The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 6.3 Ugly Caitlin Clark Attacks & Race Debate Are Exposing A Lot, Huge Corey Harris Update, & Todays News

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

Start your free trial today: https://www.Squarespace.com/Phil  & enter offer code “Phil” to get 10% off your first purchase!  New 3-Packs & Cyber Lime Collections NOW LIVE @ https://BeautifulBastard.com ==== ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩- – 00:00 - Massive Update in that Corey Harris/Zoom Suspended License Story 01:51 - Backlash, Discourse Erupts After Caitlin Clark Was Body Checked  06:19 - MrBeast’s New Record, Paul v. Tyson Postponed, & Spotify Price Hikes 08:42 - Charges Dropped Over Death of Baby After DA Spoke to Reporter About Defendant 10:43 - Blood Test Able to Predict Breast Cancer Relapse 12:38 - Sponsored by SquareSpace 13:26 - What’s Next After Trump Was Found Guilty on 34 Counts.  18:21 - South Korea Vows Retaliation After North Sent Trash Balloons With Poop  21:18 - Claudia Sheinbaum Elected as Mexico’s First Female President ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Jared Paolino ———————————— #DeFranco #MrBeast #CaitlinClark ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. You daily dive into the news and man, as promised, we have a lot of news to talk about today. So you just hit that like button while I hit you with that monkey and let's jump into it. Yo, we have to talk about Corey Harris because there's a huge update. Also, if the name doesn't sound familiar, you might recognize the face. He's the guy that everyone was talking about last week because he called into a court hearing on Zoom for a suspended license, except he did it while driving. With him then losing bond and being ordered to report to jail. Failure to turn himself in will result in a bench warrant with no bond. Well, now it turns out there's more to the story. It turns out that a judge actually

ordered that the suspension of his license be lifted way back in January of 2022. Then for some reason, the Michigan Secretary of State's office just never received the news that the suspension was lifted. So according to Harris, he believed that he had every right to be behind the wheel, telling WXYZ. They were supposed to have been lifted two years ago, but they didn't. It's very embarrassing. And with the type of ties that I have with the church and the community, it's very embarrassing. But still, because he got caught on that Zoom, he ended up spending two nights in jail. And not only that, Harris claimed that the reason that he was driving, he wasn't just doing it for no reason. He said he was actually driving his wife to the doctor because her medical condition was worsening.

And imagine like a lot of people, like if all of that is true, I just feel so bad and sorry for this guy. Especially because it seems like his lawyer just left him out to dry here. And so generally, I just want to make sure that we updated this story because it looks like this is yet another example of sometimes a story blows up and there's a lot more under the hood. Though I do doubt that his side of the story is going to get the same amount of attention. Especially because it seems like a chunk of the internet is like, this is our new favorite meme. And then, is Caitlin Clark being targeted with vicious attacks or people just coddling her because she's the new it girl? Right, that is the core of this massive debate we've seen play out from over the weekend. Right, and that's because over the weekend, the Indiana Fever faced the Chicago Sky.

And in that game, we saw Kennedy Carter go up to Caitlin while Caitlin's back was turned away and shove her to the weekend. Right, and this is because over the weekend, the Indiana Fever faced the Chicago Sky. And in that game, we saw Kennedy Carter go up to Caitlyn while Caitlyn's back was turned away and shove her to the ground. But they're also appearing to possibly say, you bitch, right before. And immediately, we saw tons of outrage with people likening it to an assault. Or people calling it a cheap shot

that's an embarrassment to the WNBA, calling this next level hating. Some accusing Kennedy's Chicago teammate, Angel Reese, of celebrating the foul against Caitlyn. And of course, they have some history there. But also notably, it wasn't just people online or commentators. You had Lynn Dunn, the general manager for the Indiana Fever, also chiming in, saying, there's a difference between tough defense and unnecessary targeting actions. It needs to stop. The league needs to clean up

the crap. That's not who this league is. Now, for their part, both players spoke at postgame pressers with Caitlyn saying, yeah, I wasn't expecting it, but I think it's just like, just respond, come down, let your play do the talking. It is what it is. It's a physical game. impressors with Caitlyn saying, though Kennedy there didn't want to talk about it. Though I will say that has not stopped her from liking tweets, loving that she did this to Caitlyn, as well as her retweeting support, even posting on threads that the only thing Caitlyn brings to the table is three-pointers, which, ah, just a quick stat check. In addition to having very strong rookie stats,

she's actually fourth in the league for assists right now. Though also, as far as the foul, the WNBA ended up upgrading it to a flagrant one violation after the game. Also, interestingly, while Kennedy wasn't fined for this, Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky team were for failing to uphold media requirements.

