The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 7.15 Why The Internet Is Freaking Out About Nick Cannon, Kanye, Dwyane Wade, Diddy, & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastard, hope you've had a fantastic Wednesday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it. The first thing we're going to talk about today is this, of course it is, confusing news around Kanye West. You know, as we talked about almost two weeks ago, whether you believe that he was really doing it or he was just trying to get attention, Kanye announced or claimed that he was running for president. And now the news we're seeing today is confusing. We saw a number of reports coming out that Kanye West is dropping out of the 2020 election. You know, there were already conversations

Starting point is 00:00:28 around the fact that he missed important deadlines at a number of states to actually even get on the ballot as an independent candidate. But according to a report from Vanity Fair, Steve Kramer, who's a get out the vote specialist, said that he was hired by West to get his name on the ballot in both Florida and South Carolina. Reportedly saying that West's team was working

Starting point is 00:00:42 over the weekend there, formalizing the FEC and other things they've got to do when you have a lot of corporate lawyers involved, adding, we had overwhelming support to get him on the ballot. Kramer also saying we had over 180 people out there today, but reportedly now Kramer said he's out. I have nothing good or bad to say about Kanye. Everyone has their personal decision

Starting point is 00:00:58 about why they make decisions. Running for president has to be one of the hardest things for someone to actually contemplate at that level. Any candidate running for president for the first time goes through these hiccups. Here's the thing, Kanye West has not confirmed this himself as of recording this video. Since his tweet announcement slash claim that he was gonna be doing this, we've heard very little from him. I mean, other than him tweeting other unrelated things, also tweeting and then deleting a pro-life message. He did an interview where among other things he came out as anti-vax. What I will say is interesting, if it is actually true that he is stopping,

Starting point is 00:01:23 he is no longer actually pursuing this or saying that he's pursuing this. Is this news is being reported less than one week after Kanye West was actually included in a national poll. Reportedly, the national poll happened on July 9th. It was conducted by Redfield and Wilton Strategy. When Kanye wasn't included in the poll, you had Biden at 48%, Trump at 40%.

Starting point is 00:01:40 But when Kanye was included, Biden was at 48% and Trump was at 39%. Obviously that's just one poll. You have things like margins and errors. We can't just go, well, this is the truth. This is the 100%, what would actually happen? But this poll does appear to push back against the idea that by Kanye West running, he would somehow

Starting point is 00:01:57 just automatically siphon black votes away from Biden. Like we mentioned the last time we talked about that, for me it felt very kind of disrespectful and short-sighted to believe that black people don't understand the ramifications of this election. And once again, at least just according to this poll, it would have a neutral, if not just slightly negative reaction for Trump.

Starting point is 00:02:13 Right, so if it is true that Kanye West is backing off of this idea or he's pulling back and he doesn't kind of then reverse course and do it again, some might argue that it gives validity to the idea that Kanye West was running to try and help Trump. And that might be one of the reasons why he's backing off now.

Starting point is 00:02:26 But that said, to add confusion to this situation, we're now also seeing reports that Kanye West filed the first form required by the FEC today. Form one, statement of organization declaring that the Kanye 2020 committee will serve as the principal campaign committee with West as its candidate. Though the report also noting he's yet to file

Starting point is 00:02:42 the more important form two, statement of candidacy, which shows he's raised or spent more than $5,000 in campaign activity and triggers candidacy status under federal campaign finance law. And you can check it on fec.gov, it does appear to be there. So hey, maybe he's still actually gonna do it, maybe he's not gonna do it, it's all confusion.

Starting point is 00:02:58 I will unfortunately be keeping my eye on this situation. But I guess where I'll end this story is if one, it turns out that it is true that Kanye West is dropping out, let's please just have a moment of silence for all the Kanye West president memes. Great. And two, whether Kanye is out of the way or not, I am very excited to announce that I am running

Starting point is 00:03:17 for president of Franco 2020. Our slogan is, let's add to the chaos and confusion and I will be running as an independent as part of the people aren't paying enough attention to me party. And as your new candidate for president, I say yes, we can be a distraction to the real issues that society is facing right now.

