The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.25 You Won't Believe this NEW Carson King News, Shane Dawson Returns, & Impeachment Update

Starting point is 00:00:00 What's up, you beautiful bastards? Hope you're having a fantastic day. Welcome to the Philip DeFranco Show, and we're gonna jump right into it. Let's get started. Be-woop! Oh, no! No, I hate that.

Starting point is 00:00:11 I know, that's why I did it. Another new host that I had to fire. I am sorry, Dr. Mike. I'd be fine with another host that was more attractive than me, but not that much more attractive. That said, despite Dr. Mike's unfortunate firing, if you'd like to listen to our brand new podcast

Starting point is 00:00:25 over on the youtube.com slash yourconvowith channel, or just audio on all the popular podcast platforms, you can just click the link in the description down below. Both are available. We've been putting them out every single Wednesday. It's been awesome to watch kind of just that channel grow. And this one was really fun because Dr. Mike is an actual doctor.

Starting point is 00:00:41 So in addition to kind of the more personal stuff, I mean, we talked about vaping, vaccines, body positivity versus, you know, real health concerns. A lot of stuff. I highly recommend you check that out. But with that said, we have an interesting show today. Be sure to buckle up, hit that like button as always, and let's just jump into it.

Starting point is 00:00:57 And the first thing we're gonna talk about today is an update around Carson King. And in case you missed it this week, we named Carson King a bamf of the day. And this because, you know, it all started with this kind of silly thing. On ESPN's college game day, he held up a sign that read,

Starting point is 00:01:09 "'Bush Light Supply Needs Replenish." It included his Venmo username. He made a few hundred dollars, but then he wanted to make it a bigger deal and said, "'You know what? I want to donate it to a children's hospital.'" And all of a sudden you had Anheuser-Busch, right? They gifted him a one-year supply of beer.

Starting point is 00:01:22 They put his name and face on the can. They and Venmo both saying that they would match donations that people sent in. And the guy ended up raising over $1 million. And that number is still rising right now because he's still accepting donations. And so I, and I imagine many others were like, yes, finally a good piece of news.

Starting point is 00:01:38 Carson King is a badass motherfucker. But then yesterday, the Des Moines Register publishes a profile on Carson King. And in that profile about King raising seven figures for a children's hospital, they also decided to report on two racist tweets that King made back in 2012 when he was 16 years old. The reporter writing,

Starting point is 00:01:54 the routine background check of King's social media revealed two racist jokes, one comparing black mothers to gorillas and another making light of black people killed in the Holocaust. Reportedly, while writing about the story, that reporter, Aaron Calvin, actually asked King about those tweets, to which King told him that the tweets made him sick

Starting point is 00:02:09 and that he was remorseful for them, also telling the Register, that's not something that I'm proud of at all. After talking with the Register, he reportedly thanked the newspaper for bringing those tweets to his attention, then deleting them. But actually, before that article was published, King reached out to a local TV station to defend himself, saying in a statement that those posts quoted and referenced the show Tosh.0. And while reading a statement to reporters, he apologized.

Starting point is 00:02:28 I am embarrassed and stunned to reflect on what I thought was funny when I was a 16 year old kid. And I want to sincerely apologize. I don't want, you know, what I did when I was 16 to take away from the fact that, you know, we're over $1.14 million for the Children's Hospital. King then taking to Twitter to apologize, also being very respectful of the Des Moines Register,

Starting point is 00:02:47 saying that they had been nothing but kind in all their coverage, and I appreciate the reporter pointing out the post to me, adding, I want everyone to understand that this was my decision to publicly address the post and apologize. I believe that is the right thing to do. Still with this, you had Anheuser-Busch cutting ties

Starting point is 00:02:59 with King saying, yes, they'll still do the match, but that they'll have no further association with him, and that's because King's post, quote, "'Do not align with our values as a brand or as a company.'" And so after all of this happened, we saw something very interesting happen on social media. A large amount of the reaction, instead of calling for King to be canceled or to be shamed,

Starting point is 00:03:15 we saw the hashtag StandWithCarson begin trending on Twitter. You had a large number of people angry at Anheuser-Busch. One user writing, so let me get this straight, "'Carson King' makes a sign that results in him raising one plus million dollars to donate to sick kids. And some idiot in Des Moines decided to be a douche and docks his tweet from almost a decade ago.