And you know, this story from over the weekend has only gotten bigger and bigger in sports media. But that was like Deadspin putting out pieces arguing that the WNBA needs to do more to protect Kaitlyn Clark, saying plainly, there's some sort of unspoken, unwritten target on Clark's back. Right, that coming as people have long accused

other WNBA players of having it out for Kaitlyn or mistreating her because they're jealous. Right, especially with a number of veterans. You know, they see Kaitlyn being this college basketball star. She's getting deals left and right, getting more before she's in the WNBA than they've ever gotten, with many solely crediting her with bringing new interest to the WNBA.

But then you also have a lot of people questioning why everyone's so protective of Caitlyn Clark. I mean, regarding the body check incident, you had some saying that people are missing some context, saying that it looks like Caitlyn was clearly talking to Kennedy prior, which wouldn't justify anything, but the rift started earlier than people claimed, which is why you had some writing, the way y'all coddle and infant looks like Caitlyn was clearly talking to Kennedy prior, which wouldn't justify anything, but the rift started earlier than people claimed. Which is why you had some writing,

The way y'all coddle and infantilize Caitlyn like she's some helpless two-year-old victim is incredibly infuriating. They were jawing back and forth. People also noting that she's not the only WNBA player who's had to deal with overly intense physicality lately. You know, in all of this, we've seen tons of people bringing up race. With some saying that's why so many people are coddling her. Others saying that's why she's being targeted. The wall of this playing out is you also had outlets like the Wall Street Journal kind of taking a middle-of-the-road approach, noting that basically every big star athlete gets put through the ringer their rookie year, with people framing it as their welcome to

the show sort of moment. But also they're adding that whether you're a fan or not, she's good for every single player in the league, arguing she's pushing more games into primetime TV where every player gets to be seen, not just her, saying the women's game owes a great deal to players before Clark, many of them overlooked and underappreciated. But Clark is the straw stirring the drink now, and if it works, everyone can win. I mean, if you need any confirmation of that statement, look at the fact that everyone is talking about this right now. WNBA has had full-blown brawls in the past. You've had opponents kiss on the court. And all of those incidents got a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the attention.

Which I will say also makes me wonder if Caitlin Clark were to actually get injured in one of these things that appears to be targeted. How much would or would it not impact the league almost immediately? But ultimately, how I'm going to end this story is by saying this whole situation is not just going to go away. It has some legs. And I mean that regarding the Caitlin Clark WNBA discourse in general, as well as the attention and debate around this specific hit. And that's actually because as I was finishing up today's show, we got two pieces of breaking news.

The first being that Carter's coach, Teresa Weatherspoon, actually issued a statement saying Carter's flagrant one foul on Caitlin Clark was not appropriate and vowing to learn from the situation. And two, we're now seeing a situation develop where Pat McAfee has found himself in hot water. Because while going on a passionate rant about the situation, he referred to Caitlin Clark as a white bitch while praising her. Which means spawned a million different reactions. Pat then tweeting,

I shouldn't have used white bitch as a descriptor of Caitlin Clark. No matter the context, even if we're talking about race being a reason for some of the stuff happening, I have way too much respect for her and women to put that into the universe. My intentions when saying it were complimentary, just like the entire segment, but a lot of folks are saying that it certainly wasn't at all. It's 100% on me, and for that, I apologize, and I have sent an apology to Caitlin as well. Everything else I said, still all facts. Yeah, this situation and the attention on it, not going anywhere, but in the meantime, I'd love to know your thoughts. And then we're going to talk about some big but quickie entertainment news, and it starts with Mr. Beast, who you may have thought had no more records that he could break.

