The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.17 New Allegations, Leaks, & Hacks, & more

Episode Date: September 17, 2018

Latest episode of The Philip DeFranco Show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you're having a fantastic Monday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show, and let's just jump into it. The first thing we're going to talk about today, some of the most requested stories from over the weekend, involve why we are seeing YouTubers bleeding more and more into the mainstream news cycle. First up, you got Elijah Daniel, successful YouTuber turned rapper. He is going on tour right now. And that tour accomplished a fantastic feat, and that was, it was protested by the Westboro Baptist Church. You know those hate mongers that like to protest things like soldiers funerals. They issued a press

release, they showed up with those disgusting signs, although that really just turned into a photo op for a lot of people that went there, including Elijah himself. Elijah even tweeting those photos with the caption, shout out Westboro for skipping church to come to my gay rap concert, y'all some real stans. And looking at how successful the event ended up being, looking at the trolling Twitter trends around the Westboro Baptist Church here, I really wonder, does the Westboro Baptist Church truly not realize that whatever they are against,

they end up just promoting? I mean, do you realize what a badge of honor it is to be denounced by an organization that protests soldiers' funerals? There are very few organizations on this planet that are as universally disliked as a Westboro Baptist Church They are seen at a level of comic book evil I guess on that note we should thank the Westboro Baptist Church because seemingly whatever they are against they give free promo and bring In a new wave of love

That's kind of funny for me to see how that works the other bit of YouTube bleeding out into the mainstream was that we had the Paul brothers, and actually not just the Paul brothers, their father in the news. Even Newsweek reporting, "'Logan Brothers' Sex Tape Leak' Hackers Allegedly Post Their Father's Private Videos." And as Newsweek explained, "'Inside what was allegedly Greg Paul's AOL email address

were sexually explicit photos of women and a sex tape,' then adding, "'The photos were blurred and the three sex tape clips don't show any faces, so there's no actual evidence that this leak actually features the Paul patriarch tape, then adding, "'The photos were blurred and the three sex tape clips "'don't show any faces, so there's no actual evidence "'that this leak actually features the Paul patriarch.'" But then adding, "'Twitter sleuths claim "'that the headboard and bed appearing in the sex tape "'can also be found in an Instagram post by Greg.'"

And in addition to this, we had Jake Paul in the news, because Instagram model Selena Cristoforo posted what appeared to be DMs with Jake Paul. And then in those messages, it appears that he's trying to fly her out to Miami, but if you even go through the video where there's a scroll There's nothing definitive and even the messages end with you blocked me question mark So this part of it seems kind of just like a petty grab at clout

So that was a thing then in an update to a story that has just not gone away Vern Unsworth the Thai cave rescue volunteer He is now officially suing Elon Musk this of course after Musk called Unsworth a pedo a child rapist That's just the stuff he posted publicly on Twitter not including that whole BuzzFeed article where he thought he was off the record but he wasn't. He talked about Unsworth and a child bride without also providing evidence. But a big thing to note here is this update was expected. Of course on August 28th, Musk tweeted, You don't think it's strange he hasn't sued me? Then Unsworth's attorney showcased a letter that was dated August 6th, that letter saying that he was preparing a libel lawsuit.

And now officially, according to reports, the case was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. And in that, reportedly, Unsworth is seeking $75,000 for what he refers to as worldwide damage. According to the report, there is also a separate lawsuit that is going to be filed in London for the damages Unsworth, who is British,

suffered in England and Wales. And ultimately, we'll have to wait to see what happens here. Is Elon Musk going to fight this? Is he just going to throw the money at the situation and pay for it to go away? Which I'm sure a good number of his supporters would just be happy with. It was a self-inflicted wound.

It has gone on for so long. And really short of providing the proof of the things that he has alleged, I mean, I don't know what other way there is to navigate. And actually on that note, I'll pass the question off to you. Do you think this is a situation that you just throw the money at, you go away? And also, do you think that Elon Musk will do that?

