The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 8.8 The Equinox SoulCycle Boycott, Jeffree Star #ClearTheList, Chrissy Teigen, & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you have a fantastic Thursday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show and let's just jump into it. The first thing we're going to talk about today, I was kind of surprised we saw SoulCycle and Equinox in the news. And for those unfamiliar, SoulCycle, well they describe themselves as way more than a workout, it's a sanctuary. Which, given where this story goes, that's kind of funny. But yeah, it's a place people work out by spinning like crazy. And Equinox is the high-end gym that, I think the price range for a membership for a single location can be anywhere from $185 all the way to $500. For the sake of transparency,

Starting point is 00:00:31 my wife and I used to be members of Equinox, but we stopped going for non-political reasons. We just realized, holy hell, that's way too much money. Let's literally take the money that it would cost for a year and just make a gym ourselves, and that's what we did. The main point here, this all starts with the Washington Post report related to Steven Ross,

Starting point is 00:00:47 a real estate investor who is a chairman and majority owner of Related Companies, which owns Equinox and SoulCycle. He's also the owner of the Miami Dolphin. And the Post said that Ross would be hosting a major fundraiser event for Donald Trump in the Hamptons, an event where certain tickets could be as high as $250,000.

Starting point is 00:01:01 Reportedly, at that price, you would get lunch, a photo with Trump, and a chance to participate in a round table discussion with him. The report came out on Tuesday, but it just blew up yesterday when members of those gyms were reportedly upset to learn that the owner was hosting an event for Trump. With some saying they were extremely frustrated

Starting point is 00:01:15 because Equinox prides itself on being LGBTQ plus friendly, and even having a presence at some pride parades throughout the country. And so we all of a sudden saw a lot of people calling to boycott the locations. This including some celebrities. You had Queer Eye's Jonathan Van Ness. You had Billy Eichner tweeting, "'Hey Equinox, what's your policy

Starting point is 00:01:29 "'for canceling memberships once a member finds out "'your owner is enabling racism and mass murder?' Adding that he canceled his membership after many years. "'Money talks, especially with these monsters.'" And adding, "'If it's too inconvenient for you to trade one luxury gym "'for another, then you should be ashamed.'" But adding,

Starting point is 00:01:42 "'No disrespect to the many wonderful employees "'at my local Equinox.'" You also had Miami Dolphins player Kenny Stills chiming in about his team's owner, specifically calling out a non-profit Ross is a co-chair of called Rise. According to its website, the foundation educates and empowers the sports community

Starting point is 00:01:54 to eliminate racial discrimination, champion social justice, and improve race relations. And about this, Stills said, you can't have a non-profit with this mission statement, then open your doors to Trump. You also had Chrissy Teigen being involved, both in tweets and talking about it in her insta story. In it she says that you know she knows a lot of her friends are members of Equinox and SoulCycle and then she goes on to say and I just want to let you know that their owner is hosting a giant Trump fundraiser and

Starting point is 00:02:19 so fuck them cancel your memberships today you can come to my house and work out. She also tweeted out what appears to be the notice of her cancellation. And in that email it says, "'At the moment we are experiencing high volumes of emails "'and a response time of redacted.'" So it appeared that she was not alone in trying to cancel her membership.

Starting point is 00:02:38 But of course, in addition to people being supportive or also canceling their memberships, there was also some backlash here. In fact, regarding that, Teigen shared a post that read, "'Are are we seriously not using businesses now that don't have the same political views as us No matter who any person or business support should not affect personal relationships or ruin businesses just because they do not support who you support It's our right as Americans to have freedom of choice or there would be one political party respect their choice and move on with your life Like I respect your choice. This is getting so ridiculous which Teagan commented Yeah, we fucking are these quote different views you speak of are fundamental differences in compassion, empathy,

Starting point is 00:03:09 humanity. We also saw Equinox and SoulCycle respond. Both statements very similar. Equinox is reading, We want to let you know that Equinox and SoulCycle have nothing to do with the event and do not support it. As is consistent with our policies, no company profits are used to fund politicians. In fact, we are committed to all members in the communities we live in. We believe in tolerance and equality and will always stay true to those values. Mr. Ross is a passive investor and not involved in the management of either business."