But if you thought that, you're wrong, because over the weekend, he officially became YouTube's most subscribed channel. With channel being the key word, not most subscribed person, he has more subscribers than fucking T-Series. With him now sitting at 270 million subscribers, beating out T-Series, who has around 266 million. Because I guess like all things Mr. Beast, he even beat them big. Because funny enough, when he announced that he had beaten T-Series, he ended up getting another surge. And as far as how Mr. Beast celebrated, he wrote on Twitter, after six years, we have finally avenged PewDiePie. Though Jimmy wasn't the only YouTuber making headlines over the weekend. And that's because they got bad news or people that wanted to see Jake Paul get punched in the face by Mike Tyson. And that because the fight between those

two that was supposed to be streaming on Netflix in July has been postponed. With Netflix explaining that Tyson recently had an ulcer flare up that's limited his ability to fully train. With him saying at least for now that they're going to set the date for later this year. By saying that both parties want to have equal time to prepare for the matchup. But then there's also the question of, well, what happens in the meantime? Because interestingly enough, there you had Logan Paul tweeting at his brother, saying, so Mike Tyson's out? I'll step in and we can settle this once and for all. To which Jake responded, mom doesn't want me to KO you, but fuck it.

Loser has to change their last name. Which, you know, makes it sound like someone accepting, but also, you know, no official fight's been set. Though if this does actually happen, it would look like Logan predicted this all the way back in 2021. I would, I'd go ahead and say, I think Logan Paul versus Jake Paul would be one of the greatest and biggest highest grossing pay-per-view

combat sports events of all time. There was always, you know, words are words and nothing's official until it's official. And even then, like we've seen with Tyson, other shit can happen in the meantime. But then finally for this quickie news, it's actually on the business side. And that is because Spotify is raising prices

in the US again, which would make it the second time in the span of a calendar year that the platform has announced this. And the company is saying in a blog post that individual prices are going up to $12 per month, duos to $17, family to 20, and students to six. And saying this is happening

so that we can continue to invest in and innovate on our product features and bring users the best experience. And so obviously people aren't super pumped about having to shell out more cash, especially since, I mean, all of this is coming as criticism of Spotify has already been going viral recently. Also with the news of the price hike, you had groups like More Perfect Union calling out Spotify for charging consumers more, but still giving artists the short end of the

stick. You know, like we see with any price change, even if they lose subscribers, it just becomes a math problem of, you know, at what point is this a bad decision for them versus a good one? And then words matter, right? That's not a wild, amazing, eye-opening statement. We all know words matter. But also, you know, there are times where you have like some prosecutor or someone and then they're talking and you're like, why are you talking in legalese? Why don't you talk like a person? Why are you seemingly removing the humanity from your statements?

Well, unfortunately, we have a horrible example of why in today's news. With that, starting with a 22-year-old William Jacobs checking himself into a motel in Canyon City, Colorado, where he meets 21-year-old Brooke Crawford, a single mother who works at the front desk and lives in one of the rooms. Right, and so they meet, they immediately start dating, and within days, Jacobs moves in with Crawford, which in part she thinks is great because all of a sudden she's like, oh my gosh, I got this guy that can babysit my 10-month-old son, Edward Hayes, while she works. Then comes one day where first responders get a call and they show up to the couple's room, where they find Edward unresponsive.

With Jacobs, according to the affidavit, initially claiming that he was changing the baby's diaper when Edward went stiff and began making gargling noises. But then notably, he also allegedly confessed to abusing the child at least a couple of times before. And experts later testify that the baby's injuries were non-accidental based on their severity and pattern. With Edward getting rushed to the hospital where he ended up dying, and Jacobs being arrested and charged with first-degree murder, which is normally where a story like this would end. But then in walks in District Attorney Linda Stanley to fuck everything up. Because instead of doing the regular standard professional thing, which is in place for a reason, she gave an interview to a local news outlet, KRDO, and

basically shit-talked Jacobs on camera. I'm gonna be very blunt here. He has zero investment in this child. Zero. He's watching that baby so he can get laid. That's it. And have a place to sleep. I'm sorry to be that blunt, but honest to God, that's what's going on. Right, so in short, she called him a fuckboy.