But from that, I wanna share some stuff I love today in Today in Awesome, brought to you by SeatGeek. And SeatGeek is of course the fantastic ticket app that takes confusion out of buying tickets for live events, whether it be a concert, a comedy show, a sporting event, or whatever. They put all the tickets in one place, they give them zero to 100 scores,

so you know if you're getting a good deal or not. I have the app on my phone, and it is by far the easiest way to purchase tickets, whether it be something kind of last minute, or something I'm looking forward to a few months down the road. And it's a really fantastic time to try it out. You've got football season, baseball season,

there are a ton of fantastic concerts, including Drake, Childish Gambino, Taylor Swift, whoever. And best of all, if you go to SeatGeekPhil.com, you download the app, you enter an offer code, Phil, you'll get $20 off your first ticket purchase. And the first bit of awesome today is, as of today, we are testing out a bunch of new content over at youtube.com slash phil.ed.

Historically, that channel's been very vlog-based, but as of this week, we're shifting programming, changing things up, releasing more podcasts, sit-down interviews, clips of other podcasts that we're working on, like the Rogue Rocket podcast. This is me and several people from behind the scenes talking things out. So after today's show, if you want up to 25 more minutes

of my dumb face, a link down below. Then we had CollegeHumor giving us a message from the CEO of MoviePass. We had Bieber doing a musical photo bomb with Jimmy Fallon. We had Keegan-Michael Key and Olivia Munn answering the web's most searched questions. Then if you have somehow not heard it yet, Eminem released Killshot.

Then we got the official trailer for Mary Poppins Returns. And if you want to see the full versions of everything I just shared, the secret link of the day, really anything from today, links as always are in the description down below. And then let's talk about this wild situation out of Massachusetts. So if you didn't see, last Thursday afternoon,

there were reports of fires and explosions in the Merrimack Valley area of Massachusetts, which is around 25 miles outside of Boston. At 4.52 local time, state police tweeted, MSP troopers on scene, more responding to Lawrence slash Andover slash North Andover to assist with scene security and traffic control after multiple suspected gas explosions and structure fires.

And soon on social media, we saw videos of homes on fire, firefighters battling these blazes. And by around 6.30 PM, the state police tweeted out a map of the incident saying that there were at least 39 confirmed fires and explosions in the cities of Lawrence, Andover and North Andover And they also advised anyone who has Columbia Gas Company or smells gas in their home to evacuate This is a massive deal reportedly the fire officials in all three cities had to issue a 10 alarm response

Which is the maximum traditional fire response in Andover alone more than 50 fire vehicles and 10 ambulances Responded and still there were reports of homes just burning with no firefighters in sight. And this was just because of how widespread the fires and explosions were. One house even appearing to have exploded and fallen in on itself. Now in response to the widespread gas issues,

the electric company National Grid announced that it would be cutting off electricity to three affected cities to prevent sparked fires. We also saw several freeway off-rims in the area closed as well. State police also announced that the mayor of Lawrence had asked residents of South Lawrence to evacuate because of the planned power outage.

Soon after 7.25 p.m., state police reported that the number of fires, explosions, or investigations of gas odor had risen to 70. And while most of the incidents appeared on the south side of the Merrimack River, a few incidents popped up on the north side too. A North Andover town manager saying that 12 to 14 homes were affected in his city.

And according to Andover Fire Chief Michael Mansfield, there were 38 fires and 17 gas leaks in Andover. I've been in the fire service for almost 39 years and I've never seen anything like this in my entire career. It looked like Armageddon. It really did. There were billows of smoke coming from Lawrence behind me. I could see plumes of smoke in front of me within the town of Andover. It just looked like an absolute war zone and something that I've never experienced in my fire service career and hopefully I don't have to experience it ever again. And following all of this, we had news that around 8,000 people were displaced because of this incident. Reports of injuries also started to trickle in. And in fact, since these initial

reports, we've learned that one 18-year-old man died from a falling chimney, also that at least around two dozen people, including two firefighters, have been injured. And while this was happening, Columbia Gas Company responded to the incidents by depressurizing the gas lines Thursday evening. However, we only learned about that later thanks to the state police's Twitter. Also later on, via a statement from the company, we learned that the company was sending multiple crews out to assess the situation. Since then, company workers and first responders have gone house to house shutting off gas lines. And while that statement included resources and tips

on how to stay safe, it still gave no cause. And online, we saw some criticizing the gas company's slow response since their statement was several hours after the initial reports of gas leaks and explosions. But on that note, you had a handful of people defending the company, saying that they were probably focused on responding to the incident. But unsurprisingly, most people on Twitter were not happy this including US representative for Massachusetts

