The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 5.6 Barstool "F*** The Jews" Situation is Crazy, Chris Murphy Torches Trump, Newark Airport Meltdown, &

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

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The Dave Portnoy barstool F the Jews situation is crazy. It sparked mass outrage, but also divided the internet for a few different reasons. Senator Chris Murphy joins the show to talk about why and how he's going after Trump right now. This is, as I said, probably the most massive corruption of the White House in the history of the country. The Newark airport meltdown was actually worse than we knew. And then a good light news story to help keep you sane. We're talking about all that and much more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news, how it's being covered, and how people are reacting to it, starting with this. This Dave Portnoy F the Jews situation is crazy.

So this whole situation, it starts at Barstool Sansom Street in Center City, Philadelphia, where notably you can order a customizable sign to be carried to your table along with bottle service. And on Saturday, a video was posted online of a server carrying a sign saying, fuck the Jews on it, which then unsurprisingly sparked a lot of reactions online with people demanding to know how this happened, why the server agreed to it, and why the managers allowed it. And then you had a lot of people wanting a response to the situation from Dave Portnoy,

the founder of Barstool Sports, who is notably Jewish. And respond he did with him posting a video on X saying, There was a sign yesterday that said, the Jews. I've been shaking. I've been so mad for the last two hours. With Dave going on to say that he was working on tracking down everyone involved, that the two waitresses responsible for the table had already been fired, and that he spoke to the people who actually ordered the sign. I've talked to

one of the two guys who did it. He's like, I'm not anti-Semitic. He's basically crying to me. And I'm just like, I don't buy it for a second. Who the would do that sign in my bar you think i'm just gonna sit here i'm gonna make it my mission to put you in lights my mission kids crying i just hung up on his ass i go i'm giving you one hour one hour two kids go to temple tell me how do I make this right before I go ate shit. You want to take anti semitism classes, you want to do whatever you make it feel right. I don't need your tears. Then in an update later on Sunday, you had Dave posting another video a bit calmer this time saying my initial reaction was like, I'm gonna burn these people to the ground, their families, everything.

And it's like, you know what? Maybe that's not the best course of action. Maybe I can use this as a teaching moment. The men going on to say that he was going to send them on a tour of Auschwitz in Poland. But I talked to both the culprits who I know are super involved in it, talked to the families. I'm sending these kids to Auschwitz. They've agreed to go and they're going to do a tour of the concentration camps in Germany and hopefully learn something.

And maybe like their lives aren't ruined and they think twice and more importantly, other people like, see, it's not just like words you're throwing around. So to me, that's a fair outcome of this event. They then also went on to say that the waitresses were fired and that they acted alone. In fact, saying that one of the girls pressured the other into it and neither of them went to discuss it with the manager.

The bar also saying in a statement that they are quote, "'Saddened, embarrassed and frustrated by the deplorable actions of a customer and misguided staff' and adding that the staff in question went against their training and that their establishment has a zero tolerance policy for hate and discrimination. And with that, they close by saying, "'We deeply apologize for the role we played

"'in allowing hate speech to transpire. "'This unfortunate incident is the opposite "'of what we stand for, and we will be doubling down "'on efforts to prevent such actions in the future.'" We also saw that the police are investigating the incident and the two students of Temple University who were involved are under investigation, with an unnamed one of them being suspended.

And yet the school, promising that anyone else found to be involved, quote, will face strict disciplinary action, including possible expulsion. With the university president saying in the strongest terms possible, let me be clear, anti-Semitism is abhorrent. It is no place at Temple and acts of hatred and discrimination against any person or persons are not tolerated at this university. But then with all this, we saw not everyone was on board with Dave's decision here. Even many saying that Dave sending these people on an all expenses paid trip to Poland isn't an adequate punishment.

And this is you had people just kind of criticizing Barstool Sports itself saying things like, "'A Fuck the Jews' sign is obvious hate speech, but you won't get me to look past the fact that Barstool Sports has spent like a decade spreading dumbass middle school SEC style racism, sexism, transphobia, et cetera, all over the internet only to draw the line at antisemitism. Great stuff. Which also I'll say touching on criticisms like that and another update posted on X, you had Dave railing against

a reporter who had asked him questions along that same line. She starts like, okay, fine enough. Asking questions about the bar, how did it happen? Responsibility, blah, blah, blah. And then she shifts and then she does what a media scumbag does she's like well she pulls a quote out of her ass from like i don't even know a made-up journal some professor at like the sportocratic university of something it's like they say that barstool sports creates a culture of harassment and that basically I'm responsible for this happening at my own bar. With Portnoy also including footage of him getting heated with the reporter.

