The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 5.27 WATCH OUT FOR THESE CORONAVIRUS SCAMS, Jamie Foxx Jimmy Fallon Controversy, Dobrik & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you've had a fantastic Wednesday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show and a big note before we get started, this video is essentially part two of a two-part Philip DeFranco Show today. We had to release part one earlier in the day as a separate video, otherwise the whole show would have gotten suppressed. It's a very heavy topic, but important topic, and I'm specifically not saying what it is because I'm worried that YouTube will crack down on this video as well. And if you haven't watched that video yet, after this video you can go to the channel page,

Starting point is 00:00:24 find it, or it'll be the top link in the description down below. But with that said, welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, hit that like button. Let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today is blackface, which is not a topic

Starting point is 00:00:36 we would normally talk about on this show, though we do see spikes usually after Halloween. But the reason we have to talk about this in May is Jimmy Fallon. So Fallon, who is really these days seen as the squeaky clean late night host of The Tonight Show, got a lot of backlash on Tuesday. And this is because a video of him on Saturday Night Live

Starting point is 00:00:53 from the year 2000 popped up on social media. And in that video and sketch, he darkened his skin and was doing an impersonation of Chris Rock. And you know, almost instantly we ended up seeing hashtag Jimmy Fallon is over party trending. So this blew up, ultimately it led to Jimmy Fallon tweeting out an apology, writing in 2000, while on SNL, I made a terrible decision

Starting point is 00:01:11 to do an impersonation of Chris Rock while in blackface. There is no excuse for this. I am very sorry for making this unquestionably offensive decision and thank all of you for holding me accountable. Now that said, one of the interesting things that has kind of spun off of this story is that there is now a debate around what is and is not blackface. Interestingly enough, one of the interesting things that has kind of spun off of this story is that there is now a debate around what is and is not blackface.

Starting point is 00:01:27 Interestingly enough, one of the people saying that it is not blackface and was actually defending Jimmy Fallon was Jamie Foxx. With Foxx reportedly commenting on a post, he was doing an impression of Chris Rock. It wasn't blackface. We comedians, I know it's a tough time right now, but this one is a stretch. On a show called In Living Color, we played every race. Let this one go, we got bigger fish to fry. Which is a similar defense we saw some others making in the past when Jimmy Kimmel's old Karl Malone clips from the Man Show resurfaced. We also saw similar defenses recently as 2012 with Billy Crystal when he was at the Academy Awards,

Starting point is 00:01:55 he darkened his skin to be Sammy Davis Jr. There was backlash there, but we also saw Sammy Davis Jr.'s daughter Tracy Davis defending Crystal there, saying of the bit, "'I am 100% certain that my father is smiling.'" And there, also reportedly taking issue with using the word blackface, with Davis attributing the term born in the 1800s to describe white actors and makeup playing black characters to early film stars like Al Jolson, not Crystal per se. Now with all that said, even with those responses,

Starting point is 00:02:18 I think it is important to point out that everyone is allowed to have their own individual reaction to this. I think a thing that we need to be careful about is if something is done and it is believed to be generally offensive to a group of people, we need to make sure just because one or a few people in that group say it's not that big of a deal that we don't dismiss it for those that do think that it is. Which is why I do want to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this?

Starting point is 00:02:37 Do you agree with the people that are lashing out against Fallon? Do you agree with the Jamie Foxx's of the world? How much is the intent behind putting on this makeup matter to you when it comes to your opinion on this? Any and all thoughts you have on this, I'd love to hear from you in those comments down below. And then let's talk about coronavirus scams

Starting point is 00:02:50 because you know, just cause the world's on fire doesn't mean that horrible people stop. Hey, you know, we've seen stories popping up here and there, but we're also now starting to see some new information about it that's pretty startling. And much of this information is now coming from the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Starting point is 00:03:04 And we'll start with this report from the FTC, which says they have seen over 52,000 complaints related to the coronavirus, with nearly 30,000 of those being about fraud. And saying, in total, Americans have lost nearly $39 million to COVID-19-related scams. And of all the fraud complaints they received, roughly 45% resulted in a financial loss, with a median loss amount per person coming in at $470. And as far as of scams are on the rise here many of them had to do with travel and vacations Which not only had the highest number of reports But also resulted in the greatest financial loss with online shopping coming in right behind it as far as who's being impacted here It's actually interesting the bulk of the complaints are coming from people aged 30 to 39 than 40 to 49