Seth Moulton tweeting got the number of Columbia Gas president and I've tried him multiple times with no answer Everyone wants answers and we deserve them and it wasn't just on Twitter Moulton on Friday morning spoke with media saying but no one knew What's going on? People were scared that people felt unsafe in their homes. And that's fundamentally wrong. I mean, I haven't seen homes just blown up like this since being in Iraq, frankly. And that's not what should be happening here in America. Their response is absurd. I mean, the fact is five hours after the first explosion, they finally posted on their website that they are investigating some explosion. This is completely unacceptable as a response, as a service to the community. They need to do a lot better. They should have come out immediately and explained what was going on. In addition to this,

we saw the National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt sending a team to investigate. Governor Baker said Friday morning that the situation was stable, but officials urged residents not to return home until they received an official okay. Additionally, over the weekend, we saw a number of new developments. Governor Baker ended up declaring a state of emergency regarding the incidents in Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover. An attorney directed the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities to allow a different gas company, Eversource, to take over all efforts to restore gas to the public. In other words, Columbia Gas was fired, and a new company is now in charge

of getting gas back up and running in the area. As far as the gas company, we saw the president, Steve Bryant, speaking with the media. In it, he tries to explain the company's response. He says that the company is opening a hotline for claims. But in general, his words fell on deaf ears, both with the general public and with government officials. We saw Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera

railing against the company. When we first got word of this incident, the least informed and the last to act has been Columbia Gas. Also adding that no one knew what caused this event a day later. Also on Sunday, remember how people were going to be able to make claims? Well, reportedly the Claims Center in Lawrence had to turn hundreds of residents away. Apparently they were unable to handle the number of people who ended up showing up. People reportedly stuck at the claim center all Sunday. They were then later told to come back Monday.

As of today, Monday, hundreds of people were back waiting in line. Reportedly, those people were also being asked to bring receipts to prove expenses. There were also reports that the company was giving out gift cards to help relieve some burden for the families. But finally, as far as why did these explosions happen? Well, the best update we have on what caused the explosions came from the NTSB chairman on Sunday, confirming it was an over-pressurization situation, adding that the investigation has led to them believing it's related to a pipeline that was under construction on Thursday, but also adding that the investigation is not over and they'll be looking into specific questions. But also for those looking for specifics very quickly,

Sumwalt explained that an investigation of this type normally takes 12 to 24 months. As far as what is in store for the people on the ground, the people affected here, both media and Columbia Gas say that all gas meters affected have been shut down, adding that electricity has also been returned, but because of the nature of the incident, gas might not return for weeks. Ultimately, that is where we are with this situation, and it will be interesting to see what else comes

from the investigation. Now let's talk about some of the massive news around Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh. But before we jump into what just happened, we need to cover some of the background on what happened last week. Last Wednesday, the news outlet The Intercept reported that California Senator Dianne Feinstein,

who was the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, was withholding a document related to Kavanaugh from other Democratic senators. And for those unfamiliar with this process, usually a Supreme Court nominee is first approved for recommendation by the Judiciary Committee before being voted on by the entire Senate. But, and it is an important note here,

technically the full Senate can still vote on the nominee without the Judiciary Committee before being voted on by the entire Senate. But, and it is an important note here, technically the full Senate can still vote on the nominee without the Judiciary Committee's approval. Now regarding the document, no details were provided at this time, but speculation began to swirl. Then, seemingly under pressure, on Thursday Feinstein announced that she had notified federal investigators

about the document in question, adding that it was a letter she had received about Kavanaugh. The FBI then responded that they had added the letter to Kavanaugh's background file, which meant that all senators would now have access to it. In addition to the announcement, Feinstein also held a private meeting with Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee to discuss the contents of the letter. But, because this is Washington we're talking about here, details about the contents of the letter almost immediately began to leak out. First, you had anonymous sources saying the letter referred to an incident that happened when Kavanaugh was of high school age.