Starting point is 00:03:30 Bushbeer, you just went from hero to zero. Another saying that King has grown since he made those tweets, writing, we're all flawed, we've all done and said regrettable things. We've all matured since the age of 16. Carson King did something universally good and selfless. We haven't all done that. And along with all this, he saw a good amount of backlash

Starting point is 00:03:45 towards the reporter and the Des Moines Register. Are there people asking why publish this information when King's just a normal person raising money for others? To which the Des Moines Register responded, issuing a statement saying that the paper's executive editors and several editors had a discussion on whether or not to publish them, saying the jokes were highly inappropriate

Starting point is 00:03:59 and were public posts. Shouldn't that be acknowledged to all the people who had donated money to King's cause or were planning to do so? But then also countering that question with, the tweets were posted seven years ago when King was 16 and he was remorseful, should we chalk up the post to a youthful mistake and omit the information?

Starting point is 00:04:13 And ultimately the editors decided to include the information at the bottom of the article in an attempt to be transparent. With the editor then concluding the statement by saying, "'Reasonable people can look at the same set of facts "'and disagree on what merits publication, "'but rest assured such decisions are not made lightly and are rooted in what we perceive as the public good."

Starting point is 00:04:28 Twitch, it appears a part of the internet was like, "'Okay, sounds great, let's flip it.'" And so we actually saw people digging up the reporter, Aaron Calvin's old tweets. Those tweets made between 2010 and 2013 also included racist and even homophobic language. Also, according to some reports, he repeatedly used the N-word.

Starting point is 00:04:42 And then Calvin found himself apologizing for those tweets saying, "'Hey, just wanted to say that I have deleted "'previous tweets that have been inappropriate "'or insensitive. "'I apologize for not holding myself "'to the same high standards as the register holds others.'" And following that, this morning we saw Calvin

Starting point is 00:04:54 change his Twitter profile to private. We've also seen the register declining to comment on Calvin's old tweets, but they have also said that they have launched an investigation. And as far as my reaction to this, I mean, one, I personally think that Carson King has handled himself fantastically. He's owned his past, he's acknowledged his past,

Starting point is 00:05:09 he's apologized for his past. If you look to most people's pasts, to obviously a different degree, people have said horrible and stupid shit. And I say that including myself in this group. If I met me from, could be honestly, four years ago, especially 10 years ago, I'd probably want to

Starting point is 00:05:25 punch that dude in the face. But I think often rather than those old things being something that just pulls someone down in the present, it can kind of show the level of growth. And it's part of the conversation of, okay, when we highlight these things, is it because we want to learn from these things or is it because we just want to cancel and destroy? Understand even this conversation we're having about this now, this is an evolving argument. How people would have reacted to this maybe two or three years ago is vastly different. But ultimately, you know, that's my opinion based off of my personal life experience.

Starting point is 00:05:52 We don't get to control how others receive information, which I guess regarding the story and that note, of course, I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts regarding the whole thing that we've seen here? Then we actually got an update on the Joker controversy story we talked about yesterday. And there, you might remember, you know,

Starting point is 00:06:06 we covered some of the families of those who were killed in the Aurora shooting back in 2012, having concerns about the movie. And Warner Brothers actually responded to this letter in a statement saying, "'Our company has a long history "'of donating to victims of violence, "'including Aurora, and in recent weeks,

Starting point is 00:06:19 "'our parent company joined other business leaders "'to call on policy makers to enact bipartisan legislation "'to address this epidemic. At the same time, Warner Bros believes that one of the functions of storytelling is to provoke difficult conversations around complex issues. Make no mistake, neither the fictional character Joker nor the film is an endorsement

Starting point is 00:06:35 of real world violence of any kind. It is not the intention of the film, the filmmakers, or the studio to hold this character up as a hero. But now the update that we're seeing involves the US Army. According to a report from Gizmodo, the US military issued a warning to troops about incel violence at Joker screenings. With their report saying,

Starting point is 00:06:50 "'The US Army confirmed on Tuesday "'that the warning was widely distributed "'after social media posts related to extremists "'classified as incel were uncovered "'by intelligence officials "'of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "'That September 18th email reportedly telling "'service members going to a movie theater

Starting point is 00:07:03 "'to remain aware of their surroundings, identify to escape routes. In the event of a shooting, they were instructed to run, hide, fight. Though notably that notice said that this was just a precautionary measure. Although reportedly, according to a separate memo that was released on Monday, the Army had obtained credible intelligence

Starting point is 00:07:17 from Texas law enforcement officials pertaining to disturbing and very specific chatter on the dark web regarding the targeting of an unknown movie theater during the release. But once again, regarding this, an army spokesperson said that they routinely do this for safety and security. So I wanted to include this today because one,

Starting point is 00:07:30 I wanted to provide an update to the story we covered yesterday. Two, I wanted to inform you on kind of probably what a lot of people are gonna see is passing headlines regarding the potential for violence. And three, it's gonna be interesting to see if the concerns from earlier this week and now this new reporting

Starting point is 00:07:42 does affect the box office next weekend. But yeah, for now we're gonna have to kinda just wait and see. Then in quickie Juul news, we're seeing what looks to be a kinda shakeup today. One, tobacco giant Altria Group announced they are no longer seeking a merger with Philip Morris International.

