The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.26 "OK" Joins Pepe as Hate Symbol, #CancelNYT & Whistleblower Complaint Explained, Dobrik

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you've had a fantastic Thursday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today is why the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League, is making headlines today. And for those that don't know,

Starting point is 00:00:12 the ADL says that they're an organization devoted to fighting antisemitism, hate, and other forms of discrimination. And the ADL has something that they call the Hate On Display Database, something that they say serves as an overview for many of the symbols often used by white supremacist groups and other types of hate groups.

Starting point is 00:00:26 And this includes everything from generic hate symbols to acronyms, abbreviations, logos, slogans, more. And you might remember we talked about this back in 2016. I kind of joked and mocked how they made Pepe the Frog a hate symbol. For me, it was one of those things of, well, how can you call this a hate symbol if it's just a general meme used by everyone?

Starting point is 00:00:43 Including, yes, some people that were using it for hateful and antisemitic things, but it was just a general meme used by everyone, including, yes, some people that were using it for hateful and antisemitic things, but it was one of those things of, well, how can you still call the whole? Right, especially because on the ADL website, they note that it did not originally have racist or antisemitic connotations, and continue by saying the majority of uses of Pepe the Frog have been

Starting point is 00:00:57 and continue to be non-bigoted. And to me, I would say that even the classification of that as a hate symbol at the time, all it did was kind of lend itself to increased usage. Because then, posting Pepe memes was kind of just adopted by people that wanted to troll something that they found stupid. And while we talked about that back in 2016,

Starting point is 00:01:11 this list was actually created in 2000 to help law enforcement and members of the public identify potential warnings of extremism. And the reason we're talking about this today is that the ADL has now added 36 new entries to the list. And while most of which include logos for groups like League of the South and the National Socialist Legion, others include the Happy Merchant meme,

Starting point is 00:01:27 which ADL says is quote, "'By far the most popular anti-Semitic meme "'among white supremacists, "'that and the practice of burning neo-Nazi symbols.'" But those really weren't the entries that made headlines, instead, they include the OK Hand symbol, which ADL says, "'Begun as a hoax by members of the website 4chan,

Starting point is 00:01:42 "'the OK symbol became a popular trolling tactic. "'By 2019, the symbol was being used in some circles in a sincere expression of white supremacy. Right, and for those kind of wanting to know where that sort of thinking started, it kind of started as a trolling tactic where people were saying, when you do that sign, you're saying white power, WP.

Starting point is 00:01:57 But their entry also adds that the suspect in the Christchurch shootings that killed 51 people used the symbol in a courtroom appearance. Right, so essentially the argument is it was kind of brought out of this world of trolling into real world white supremacy. Another entry is actually the bowl cut haircut. And in their description on this one, they say,

Starting point is 00:02:10 "'The bowl cut is an image of a bowl shaped haircut resembling the one worn by the shooter in Charleston, South Carolina. Those who use the bowl cut image or other bowl references admire him and call for others to emulate his 2015 mass shooting attack.'" Right, so in general, that's the bulk of the announcement, the bulk of the story. And I guess I'm kind of left

Starting point is 00:02:27 wondering how does this help? Because as the ADL even notes at the bottom of their list, "'All the symbols depicted here must be evaluated "'in the context in which they appear. "'Few symbols represent just one idea "'or are used exclusively by one group. "'For example, the Confederate flag is a symbol "'that is frequently used by white supremacists,

Starting point is 00:02:43 "'but which also has been used by people and groups that are not racist. Similarly, other symbols in this database may be significant to people who are not extreme or racist. And in this, they further try to explain kind of the additions that they're putting here, saying many of the newly added symbols are identified by ADL's Center on Extremism as being adopted by the alt-right segment of the white supremacist movement.