Then, you had the New York Times reporting that the incident involved sexual misconduct. And then on Friday, the New Yorker broke the story that the letter was from an unidentified high school acquaintance of Kavanaugh. And that acquaintance alleged in a letter that when Kavanaugh attended Georgetown Preparatory High School in Bethesda, Maryland in the 1980s, that Kavanaugh held her down at a party

and attempted to force himself on her. According to the New Yorker, the woman also claimed that Kavanaugh and a classmate turned up the music that was playing in the room to drown out her protest, that Kavanaugh covered her mouth with his hand before she was able to free herself. Also adding that the memory has caused her ongoing distress and that she had sought psychological treatment

as a result. The nomination of Kavanaugh reportedly brought back the pain of this memory and she struggled whether to go public with the story. But eventually she contacted her congressperson, California Democrat Anna Eshoo, sending her the letter, later sending the same letter to Feinstein. As to why Feinstein didn't go public with this information, even keeping it hidden from other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee,

she reportedly said she wanted to protect the privacy of the accuser, who she said she knew would be subjected to partisan attacks. As far as Kavanaugh's response to this report and accusation, he issued the statement, I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time. And following the New Yorker article, we saw Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, releasing a letter from 65 women who knew Kavanaugh when he was in high school. And according to the letter, For the entire time we have known Brett Kavanaugh, he has behaved honorably and treated women with respect. Through the more than 35 years we have known him, Brett has stood out for his friendship, character, and integrity.

In particular, he has always treated women with decency and respect. That was true when he was in high school and it has remained true to this day." They also went on to say that they have a broad range of political views, but they can attest that Kavanaugh is a good person and has always been a good person. And while you had some pointing to that letter as a sign that the accusation against Kavanaugh was false, others questioned how a letter from 65 women who knew Kavanaugh in the 70s and 80s could have been put together so quickly. That leading to speculation that Kavanaugh was prepared for this accusation to emerge. But all of that brought us to yesterday where the story really broke open. The accuser's anonymity

disappeared as she came forward and identified herself to the Washington Post. Her name is Christine Blasey Ford, a 51 year old clinical psychology professor at Palo Alto University in Northern California. And according to Ford, if her story was going to be told in bits and pieces, then she wanted to be the one who was going to tell it. Ford corroborating most of the details that were already reported, but also provided some more previously unknown information. According to Ford, after Kavanaugh and his friend, who were both drunk, corralled her into a bedroom at a house party, he pinned her to the bed and groped her over her clothes,

trying to remove her clothes and one piece bathing suit underneath, saying that when he covered her mouth, when she tried to scream, quote, "'I thought he might inadvertently kill me. "'He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.'" And then adding that she was able to escape after Kavanaugh's friend and

classmate, Mark Judge, jumped on top of them leading everyone to fall. She then ran from the room, locked herself in the bathroom, and then left the house. According to Ford, she didn't tell anyone about the incident until 2012 when she was in couples therapy with her husband. And reportedly the notes taken by her therapists were also reviewed by the Post for this. They do not mention Kavanaugh by name, but they do say that Ford was attacked by students, quote, "...from an elitist boys' school who went on to become "'highly respected and high-ranking members "'of society in Washington.'"

Those notes also saying that four boys were involved, not two, as Ford claimed. But on this note, Ford says the discrepancy is because of an error made by her therapist. And according to her husband, Russell Ford, his wife verbally said it was Kavanaugh during those therapy sessions. The Post also reviewed notes

from an individual therapy session with Ford in 2013, which said that she was treated for long-term effects from a rape attempt when she was a teen. And on top of all this, CNN also published the exact text of the letter Ford sent to Eshoo and Feinstein, which essentially said everything that Ford told the Post. And after telling the story of this alleged assault, she ends the letter by saying that she is available to further discuss the allegation, and also says, And following these updates, We've seen some interesting responses We had Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake telling the Washington Post that Ford must be heard before the Judiciary Committee votes on Kavanaugh