Starting point is 00:07:55 And that is notable because Altria Group owns 35% of Juul Labs. Two, Juul Labs announced that effective immediately, they will suspend all broadcast, print, and digital product advertising in the United States. And three, the CEO and co-founder of Juul Labs, Kevin Burns, is stepping down. And seemingly regarding the CEO position,

Starting point is 00:08:11 Juul Labs was looking for a safer alternative. You see what I'm doing there, okay. It's not that clever, but I try to enjoy myself with this show. Reportedly, Burns is being replaced by a man named Casey Crosthwaite, a man who could be the nicest man in the world, but with that name, he sounds like an evil oil bear.

Starting point is 00:08:26 But that said regarding who he is, interestingly enough, he's the CGO, the chief growth officer at Altria, who of course we just mentioned. And also according to reports, he was formerly an executive overseeing Marlboro cigarettes. And notably there, it was reported that he was in charge of pushing into non-combustible cigarette devices like the IQOS.

Starting point is 00:08:40 Yeah, there's a lot of movement in this space right now. And it's gonna be important to watch one, what the industry itself does, and two, what regulators try and do. Then, while we're on quickies, we should mention it is that time of year again. Massive and OG creator that is Shane Dawson, who over the past year and a half has kind of turned into a mini documentarian,

Starting point is 00:08:58 creating these kind of traffic stopping on YouTube must watch videos. I mean, the least viewed one that he's released in the past seven months has 29 million views. He came out with a trailer called the beautiful world of Jeffree Star. Based on the trailer, it looks like it follows both Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson

Starting point is 00:09:13 since they've been very close since he did the last documentary. Makeup collaborations among other things, but notably, and it's gonna be interesting to see how much of a part of this it is. It also appears that it's going to take on the James Charles, Tati Westbrook, Jeffree Star, and even to a certain degree, Shane Dawson controversy.

Starting point is 00:09:30 That was easily one of the biggest controversies and scandals, there were massive allegations, then it kind of just went away after certain things were refuted. And so it'll be interesting to see how that's covered, how in depth that is, or if it's kind of just a small little glimpse to get people interested in the rest of it. So we'll see what happens there. Is it going to be kind of more insight? Is there

Starting point is 00:09:48 going to be kind of amending, or is it going to be kind of the reopening of a wound? But yeah, if everything stays on schedule, we will learn on October 1st. And I guess a question to those that remember that whole controversy and scandal, what are your thoughts about it potentially coming back? Also, are you like some people we're seeing that are concerned about the potential bias or presentation since Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson are friends? And of course, a big part of that controversy and scandal were the huge claims levied by Jeffree Star. Ultimately, we're gonna have to wait and see there.

Starting point is 00:10:15 And then, well, I mean, that's it. There was no other news today that mattered or happened. I'll see you next time. Okay, fine. We're gonna talk about the impeachment inquiry and the not transcript, transcript, even though everyone keeps saying transcript, but here we go.

Starting point is 00:10:31 And so what we left off yesterday is that it was expected that as our video was going up or right after, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, would announce that the House is formally launching an impeachment inquiry. And this reportedly ended Trump's alleged efforts to pressure the president of Ukraine, Zelensky, to investigate Joe Biden.

Starting point is 00:10:44 Those allegations stem from a whistleblower complaint that claims Trump did so on a phone call with a Ukrainian leader in July and possibly on other occasion. But as of right now, the details there remain unknown as the complaint has not been made public. And understand that's kind of a watered down version of this story.

Starting point is 00:10:57 If you want the full context, the full detail, you can watch the last two shows. But yes, in our announcement about the impeachment inquiry, we saw Pelosi say, "- The actions taken to date by the president have seriously violated the Constitution, especially when the president says, Article Two says I can do whatever I want. And this week, the president has admitted to asking the president of Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically. The actions of the Trump presidency revealed dishonorable fact of the president's betrayal

Starting point is 00:11:30 of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections. Therefore, today, I'm announcing the House of Representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. I'm directing our six committees to proceed with their investigations under that umbrella of impeachment inquiry. The president must be held accountable.

