The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 7.13 BAN vs SAVE TikTok, Washington Redskins, Dr Fauci, Roger Stone & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastard. Hope you've had a fantastic Monday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, hit that like button and let's just jump into it. And first up, let's continue to talk about this developing situation and concern around TikTok. You know, we've been talking about this app

Starting point is 00:00:14 more and more in recent days. You have places like India just straight out banning it. You have government officials in Australia and the United States saying they're considering doing the same. And so, you know, with this, more and more we're seeing people fall into two main camps. Those that want to delete the app,

Starting point is 00:00:25 to ban the app, and others who want to save it. But first, let's kind of dive into the actual concerns that people have, right? You know, around that, this morning we saw Jeffrey Fowler, a technology columnist for the Washington Post, actually doing a thorough piece about why people are wary of TikTok, and also looking even deeper

Starting point is 00:00:37 to see if those worries are legitimate. So, what does TikTok actually get from you? Well, according to Fowler, it knows every video you watch, how long you watch it, the messages you send in the app, as well as what country you're in, your internet address and device.

Starting point is 00:00:48 Also, in some cases, you can also allow it to know your exact location, contacts, other social network connections, age, and phone number. And so with this, because TikTok is owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance, many, including the US government, are worried that China could collect all this information. But according to Fowler's report,

Starting point is 00:01:02 right now there's not tangible evidence that TikTok is actually sending data to China, though there's always the possibility they could be doing it in a more secretive way. And part of the reason he's saying that is he and Patrick Jackson, the chief technology officer at a privacy company called Disconnect,

Starting point is 00:01:14 watched the data flowing out of TikTok and they didn't see anything being sent to addresses that were in China. But Jackson still noted that it is possible and even likely that the data could be transmitted to other locations that they could not verify. Now, also with this topic, something that's important to do is to make a comparison.

Starting point is 00:01:27 So we saw these two comparing it to and taking a look at Facebook. With Fowler saying that TikTok is actually not collecting any more information than Facebook is, but that is still a substantial amount. Noting that in some ways TikTok is actually collecting less data, pointing out that Facebook also tracks users across devices

Starting point is 00:01:41 and inside other apps and websites. But also, as Jackson noted, while it doesn't appear that TikTok takes more data than Facebook, they do take measures to hide what they are collecting. Now, for their part, leaders at TikTok have repeatedly maintained that user safety is their top priority and they do not

Starting point is 00:01:54 and will not share information with China. But still, those are the foundations of the actual concerns, which brings us to a ton of people and companies saying that they're kind of breaking up with TikTok. Over the weekend, we saw Wells Fargo tell its employees to delete the app from their work devices. We also saw reports that Amazon sent an alert to its employees telling them to delete the app,

Starting point is 00:02:09 though that order was later backtracked as it was sent in error. We also saw the Democratic and Republican National Committees warning their staffers about using the app. But then, as I noted at the beginning, there are a lot of people trying to save the app, with a large number of TikTok users using the hashtag

Starting point is 00:02:21 Save TikTok in hopes of stopping any potential ban. This, including some incredibly large names on the app, people like Michael Lee or Jess Miko. He has 33.8 million followers on TikTok. He's been sort of spearheading this movement. And in his video that has just absolutely blown up, we see him talking about TikTok being one of the most positive outlets,

Starting point is 00:02:36 one of the few positive outlets that are out there right now amongst all the tragedy. Right now TikTok is on the verge of being banned in the US and I'm starting a video petition with hashtag save TikTok. 2020 has had so many tragedies and TikTok has been one of the most positive outlets for us all whether it's watching or creating content. Going on to say that while TikTok has its flaws,

Starting point is 00:02:54 it's created this community from all over the world that's been able to bring joy and inspire people. Since posting that video, it has continued to grow. In fact, as of this morning, hashtag save TikTok had over 311 million views on the app. And while as of right now it is unclear whether or not this app is going to be banned, I mean as of this morning, hashtag saved TikTok at over 311 million views on the app. And while as of right now, it is unclear whether or not this app is going to be banned. I mean, as of yesterday,

Starting point is 00:03:08 we still saw Trump administration members continuing to sort of speak out against TikTok. Right, you had White House trade advisor, Peter Navarro talking to Fox News, calling the CEO of TikTok an American puppet for China and ByteDance. Also saying to expect strong action from President Trump when it comes to TikTok.