Starting point is 00:03:32 But regarding that, you had people taking issue with their statements referring to Ross as a quote, passive investor, as he is the chairman of their parent company. Many saying it's incredibly misleading to downplay his involvement and his benefit from owning those companies. Right, essentially saying, you know,

Starting point is 00:03:45 Equinox and SoulCycle may not be donating directly to Trump or putting together this event together for Trump. Right, the money would go to a number of people, including Ross, and then Ross is doing what Ross does. Now, as far as what Steven Ross has to say about this whole thing, he issued a statement saying, "'I always have been an active participant "'in the democratic process.

Starting point is 00:04:00 "'While some prefer to sit outside of the process "'and criticize, I prefer to engage directly "'and support the things I deeply care about. I have known Donald Trump for 40 years and while we agree on some issues, we strongly disagree on many others and I have never been bashful about expressing my opinions. I started my business with nothing and a reason for my engagement with our leaders is my deep concern for creating jobs and growing our country's economy. I have been and will continue to be an outspoken champion of racial equality, inclusion, diversity, public education, and environmental stability. I have and will continue to support leaders on both sides of the aisle to address these challenges."

Starting point is 00:04:30 But that statement also appeared to have angered people. And this was with kind of people on both sides, albeit to different levels. Right, because a lot of people were looking at Ross's statement and they're like, "'Okay, so he says that he greatly disagrees with Trump on several issues.' And then in that same statement, he refers to himself

Starting point is 00:04:43 as a champion of diversity, of inclusion, of racial equality. So you had a number of people reading those parts of the statement together and saying, okay, so is he saying that President Trump does not stand for this? Which of course, for supporters of the president, would look like he's throwing the president under the bus.

Starting point is 00:04:57 And then on the other side of things, you have the co-founder of Vox, Matthew Iglesias, tweeting, "'The fact that the SoulCycle billionaire guy "'under pressure wants to explain that he supports Trump "'for the tax cuts and not for The racism is actually a clarifying an important moment about what's really happening in America And so there are a number of people saying you're choosing money and tax cuts over the the other stuff that you're saying that you're Against which I will say I do know a number of Trump supporters some of which are kind of reluctant

Starting point is 00:05:19 They're like, you know, it feels like this has been great for business and for my money No, I don't like his tweets and his other stuff. Right, which with your vote, you are weighing one thing heavier than the other ultimately. Also though, it can be connected to how much worse you think the other candidate could be. Right, but the idea is that they're essentially arguing that they're a reluctant Trump supporter. I think that the reason so many people are calling bullshit on Ross is it's hard to kind of position yourself as a reluctant Trump supporter when you're throwing an event where a single ticket can cost $250,000.

Starting point is 00:05:47 So ultimately that's where we are. And as far as kind of the end piece of this story, one, it'll be interesting to see if this kind of celebrity-led boycott will matter. Will it make a difference? Maybe, but as we've seen when the left and the right boycott things, sometimes it doesn't do anything except give it just free press.

Starting point is 00:06:02 As far as should the politics of owners of companies matter, I think that is an interesting question. It feels a little bit like the higher-end version of that whole Chick-fil-A situation from years ago. Right, among the differences in those situations, because there's a number, there is a difference between a few-dollar delicious, delicious chicken sandwich and an in-the-thousand-dollars-a-year gym membership, right? So accessibility, clientele of those companies. But I don't know, and I guess that's the question I pass off to you.

Starting point is 00:06:25 Do you think that it should matter? We've definitely seen people take advantage of it. I mean, Nike, of course, one of the mainstream examples, although that's less about some owner you maybe have never heard of, and more of a company positioning itself. Another company I think that's done it fantastically on the other end of the spectrum,

Starting point is 00:06:38 you have Black Rifle Coffee. They appear to have a strong conservative lean. They've taken advantage of some of the news headlines, thrusting themselves into the situation. So, you know, I guess it feels like politics is becoming part of everything, which of course also includes consumerism. Money does make the world move around,

Starting point is 00:06:52 and much like a vote, how we spend our money can also show what we want to see more of in the world. But I don't know, and I genuinely mean that, because I feel like oftentimes when we see people, whatever side they're on, and they're like, ah, I wish blah, blah, blah wouldn't involve politics. It feels like often the people saying, oh, does everything have to be about politics

Starting point is 00:07:08 are usually saying about a situation where there's an opposition to what they're feeling. Yeah, that's where I'll leave it and I'll pass the question off to you. Then just a very short update on the Brookhout situation that we covered yesterday. I'm not gonna show the videos again here. Something that was reported a little after our video went up.