Starting point is 00:03:42 But when you look at who is losing the most money It's actually people aged between 60 and 69, followed by 50 to 59. Right, and like I said, the FTC isn't the only one noticing fraud and misconduct related to the coronavirus. Now you have the SEC as well, with a report from Reuters saying that they have seen 4,000 complaints

Starting point is 00:03:57 from mid-March to mid-May, meaning there's been a 35% increase from that same time period last year. As for why this increase, the SEC says it kind of comes down to two main reasons. One, just the massive scale of this crisis has sparked a wave of misconduct with an SEC spokesperson saying,

Starting point is 00:04:10 "'Unfortunately, fraudsters often seek "'to exploit difficult situations "'like the ongoing pandemic for their own gain.'" And two, there's been an increase in tipsters. Right, mass unemployment means that whistleblowers might feel more free to speak because they're not scared of their employers. Right, reportedly many of these tipsters

Starting point is 00:04:23 were recently laid off and identified issues at their previous jobs. And according to reports, the SEC is expecting to deal with a variety of misconduct that could include loan fraud, price gouging, counterfeit and substandard medical goods, or healthcare fraud. And so now they've created a new group to monitor the market and spot misconduct, which has led them to suspend trading in what Reuters called 31 so-called penny stocks.

Starting point is 00:04:42 This for allegedly touting dubious COVID-19 cures and treatments to investors. And in fact, we've already seen two companies actually charged by the SEC, Applied Biosciences Corp and Turbo Global Partners Inc. as they allegedly published misleading information about their COVID-19 screening offerings. Also for those of you going, okay, this is interesting,

Starting point is 00:04:57 but what should I be looking out for right now? And regarding that, I'll link to resources down below, but one that we saw outlined by CNBC actually, they showcased Robotex pretending to be the IRS contacting you about your stimulus check. It asks you to confirm information, then takes you to a realistic looking IRS website. Once you're there, you provide personal information, including your social security number.

Starting point is 00:05:15 And then you actually end up going to the real IRS website so it actually looks legitimate. So that's something that people have fallen for. Also, we've seen people exploit the pandemic in a totally different way. For example, in New York, the Department of Justice arrested a man who had a massive scheme to defraud the city with a statement identifying this man as a used car salesman

Starting point is 00:05:29 in New Jersey named Ronald Romano, saying that he was arrested for attempting to deceive and price gouge New York City into paying him and his co-conspirators approximately $45 million for personal protective equipment, which notably, Romano did not possess and was not authorized to sell. He apparently began back in February trying to obtain for resale big quantities of PPE like N95 respirators.

Starting point is 00:05:49 And then in March, he created a fake letter saying that his company was authorized to sell all of this PPE, with brokers on his behalf then approaching the city, which reportedly at the time was in critical need of legitimate, potentially life-saving PPE, including respirators in order to supply frontline healthcare workers and first responders

Starting point is 00:06:03 during the COVID-19 public health emergency. He and his co-conspirators then allegedly made many false representations about their PPE, had fake references, with the statement also saying Romano hoped to get profit quickly through the scheme, as he described in a message to a co-conspirator, working on a few deals that if I get any of them, you might be buying a Ferrari,

Starting point is 00:06:19 with the DOJ also claiming that he attempted to jack prices up significantly, and this resulting in him being charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to violate the Defense Production Act. While that last charge has a maximum of just one year, very notably, those first two charges

Starting point is 00:06:34 each carry a maximum prison sentence of up to 30 years. Right, and regarding all of this, you have Margaret Garnett, the commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation saying, "'At a time when the pandemic was ravaging New York City, "'this defendant greedily preyed on the city's desperate need "'for protective equipment to stop the spread of the New York City Department of Investigation saying, "'At a time when the pandemic was ravaging New York City, "'this defendant greedily preyed on the city's desperate need "'for protective equipment to stop the spread of the virus.