Starting point is 00:03:37 Okay, enough of this bit. But I do wanna pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts around all of this? You feel like Kanye's gonna come out soon and go like, no, I'm still in it. Or do you think this is all for attention for his new album and releases? Or is he really doing it?

Starting point is 00:03:48 Or it's kind of this hot and cold thing? I don't, it's just a mess. I'd love to know your thoughts on it. And then let's talk about this news and controversy around Nick Cannon. You might've seen his name trending last night, this morning, and it all appears to be stemming back to antisemitic comments that he made

Starting point is 00:04:00 on an episode of his podcast, Cannon's Class. The episode in question aired just a few weeks ago. It had Professor Griff on as a guest. Notably, Professor Griff was in public enemy until he exited the group back in 1989 following anti-Semitic remarks that he made in an interview with reports saying that he told the Washington Times that Jews are wicked

Starting point is 00:04:16 and we can prove this, adding that they are responsible for quote, the majority of wickedness that goes on across the globe. And on this recent podcast, you had Nick Cannon not specifically referencing those exact words, but he actually asked him about the controversy, with some saying that Cannon was sort of applauding him for not apologizing at the time.

Starting point is 00:04:30 And there we saw Professor Griff sort of continue to defend those comments. In order for me to be anti-Semitic, I'd have to be anti-black man, anti-black woman, anti-black people, anti-Africa, anti all of the people. Because the Semitic people. Are black people. Are black people. So anti-all of the people. Because the Semitic people are black people. Are black people. So y'all get that clarity. We're going to say that again. The Semitic people are black people. As Professor Griff continued to talk about his remarks, his ideology behind them,

Starting point is 00:04:56 Nick says that he was speaking the truth. He then references the Rothschilds, who, if you don't know, are a family that's been subject to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. And also he seemed to promote those theories after Professor Griff seemed to suggest that six main media companies are controlled by Jewish people. Who are they? When we speak of, because this is where it truly is

Starting point is 00:05:11 when we talk about the six corporations, when we go as deep as the Rothschilds, centralized banking, the 13 families, the bloodlines that control everything, even outside of America. Nick also saying that black people are the true Hebrews. Throughout the podcast, Nick also brings up

Starting point is 00:05:30 the controversial Nation of Islam leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan, who has long been known for making antisemitic comments. Right, I mean, according to the Anti-Defamation League, as recently as the 4th of July, he referred to Jewish people as Satan and an enemy of God. And Kenan calls Farrakhan honorable, praises him, says that people are silencing him,

Starting point is 00:05:45 defends him against criticisms of antisemitism. And in one clip that's been going viral on Twitter, we saw Nick sort of speaking about the historical context of religion and saying, So then these people who didn't have what we had, and when I say we, I speak of the melanated people. They had to be savages. They had to be barbaric.

Starting point is 00:06:03 And as far as who he's referencing there, he later adds, whether it's Jewish people, white people, Europeans, the Illuminati, they were doing that as survival tactics. Nick Cannon said a bunch of other stuff as well. We're mainly focusing on the antisemitism as it relates to another part that we're gonna touch on in a minute. You know, you also had a lot of people pointing out him

Starting point is 00:06:21 suggesting that people without melanin were lesser or deficient, closer to animals. Saying things like they're acting out of fear, they're acting out of low self-esteem, they're acting out of a deficiency. Saying so therefore the only way they can act is evil. They have to rob, steal, rape, kill in order to survive. And so following the podcast and these clips going viral you had a lot of people taking offense, being outraged. Believing much of what they saw was rooted in anti-semitic conspiracy theories. With the American Jewish Committee calling them abhorrent and unacceptable, adding, "'His message of hate has no place in our society

Starting point is 00:06:48 "'and should be condemned by all people of good conscience.'" Though it is important to note here there are a lot of people defending him, thinking people are just way too eager to cancel a black man. You know, on Monday as backlash was starting to come in from all of this, Nick took to Facebook to say, "'Anyone who knows me knows that I have no hate in my heart

Starting point is 00:07:01 "'nor malice intentions. "'I do not condone hate speech "'nor the spread of hateful rhetoric. The black and Jewish communities have both faced enormous hatred, oppression, persecution and prejudice for thousands of years and in many ways have and will continue to work together to overcome these obstacles.