Starting point is 00:07:22 Portally, an LAPD representative said, quote, our animal cruelty task force has received numerous complaints about the video you're speaking of, and we are currently looking into the matter.'" So it appears the authorities are aware, but for now, we're gonna have to kind of wait to see what happens there. And then, my friend, let's talk about the updates around the situation in Puerto Rico. Now, the last time we talked about this was when Ricardo Rossello said that he was stepping down as governor. And this came after days and days of massive protests calling for him to resign following the Ricky Leak scandal, which, if you don't't remember was where there were hundreds

Starting point is 00:07:46 of pages of messages that were leaked revealing conversations between Rossello and some of his top ranking officials using sexist and homophobic slurs. Also joking about people who died in Hurricane Maria. But that is not where the drama ends because as we kind of touched on last time we talked about it there was a red flag as far as well,

Starting point is 00:08:01 who is going to replace him? So that's actually why we're talking about Puerto Rico again today because as of yesterday, they have had three different governors over the course of just six days. So let's break down what exactly happened. After Rossello resigned, the next in the line of succession was the Secretary of State, which seems simple enough,

Starting point is 00:08:16 but only if you actually have a Secretary of State. But as we talked about before, Puerto Rico's Secretary of State actually resigned because he was also involved in the Ricky Leakes scandal. So that was a no-go, and Rossello basically had two choices from there. One, either nominate a's Secretary of State actually resigned because he was also involved in the Ricky Leakes scandal. So that was a no-go, and Rossello basically had two choices from there. One, either nominate a new Secretary of State and hope that that person was approved

Starting point is 00:08:30 by Puerto Rico's House and Senate before he left office on August 2nd, or two, just continue down the line of succession. Right, and just on its face, the second option seems easier, but it turns out it wasn't. The third in the line of succession was the Secretary of Justice, Juan de Vazquez, but a few days after Rossello announced

Starting point is 00:08:44 that he was going to resign, she tweeted, "'I reiterate, I have no interest "'in occupying the position of Justice, Wanda Vasquez. But a few days after Osseo announced that he was going to resign, she tweeted, "'I reiterate, I have no interest "'in occupying the position of governor. "'It is a constitutional mandate. "'I hope that the governor identifies "'and submits a candidate for the position "'of Secretary of State before August 2nd, "'and I have told him so.'"

Starting point is 00:08:56 Right, so Wanda was out, and that meant that the next in line for succession was the Treasury Secretary. But he couldn't be governor because he was 31, and Puerto Rico's constitution says that the governor has to be at least 35. And so at this point, they were at the fifth in line for succession, which is actually the Secretary of Education Right and so people were describing this as things getting pretty desperate right now Wasn't helped by the fact that the Secretary of Education was a career bureaucrat with very little political experience who has also only been serving

Starting point is 00:09:18 For a few months right because as we talked about before the previous Secretary of Education was arrested for illegally directing 15.5 million dollars in federal contracts to business friends. But ultimately what we ended up seeing was Rossello nominate this man, Pedro Pierre Luisi, as Secretary of State. And he seemed like a good choice. He was a lawyer who previously served as Puerto Rico's non-voting member in Congress

Starting point is 00:09:36 and as their Secretary of Justice. And notably, it seemed like the House agreed because they approved his nomination, but the Senate didn't feel the same way. Reportedly, the senators were wary of Pedro because he had spent the last few years working for a Washington, D.C.-based law firm, which notably gave legal counsel

Starting point is 00:09:50 to the Federal Oversight Board that monitors Puerto Rico's bankruptcy. And that board is largely and strongly disliked by Puerto Ricans because it imposed strict austerity measures on them. And so as a result, the senators were concerned that he would still try to push the board's agenda. And so then August 2nd rolls around,

Starting point is 00:10:02 and with the first in line not confirmed as Secretary of State, no one had really any idea who was going to be sworn in as governor. And so then August 2nd rolls around and with the first in line not confirmed as Secretary of State, no one had really any idea who was going to be sworn in as governor. And so what we end up seeing is Rossello just goes ahead and swears in Pedro. And so unsurprisingly, it turns out that the Senate wasn't okay with the guy they didn't approve leading Puerto Rico.