Starting point is 00:03:00 With John Greenblatt, the CEO of the ADL, saying in a statement, "'We believe law enforcement and the public needs "'to be fully informed about the meaning of these ADL saying in a statement, we believe law enforcement and the public needs to be fully informed about the meaning of these images, which can serve as a first warning sign to the presence of haters in a community or school. Right, so it ends up being more nuanced than I think kind of

Starting point is 00:03:12 the headlines that people are seeing and sharing right now. And also at the same time, kind of going back to the explanation on the Pepe the Frog page. If the majority of usage is for non bigoted reasons, then how can it be an effective warning sign? Or how can you better handle or communicate the situation? Because my personal feeling on this, I think you're giving the actual hate groups far more power

Starting point is 00:03:30 and allowing them to hijack language and body language. Because right now, the way that it's been communicated, it one, makes the people that were using it for non-bigoted reasons feel defensive, which I don't think is a completely misplaced reaction, given what we saw with Pepe the Frog, where accusations were being made of just tying people that were using it like normal to extremism.

Starting point is 00:03:47 Right, and with weak, poorly thought out, or just outright false accusations and connections, you're gonna have people using that more as a way to troll. And you also have people more scared to be like, yeah, that's okay. And so it ends up being more associated with the other thing. Like I feel it should be okay to say, fuck a white supremacist.

Starting point is 00:04:03 You limp dick little bitches, you gotta hate someone because they're a different race? Yeah, I'm not gonna let those groups or the ADL for that matter dictate a change in the way that I communicate or hijack any language or body language that I might already incorporate. Yeah, that's all I gotta say about this story and of course I pass the question off to you.

Starting point is 00:04:18 What are your thoughts on this? Then I'm gonna try and share these whenever they come across and if you wanna send me happy stories on Twitter, please do. It was like, there's kind of wave after wave of dark and divisive stuff. So let's celebrate good when we see it. Earlier in the week, we talked about Carson King

Starting point is 00:04:31 raising over a million dollars now for a children's hospital. And today an act of goodwill that we wanted to highlight and showcase actually came from YouTube's own David Dobrik. Came across a guy by the name of John who said that he was currently homeless. He got kicked out of foster care. His car had also recently gotten stolen.

Starting point is 00:04:45 And I guess at that point, David Dobrik was like, my superpower could activate. Along with giving him a car that gave him free Chipotle for a year, he also just gave the guy a car. It's heartwarming and I think it's also nice to whenever you see someone kind of in a very awesome privileged position

Starting point is 00:05:00 doing onto another because they can. The final thing we're gonna talk about today, of course, is the continuation of this Trump-Biden-Ukraine impeachment whistleblower situation. So we've been covering this all week. If you want full details, right, kind of like not the oversimplified stuff to get you to where we're updating,

Starting point is 00:05:15 I highly recommend you watch the previous shows. Right, but the main thing is that this story centers around a whistleblower complaint that claims that Trump pressured Ukrainian President Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden, right, an accusation that the President of the United States abused his power to solicit foreign interference. And as we talked about yesterday,

Starting point is 00:05:29 there was a July phone call with the Ukrainian leader where yesterday a memorandum of that call was released and it showed Trump asking Zelensky to look into Biden for him. Once again, oversimplified. I also had an issue with how some of the news outlets were covering it. They were pairing certain parts of the,

Starting point is 00:05:42 yeah, I know that it's self-promo, but really watch yesterday's video if you wanna understand that part. Also yesterday we saw Zelensky and Trump make an appearance together at the UN. And notably there, Zelensky addressed the call and said, nobody pushed me. But others have argued that one,

Starting point is 00:05:54 that's not the only concerning thing from the memorandum, and two, he still asked a foreign leader to interfere. And that is why it's believed that it is still grounds for the impeachment inquiry Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi announced on Tuesday. Also of note before moving forward, this story is developing so fast and there is so much to cover

Starting point is 00:06:07 and it is impossible to do in just one show or even in a week of shows. But there are two main updates that we're gonna talk about today. The first and probably most significant development is that today the whistleblower's complaint was actually released to the public with minimal redaction. And two, which we will talk about briefly,