That is not where the story ends because yesterday you had Dave posting another video saying that one of the people who was involved here completely changed his tune and is no longer taking accountability for his actions. Or with Dave saying that he saw a now deleted post from one of the people that completely clashed with his prior attitude

when accepting responsibility and deciding to go to Auschwitz. With Dave saying that he called them and that on that call, they claimed that he didn't have anything to do with it and that he felt pressured into admitting that he did. And so you had Dave deciding to rescind his offer to send him on a trip to Poland. Buddy, what are you doing? I'm like trying to make this a teachable moment, throw a lifeline to a kid. He's like, well, I already got suspended from Temple because you got a f*** the Jews sign at a bar and posted it on social media. What don't you get about that? Maybe if you actually learn a life lesson, maybe if people watch you go to Poland and seem like you're changed, this gets behind you.

But now, no, I'm not going to send him now. Right, and as of now, we don't know what the status is for the other person that Dave offered to send to Poland. You know, what's been interesting as this has been playing out is just the reactions online. Because just generally speaking, people kind of landed in one of three aisles. One, people that loved what Dave said and his kind of idea for how to resolve the situation.

Two, people that found the idea of them going to Auschwitz as kind of just not far enough, more of almost like rewarding them with a free trip. And then you had a third group that was saying that Dave Portnoy was actually engaging in cancel culture, that he was going after and trying to ruin the lives of the college students. You know, the reactions have been all over the place,

depending on where you go on the internet. So, you know, as we wait to see how this continues to play out, I've got to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts with this whole mess? But then next up today, we've got to talk about this airplane chaos. And specifically, I'm talking about the mayhem happening over at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.

Because as you may have heard or even experienced if you had a flight recently, there's been hundreds of delays and cancellations affecting thousands of customers for the past two weeks. With us seeing inbound flights Tuesday morning getting delayed by over two and a half hours on average and up to five hours, though on previous days, they've seen as high as 10 hours. And there are several reasons for the chaos, but we've now just learned what for many is the most shocking one. Namely, that on Monday, April 28th, sources say that screens in the air traffic control tower, they literally went dark.

Like I mean, air traffic controllers could not see, hear, or talk to the incoming planes, reportedly for about 60 to 90 seconds. With reports saying that they were controlling around 15 to 20 flights at the moment everything shut down. And as pilots repeatedly asked, Approach, are you there? You could hear the controllers struggling to reestablish contact. They lost three radar screens went black. They lost all the radios at Approach.

Just got told that Approach lost all their radars. Three of their four radar screens went black and they have no frequencies. We lost our radar and it's not working correctly. We don't have a radar, so I don't know where you are. Now as for what went wrong, you had Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy telling Fox News that controllers had lost the primary communication and that the backup line didn't immediately take over. And this, as other reports said, that a piece of copper wire fried,

leading Chuck Schumer to ask, Did they ever hear of fiber optics over there at the FAA? And now, in the wake of this incident, you have CNN reporting that at least five controllers took 45 days of medical leave because the experience was traumatic. With then the FAA confirming And now in the wake of this incident, you have CNN reporting that at least five controllers took 45 days of medical leave because the experience was traumatic. Within the FAA confirming this and adding, while we cannot quickly replace them

due to this highly specialized profession, we continue to train controllers who will eventually be assigned to this busy airspace. Now with this, I wanna note, while five people may not sound like a lot, according to United Airlines CEO, Scott Kirby, that's over 20% of the controllers at Newark. With him also saying,

"'Keep in mind, this particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years and without these controllers, it's now clear.' And the FAA tells us that Newark Airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead." And this is he characterized the workers taking leave as them walking off the job,

which is something the controllers union did not like. With one source telling CNN, "'The controllers didn't just walk off the job, they were traumatized. Their equipment failed. It's written in the regulations, if they experience a traumatic event, they can take time off to go see a psychiatrist. The people working that day did that. But whatever your opinion there is, there is a clear thing, and that this only worsens an already dire situation for the FAA. Because you have the union pointing out that the nationwide shortage of controllers, it's nearly the worst it's been in 30 years. With the controllers who remain describing

how they're stressed, burnt out, frequently taking overtime help, one Newark employee even told NBC flatly, "'It is not safe.'" With then reporter Tom Costello adding, "'Really an incredible statement, unsolicited. He just said that to me and separately, don't fly into Newark, avoid Newark at all costs.'"