Starting point is 00:10:16 So the next day we see the Senate majority leader filing a lawsuit arguing that it was unconstitutional for Pedro to be governor without Senate confirmation. Pedro then defends himself citing a 2005 law that says a Secretary of State does Not need to be approved by both House and Senate if they need to assume the position of governor in an emergency But yesterday Puerto Rico Supreme Court ruled that a Secretary of State does have to be approved by both the House and Senate in order To step up as governor right and so as a result Pedro's appointment was deemed unconstitutional and he had to step down immediately So then what do we see after Pedro serves a whopping 120 hours as Puerto Rican governor?

Starting point is 00:10:48 The understandably shortest period of time anyone has served in that office. Well, he stepped down and shortly after, Wanda Vasquez was sworn in as the governor of Puerto Rico. And Vasquez had a televised speech last night where she said that she was not chosen by the people, but she would try to create dialogue and build consensus saying,

Starting point is 00:11:04 "'We will work together on all that unites us "'and we will look for consensus where we disagree.' "'In continuing, I will remain focused "'on resuming the course for our people "'in an orderly and peaceful fashion.'" And while that is pretty much where we are right now, it is also incredibly unlikely that this is where this is going to end.

Starting point is 00:11:18 And I say that because even before anyone was sworn in as governor and even after Vasquez said that she didn't want this job, you had protesters taken to the streets to oppose her possible appointment. There was also a hashtag calling for her to resign that was reportedly shared on Twitter more than 60,000 times. And also after her swearing in,

Starting point is 00:11:32 a small group of protesters gathered in front of the governor's mansion to call for her resignation and reportedly chanted, "'There'll be no peace as long as there's impunity.'" And already, Puerto Rico is expecting a new wave of much larger protests calling for Vasquez to step down. And Vasquez, who has never held elected political office, is already highly unpopular among Puerto Ricans

Starting point is 00:11:48 for a number of reasons. At the very top level, kind of like we mentioned last time, many just view her as an extension of Rossello's corrupt administration. Critics have also accused her of not being aggressive enough in launching corruption investigations into members of her own party during her tenure as Secretary of Justice.

Starting point is 00:12:00 She's also been criticized for not prioritizing gender violence cases while serving as the head of Puerto Rico's Women's Affairs Office, as well as for making controversial statements about abuse victims and for not investigating a recent rise in violence against women in Puerto Rico. And more recently, she also came under fire for refusing to investigate trailers full of unused hurricane supplies that were found abandoned in fields a year after the hurricane. This despite the fact that the leaked messages revealed that she had discussed looking into it with the governor's chief of staff before declining to do so. Like I said, that's pretty much where we are now. It's going to be interesting to see what happens there. But for now, we're going to have to wait and see. And of course,

Starting point is 00:12:30 I always love to know everyone's opinion, but also because specifically on this story, because we've had kind of more people from Puerto Rico or with families still there chiming in when we cover it. What are your thoughts on this? What do you think will happen? What do you want to happen? Let me know in those comments down below. And that's where we're going to end today's show. And hey, if you like diving into the news with me, I'd love if you took a second to hit that like button. Also, if you're new here, I definitely recommend you hit that subscribe button,

Starting point is 00:12:50 turn that bell on for notifications. That way you don't miss the Philip DeFranco show, which actually on that note, if you did miss yesterday's show and you wanna catch up, you can click or tap right there. Or if you already saw that and you wanna watch today's extra bonus news deep dive, you can click or tap right there.

Starting point is 00:13:02 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 next time.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 8.8 The Equinox SoulCycle Boycott, Jeffree Star #ClearTheList, Chrissy Teigen, & More

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