Starting point is 00:06:49 "'There is no tolerance at any time, "'in particular during this crisis, "'for individuals who seek to victimize this city "'by holding essential workers' safety hostage "'to price gouging and fraud.'" Personally, I very much agree, and that's why I also hope that he is punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Starting point is 00:07:04 So yeah, I guess the main point of this story is there are a bunch of scumbags out there that will hopefully get theirs, and also there's some information for you to protect yourself and maybe your grandma or grandpa. And then let's talk about a story that touches on lies, fact checking, free speech, especially going into the 2020 election.

Starting point is 00:07:20 So if you have not seen, President Trump is now threatening to shut down social media platforms. And so this starts yesterday morning when Trump put out these two tweets. There is no way, zero, that mail-in ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mailboxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged, and even illegally printed out and fraudulently signed. The governor of California is sending ballots to millions of people. Anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one.

Starting point is 00:07:45 That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how and for whom to vote. This will be a rigged election, no way. And this is something that we've seen him do over and over more and more. This of course, even though experts say

Starting point is 00:07:58 that voter fraud is incredibly rare, which is something that we've touched on before, him spreading doubt as to the validity of mail-in ballots in a year where we have an election during a coronavirus pandemic. All right, something that could work for him on two fronts. One, if there is a way to stop this, he stops that and more people don't vote.

Starting point is 00:08:14 And or two, this mail-in effort is not stopped, but he has set the stage for there to be doubt about the validity of those votes. So if it goes his way, yay, great news. If it doesn't, boo, fake news. But the focal point of the story we're talking about today isn't his continued efforts, but rather what we saw with these tweets.

Starting point is 00:08:30 Because Twitter, for the first time ever, placed warnings on those tweets with the text, "'Get the facts about mail-in ballots.'" And look, we've talked a few times about Twitter beginning to implement fact-checking tools ahead of the 2020 general election. But very notably here, before yesterday, that feature had never directly been used

Starting point is 00:08:46 against the president. So now, if you click that Get Facts link, it sends you to a Twitter Moments page with a series of articles from outlets like CNN, The Hill, The Washington Post, and above that, Twitter also includes several bullet points that read, "'Trump falsely claimed that mail-in ballots

Starting point is 00:08:58 "'would lead to a rigged election. "'However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence "'that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud. "'Also, Trump falsely claimed that California "'will that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud. Also, Trump falsely claimed that California will send mail-in ballots to anyone living in the state no matter who they are or how they got there. In fact, only registered voters will receive ballots. And adding five states already vote entirely by mail-in, all states offer some form of mail-in absentee voting according to NBC News. I will say it's interesting to see Twitter doing this because for years they face pressure over how to handle Trump's tweets. You know, we've often seen social media websites

Starting point is 00:09:26 essentially say, you know, there are two sets of rules. Right, there's the everybody rules and then there's the rules or rather lack of rules for heads of state. Right, but of course that led to a debate of, you know, whether it be a President Trump or a whoever, if a Twitter or a Facebook is allowing that person to lie or mislead, are they not complicit?

Starting point is 00:09:41 Right, but then also on the complete opposite end, let's say you remove their post. Is that essentially a private company censoring a head of state? And you know, also one of the arguments that Twitter has made in the past was that users could engage in debate and call out false information on their own.

Starting point is 00:09:55 And I will say one of the things with this story is I would love to know your thoughts on what these social media sites should do in your opinion. But all of that said, unsurprisingly here, after all of that happened, we saw Donald Trump rail against the platform, claiming later in the day that Twitter was interfering in the 2020 presidential elections,

Starting point is 00:10:09 going on to criticize the platform by saying, "'Twitter is completely stifling free speech, "'and I, as president, will not allow it to happen.'" And this morning we saw Trump escalating that threat, saying, "'Republicans feel that social media platforms "'totally silence conservative voices. "'We will strongly regulate or close them down before we ever allow this to happen.