Starting point is 00:06:20 Acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, is testifying before the House today. Okay, so that first one, let's take a look at the complaint. The whistleblower starts with this small bit. "'In the course of my official duties, "'I have received information "'from multiple U.S. government officials

Starting point is 00:06:32 "'that the President of the United States "'is using the power of his office "'to solicit interference from a foreign country "'in the 2020 U.S. election. "'This interference includes, among other things, "'pressuring a foreign country to investigate "'one of the President's main domestic political rivals. And also going on to note that Trump's lawyer,

Starting point is 00:06:47 Rudy Giuliani and attorney general, William Barr are involved. Whistleblower also goes on to note that they had received this information over the past four months from more than half a dozen US officials. But notably here, they also say that they were not a direct witness to most of the events described,

Starting point is 00:06:59 but also adding, in almost all cases, multiple officials recounted fact patterns that were consistent with one another. And I point that out because one of the arguments that we're seeing from Trump and supporters of the president is this kind of firsthand witness part. And so to be clear, the whistleblower's kind of counter argument there is the multiple sources as well.

Starting point is 00:07:14 Technically the whistleblower is saying that they did not witness most of the events, not all of them. And in this, the whistleblower goes on to say, I am deeply concerned that the actions described below constitute a serious or flagrant problem, abuse, or violation of law or executive order. And later adding, I am also concerned that the actions described below constitute a serious or flagrant problem, abuse, or violation of law or executive order. And later adding, I am also concerned

Starting point is 00:07:28 that these actions pose risks to US national security and undermine the US government's efforts to deter and counter foreign interference in US elections. And they then outline those actions through a series of different sections. The first section is titled the 25 July Presidential Phone Call. There, it details the same call between Trump and Zelensky

Starting point is 00:07:44 that we saw the memorandum for yesterday, with the whistleblower saying it was the first publicly acknowledged call between the leaders since a quick congratulatory call after Zelensky won his election. Regarding that note, yesterday we also saw Trump acknowledge that he had a previous call and saying that he would release the transcript

Starting point is 00:07:56 of that first call if asked, but that's really not the focus here. Yeah, bouncing back to the July 25th call, the whistleblower says, "'After an initial exchange of pleasantries, the president sought to pressure the Ukrainian leader "'to take actions to help the president's "'2020 re-election bid.'"

Starting point is 00:08:08 But then the whistleblower continues, "'White House officials who told me this information "'were deeply disturbed by what had transpired "'in the phone call. "'They told me there was already a discussion ongoing "'with White House lawyers about how to treat the call "'because of the likelihood in the officials retelling "'that they had witnessed the president

Starting point is 00:08:22 "'abuse his office for personal gain.'" Then we have the second section, still connected to this call, and it's called efforts to restrict access to records related to the call. And there the whistleblower writes, "'In the days following the phone call, "'I learned from multiple US officials

Starting point is 00:08:33 "'that senior White House officials had intervened "'to quote, lock down all records of the phone call, "'especially the official word-for-word transcript "'of the call that was produced.'" And that word-for-word transcript they describe as customary by the White House Situation Room. Adding, this set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity

Starting point is 00:08:50 of what had transpired in the call. Then going on to describe what that looked like writing, White House officials told me that they were, quote, "'directed by White House lawyers "'to remove the electronic transcript "'from the computer system in which such transcripts "'are typically stored.'" And going on to say that instead of storing it

Starting point is 00:09:03 where it's normally stored, it was loaded into a separate electronic system, quote, "'used to store and handle classified information of an especially sensitive nature.'" And there, noting that, quote, "'One White House official described this act as an abuse of this electronic system because the call did not contain anything remotely sensitive

Starting point is 00:09:18 from a national security perspective.'" And later in the complaint, the whistleblower also writes that the White House officials informed them that, quote, "'This was not the first time under this administration "'that a presidential transcript was placed "'into this code word level system solely for the purpose "'of protecting politically sensitive "'rather than national security sensitive information.'"