Starting point is 00:07:15 I am an advocate for people's voices to be heard openly, fairly and candidly. In today's conversation about anti-racism and social justice, I think we all, including myself, must continue educating one another and embrace uncomfortable conversations. It's the only way we all get better." And also adding that he is holding himself accountable.

Starting point is 00:07:31 Then we ended up getting the big news last night that ViacomCBS, which had a relationship with Nick for decades, said that they are dropping ties with him, saying in a statement yesterday, "'ViacomCBS condemns bigotry of any kind "'and we categorically denounce all forms of antisemitism. We have spoken with Nick Cannon about an episode of his podcast, Cannon's Class on YouTube,

Starting point is 00:07:49 which promoted hateful speech and spread antisemitic conspiracy theories. And adding, while we support ongoing education and dialogue in the fight against bigotry, we are deeply troubled that Nick has failed to acknowledge or apologize for perpetuating antisemitism and we are terminating our relationship with him. We are committed to doing better in our response to incidents of anti-semitism, racism and bigotry."

Starting point is 00:08:07 And that is just an absolutely massive move because like I said, Nick's working relationship with this company goes all the way back to his Nickelodeon days. And so following this announcement this morning, we saw Nick Cannon respond. In a lengthy Facebook post, he condemned Viacom for cutting ties with him, saying that he was trying to create a moment of reconciliation, but that moment was trying to create a moment of reconciliation, but that moment was quote, "'stolen and hijacked' to make an example "'of an outspoken black man." And adding, "'I will not be bullied, silenced, "'or continuously oppressed by any organization,

Starting point is 00:08:30 "'group, or corporation. "'I am disappointed that Viacom does not understand "'or respect the power of the black community.'" Then going on to talk about his long history with the company from writing for Nickelodeon at just 17 to becoming the chairman of Team Nick, and then adding, "'I created a billion dollar brand

Starting point is 00:08:44 "'that expanded across a multi-tiered empire "'that is still Viacom's biggest digital brand, "'touring business, talent discovery and incubation system, "'and successful restaurant franchise. "'Based on trust and empty promises, "'my ownership was swindled away from me.'" He also goes on to claim that Viacom has banned ads regarding George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

Starting point is 00:09:00 And as far as his recent situation, he claimed that he actually got support from the Jewish community and going on to say, "'I must apologize to my Jewish brothers and sisters "'for putting them in such a painful position, "'which was never my intention, "'but I know this whole situation has hurt many people, "'and together we will make it right.'"

Starting point is 00:09:14 With his post continuing, "'As for Viacom, who is now on the wrong side of history, "'I will continue to pray for you. "'I don't blame any individual. "'I blame the oppressive and racist infrastructure.'" And adding, "'If I have furthered the hate speech, "'I wholeheartedly apologize. With him then asking for full ownership of Wild N' Out

Starting point is 00:09:28 and for an apology. But ultimately, with all of that said, that is where we are with this right now. You know, you have a lot of people looking at this situation going, okay, well what happens next? Right, and that in part because ViacomCBS isn't the only one out there that has a relationship with Nick Cannon.

Starting point is 00:09:39 You have a number of other people looking to networks like Fox that still have working ties with him. Also kind of on the other side of this regarding people who support him and what happens next. You saw the likes of Diddy this morning tweeting, "'Nick Cannon, come home to Revolt TV, truly black owned. "'We got your back and love you "'and what you have done for the culture.

Starting point is 00:09:53 "'We are for our people first. "'For us, by us, let's go.'" We also saw Dwayne Wade tweeting out support of Nick Cannon, but then later deleting it. But ultimately that is where we are with this story right now. It is still developing. We're still seeing fallout, more reactions.