Starting point is 00:10:26 We saw what they attempted to do and failed in 2016. We can't let a more sophisticated version of that happen again. Just like we can't let large scale mail-in ballots take root in our country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery, and the theft of ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win.

Starting point is 00:10:40 Likewise, social media. Clean up your act now. With Trump adding a few hours later, Twitter has now shown that everything we have been saying about them and their compatriots is correct. Big action to follow. Though, as of right now, we don't know how specifically Trump would want the federal government to crack down on Twitter, right? Or is this kind of a threat meant to make social media platforms back off or just a way for him to kind of feel like the little guy, the victim, even though he's the president of the United States. But I mean, also, we've seen

Starting point is 00:11:04 him tweet stuff like this in the past, even though he's the president of the United States. But I mean, also we've seen him tweet stuff like this in the past, even earlier this month. Also, according to the Wall Street Journal, Trump has floated the idea of forming a panel to review complaints of anti-conservative bias. Right, so there was all of that. Now, as far as Twitter's response to Trump's backlash, we've seen a spokesperson telling a number of media outlets

Starting point is 00:11:18 that Trump's tweets, quote, "'contain potentially misleading information "'about voting processes and have been labeled "'to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.'" But also, regarding Twitter's response, one of the kind of interesting things that we've seen is that at the same time we're seeing Twitter fact-check Donald Trump's tweet on mail-in voting. Twitter has also refused to delete tweets or do anything about tweets that Donald Trump has made about Lori Klausutis. If you're unfamiliar, she's a young woman who died in 2001 from complications of an undiagnosed heart condition while working for then-representative Joe Scarborough.

Starting point is 00:11:43 In those tweets, Trump has promoted a false conspiracy theory that suggests Scarborough was behind her death. Yesterday we even saw a letter from Lori's widower going public, urging Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to delete Trump's tweets about her, calling them horrifying lies. Though we've now seen publicly Twitter saying that it doesn't plan to take actions against those tweets.

Starting point is 00:11:58 Though at the same time, according to an anonymous source who spoke to the Washington Post, Twitter is debating whether to take action on those Scarborough tweets. But ultimately, that is where we are with this story right now. And I do wanna pass the question off to you. What do you think should happen here?

Starting point is 00:12:10 I guess starting with the mail-in ballot part of the story, are you happy to see Twitter doing what they've done here? Is this solution the right solution? You leave a tweet up, you have the fact-checking link, or is that not enough? Should they delete the tweet? Or is it too much? They shouldn't touch anything.

Starting point is 00:12:24 Yeah, I'd love to know your thoughts on this It is a it is a messy topic It's also not a universal thing No Trump posted that exact same thing on Facebook but Facebook has said that it doesn't plan to label or remove that post with their policy and statement being we believe that people Should be able to have a robust debate about the electoral process Which is why we have crafted our policies to focus on misrepresentations that would interfere with the vote

Starting point is 00:12:42 But of course in response to that we've seen a number of people going well, isn't that exactly what he's doing? He's misrepresenting what would happen with the vote. But of course in response to that, we've seen a number of people going, well isn't that exactly what he's doing? He's misrepresenting what would happen with the vote. It would interfere. But ultimately, that's where we are. It is what it is right now, and I pass the question off to you. And that is where I'm going to end today's show. Of course, remember today we had to split the show up.

Starting point is 00:12:55 This is just one part of two. So if you haven't seen the other one, I definitely, definitely recommend you watch it. It is incredibly important. But yeah, no matter what, as always, thanks again for watching, maybe liking this video if you liked it. Also taking part in that conversation

Starting point is 00:13:07 in the comments down below. Also, if you're looking for more to watch today, in addition to the other part of the Philip DeFranco show, I put out a brand new podcast with my old buddy, Joe Beretta, right there. Click or tap to watch it. But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco.

Starting point is 00:13:20 You've just been filled in. I love yo face and I'll see you tomorrow. I hope you liked the video. Subscribe if you like it.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 5.27 WATCH OUT FOR THESE CORONAVIRUS SCAMS, Jamie Foxx Jimmy Fallon Controversy, Dobrik & More

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