And as if the air traffic control situation wasn't enough, construction work's currently being done on one of the runways, closing it down until mid-June, which then leaves them with only two operational runways. But even those aren't guaranteed because severe weather was expected to hit the tri-state area on Tuesday. And so then with all this, you had Chuck Schumer taking the opportunity to call out the White House and demand accountability. Keeping the flying public safe and our national airspace efficient is the responsibility of Donald Trump's FAA. They're failing spectacularly. So today, I am demanding a full Inspector General Office investigation

into what happened at Newark so these problems do not get worse or spread to other airports around the nation. And with this, I do want to note that Sean Duffy agrees that the system is broken and needs massive reform. The system that we're using in air traffic control, it's incredibly old. This system is 25, 30 years old.

We use floppy disks. We use copper wires. We're about 3,000 air traffic controllers short right now. Right with him saying that back in March, his department bumping Academy student pay by 30%, streamlining the hiring process and prioritizing applicants who score highest on the entrance exam. And that's in addition to them now announcing plans to give all new graduates from the Academy a $5,000 bonus, give bonuses to controllers willing to work at harder to fill locations, and give bonuses to controllers who work past their retirement age.

And then actually on top of that, his department will announce a plan to modernize the air traffic control system this Thursday. Though a big thing there is that Duffy said that the rollout, it might take three to four years to complete. And then I've got more news for you in just a moment. But first, you know, real talk. I thought that I was on top of my finances, but that's until Rocket Money called me out.

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Just go to rocketmoney.com slash pds today. That's rocketmoney.com slash pds. One more time, just for the people in the back, rocketmoney.com slash pds. But then, this is the biggest scandal in the history of the presidency. That is how Senator Chris Murphy has repeatedly described Trump's meme coin, which he says is a conduit for bribery. And today he actually came on the show to talk to us about

his new legislation that he just introduced and what he and many others believe is blatant corruption. I kind of want to jump straight into the topic of the day. And that is that, you know, you have called Trump's meme coin the biggest scandal in the topic of the day. And that is that, you know, you have called Trump's meme coin the biggest scandal in the history of the presidency, which is a pretty bold claim. So can you walk us through what's happened? How does it work? Why is it a problem ripe for abuse? Right?

Because we've seen defenders of Trump coin arguing, you know, it's just the the newest wave of marketing. It is a new way to show support, like a political expression. It's the free market doing free market things. And some have even argued if it is all about the money, it's actually transparency in fundraising. Yeah, I guess it's true. You know, one way you could show support for your mayor is to hand him a check for $10 million. And on your way out, ask him if he might pave your road. That's a way to show support for him, but it's fundamentally corrupt.

We don't allow our elected officials to make money through the back door, especially in exchange for favors and for favorable treatment from the federal government. That's exactly what's happening here. So meme coin that Donald Trump has issued, but the stable coin as well, are just mechanisms by which individuals quietly, privately, secretly can send money to Donald Trump, a couple bucks or tens of millions of dollars, and then they can show up at the White House and ask for their favor. And everything we know about Donald Trump tells us that they are going to get much better treatment than folks who are not paying Donald

Trump off. The meme coin is worth nothing, right? It has no independent value. But it is clearly a way, as we speak, that people who have interests before the federal government are trying to impact Trump's policy, both the meme coin and the stable coin. A trucking company CEO just announced publicly that they were going to buy $20 million of Trump coin because they believe that that was the best way for them to get what they want from the Trump administration. The foreign government of the United Arab Emirates just announced that they were going to conduct a sizable chunk of business in Trump coin because they believe that that's the best way to get favorable treatment as a nation from the Trump administration. This has never, ever happened before in the history of the country.