But that then led to the judge ruling that those comments violated Jacobs' due process because they prejudiced the jury pool. And so for that reason, the charges against him got dismissed, meaning that this alleged baby killer now just walks away scot-free. And as for Stanley, she's the only one that might face a punishment. She's now facing an ethics complaint and potential disbarment. And as it turns out, not just for this, but also for inappropriate public remarks that she made in another murder case. But as far as potential justice for anyone else, that remains to be seen. And then I've got

fantastic news for the ladies of this show. And then I've got fantastic news for the ladies of this show. And it's about something very close to your heart, your boobs. At least proximity-wise, that's accurate. But the main thing is that we've got fantastic news that there's a new ultrasensitive blood test for breast cancer that scientists are calling

incredibly exciting. With it coming from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, where they've been studying its efficacy for years. Basically, the way that it works is that it picks up traces of mutated DNA left in the bloodstream by the cancer cells after treatment, which actually, that isn't the new part, right?

Studies have shown blood tests to be effective before, but most of those use a method called whole exome sequencing, which typically looks at between 16 and 50 mutations. This new test, however, that uses whole genome sequencing, which looks at up to 1,800 mutations. So it's dramatically more sensitive, and when the results came in, it clearly paid off. With this study, including 78 women who received chemotherapy and surgery, testing them every three months during follow-up for the first year, and then every six months for

the next five years. And in that time, the test detected cancer DNA in 11 women, all of whom later relapsed while none of the other women did. Or to put it in other words, the test was 100% accurate. And it also, on average, picked up the cancer 15 months before it showed up on scans or symptoms appeared. And in the earliest case, the test predicted relapse 41 months before the scan. And so, of course, the big hope here is that doctors could begin treatment months

or even years earlier with this, which would allow them to zap the cancer before it grows out of control. And I mean, we're talking about so many potential saved lives with this. Breast cancer is the most common type for women in most countries, killing almost 700,000 in 2022. But also, I want to say, do not get too excited too quick, because technically

the research is in its early stages, and this test is a long way from public use. With, for example, Dr. Liz O'Riordan, a breast surgeon and breast cancer survivor herself, saying on X, It was only a small trial, and we don't know what to do with this information. Do we treat these patients for metastatic disease years before it develops? Do we scan them to look for the earliest stages of recurrence? Every woman have this test as part of a follow-up. We need more research, but it is incredible to think that a blood test for metastatic disease could be right around the corner. And then for any of you focused on getting your business off the ground, creating a place to share your homemade goods, or even a

personal blog, I got a great solution for you. And it comes from, and I want to thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Squarespace. I mean, I've been partnering with Squarespace for years now, and I have to say it is still so easy. There's nothing to install, patch, or update ever. And creating a beautiful website with Squarespace's fluid engine is so easy. You just drag things where you like, no coding necessary. And if you need a starting point, Squarespace has a bunch of great professional templates. You can even sell custom merch easily. Squarespace handles We'll see you next time. over at squarespace.com slash phil. Just final big thing. When you realize you love it, just make sure you enter an offer code phil to get 10% off your first purchase. And then, okay, so we gotta talk about it.

Over the past few days, we've seen half the country celebrating and half fuming. Ladies and gentlemen, we got him. A rigged law in a rigged courtroom with a rigged jury. Down goes Donald Trump. Down goes Donald Trump. Hatred and fear dominate the Democrat ruling class. I'm so goddamn lived up today, dude.

Let's go, baby. Now, the legal case is an atrocity. It's a ridiculous, ridiculous case. Woo! What a treat. What a treat. What a treat. What a treat.

It was a political put-up job. Thank you to the criminal justice system for giving us this beautiful thing. This is a trash case. It's an absurd case. Thank you, Alvin Bragg Jr. Thank you, Judge Merchant or whatever the f*** his name is. It's so obviously a stupid case. Thank you to the Democratic Party. This case is stupid case. Thank you to the Democratic Party.

This case is a fraud. Thank you to New York City. It was kind of a turducken of a charge. Thank you to the jurors. This thing was rigged from the start. Dark Brandon strikes again. This jury was rigged from the start. The judge rigged this thing along with the prosecutors.