Starting point is 00:03:22 But ultimately that is where we are with this story right now. We're gonna have to wait to see what happens next. But as is, I wanna know, where do you kind of land on this? You find yourself on the save TikTok side or the ban TikTok side? Regarding privacy, is it this next level thing, this Chinese Communist Party thing,

Starting point is 00:03:37 or do you think it's kind of just as bad as the other American institutions and apps? Yes, no, why, why not? I'd love to hear from you on this one. And then even if briefly we should talk about the news around the NFL team, the Washington Redskins. They, if you don't know, have been a part of a decades-long debate around team names,

Starting point is 00:03:52 many considering the name to be racist and offensive towards Native Americans. We've seen in the past the team's owner, Dan Snyder, kind of swatting away those criticisms, saying that the name, it represents honor, respect, pride. But the big news today is that Dan Snyder appears to have gone on this journey of introspection. It represents honor, respect, pride. But the big news today is that Dan Snyder appears to have gone on this journey of introspection.

Starting point is 00:04:07 He had a change of heart because of money. If you're not aware, the team's been facing pressure from sponsors left and right. I'm talking about big sponsors, PepsiCo, Bank of America, FedEx. You had Nike pulling their merchandise off their website. Five days later, you had Amazon doing the same. And so today we saw the team release a statement saying,

Starting point is 00:04:23 "'On July 3rd, we announced the commencement "'of a thorough review of the team's name. "'That review has begun in earnest. "'As a part of this process, we want to keep our sponsors, "'fans, and community appraised of our thinking "'as we go forward. "'Today we are announcing we will be retiring "'the Redskins name and logo upon completion

Starting point is 00:04:37 "'of this review. "'Dan Snyder and Coach Rivera are working closely "'to develop a new name and design approach "'that will enhance the standing of our proud, "'tradition-rich franchise and inspire our sponsors, fans, and community for the next 100 years. And I will say, personally, I'm interested to see what they change the name to.

Starting point is 00:04:51 It's been interesting to see some of the recommendations out on social media. Some saying the Washington Warriors, the Washington Code Talkers, the Washington Red Tails. Yeah, for now, as far as what the actual change is, we have to wait and see, but until then, one, what do you think about this name change in general? And two, what would you change the name of the team to?

Starting point is 00:05:08 And then let's talk about the Trump administration and kind of just the whole Trump machine going after Dr. Fauci now. Dr. Fauci, of course, esteemed immunologist who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. He's also been one of the leading experts

Starting point is 00:05:21 on the coronavirus task force since the pandemic began. He's also become a major public figure and a leading voice on this matter. And if it feels like you haven't seen Fauci that much recently, you are not wrong. It's because according to reports, the White House has blocked Dr. Fauci from his planned televised appearances in recent weeks.

Starting point is 00:05:35 With some White House aides reportedly saying that this is because TV interviewers often try to push Fauci into criticizing Trump and his admins approach to the virus. With one senior official saying he's not always good at staying on message. But also according to reports, Trump is also annoyed by his public statements.

Starting point is 00:05:49 With some also now pointing to Fauci himself, seeming to hint at this during his interview last week with the Financial Times. And there he said, I have a reputation, as you probably have figured out, of speaking the truth at all times and not sugarcoating things. And that may be one of the reasons

Starting point is 00:06:01 why I haven't been on television very much lately. And in that same interview, Fauci also said that he has not seen Trump in person since June 2nd, and he hasn't briefed the president in two months. Also, on Tuesday, Dr. Fauci did a Facebook live event with Senator Doug Jones, where he disputed Trump's claim that a lower death rate showed the United States' progress in the fight against the coronavirus. With Fauci calling that a false narrative and adding, Don't get yourself into false complacency.

Starting point is 00:06:22 And according to reports, after that, the White House responded by canceling some of Fauci's scheduled televised appearances. But still, we saw Fauci continuing to contradict remarks made by Trump in other appearances, faulting states for opening too soon and emphasizing the seriousness of the situation in the states. And during a podcast interview with FiveThirtyEight on Thursday, Fauci disputed Trump's frequent claim that the United States is doing great, saying, As a country, when you compare us to other countries, I don't think you can say we're doing great, saying, As a country, when you compare us to other countries, I don't think you can say we're doing great.

Starting point is 00:06:49 I mean, we're just not. And as far as Trump, for his part, he has responded by publicly undermining and contradicting the top public health expert. During a Fox News interview on Thursday, he said that Fauci is a nice man, but he's made a lot of mistakes. Also, in an earlier interview, when asked about Fauci's claim that in his expert opinion the US was in a bad place Trump responded I think we are in a good place. I disagree with it and over the weekend on Saturday We saw this situation escalate significantly and that's because aides to Trump circulated a list of remarks to numerous media outlets that dr Fauci had made in the past with the administration officials saying that those statements had later turned out to be wrong and that list was

Starting point is 00:07:20 Highly unusual with multiple outlets saying that it basically looked like the kind of opposition research politicians do on their opponents. And in a statement to the media, a White House official said, "'Several White House officials are concerned "'about the number of times Dr. Fauci "'has been wrong on things,' and noted about a dozen of those remarks." This reportedly including several instances early on in the pandemic where Fauci appeared

Starting point is 00:07:37 to downplay the virus, by comments he made in January that the coronavirus was not a major threat, as well as reassurances in February where he minimized asymptomatic spread and said quote at this moment There is no need to change anything that you're doing on a day-by-day Basis as well as remarks he made in March about people not needing to wear masks now that list is incredibly notable for a few Reasons first of all, it's a huge deal because it is a direct attack by the Trump administration on one of its own members But also you had a lot of people saying the things on this list compared to what dr.