We've never allowed for foreign governments, CEOs, corporations to just send money to the president of the United States in order to try to impact policy. It's fundamentally corrupt and it's kind of unbelievable that it's not already specifically illegal, but the piece of legislation we're introducing today would make it specifically illegal. Well, so I guess that's a question. Do you know for certain that Trump is personally profiting from this, and if so, at what level? Or is that kind of impossible to tell from the holdings? Because reports have noted that 80% of the coin is held by Trump-linked entities. And Trump has said in an interview over the weekend that he wasn't profiting from anything

when asked about the meme coin, that he hasn't even really looked at the profits from crypto. So is there anything concrete there that you know of? Oh, I mean, he's lying. I mean, he lies about a lot of stuff. But no, Donald Trump and his family are the main investors in the company that is issuing the stablecoin and the meme coin. So Trump absolutely stands to benefit personally, whether he gets that money now or after he is out of the Oval Office, he benefits personally and financially from the sale of the meme coin and the stable coin. How he makes money off the meme coin is a little complicated, right? He sort of sells portions of the overall allotment and he gets paid by the exchanges when he sells those allotments.

But then every time that there is a transaction of existing coin, he also gets a payment as well. All of those payments are made to a company that Trump and his family have the controlling interest in, and thus it is a very clear mechanism by which individuals can send money directly to Donald Trump. So, I mean, getting into your bill specifically, what exactly does it do? I mean, is it kind of Trump's already through the door on this, or will it actually, would it force Trump and his family to give up whatever stake they have? I mean, how exactly would this work for the situation at hand now, as well as moving forward? Yeah, I do think it's important to acknowledge that what Trump is doing already is illegal. So there's a specific provision of

the U.S. Constitution, what's called the Emoluments Clause. Weird word, but it's a pretty simple concept. The president of the United States is not allowed to profit off of his office to use the powers of the presidency in order to enrich himself. That's like exactly what he's doing. You know, one of the things he announced two weeks ago was that he's actually going to give private tours of the White House to the top 25 buyers of his crypto coin. I mean, there is no clearer violation of the Constitution, the Emoluments Clause, than fact. You can't give access to the White House to induce people to send you money personally. That's exactly what he's doing. But there isn't a specific statute right now that says a president or a member of Congress cannot issue a crypto coin and cannot market that coin, in part because all this is pretty new. We haven't regulated the industry writ large,

so we haven't had anything specific to say on whether or not it's OK for members of Congress or the president to do it. So this piece of legislation that I'm introducing with Representative Liccardo in the House just sort of simply says that, that if you're the president or you're a senior member of the administration or you're a member of Congress, you cannot issue a coin, you can't be a owner of a company that issues a coin and you can't market a coin because, you know, you are essentially then using your office in order to try to profit off of this crypto venture. So, I mean, let's say this gets through. And the question of do you think this actually has a shot of being enacted is, I guess, separate from it. But let's say it does get through. To go back to the question, would this actually strip or force Trump and his family to divest in some way? Or is it is he already through the door?

No, it would it would be operational going forward. So it wouldn't claw back any profits Trump has already made. But it would require the president and his family to end their investment in this company and in these two coins, the stable coin and the meme coin. The bill would apply, you know, not just to the individual, the member of Congress or the president, but also to their spouse and their immediate family members. So, yeah, this would end the corruption if it if it if it passed. And listen, I I can't tell you whether it has a shot. I certainly understand that Republicans are lining up with the president. But I think day by day, the public is sort of getting turned on to this scheme. And I was kind of amazed that when he rolled it out a few months ago, really nobody was paying attention. But I do now sort of pick up in town halls and my conversations back in Connecticut that my constituents seem to know a lot more about it. And so I think it'll be harder for Republicans

to vote against this. Maybe not impossible, but I think it'll be harder for them to vote against it as both Republicans and Democrats out there in the country start to figure out that this is, this is, as I said, probably the most massive corruption of the White House in the history of the country. Well, I guess to that point, especially in regards to more moderate Republicans, do you think that there is a, as far as maybe a polling cliff edge, where there are people that you're able to peel back to actually vote on something like this? Because I think there are a lot of Republicans that either overtly or secretly are scared to back a plan that would do anything negative to Trump or his family. Yeah, it's a really good question. I mean, obviously, his approval ratings have moved