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Please play responsibly. 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. There's no shortage of feelings, but let's talk about what we know about the Trump conviction. Starting with what everyone knows, right? The Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in his hush money trial, which notably is usually just a misdemeanor. But in this case, it's a felony because they found

that Trump did it for the purpose of illegally influencing the 2016 election. One of the biggest things with this, we need to be clear on this, is that nothing in the constitution prevents him from running for office as a felon, even if he is sentenced to prison. Something that I've seen described by others as airbud rules. Because the premise of those movies is at some point someone's like, I mean, technically there's no rule about a dog playing basketball. Also connected to whether he goes to prison or not, his sentencing is set for July 11th, which notably is just days before Republicans are set to nominate him at their convention in Milwaukee. Though if you're wanting to see him in prison, I wouldn't get your hopes up because expert opinion generally seems to agree

that time behind bars for him is going to be very unlikely. Regardless of what you think about Trump, on paper, he's a 77-year-old first time white collar offender and his conviction is for nonviolent class E felonies, which is the lowest level in New York. And that's without mentioning that he is a former president and a major party's presumptive nominee. But if the judge did give him prison time, each count actually carries a maximum sentence of four years. And I mean, there's 34 counts. So also there, that sentence would almost certainly be imposed concurrently, not consecutively, meaning that Trump's not going to go away for 136 years. I mean, even if it was done consecutively, New York law would cap that at 20 years for this type of felony. Remember, we're talking about what technically could happen, not what likely will.

Though the more Trump acts like Trump between now and July 11th, the more likely it is that the judge could be harsher on him. I mean, he's already repeatedly attacked the judge, the jury, the prosecutors, the witnesses, the justice system as a whole. But then again, let's say that Trump gets prison time. Trump's lawyers are going to appeal the case as high as it'll go. I mean, possibly to the Supreme Court, right? And that would most likely postpone any kind of punishment beyond election day. Also other potential sentences could include probation, which would mean that he'd need permission from a parole officer to travel outside the state. Or we could just see a simple fine or a conditional discharge pegged to the requirement that he stay out of further legal trouble. Or, I mean, he could technically get community service. But really,

we're not going to know how this is going to go until the 11th. Which brings us to one of the next things we have to talk about, and that is that Trump and his allies have made a bunch of false, baseless, or at least misleading claims about the trial that are being spread online. Things like the assertion that this was orchestrated by the Democratic Party and President Biden. But while we wait to see what sentence comes down on the 11th, we should definitely also talk about how this is going to affect the election. Or to be more precise, will this verdict persuade enough voters to shy away from Trump, right? Will this affect the voting? Well, the answer there is we really won't know until election day. So vote how you

want to vote. Disregard the polls generally. But also, if we look at the polls, you're getting a bunch of different numbers depending on how you phrase the question. With early polling from before the news broke, putting the increase in Biden's margin between 5 and 14 points. With one survey in April finding that a conviction would make 20% of Trump supporters at least reconsider their vote and 4% would actually change it. Also another one last month found that Trump without a conviction led Biden by 4 points, but Trump with a hypothetical conviction trailed Biden by 4 points. But then yet another poll finding that significantly more people would abandon Trump if he was incarcerated, not just convicted.

You know, saying and doing are very different things. And people's thoughts and feelings about all this are liable to change in the coming months, especially because everyone's perceptions on this case and what's at stake here in this election, they're gonna be shaped by the media they consume. And so we've seen many conservatives working hard to discredit the entire trial as rigged,

arguing that this whole thing is a top-down conspiracy to subvert democracy and prevent Trump from ever stepping foot near the Oval Office again. If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone. Well, we'll have to wait to see if that's going to help him at the polls. I mean, it is definitely helping him financially. For example, his campaign announcing that it raised $53 million in the 24 hours after his guilty verdict. But just to put that into perspective, that nearly matches in a single day what his fundraising arm raked in over the last six months of 2023.

And the conviction has also prompted virtually the entire Republican Party, including some critics like Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell, to rally behind the former president. With, for example, one of the few who didn't, former Maryland governor and current Senate candidate Larry Hogan getting ripped to shreds by Trump's allies online.

Also, with all this, I know there are people that are gonna mention there are still 54 more criminal charges and three other cases against Trump. Or with those related to his mishandling of classified documents and his efforts to overthrow the 2020 election. But the key thing there is those are unlikely to go to trial before November. And if he gets elected president, I mean, he can just squash two of those cases because they're federal. So everyone, it is officially time to buckle up because we got five more fucking months of this at least.