Starting point is 00:10:05 And so actually along those lines, I do wanna pass a question off to you. What are your thoughts around this? Are you happy to see that ViacomCBS cut ties with Nick Cannon? Do you agree with the people that are outraged by him? Or are you kind of in line with Diddy? You support Nick Cannon?

Starting point is 00:10:16 Why, why not? Any and all thoughts, of course, I'd love to hear from you in those comments down below. And then let's talk about the situation around the coronavirus, the CDC, and the Trump administration. Right, in general, this story is about how data is collected. In the past, that data was collected by the Centers for Disease Control.

Starting point is 00:10:30 But now the Trump administration has ordered that starting today, hospitals are to bypass the CDC and instead send their information about COVID-19 to a central database controlled by the Department of Health and Human Services. Right, and this is a move that was shocking to health experts. You know, it's kind of intuitive that information about an ongoing pandemic would go to the Centers for Disease Control. But the supposed issue that this was solving is it's not just the CDC that needs the info,

Starting point is 00:10:51 but also a ton of other agencies as well. So the argument behind this move is that by having all this information in one place that other agencies then access, it will streamline the process. Right, because it's not just the CDC that would use the info, but also groups like the Coronavirus Task Force. With the argument being that by having it all in one spot, it'll allow them to better handle the pandemic

Starting point is 00:11:07 and better allocate scarce resources. Things like ventilators, PPE, remdesivir, which is the first drug shown to be effective against the virus. And as far as how this whole plan even started, according to a July 10th memo that laid out today's new rules, back in late March, Vice President Pence sent a letter to hospitals

Starting point is 00:11:21 across the United States asking them to send daily reports about the pandemic. And since then, a ton of agencies have asked for similar information, with the government claiming that hospitals complained that so many groups were asking for information that it was distracting administrators from actual hospital duties. Some even saying that they had to hire extra

Starting point is 00:11:35 full-time employees just to handle all the requests for data. So, reportedly, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, sets up a call with hospital administrators and groups that represent hospitals to come up with a new plan, which brings us full circle back to today and the new reporting rules. Right, so at face value, that might not sound too bad.

Starting point is 00:11:49 You know, you might be asking, what's the catch? Why is this even a big deal? Well, here are the basic arguments against taking that information away from the CDC. The largest complaint is that it's moving information away from experts who specialize in disease management and control. Moving the information away from the experts

Starting point is 00:12:02 has led to accusations that the administration is politicizing the science, which is why among other things, we saw an open letter from the information away from the experts has led to accusations that the administration is politicizing the science. Which is why among other things, we saw an open letter from the past heads of the CDC from both Democrat and Republican administrations saying such. Also more recently in response to all of this, we saw Dr. Nicole Lurie, former Assistant Secretary

Starting point is 00:12:15 for Preparedness and Response under Obama say, "'Centralizing control of all data under the umbrella "'of an inherently political apparatus "'is dangerous and breeds distrust,' adding, "'It appears to cut off the ability of agencies like CDC to do its basic job. Which leads to the next possible issue that the information won't be made available.

Starting point is 00:12:31 Like Dr. Lurie stated, there are fears that the CDC will be blocked from the information. Also, beside the CDC, that information is used by a ton of people outside of government. Here's what Jen Cates, director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation had to say about it. Historically, CDC has been the place

Starting point is 00:12:45 where public health data has been sent. And this raises questions about not just access for researchers, but access for reporters, access for the public to try to better understand what is happening with the outbreak. And continuing, how will the data be protected? Will there be transparency? Will there be access?

Starting point is 00:12:59 And what is the role of the CDC in understanding the data? Because obviously the public not having access to this data is a serious concern. This is a move coming from an administration and a president who constantly complains that we're testing too much. The numbers make him look bad. Now that said, regarding those that support this decision

Starting point is 00:13:13 as far as what reasons they have, there's an argument that's been made that the CDC system that's called the National Healthcare Safety Network, that it's known for being cumbersome, slow, the guidelines for what data and how to submit it constantly change. This leading to hospital administrators being frustrated about needing to report the data over and over again to a ton of different agencies and shifting guidelines within each agency.