very quickly over the past couple weeks. You know, now his approval ratings are hovering around 40%. I do think that that's the place at which some of his enablers and backers start to think twice about giving him carte blanche. I think when a president's approval ratings, especially this early, when you're normally still in your hunting period, are below 40%, that makes it a little bit harder for your party's members to stay in line, especially on the most unpopular parts of the agenda. So I think there will be opportunities for Republicans to break with the tariff policy. There may be an opportunity for them to vote on this bill. And yeah, I think there's a chance

that we can win a few over. I think it helps that this bill is more broadly applicable than just the president, right? We're saying here, you know, that no member of Congress should do this either. And, you know, that allows somebody to vote for it and say, well, you know, this isn't just about President Trump. It allows a Republican to say, you know, I'm regulating myself. I'm regulating my colleagues. This isn't just about regulating the president. You know, that was, we drafted the bill purposefully that way to make it, you know, more, you know, maybe more palatable for some of Trump's allies. Are you aware of any of your colleagues in the Senate or the House that are actually

holders of Trump coin? That's a good question. I don't know. You know, that would have to be disclosed on your ethics report. So those are due this spring and this summer. So we may find out pretty soon as to how many members of Congress have the coin. And obviously, one of the big questions, you know, is, you know, how much inside information is trading about the coin? You know, if you knew that Trump was about to send out a tweet pushing sale of the coin, which always very quickly but temporarily inflates the value, you would then go out and buy a whole bunch of coin and then you'd sell it an hour after the tweet. And so, you know, the opportunity for corruption when the president of the United

States is pulling the strings on the value of a widely held asset, it's just limitless. So, yeah, we want to know who holds it and we want to see when they bought it, because if we find out that some members of Congress bought it right before Trump, for instance, you know, sent out the notice that everybody was going to get a tour of the White House, if they bought it, that looks pretty freaking corrupt. Right. And the last thing I'll ask, and it is connected to this, but it's a little bit of a departure, you know, just regarding the efforts of contesting Trump and the future of the Democratic Party, you know, post24, we've seen competing engagement strategies. You have people like, you know, Gavin Newsom starting a podcast,

not exclusively, but bringing on big right-wing and Trump voices to, I'd say, more hear out rather than debate. You have left-leaning leaders like AOC and Bernie Sanders getting a ton of traction with their Fighting Oligarchy tour and populist messaging. You have Pete Buttigieg, How We Gone podcast, to try to better communicate the moment, communicate Dem messaging, talk about the future. To your credit, you know, we were talking, you came on our show two and a half years ago, trying out different

avenues. You know, as someone that's in the thick of it, what do you make of the efforts? Do you see winning strategies, losing strategies? And, you know, what do you think would be the most effective way for Democrats to recover from the election? Because and I know I'm going a little rant here, but I know that, you know, David Hogg recently, the DNC vice chair, trying to shake things up, has argued we can't just be the party that's against Donald Trump. And as bad as Donald Trump's polling is right now, the Dems polling is kind of just really abysmal right now. What do you see as the winning strategies right now? Yeah, well, there's a lot there, right? I think part of the reason the Democratic approval rating is really low is because Democrats are upset that Democrats aren't fighting hard enough against Trump. It's not necessarily because they're upset that we haven't unveiled a positive message. It's not necessarily because, you know, they're upset that we haven't

unveiled a positive message. It's that they think that we're not stopping what Trump is doing. I mean, my basic theory of the case is this. Donald Trump floods the zone every day, and Democrats have to do the same thing. There is sort of a theory of the case out there that Democrats should sit back and we shouldn't sound so alarmist and we kind of have to reserve our political capital. And if we are operating on five alarm status every single day, it just isn't credible. I don't believe that. I believe that the moment is urgent and that if you aren't acting like it's urgent every single day, you actually are losing credibility. And I think that we have to be more prolific in the amount of communication we are doing. I was glad that Pete went on that

podcast. There was a lot of risk there, but that was really important risk to take. People want to hear us speaking authentically. They want to hear us speak in a really unfiltered way. They want to hear that we're angry. And that doesn't often come across when we are vetting all of our communications through, you know, consultants or pollsters, if we aren't doing what I'm doing with you right now, right, speaking one-on-one with people in an unscripted way. So I just think we have to act with alarmism and urgency. We have to be doing more communication than we're doing. And we have to take risks. And if we do that, then I think we can meet the moment. Senator Murphy, thank you for the time.