Starting point is 00:11:54 No one is above the law. Okay, so this is a big move. This is a big swing, but there's still a lot of moving parts and a lot that needs to happen before any real moves on impeachment can be made. Right, because the key phrase here is that this is just

Starting point is 00:12:05 an impeachment inquiry, meaning that this is basically an investigation into whether or not the House will even begin impeachment proceedings. Right, like when it comes to impeachment, this is a baby step, a massively important baby step, but a baby step. So Pelosi announces the inquiry and we see Trump respond on Twitter,

Starting point is 00:12:18 with Trump saying, such an important day at the United Nations, so much work and so much success. And the Democrats purposely had to ruin and demean it with more breaking news witch hunt garbage. So bad for our country. Also adding, they never even saw the transcript of the call, a total witch hunt.

Starting point is 00:12:31 And later going back to one of his classics, presidential harassment. Then continuing, Secretary of State Pompeo received permission from Ukraine government to release the transcript of the telephone call I had with their president, which was kind of further confirmation of what we already thought was coming

Starting point is 00:12:43 with Trump promising to release the transcript even before Pelosi's announcement. And then this morning we saw the White House release the memo and transcript have kind of been used interchangeably in the media. I mean, the document itself says memorandum of telephone conversation. And at the bottom it says caution,

Starting point is 00:12:56 a memorandum of a telephone conversation is not a verbatim transcript of a discussion. The text in this document records the notes and recollections of situation room duty officers and NSC policy staff assigned to listen and memorialize the conversation in written form of a discussion. The text in this document records the notes and recollections of Situation Room duty officers and NSC policy staff assigned to listen and memorialize a conversation in written form as the conversation takes place."

Starting point is 00:13:10 And I just want to mention that to kind of explain why you're seeing people use different terms and argue about that. And so moving on, in this document, it starts with Trump congratulating Zelensky on his presidential win. He tells Zelensky that the United States does a lot for Ukraine, saying,

Starting point is 00:13:22 "'I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time, much more than the European countries are doing. Also mentioning Germany's Angela Merkel, saying she talks Ukraine, but she doesn't do anything. But the United States has been very, very good to Ukraine. I wouldn't say that it's reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good. But the United States has been very, very good to Ukraine. And to this, the document says, Zelensky says, yes, you are absolutely right. Not only 100%, but actually 1,000%.'"

Starting point is 00:13:45 The conversation then continues, a noted point in it, is according to the document, Zelensky says, "'I would also like to thank you "'for your great support in the area of defense. "'We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps. "'Specifically, we are almost ready to buy more javelins "'from the United States for defense purposes.'" To which the document says that President Trump responds,

Starting point is 00:14:02 "'I would like you to do us a favor, though, "'because our country has been through a lot "'and Ukraine knows a lot about it. "'I would like you to do us a favor though, "'because our country has been through a lot "'and Ukraine knows a lot about it. "'I would like you to find out what happened "'with this whole situation with Ukraine,' "'they say CrowdStrike,' adding, "'I would like to have the Attorney General call you "'or your people and I would like you

Starting point is 00:14:14 "'to get to the bottom of it.'" He then references Robert Mueller and adds, "'They say a lot of it started with Ukraine. "'Whatever you can do, it's very important "'that you do it if that's possible.'" Which Zelensky responds, "'Yes, it is very important for me "'and everything that you just mentioned earlier.'"

Starting point is 00:14:26 And then later in the document, we see Biden mentioned. With President Trump saying, "'The other thing, there's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution, and a lot of people want to find out about that, so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution,

Starting point is 00:14:39 so if you can look into it, it sounds horrible to me.'" Though regarding this note, the Justice Department said that Barr was unaware of this until weeks after the call. Right, and so from this, you had some claiming that this could be interpreted as quid pro quo. That, given that a week before this phone call, Trump had ordered a hold of hundreds of millions of dollars from Ukraine.

Starting point is 00:14:53 Right, accusations that Donald Trump was holding aid over Zelensky's head. Right, Zelensky saying that he wants to buy javelins. Donald Trump responds, I would like you to do us a favor though. Then later there's that Biden request. But at the same time, you have people claiming that it is not explicit. President Trump does not specifically say, you gotta do this or I'm Then later there's that Biden request. But at the same time you have people claiming that it is not explicit.

Starting point is 00:15:05 President Trump does not specifically say, you gotta do this or I'm not gonna give you what you want. Although the pushback against that, to repeat a metaphor given in the Washington Post, it's difficult to see how Zelensky could interpret that set of circumstances as something other than a strong suggestion and even a veiled threat. It's equivalent to your boss repeatedly suggesting

Starting point is 00:15:21 you do something while noting what your compensation is without explicitly making a demand. All right, so that's where we're seeing a lot of debate and a lot of spin today, but also of note, many Democrats have been pointing out and claiming that the whistleblower complaint reportedly contains more instances than just the one phone call.

