing that ever had a chance of accomplishing was slowing down the spread, not completely stopping it.

It bought the Trump administration priceless time to ramp up widespread testing, impose social distancing policies before infections could grow exponentially, and he and his administration, they just didn't. Right, and so I explain all of that so you fully understand the context of this next part, because yesterday Donald Trump retweeted someone

that used the hashtag fire Fauci. That tweet coming from Deanna Lorraine, she's a former Republican congressional candidate who got less than 2% of the vote when she was running in an open primary against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. But her tweet claimed, Fauci is now saying that had Trump listened

to the medical experts earlier, he could have saved more lives. Fauci was telling people on February 29th that there was nothing to worry about and it posed no threat to the US public at large. Time to fire Fauci. Which Donald Trump retweeted and wrote, "'Sorry, fake news, it's all on tape.

"'I banned China long before people spoke up. "'Thank you, OANN.'" All right, and so with this, many see it as a potential on tape. I banned China long before people spoke up. Thank you, OANN. Right, and so with this, many see it as a potential green light for other conservatives to take swings at Fauci. And with this, it brings up the conversation of, okay, are we closer to Donald Trump removing Dr. Fauci? Right, a move that a number of people

would probably call political suicide. But if you say that, you also underestimate the love that many Republicans have for Donald Trump. For example, according to a new CBS News poll, 80% of Republicans trust Trump for coronavirus information compared with 74% naming the CDC as their trusted source. Though notably among Republicans, medical professionals scored the highest percentage

of trust at 85%. So there's the question of, is there enough political will? And with all that said, as far as the White House response to this, as of recording this video, we saw White House spokesman Hogan Gidley say, "'This media chatter is ridiculous.

"'President Trump is not firing Dr. Fauci.'" Which I will say, my response to that statement is if you don't want ridiculous media chatter, then maybe tell the President of the United States not to retweet someone saying, "'We need to fire Fauci.'" Right, so that's one part of this story. And as I promised, the other part was OANN,

who Donald Trump in that tweet thanked. And for those unfamiliar with OANN, the easiest way to describe what they seem to be is you know how when some people watch Fox News, especially with like the Hannity's or like the more opinion based people, they're like, this is essentially state media. It's like someone said that out loud

and someone else in the room heard that and they were like, well, no, Fox News is in state media, but it wouldn't be a bad idea if there was a place like that. Think of all the free retweets we could get from the president. What we've been seeing over the past few weeks is Donald Trump bashing Fox News

when they don't just outright praise him and then thanking or praising OANN, right? Whether it be Donald Trump during these press conferences taking the, I don't even know if you can call it softball questions. At times it feels like they repackage his own statements as a question that also praises him and then there's kind of a question at the end of it.

Do you consider the term Chinese? OANN. Yes, sir. Thank you. Very it. Do you consider the term Chinese food racist? O-A-N. Yes, sir. Very good. I have two questions. Thank you very much. You treat me very nicely. Do you consider the term Chinese food racist?

No. Because it's food that originates in China, or it has Chinese roots. No, I don't think it's racist. On that note. I don't think it's racist at all. On that note, major left-wing news media, even in this room,

have teamed up with Chinese Communist Party narratives, and they're claiming you're a racist for making these claims about Chinese virus. Is it alarming that major media players just to oppose you are consistently siding with foreign state propaganda, Islamic radicals, and Latin gangs and cartels, and they work right here at the White House with direct access to you and your team. And you know, this weekend we saw Donald Trump tweeting, "'Watching Fox News on weekend afternoons "'is a total waste of time. "'We now have some great alternatives like OANN.'"

He also specifically took aim at Chris Wallace of Fox News, tweeting, "'Just watched Mike Wallace "'wanna be Chris Wallace on Fox News. "'I am now convinced that he is even worse "'than sleepy eyes Chuck Todd of Meet the Press "'or the people over at Deface the Nation. "'What the hell is happening to Fox News? It's a whole new ball game over there.

Now, according to reports at that time, Fox News declined to comment, but pointed to Wallace's own statements on a panel where Wallace reportedly responded, "'My reaction is always, "'one of us has a daddy problem and it's not me.'" Here, Trump's reaction seemed to be based off a moment that was then clipped and has gone viral.

Once again, the topic of the conversation was, "'If we had moved on this faster, "'specifically regarding PPE and social distancing, we'd likely see lower numbers. Now following this, of course, Wallace has been on the receiving end of a lot of Trump supporter hate. But also we have seen some Fox News hosts defending Wallace.

People like Jedidiah Baila, she's a weekend co-host of Fox and Friends, and she tweeted, "'Enough with the third grade name calling. "'Chris is doing his job. "'The news should not be any president's friend, "'ally, or buddy. "'If it bothered you when Obama complained about Fox News, but you're silent on this complete nonsense,

then just stop. Seriously, enough. We also saw Brett Baier, chief political anchor at Fox News, tweeting, Chris is the best Sunday show interviewer hands down. He's equally tough on left and right, and he's a great talent to have on your team

for election coverage or any debate. A true pro. But what I will say regarding Fox News and OANN is it's going to be very interesting to see how this shakes out. I think at this point it's kind of a known that Donald Trump owns the Fox News audience more than Fox News does.

Right, so here will we witness kind of Fox News not saying anything, hoping this blows over? Or does it go the other way? We start seeing reports of insiders, you know, they don't like Wallace. Or is there some sort of pivot where we see a Fox News fall from grace? At least Republican voter grace.

Does OANN become the new normal for the Republicans? It's gonna be a really interesting mess to witness. And that is where I'm going to end today's show. And hey, if you like having this place to take in the news, hit us with that like button. Also, if you're new here, definitely subscribe. Tap that bell to turn on notifications so you don't miss this daily news show.

Also, if you missed one of the last Philip DeFranco shows you wanna catch up, you can click or tap right there to watch 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.