Thanks, man, appreciate it. And then I've got more news you need to know about in just a moment. But first, I travel to escape drama, not just to start a toxic relationship with my cell provider. Every time I go abroad, it's the same scammy story, a $10 a day roaming plan that ghosts me after two gigabytes. Which I mean, we've talked about before,

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It's saley.com slash Phil, code Phil, 15% off, travel smart. Then next up today, you know, we knew that the IRS was getting gutted, but we now know to what extent. Because a little while back, congressional Democrats asked the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration to examine the Trump Doge cuts to the agency, and it just released its findings.

With it stating that through March, the IRS lost about 11% of its total workforce. But the really big thing is when it comes to specific types of workers, because there the numbers are much, much higher. With most notably, 31% of all its auditors are some 3,600 people having reportedly resigned or been fired. And that is still far below what the Trump administration was aiming for, since a recent memo outlined plans to cut as much as 40% of all staff, not just auditors. The Treasury spokesperson

had even telling CBS News, The Biden administration grew the IRS from 79,431 to 102,309 personnel. Under new leadership, approximately the same number of employees have left the IRS with a vast majority leaving voluntarily through the deferred resignation program. And then continuing, the rollback of wasteful Biden-era hiring surges and consolidation

of critical support functions are vital to improve both efficiency and quality of service. But there you have critics countering saying the idea that of all the agencies, the IRS is wasteful or inefficient is ludicrous. Right. And according to the advocacy group, Better IRS, every dollar spent on auditing the top 0.1% of earners, it returns about $26 to the federal government, which is why in early 2024, the IRS said it expected to collect over half a trillion dollars more by 2034, thanks to increased funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. But now thanks to the Doge cuts, the agency could collect $323 billion less in revenue

over the coming decade, according to the Yale Budget Lab, which is what you have critics arguing is exactly the point here. But with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities recently writing, the haphazard slapdash nature of the layoffs does not reflect an effort to deliver services more efficiently or perform government functions

more effectively. Instead, it appears to be a means of preventing those services or functions from being provided in the first place. And this is you've got Emily DeVito, a former treasury advisor and now senior advisor on economic policy at Groundwork Collaborative, telling CBS that's exactly what will happen. What they're saying, you lose the very staff trained to keep high-end taxpayers and corporate taxpayers in compliance. And adding, you can see some behavioral effects when taxpayers, especially those that really don't want to pay their bills, come to accept there is very little risk to not paying at all or even filing.'"

And so now with tax filing season over, you have analysts saying we can expect to see more cuts soon. This also is reason polling on the popularity of the Doge cuts has been less than favorable for the Trump administration. With for example, the Partnership for Public Services surveying Americans a couple of weeks ago

and finding that nearly two thirds are concerned about the loss of experience and knowledge from the workforce. And that notably including 85% of Democrats, 63% of Independents and even 44% of Republicans. But then next up today in huge international news, we got to talk about how for the first time in modern Germany's 76 year history, the candidate for chancellor has failed to win a majority

in the first parliamentary vote. And while Friedrich Merz eventually got the votes, he's now starting his term weakened, all while the far-right party that's opposing him seemingly has the backing of the country that's long been Germany's most important ally, the United States of America. You know, with that, it's not just been today

that things have been wild, it's been a turbulent few months in German politics. In February, national elections took place seven months ahead of schedule due to the 2024 collapse of the previous governing coalition, with Merz's center-right Christian Democratic Union along with its sister party, the CSU, coming out on top with around 29% of the vote. And since then, he's been trying to cobble together a coalition with the center-left Social Democratic Party, which notably led the previous governing coalition before its collapse and then turned in its worst election performance in more than a century,

taking third place with just over 16% of the vote. And then, you know, the far-right anti-immigrant party, Alternative for Germany, or AFD, it came in second with almost 21% of the vote, and that notably after being publicly endorsed by Elon Musk. And a key thing is that since February, its poll numbers have risen as some voters seemingly have taken issue with the CDU working with the SPD.

In fact, in April, you saw AFD topping a major poll for the first time ever. And then with all this, last week week you had the country's domestic intelligence agency designating the party as a confirmed right-wing extremist force, meaning that officials can now use informants and other tools such as audio and video recordings to monitor its activities nationwide.