Starting point is 00:15:34 And so they're arguing that there could be a more direct example of quid pro quo in the complaint, which is why they want to see it. Also regarding Zelensky today, while with Trump, he said. Sure, that we had, I think, good phone call. It was normal. We spoke about many things. And I, so I think, and you already,

Starting point is 00:15:54 that nobody pushed it, pushed me. Yes. In other words, no pressure. And of course, following this, there were a number of reactions, with Nancy Pelosi releasing a statement after the transcript was released saying, the release of the notes of the call

Starting point is 00:16:05 "'by the White House confirms that the President engaged "'in behavior that undermines the integrity "'of our elections, the dignity of the office he holds, "'and our national security. "'The President has tried to make lawlessness "'a virtue in America and now is exporting it abroad. "'I respect the responsibility of the President "'to engage with foreign leaders as part of his job.

Starting point is 00:16:21 "'It is not part of his job to use taxpayer money "'to shake down other countries "'for the benefit of his campaign.'" You had not part of his job to use taxpayer money to shake down other countries for the benefit of his campaign." You had Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeting, "'Folks, I am surprised the White House even released this transcript. It's worse than we thought. The president sought to use the powers

Starting point is 00:16:34 of the United States government to investigate a political opponent. We have no choice but to impeach.'" And House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff saying, "'The transcript of the call reads like a classic mob shakedown. We do a lot for Ukraine. There's not much reciprocity. I have a favor to ask. Investigate my opponent. My people will be

Starting point is 00:16:47 in touch. Nice country you got there. It would be a shame if something happened to her. Meanwhile, on the other side of this, you had people like Senator Lindsey Graham saying, wow, impeachment over this? What a nothing non-quid pro quo burger. Democrats have lost their minds when it comes to President Trump. You also had Trump sending out tweets. One quoting Fox News' Brett Baier saying, you don't see a direct quid pro quo in this. Also this morning, we saw Donald Trump speak directly to this. There was no pressure. The way you had that built up, that call, it was going to be the call from hell. It turned out to be a nothing call other than a lot of people said, I never knew you could be so nice. And ultimately, as of recording this video, that's where we are with this. Now understand, this is not representative

Starting point is 00:17:21 of all debate happening. I mean, among other things, you have people sharing like old videos of Nancy Pelosi and old videos of Lindsey Graham during the Bill Clinton impeachments, people saying, ah, hypocrites. But the goal in talking about this now is what is in there, what is being focused on, what is being debated about. And then while all of that still continues to happen and develop, what happens next?

Starting point is 00:17:39 And regarding that, we're now seeing reports that the White House has turned over the full whistleblower complaint to both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees this afternoon. Also, like we mentioned yesterday, the whistleblower has said they want to testify before the House and Senate, but we'll have to wait and see there.

Starting point is 00:17:51 Also, on the note of Joe Biden, seeing reports that senior Ukrainian officials expect a renewed investigation into Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that had Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, on its board, but saying it would be reopened alongside several other cases as part of Zelensky's anti-corruption drive, but not to please Trump

Starting point is 00:18:06 or to target Joe Biden. But ultimately, that's where we are with this. Things are still developing small, large, kind of funny. As we were finishing up today, we saw reports like White House accidentally sent Democrats talking points on Trump-Ukraine call. But the main point is this is still evolving, it is still developing.

Starting point is 00:18:20 There's obviously going to be a lot of focus on this. I'm personally interested to see what else is in that whistleblower complaint, because like we talked about today and yesterday, apparently it's supposed to be more than just this one phone call. But ultimately, we'll have to wait and see. And hey, while we wait,

Starting point is 00:18:32 I'd love to know your thoughts on this in the comments down below. And that is where we're going to end today's show. And hey, if you like diving into the news today with me, be sure to hit that like button. Also, if you're new here, you want more of these dives into the news, be sure to hit that subscribe button.

Starting point is 00:18:44 Definitely click that bell to turn on notifications. I ran out of air. Also, if you're new here, you want more of these dives into the news, be sure to hit that subscribe button. Definitely click that bell to turn on notifications. I ran out of air. Also, if you're not 100% filled in, maybe you missed yesterday's Philip DeFranco show, you wanna catch up, or maybe you wanna watch that brand new podcast with Dr. Mike and click or tap right there to watch either of those.

Starting point is 00:18:56 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.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.25 You Won't Believe this NEW Carson King News, Shane Dawson Returns, & Impeachment Update

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