Starting point is 00:13:31 And the new system, which is managed by Teletracking, which is a health data firm in Pittsburgh, is supposed to remove some of these redundancies, partly by using one standardized submission form. Also, if you have hospitals reporting to their state and that state then sends the information to the HHS, that hospital can get a waiver and skip sending it to the HHS themselves. With there also being hopes that this system will be faster than what the CDC currently uses. With Health and Human Services spokesperson Michael R. Caputo saying, "'Today, the CDC still has at least a weak lag "'in reporting hospital data.

Starting point is 00:13:56 "'America requires it in real time.'" Now, there is a possible issue with this whole explanation. Both systems use push data, meaning that they both require hospital states and agencies to actually input the data themselves and send it to the HHS. However, that July 10th memo does state that there are plans to automate the process, something that the CDC has struggled to do for years. Caputo also trying to calm fears that the information was going to be locked away from the CDC and the public saying, the new, faster, and complete data system is what our nation needs to

Starting point is 00:14:21 defeat the coronavirus and the CDC and operating division of HHS will certainly participate in this streamlined all of government response. They will simply no longer control it. With him also going on to specifically say that the data would be available to the public. Which on that note, we've also seen Dr. Birx giving assurances to hospital administrators

Starting point is 00:14:37 back when this whole system was being set up that the info would be public. And those assurances were at least bought by some of the doctors on the call. Including the likes of Dr. Janice Orlowski who told the New York Times, "'We are comfortable with the switch "'as long as they continue to work with us,

Starting point is 00:14:48 "'as long as they continue to make the information public, "'and as long as we're able to continue to advise them "'and look at the data.'" With the doctor adding that she believes that the switch is a sincere effort to streamline and improve data collection. But as of right now, there's no data coming at all. You also have the New York Times reporting

Starting point is 00:15:02 that the Health and Human Services database that will receive new information is not open to the public, which could affect the work of scores of researchers, modelers, and health officials who rely on CDC data to make projections and crucial decisions. That's a key distinction, right? The difference between the information being made public down the line

Starting point is 00:15:16 and having direct access to the database itself, right? With direct access, researchers wouldn't need to worry about any of the numbers being messed with. But as of right now, with the system just having launched this morning, there's no data coming out at all, not even on the CDC's page. And you know, the HHS has complained

Starting point is 00:15:29 that the CDC took at least a week to report information. So since today is the first day of this new system, we'll actually have to wait to see if the HHS can actually go any faster. Now, that said, understand there are still criticisms that putting the information in the hands of political appointees is dangerous. You had Representative Donna Shalala of Florida

Starting point is 00:15:45 who previously served as health secretary saying, "'Only the CDC has the expertise to collect data. "'I think any move to take responsibility away "'from the people who have the expertise is politicizing.'" But ultimately, that is where we are with this story. As of right now, we're obviously gonna keep our eyes on it. But with that said, I do wanna pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here?

Starting point is 00:16:01 With the Trump administration doing this, does it make you concerned about the numbers, or do you believe them this is really about just the whole system getting better. Why? Why not? Any and all thoughts you have here, I'd love to see in those comments down below. And that is where I'm going to end today's show. As always, to the three of you still here, thank you for being a part of this. Whether you're just a part of the community that's watching or maybe you're liking, sharing the video, being a part of the conversation down below, I appreciate you. Also, if you're new here, you wanna join the family. Hit that subscribe button, definitely tap that bell

Starting point is 00:16:26 so you turn on notifications so you get updates when I know, what was I gonna say? When I upload videos. Don't mind me, my mind is slowly turning into jelly. But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow. I hope you liked the video.

Starting point is 00:16:41 Subscribe if you like it.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 7.15 Why The Internet Is Freaking Out About Nick Cannon, Kanye, Dwyane Wade, Diddy, & More

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