And then beyond that, the designation is fueling a long-running debate on whether to ban the AFD under German laws intended to prevent a repeat of the country's Nazi past. Right, and that is members of the Trump administration have now weighed in. With for example, Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying in a post on X,

"'That's not democracy, it's tyranny in disguise.'" And adding, "'What is truly extremist "'is not the popular AFD, but rather the establishment's "'deadly open border immigration policies "'that the AFD opposes.'" You know, he wasn't alone. You also had Vice President J.D. Vance sharing that post and echoing the sentiment, but then on the other side,

you had the German Foreign Office replying to Rubio saying, "'This is democracy. "'This decision is the result of a thorough "'and independent investigation to protect our Constitution "'and the rule of law and continuing. "'It is independent courts that will have the final say. "'We have learned from our history "'that right-wing extremism needs to be stopped.'"

And then with all that, this week, you had Merz's CDU, CSU, Union, and the SPD finally getting around to setting aside their differences, largely to counter AFD, and they signed a coalition deal, which hypothetically gives Merz 328 votes to back him as chancellor, which is well over the 316 needed in Germany's 630 seat parliament.

But what we saw is that when the vote took place this morning, he only ended up with 310, with nine of the 630 MPs absent, three abstaining, and another ballot paper being declared invalid. But that also meant that at least a few members of his own coalition outright voted against him. You know, since the vote is by secret ballot,

it could have been anyone. And this is reportedly not everyone in the SPD was happy with the decision to form a coalition, but party officials were adamant that their members were fully committed to it. You know, the party's co-leader, for example, telling MPs that he had not the slightest indication that the SPD was not completely behind Merz and adding,

we can be counted on. Of course with the mess you had the AFD gleeful and they called for new elections with the party's leader writing on social media. This demonstrates the weak foundation on which the small coalition between the CDU, CSU and the SPD is built. But then with that under Germany's constitution, there's no limit to how many votes can be held. So what we saw is that within a few hours, a second vote had already been lined up and there you had Merz winning with 325 votes. But I will say, you know, at the same time, the AFD leader isn't completely wrong.

With this new coalition, it appears to be extremely fragile and Merz, he's reportedly starting with one of the lowest approval ratings of any German leader in the modern era. And so, you know, we're gonna have to wait to see what happens, but understand, it feels very much like this situation is primed for some sort of chaos,

if there's not success almost right out of the gate. Then next up from that, shifting gears to a different kind of news, let's talk about this bodega owner that's giving kids free food and even cash for good grades. You know, a little human interest piece. But to this is Wally, and he's the manager of Zach's Finest Deli and Grocery

in Staten Island. And two years ago, he made a bet with one of his regular customers, Zamir, who was 12 at the time. By telling him that if he came in with good grades on his report card, that Wally would give him some time from the store for free with Wally saying, I wanted to help motivate him.

And a few days later, Zamir came back with an 88% average and asked for an Oreo milkshake. And with permission from Zamir's parents, Wally shared the video on TikTok and then a bunch of neighborhood kids started coming in. With Wally explaining, I couldn't just deny the rest of the kids. I started doing it for all the kids in the neighborhood.

And he set up a system. Students with an average between 70 and 80%, they get $10 worth of free items. And those with 80% or higher, they get anything they want. And in fact, those with 90% or better, they get $100 and a free t-shirt. With Wally, even rewarding kids are bringing in improved grades and perfect attendance records.

And then again, with their parents' permission, Wally posts these videos of these kids and their awards on TikTok with some of his videos then going viral. And so we've seen one of the kids visiting Wally being a 11 year old Russell Vinson with him coming in with a 92.67% average. And he picked up a carton of eggs for his mom

and a bunch of sweets for himself to celebrate. And Russ there, he's been bringing in his report cards since the beginning of the school year with his mom also chiming in that while he's always been a good student, Wally's encouragement has pushed Russell even further. And adding, I love it. I definitely think it's a good thing that he's doing.

And we've also seen other parents echoing that sentiment with, for example, the mom of an eight-year-old saying, my son wasn't doing badly, but he wasn't interested. And with Wally, it makes him wanna go hard. And adding, what he's doing is amazing. He's making the kids want to do better, want to go to school and want to get good grades. Right, at first, Wally was just paying for this project

out of his own pocket, but as he's gained traction online, he made a website selling merch to help fund the effort. And eventually a GoFundMe that's raised nearly $30,000 with him saying, now I can accept more kids. It's a very big help. With him adding that he's got no intention of stopping or even slowing down and he hopes that other people are gonna do something similar in their own communities.