And then North Korea is no stranger to talking shit. They recently also started sending shit. And now North Korea is no stranger to talking shit. They recently also started sending shit, and now South Korea is tired of all the shit. Because if you didn't see, over the past week, North Korea has literally flown hundreds of balloons carrying trash and manure across the 38th parallel in one of the most bizarre provocations against its southern neighbor in years.

And with South Korea now vowing retaliation, the North is saying, hey, we'll stop sending the balloons. But the South, they say it's too little too late. But then this morning, actually suspending a military pact between the two countries in order to allow a more aggressive action to be taken in response. Which also, I want to talk about some of the specifics. So last week, the South Korean military reported that about 260 North Korean balloons were found in various parts of the country. While they said that these contained trash and manure, they also claimed that some were found with timers, suggesting that they were designed to actually pop the bags of trash midair.

With the North then quickly confirming that these balloons, they were a response to a leafleting campaign by South Korean activists. Because South Korean activists regularly fly balloons across the border to drop anti-North leaflets, as well as food, medicine, money, and USB sticks loaded with K-pop music videos and South Korean dramas. All of which has actually been a major source of tension between the North and the South. I mean, in 2014, for example, the two countries actually exchanged fire after anti-North propaganda balloons were sent across the border. Then in 2020, North Korea actually blew up

an empty South Korean-built diplomatic office on its territory, partly in response to civilian leafleting campaigns. And in 2022, North Korea even suggested that the balloons flown from the South had caused a COVID-19 outbreak in the country. So with that, last Wednesday, Kim Yo-jong, right, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un,

hinted that these balloons, they could become the North's standard response to leafleting moving forward. Saying the North would respond by scattering rubbish dozens of times more than those being scattered to us. And when the South Korean military responded with a statement demanding that the North stop its, quote, inhumane and vulgar activity, the North said they were just exercising their freedom of expression. Which, you know, is the same reason the South Korean government has given as to why they can't stop civilian activists from flying these leaflets across the border. But in any case, this whole thing has brought us to South Korea saying this shit has to stop. Though not just the literal shit.

Because while the balloon situation is so bizarre and that's why it's gotten a lot of attention, I mean, you have things like last week, for example, on top of sending the balloons. Kim Jong-un supervised drills involving the firing of nuclear-capable rocket launchers to show the country's ability to carry out a preemptive attack on South Korea. And days earlier, a North Korean rocket carrying a spy satellite exploded after takeoff, with that notably being the country's third failed attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit, which is also something they're technically banned from doing due to concerns that these launches really are just cover for testing long-range missile technology. And so all of that has led to South Korea suspending the military pact that it had with North Korea since 2018. So you have the

South Korea Presidential National Security Council saying this suspension, it's going to allow them to resume military drills near the border. And as others have pointed out, this will allow the South to resume the practice of blasting anti-North propaganda, broadcast K-pop songs and outside news from loudspeakers at the border. And also with all that,

South Korea has reached an agreement with the U.S. and Japan to hold new joint military exercises this summer. You know, to that point, both Kim Jong-un's weapons demonstrations and South Korea's combined military exercises with the U.S. and Japan, they've picked up since 2022. Which is why you have some saying the situation between the Koreas right now is at their worst level in years. Which I guess is all to say,

you know, understandably, shit balloons gets the headline. But the real concern is both with the shitty, shitty details and the grand, shitty picture. And then, in huge international news, we got to talk about Mexico. Because it is now official. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo has been elected as Mexico's first female president. And it was a landslide. I mean, she won nearly 60% of the vote according to preliminary results. With the next leading candidate, Xochitl Galvez Ruiz, winning just under 30%. And that, as the only male candidate, Jorge Alvarez Mañez, won only around 10% of the vote. Which, I mean, just that by itself is an example of the real progress that Mexico has made when it comes to gender representation in politics.