Starting point is 00:09:34 Okay, and so then the third and fourth sections of the complaint are titled, "'Ongoing Concerns and Circumstances Leading Up "'to the 25 July Presidential Phone Call.'" And in these sections, the whistleblower said that multiple officials told them that Giuliani had, quote, reportedly privately reached out to a variety of others Zelenskyy advisors.

Starting point is 00:09:49 Later adding that even before the call, starting in mid-May, officials told them that, quote, they were deeply concerned by what they viewed as Mr. Giuliani's circumvention of national security decision-making processes to engage with the Ukrainian officials and relay messages back and forth between Kyiv and the president.

Starting point is 00:10:02 They also talked about efforts made after the call by two ambassadors who, quote, reportedly provided advice to the Ukrainian leadership about how to navigate the demands that the president had made of Mr. Zelensky. And going on to say that officials told them that State Department officials, including the same two ambassadors, had spoken with Mr. Giuliani in an attempt to contain the damage to U.S. national security. And then, notably, the whistleblower says, during this same time frame, multiple U.S. officials told me that the Ukrainian leadership was led to believe

Starting point is 00:10:27 that a meeting or phone call between the president and President Zelensky would depend on whether Zelensky showed willingness to quote, "'play ball' on the issues that have been publicly aired by the former Ukraine prosecutor general and Giuliani." But also noting that was what was conveyed to them by US officials, but that they do not know who delivered this message

Starting point is 00:10:42 to the Ukrainian leadership or when. And the whistleblower also elaborates on that in an appendix where they say that US officials told them that Trump instructed Vice President Pence to cancel his trip to attend Zelensky's inauguration on May 20th and instead sent Energy Secretary Rick Perry with the whistleblower continuing. According to these officials, it was also, quote,

Starting point is 00:10:58 "'Made clear to them that the president did not want "'to meet with Mr. Zelensky until he saw "'how Zelensky chose to act in office.'" But here the whistleblower again notes that they do not know how that was communicated or by whom. And also that they do not know if that action was directly, quote, connected with the broader understanding that a meeting or call between Trump and Zelensky

Starting point is 00:11:13 would depend on whether Zelensky showed willingness to play ball. Hoo, and the last thing that the whistleblower includes in this complaint is about aid to Ukraine, writing that on July 18th, an official from the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, informed other departments and agencies that the president earlier that month

Starting point is 00:11:27 had issued instructions to suspend all US security assistance to Ukraine, and adding that neither OMB nor the National Security Council staff knew why Trump had made that decision. But there, adding that OMB officials had explicitly said that the order came directly from Donald Trump, and concluding, as of early August,

Starting point is 00:11:41 I heard from US officials that some Ukrainian officials were aware that US aid might be in jeopardy, but I do not know how or when they learned of it. So a lot of information that I hopefully made consumable without being too surface level. You know, kind of out of all of this new information, a lot of people are looking at the play ball aspect, right? One of the things that we've discussed

Starting point is 00:11:59 is the debate of whether or not this was implicit pressure for a quid pro quo, right? Because Donald Trump didn't say, hey, look into Biden "'and I'll give you something in return.'" You know, you have some arguing and now arguing harder given this new information from the whistleblower complaint. You know, you had Trump holding back

Starting point is 00:12:11 nearly $400 million. Then you look at the timing, you see the requests, there's concern there. Now Trump, for his part, has said that he decided to hold back the aid because he was concerned about corruption in Ukraine, but also that that kind of changed here and there. After he made that claim, we all saw him claim

Starting point is 00:12:24 that he felt like other European countries, they should do more. Although there, we should point out that the European Union has provided 15 billion euros to Ukraine since 2014. That compared to the United States has reported 1.4 billion during that same time. And that shift also might be connected to some other things.