With him saying, I see the progress the kids make. It pushes them toward greatness. It makes me feel really, really happy. So, you know, yeah, just a nice little story of Wally being our bamf of the day to give you a little breath of air in the otherwise just heavy show. But then finally today, let's talk about y'all's comments on yesterday's show and some comment commentary brought to you by beautifulbastard.com and specifically Project BB28. Because depending on when you're watching this, you only have 24 to 36 hours left. Which if you missed the announcement, BB28, it's all the shirts that you've ever wanted, loved, but never got over at beautifulbastard.com, but just for 28 bucks a pop. Think of BB28 as the Nordstrom rack to beautiful bastards Nordstrom. Or because tons of people, they love and buy our

custom cut and sewn beautiful bastard shirts made with our premium high quality cotton spandex. You know, I genuinely believe that it is the best mid-weight shirt out there for under a hundred bucks, and I know I'm not alone there. And you know, while the clothing business, it does very well, people love and buy all sorts of stuff, I also know that the prices that we have at Beautiful Bastard, it prices some people out.

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I, you know, want people to come back and buy more. So yeah, if there's a tee that you've ever wanted, but you've been holding off, get it now. Because like I mentioned, at Wednesday at midnight, I'm gonna be making all of this private and just kind of look at the data and see if we're ever gonna do BB28 again. Is it a seasonal thing?

Can it be a permanent sub-brand? Are we ever even gonna do it again? But all you gotta care about right now is that all of it's available at beautifulbastard.com. Links in the description, definitely get in on it. But like I said, let's jump into those comments. And in those comments, there was understandably a lot of focus on that Donald Trump interview,

especially on the part of due process. And is it your job to uphold the constitution? And him going, I don't know. With Will Atkinson, for example, saying, "'I don't know' is an acceptable answer if you're asked, what do you want for dinner? Not if you're asked, should the president follow the laws that the country was founded upon?

What reality even is this anymore?" To which I say, Will, this isn't reality. You're in a coma. Please wake up. You also had Cameron Hawkins saying, "'I'm not a lawyer' is essentially saying, I know what I'm doing is wrong, I just don't know the legal gray area lingo at the moment

to brainwash my cult. Also, I'll say in those comments, there was a decent chunk of conversation around the Shiloh Hendricks situation. With all heaven takes, like imagine harassing a child and then claiming to be the victim and making money from it. We're truly living in a Black Mirror episode. Along with openly saying a five-year-old

is acting like a racial slur and getting support behind it really shows how backward we're walking. And this is you and Matthew saying, it's difficult to express in words how disheartening it is to see how much support the woman in the first story received. As much as some people may want to believe that racism is a part of the past, this, among other things currently happening in our country, goes to show that it is clearly still alive and well.

But then finally today I'll end with these two comments. One reading 31 seconds in and seeing it's gonna be a heavy show with a lot of stories that will tick me off. Hi Phil, how are you doing? And the low stake chess news was really funny to me as an outsider, but I'd really rather hear about that than another horrific event happening in the world. And so with those, you know, I'll start by saying I'm kind of okay. Like, kind of like most everyone else when I look to the state of things and the news and everything. It's draining, it's exhausting.

You know, also it's my job, so like I'm rewarded for being engaged rather than it just being draining, like for 99% of the population. Then too, yeah, that's why I decided yesterday to include a story like the chess controversy and scandal. It ends up actually being kind of interesting and helpful for my head to look into news. It's not part of the main drain. I mean, even having this conversation, it's kind of wild to me how the show is flipped. Like it used to be, oh, we got to include that really serious political story at the end of the show. You know, it's gonna drag the show down. Now it's like that's front and center.

And we have like kind of the lighter news at the end. Yeah, you know, more than anything, I think that the headline is I'm fine, sub headline. I'm still going through a lot of the same things you are. You know, there's part of me that wishes I could flip a switch and I could just not care about anything and be ignorant to many of the things that are happening in the world.

But I found just over the last 39 years on this planet, I am not built that way. But that my friends is the end of your Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning dive into the news. Of course, I'll see you soon because I got a brand new show for you every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific.

Thank you for watching. I love yo faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.