I mean, women didn't even have the right to vote in Mexico until 1953, which is three decades after the women in the U.S. But, key thing is that with the adoption of gender quotas and gender parity law during Mexico's transition, women now hold half the seats in Congress and nearly one-third of the governorships. Whereas in the U.S., on the other hand, you know, we've obviously never had a female president, women make up a little more than a quarter of all members in Congress. Though notably, that is the highest percentage in US history and a considerable increase from where things stood even a decade ago. You know, gender of the candidates and the politicians, that's just one aspect of this.

Because in Mexico, femicide and gender-based violence, they're actually on the rise. And actually with that, we've seen Shane Baum-Pardoe saying that she would create an anti-femicide prosecutor's office and put forward legislation forcing domestic violence offenders to leave their homes. Though also, at the same time, she's been criticized by feminists and activists arguing that her government lacked comprehensive gender-related policies. And on top of that, she's reportedly not addressed the issue of abortion during her campaign. With the timing there, also a key aspect is national laws prohibiting abortions have been ruled unconstitutional by the country's Supreme Court. Only 12 of Mexico's 32 states have decriminalized abortion. And in the states where it has been decriminalized,

advocates say they face persistent challenges in making abortion safe and accessible. But also notable with this is beyond that, right? While you have two women leading the race in Mexico, the outgoing president, AMLO, he's dominated much of the coverage this election season. Because despite her impressive background, including a PhD in environmental engineering

and a term as Mexico City's first female mayor, Shane Baum Pardo has been referred to as AMLO's protege. You know, to be sure, AMLO's incredible popularity has been a factor in her victory. And importantly, there she has promised to expand the social programs created by AMLO, which have included, for example, tripling the minimum wage,

increasing benefits for the elderly and vulnerable, and pouring money into Mexico's heavily indebted state oil company. But for some, the idea that she might just be a continuation of AMLO is a cause for concern. And specifically there, voters' biggest criticism of AMLO has been his failure to halt the expansion of organized crime activity. Because while homicides went down since he took office, crime groups are taking control of more and more territory and economic activity. And this

is they've also moved beyond drug trafficking to a host of other illegal enterprises, including extortion. And all of this while we can't talk about Mexico's elections without mentioning that more than 230 people have been assassinated in connection with the elections. You know, as we've seen cartels fighting to put allies into local offices. And beyond that, like we talked about last week, AMLO critics fear that his policies could have Mexico's hard-won democracy sliding back into one-party rule. Especially as Shane Baum-Pardoe, who takes office in October, has promised to pursue his plans of overhaul to the judiciary. And specifically, that would include the direct election of Supreme Court judges. But the key aspect of the current Supreme Court being that they have blocked some of

AMLO's signature initiatives. So actually with that, it's an incredibly key takeaway here. Shane Bonpardoe and her allies are on track to win a two-thirds supermajority in both houses of Congress, which would give them the power to push these reforms through by amending the Constitution. With that said, she has vehemently rejected the idea that her government might mark a democratic regression. But then the last thing I'll touch on here is, you know, we're America. We're at least to a certain degree egomaniacal narcissists. And with every story, we have to go, well, how does this affect us? So that is also a fair question. They're our neighbor. And of course, two of the biggest hot button issues in this country are immigration and drugs. And with that,

Shane Baum Pardo has pledged to maintain good relations with the U.S. and prioritize the fight against violent cartels and gangs. So this is AMLO has actually butted heads with the U.S. on this one. Having scaled back cooperation with the USTEA in accusing the agency of violating Mexico's sovereignty. With that, we've seen the trafficking of deadly fentanyl to the United States just continue. I mean, in 2023, U.S. overdose deaths topped 100,000 for the third straight year.

Notably, on immigration, AMLO and Biden have been more cooperative. With recent figures showing that Mexico is stopping nearly three times as many migrants now as it was a year ago. Though I should also note with that, that human rights groups have claimed that this effectively puts them at the mercy of cartels. For example, Ari Sawyer, researcher at Human Rights Watch, saying the Biden and AMLO administrations are knowingly exposing migrants to persecution at the hands of cartels that systematically target migrants for

kidnapping, extortion and sexual assault. And so I guess all of that is to say there are a lot of different opinions. There are a lot of different stances. Everyone's saying a lot of stuff. But at the end of the day, only time will tell what direction Shane Bombardot takes the country. But that is where your Monday evening, Tuesday morning show is going to end. But of course, we won't have to miss each other too long because my name is Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.