Which is scheduled for Thursday according to flight I've made it clear that I'm not Comfortable moving ahead with the vote on Thursday if we have not heard her side of the story or explored this further for me We can't vote until we hear more and Flake's comments here are significant because Republicans only hold an 11 to 10 majority on the Judiciary Committee, so even one defection from the GOP could delay the proceedings. You also had Bob Corker, a Republican senator from Tennessee who's not on the Judiciary Committee but also joining Flake saying that a delay in the vote quote would be best for all involved including the nominee, adding if she does want to be heard she should do so promptly. You also had the Office of Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley on Sunday saying,

Given the late addendum to the background file and revelations of Dr. Ford's identity, Chairman Grassley is actively working to set up such follow-up calls with Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford ahead of Thursday's scheduled vote. You had Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska saying, I think delaying the vote might be something they might have to consider, at least having that discussion. Also today, we saw Senator Susan Collins tweet, Professor Ford and Judge Kavanaugh should both testify under oath before the Judiciary Committee. And then on the Democratic side, you had Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeting, Senate Republicans ran a transparently partisan confirmation process and then immediately

insinuated Professor Ford as being untruthful. They cannot impartially investigate these disturbing allegations. That must be done by the FBI and the vote must be postponed until it is complete. And as far as the response from the White House, on Monday, it put out a statement saying, "'On Friday, Judge Kavanaugh categorically "'and unequivocally denied this allegation. "'This has not changed.

"'Judge Kavanaugh and the White House "'both stand by that statement.'" But in addition to this, we had counselor to the president, Kellyanne Conway, on Fox and Friends this morning saying this. Well, this woman should not be insulted and she should not be ignored. This woman will be heard.

She's going to, I think the Senate Judiciary Committee will decide how and through which forum. In other words, will it be by telephone? Will it be in person? But remember, too, that has to be weighed against what we already know, which is that Judge Kavanaugh is a man of character and integrity who has been through six FBI vettings, which I can tell you firsthand are significant and thorough. And on the other side of this, we saw Ford's lawyer going on the Today Show and saying, She has taken a polygraph.

She's a credible person. These are serious allegations and they should be addressed. Yesterday, the White House would not even have the nominee acknowledge whether he knew her, and he's not being forthcoming. We've also seen some backlash and outrage online directed towards Donald Trump Jr. This because Don Jr. posted this meme on his Instagram, Judge Kavanaugh's sexual assault letter found by Dems,

reading, hi Cindy, will you be my girlfriend? Yes, no, love, Brett. And actually, one of the last updates to this story right as I was finishing up today's show is that President Trump himself has commented on the situation and has said that there may need to be a delay when it comes to the vote. It depends on the process. I'd like to see a complete process. I'd like everybody to be very happy. Most importantly, I want the American people to be happy because they're getting somebody that is great. I want him to go in at

the absolute highest level. And I think to do that, you have to go through this. If it takes a little delay, it'll take a little delay. It shouldn't certainly be very much. But again, this is something that should have been brought up long before this. They had the information in July, as I understand it. That's a long time ago, and nobody mentioned it until the other day. Also, both Kavanaugh and Ford have said they are willing to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. So there was that, but ultimately that is where we are with this Kavanaugh situation right now. How fast is this going to happen? Are we going to receive public testimony?

How are Republicans going to handle Ford? And ultimately the question is, whatever happens, is it enough to move the needle on the Kavanaugh nomination? A nomination that was seen as a shoo-in. But the numbers were there, there was no contest, it was really just posturing. We'll have to wait and see, and I pass the question off to you. What is your takeaway from this new revelation and everything that's happening here? Any and all thoughts, I'd love to see in the comments down below. And that's where I'm going to end today's show.

And remember, I want all of these shows to also be a conversation, so whether it be the last story the first one anything in between let me Know what you're thinking in those comments down below also while you're at it If you like these daily videos hit that like button if you're new here hit that subscribe button But that's it of course as always my name is Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in I love yo faces, and I'll see you tomorrow