Starting point is 00:08:02 Fauci is saying now that's not some sort of hypocrisy. That is evolving and changing your recommendation based off of new information coming in. Right, which is why we saw a lot of people condemning Trump and praising Dr. Fauci this morning with a topic trending on Twitter. Many pointing out that the statements the White House flag were made by Dr. Fauci early on

Starting point is 00:08:17 before we had more information. But as the virus spread and we learned more about it, he backtracked on those remarks and updated his views to better address public safety concerns. And while White House officials told reporters that their intent with this list was not to discredit Fauci but to show that everyone should listen to a wide range of doctors,

Starting point is 00:08:31 others saying that it was incredibly hypocritical to send out this list of statements Fauci made months ago that later turned out to be wrong. This because Trump has repeatedly and consistently downplayed the virus and actively made false claims about it, with one of the biggest differences between him and Fauci being that Trump is still actively

Starting point is 00:08:44 pushing these narratives now. But essentially arguing that Fauci is doing what you're supposed to be doing. When you get new information, updated data, you should also update your opinion and recommendation. Rather than doubling down on the wrong because you don't want to admit that at one point you were wrong.

Starting point is 00:08:57 Also, the timing of the White House trying to sideline and undermine Fauci is notable because the United States is also right now seeing a massive spike in cases. I mean, just yesterday, Florida reported the highest amount of new cases in a single day in any state with more than 15,000. And according to reports as of today, cases are now officially rising in 39 states.

Starting point is 00:09:14 And Trump, for his part, has continued to downplay this virus as recently as this morning. Retweeting a post from conservative and former game show host Chuck Woolery who wrote, "'The most outrageous lies are the ones about COVID-19. "'Everyone is lying. "'The CDC, media, Democrats, our doctors, "'not all but most that we are told to trust.'"

Starting point is 00:09:29 So, you know, there's that. I'm personally gonna go with Fauci over Woolery. You know, call me crazy if you want to. And if I seem exhausted with this story, it's because I am. This is more of the same. You had McEnany saying today that the memo was sent out, quote,

Starting point is 00:09:41 "'Because we were asked a very specific question "'by the Washington Post, "'and that question was President Trump noted "'that Dr. Fauci had made some mistakes, "'Because we were asked a very specific question "'by the Washington Post, and that question was "'President Trump noted that Dr. Fauci "'had made some mistakes, and we provided a direct answer "'to what was a direct question.'" But it's very obvious what this was. It was a muddying of the water. If you want to call it a direct or an indirect attack

Starting point is 00:09:55 on someone saying something contrary to the president. And you know, I'm reporting this news on a day where, as of recording this video, over 135,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. Meanwhile, over the weekend, we saw Trump supporters like falling over themselves to talk about how the president looks so cool in a mask that he finally decided to wear.

Starting point is 00:10:09 Anyway, that's where this story ends. I'd love to know your thoughts. And the last thing we're gonna talk about today is actually the opposite, not who is Trump going after, but rather who is Trump supporting. Right in there, we have to talk about President Trump supporting and commuting the sentence of Roger Stone.

Starting point is 00:10:22 Right, and so one of the first things you need to know about Roger Stone as it pertains to this situation, there's a lot more to talk about there, but he was an advisor on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. He's a longtime friend of Trump's and he's also been the subject of a ton of scrutiny and controversy, so much so that he left the Trump campaign back in 2015.

Starting point is 00:10:37 And the reason specifically why we're talking about Stone today stems from an incident that happened back in January of last year. That's when Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office arrested Stone while conducting an investigation into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. There, Stone was charged with seven different crimes. You had witness tampering,

Starting point is 00:10:51 obstructing a congressional investigation, and five counts of making false statements. And in November of last year, he was then found guilty on all seven charges. And because of that, back in February, he was sentenced to 40 months in prison. A prison sentence that he was actually set to begin tomorrow, but of course, like I said,

Starting point is 00:11:06 Trump commuted it. Which also isn't the most surprising thing. I mean, even leading up to this, we saw Stone openly asking for his sentence to be commuted, at one point arguing that he could die in prison. On Friday we also saw him telling journalist Howard Feynman, Trump knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him.