Starting point is 00:12:38 For example, last night, NPR obtained a letter from the Pentagon sent to four congressional committees back in May, where under Secretary of Defense for Policy, John Rood, wrote that he, quote, certified that the government of Ukraine has taken substantial actions to make defense institutional reforms for the purposes of decreasing corruption

Starting point is 00:12:53 and increasing accountability. And as NPR explains, that certification is required under the law for that aid to be released to Ukraine. Right, so basically there, the Under Secretary is saying that he had certified that Ukraine had met its corruption reduction goals. Right, so the aid was good to go, and the Defense Department, in fact,

Starting point is 00:13:06 announced that it would be sending that aid to Ukraine back in June. But then, of course, as we know, the White House blocked that aid before Trump's call with Zelensky in July. Aid that ended up being released to Ukraine on September 11th after Congress learned that the aid was being withheld

Starting point is 00:13:16 and demanded that it be given to Ukraine. Which, of course, because timing is a big part of the story, was also around the time that Congress was first informed about the whistleblower complaint. Okay, so there was all of that, and then, of course, too, the other big thing that I mentioned, the acting director of National Intelligence, McGuire,

Starting point is 00:13:29 testified before the House Intelligence Committee. And that was an incredibly long testimony that was happening while we were filming, so I'm not gonna be able to super dive into that. But some of the quick highlights we did see initially, in his opening remarks, he defended the way that he handled this complaint, including his decision to hold it as long as he did,

Starting point is 00:13:42 and also noting that his whole ordeal and situation is unprecedented. Also adding that he was following the Whistleblower Act in his decision making. it as long as he did, and also noting that his whole ordeal and situation is unprecedented. Also adding that he was following the Whistleblower Act in his decision-making. Regarding the whistleblower, he said that they were acting in good faith and added, I think the whistleblower did the right thing. I think he followed the law every step of the way.

Starting point is 00:13:56 It's also worth noting here that Maguire reportedly does not know the identity of the whistleblower. Also adding that Trump never asked him to find out their identity. Like I said, there's more and more there. Although regarding that, while I was finishing up this part of the story, it's being reported that today at a private event,

Starting point is 00:14:09 Donald Trump, when speaking of the whistleblower said, "'They're almost a spy. "'I want to know who's the person. "'Who's the person who gave the whistleblower "'the information, because that's close to a spy. "'You know what we used to do in the old days "'when we were smart, right? "'The spies and treason?

Starting point is 00:14:21 "'We used to handle it a little differently "'than we do now.'" Which is a lot. And on that note, while we were recording, we're to handle it a little differently than we do now, which is a lot. And on that note, while we were recording, we're seeing an update from the New York Times, which reported that the whistleblower is a CIA officer who was detailed to work at the White House at one point. And this, according to three people familiar

Starting point is 00:14:34 with his identity. Now regarding the New York Times decision to report this, they defended it, arguing that the context of the person's position and expertise lends credibility to his complaint. But of course, still you have people concerned, especially given what it's reported that Donald Trump said. We're now seeing hashtag cancel New York Times trending. Lots of people angry. Hey, like I said, that's kind of where we

Starting point is 00:14:52 are. Things are still developing. Hopefully you get a better understanding of the allegations being made and you don't get swept up into kind of just the headline promotion we often see on social media. Yeah, that's the story. And of course, like with everything we talk about in the show, I would love to know your thoughts in those comments down below. And that's where I'm going to end today's show. And hey, if you liked this video, tap that like button. If you're new here, definitely subscribe

Starting point is 00:15:11 and tap that bell to turn on notifications. Also, if you're looking for more to watch here on YouTube, you can click or tap right there. We got a brand new podcast with Dr. Mike, as well as today's brand new Rogue Rocket deep dive. But with all of that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in.

Starting point is 00:15:25 I love yo faces and I'll see you next time.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.26 "OK" Joins Pepe as Hate Symbol, #CancelNYT & Whistleblower Complaint Explained, Dobrik

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