Starting point is 00:11:18 It would have eased my situation considerably, but I didn't. And then a few hours later we saw Trump commuting him. And this whole situation is extremely notable, even though, yes, we've seen Trump commuting or pardoning a number of controversial figures. But this, this is the first time that he's done that for someone directly connected to his campaign.

Starting point is 00:11:33 Also notably, in a statement, you had the White House working to discredit Stone's prosecution and conviction, saying things like, "'Mr. Stone was charged by the same prosecutors "'from the Mueller investigation, "'tasked with finding evidence of collusion with Russia. "'Because no such evidence exists, however, they could not charge him for any collusion related crime. Instead, they charged him for his conduct during their investigation.

Starting point is 00:11:51 A simple fact is that if the special counsel had not been pursuing an absolutely baseless investigation, Mr. Stone would not be facing time in prison. And adding, Mr. Stone is a 67 year old man with numerous medical conditions who had never been convicted of another crime, and he was charged by overzealous prosecutors pursuing a case that never should have existed and arrested in an operation that never should have been approved. But also, notably here, this statement never actually says

Starting point is 00:12:12 that Stone is actually innocent of those seven crimes. Now, all of that happens, and later that same day, we saw Mueller publishing an op-ed in the Washington Post. And there, he defended Stone's conviction, saying, "'I feel compelled to respond both to broad claims "'that our investigation was illegitimate "'and our motives were improper, "'and to specific claims that Roger Stone

Starting point is 00:12:28 "'was a victim of our office. "'The Russia investigation was of paramount importance. "'Stone was prosecuted and convicted "'because he committed federal crimes. "'He remains a convicted felon and rightly so.'" Mueller going on to call Stone a central figure in the investigation for two reasons. One, because in 2016, he communicated with individuals

Starting point is 00:12:44 known to us to be Russian intelligence officers. And two, because he claimed advanced knowledge of the release of then candidate Hillary Clinton's emails by those Russian intelligence officers. And adding, when a subject lies to investigators, it strikes at the core of the government's efforts to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable. It may ultimately impede those efforts.

Starting point is 00:13:00 Also following this commutation, you of course had a wave of Democrats calling this an abuse of presidential power, saying it undermines the justice system. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, calling this move an example of staggering corruption. Representative Adam Schiff calling this an impeachable offense. Representative Jerry Nadler also promising

Starting point is 00:13:15 to launch an investigation in the House Judiciary Committee. We also saw some Republicans speaking out, like Senator Mitt Romney, saying on Saturday, "'Unprecedented historic corruption. "'An American president commutes the sentence "'of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president. As well as Senator Pat Toomey saying,

Starting point is 00:13:30 while I understand the frustration with the badly flawed Russia collusion investigation, in my view, commuting Roger Stone's sentence is a mistake. He was duly convicted of lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstruction of a congressional investigation conducted by a Republican-led committee. Toomey also noting that as recently as last week,

Starting point is 00:13:45 you had Attorney General Bill Barr defending Stone's conviction as quote, righteous. Barr also calling that sentence fair. However, we've also seen some Republicans supportive of Stone's commutation. Senator Lindsey Graham, for example, cited Stone's age, also pointing to the fact that this was a nonviolent first time offense.

Starting point is 00:13:59 Also regarding Graham, we saw him responding to that Mueller op-ed by saying, "'Apparently Mr. Mueller is willing and also capable "'of defending the Mueller investigation' "'through an op-ed in the Washington "'Apparently Mr. Mueller is willing and also capable "'of defending the Mueller investigation "'through an op-ed in the Washington Post. "'Democrats and the Senate Judiciary Committee "'have previously requested Mr. Mueller appear "'before the Senate Judiciary Committee

Starting point is 00:14:12 "'to testify about his investigation. "'That request will be granted.'" But ultimately, that is where we are with this story, and I mean, of course, I'd love to know your thoughts, but I personally see the situation as, you know, someone I do not see eye to eye with on a lot of things, Mitt Romney. This just appears to be an American president

Starting point is 00:14:27 commuting the sentence of a person convicted by a jury for lying to shield that very president. This was a public showcasing of anything can go if you remain loyal to Trump. And that is where I'm going to end today's show. As always, thank you for watching, being a part of this community, trying to make sense of the everyday chaos.

Starting point is 00:14:42 Also, thanks for liking this video, sharing it maybe with friends and family, being a part of that conversation down below. Also, if you're new here, definitely hit that subscribe button, tap that bell so it looks like this, so you make sure you get notifications when I upload new videos.

Starting point is 00:14:52 But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in, I love yo faces, and I'll see you tomorrow. I hope you like this video. Subscribe if you like it.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 7.13 BAN vs SAVE TikTok, Washington Redskins, Dr Fauci, Roger Stone & More

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