The Philip DeFranco Show - RFK Accidentally Slams Trump in Crazy Senate Hearing, Sydney Sweeney American Eagle Scandal Update &

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

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Wendy's most important deal of the day has a fresh lineup. Pick any two breakfast items for $4. New four-piece French toast sticks, bacon or sausage wrap, biscuit or English muffin sandwiches, small hot coffee, and more. Limited time only at participating Wendy's taxes extra. Let's talk about this two-hour RFK Jr. cage match you just had with very angry Democrats on live TV. Because today, RFK Jr. sat down before the Senate Finance Committee to answer questions about everything that he's done and is doing as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Right, and the last time he was sitting before this committee, it was January for his confirmation hearing. And there, he was able to squeeze through because he was able to calm concerns from some of the skeptical Republicans that he would threaten vaccines. Where with him repeatedly, saying in written answers to their questions, if confirmed, I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines.

Well, since then, although he would dispute this, critics say that he is unequivocally broken that promise. Right, I mean, it would take too long to go through everything he's done, but named just a few things. He fired every member of a key vaccine advisory panel and replaced them with anti-vaccically. and vaccine skeptics. He pulled FDA authorization for the COVID vaccines for anyone who's not unhealthy or a senior. He cut $500 million in grants for MRNA vaccine research. Under his watch, roughly a quarter of the entire health department or some 20,000 people either accepted offers to leave or were fired. He fired the CDC director after she refused to step down, prompting three more top officials to resign and protest. And now, not only have nine former CDC directors signed an open letter accusing RFK of endangering public health.

Yesterday, over a thousand current and former HHS staff said the same thing and called on trial. to fire him. So when the Senate committee hearing kicked off today, Kennedy had quite a lot to answer for. You know, right off the bat in his opening statement, he claimed to have overseen the busiest, most proactive administration in HHS history. In just half a year, we've taken on food ties, baby formula contamination, the grass loophole, fluoride in our drinking water, gas station heroin, electronic cigarettes, drug prices, prior authorization, information blocking. The committee, it takes over three months to get a part of our authorization. Senator Kennedy, do you know something?

The committee will come to order. You're telling me. Right, and once the lawmakers, they took their turns, they weren't much friendlier than the protester. Starting with Ron Wyden, who read from a Wall Street Journal op-ed written earlier that morning by the now-fired CDC director, who said, I was told to pre-approved the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel, newly filled with people who have

publicly expressed anti-vaccine rhetoric. It is imperative that the panel's recommendations aren't rubber-stamped, but instead are rigorously and scientifically reviewed before being accepted or rejected. So Wyden, you know, he asked him about that. And whereas, you know, usually people in these hearings, they go, oh, I haven't read that article. Let me get back to you. R of K just straight up called her a liar on the spot. No, I did not say that to her. And I never had a private meeting with her other witnesses to every meeting that we have. And all those witnesses will say, I never said that. So she's lying today to the American people in the Wall Street Journal.

Yes, sir. Then you had Wyden asking RFK about his purge of the CDC's vaccine advisory panel known as ASIF. Senator, I didn't politicize ASIP. I de-politicize it. Congress has been investigating ASIP. But all over the country, Mr. Secretary, scientists and doctors are saying otherwise. They're all wrong, too. They're all lying, according to you.

The scientists and doctors are supporting me all over the country. Oh, there is division on opinion. I don't get letters from thousands of people who are not political saying that this set of changes is going to damage American health care and particularly these health care agencies for decades to come. I don't get any letters to people saying, hey, this is going to make a big difference forever. Maybe you're listening to a selective group of people.

You get me. You get me. Yeah, and I will tell you what, Senator. I will put my mailbag against your mailbag any day of the week. But before they could schedule a time for some hot mailbag on mailbag action, Senator Michael Bennett took the mound. For a minute, they seemed confused about who was pitching and who is batting. Are you saying that a DMRNA vaccine has never been associated with myocarditis or paracartitis in teenagers?

I am saying, I am simply... Is that what you're trying to tell us? I am simply trying to say that the people that you have put on that panel after firing the entire You're evading the question. No, I'm asking the questions here. You're evading that question. I'm asking the questions. I ask you a question.

I'm asking the questions for Mr. Kennedy on behalf of parents and schools and teachers all over the United States of America who deserve so much better than your leadership. That's what this conversation is about, Mr. Chairman. Senator, they deserve the truth, and that's what we're going to give them for the first time. in the history of that agency. Next, you had Mark Warner, who took a different approach and just tried to establish what he called basic facts. Do you accept the fact that a million Americans died from COVID? I don't know how many died.

You're the Secretary of Health and Human Services. You don't have any idea how many Americans died from COVID? I don't think anybody knows that because there was so much data chaos. Do you think the vaccine did anything to prevent additional deaths? Again, I would like to see the data and talk about the data. You had this job for eight months, and you don't know the data about whether the vaccine saved lives. And that's the problem is that they didn't have the data.

Then you had Elizabeth Warren grilling him about whether he's made it harder for people to get vaccinated, which, by the way, experts generally seem to agree is true. I mean, just limiting the FDA's approval for the COVID shot alone is expected to disrupt insurance coverage, discourage doctors from prescribing it, and make it harder to find it at pharmacies. Which is also why we're already seeing reports that some people are struggling to get appointments for vaccination this fall. So Warren, she sparred with him over this and eventually called in reinforcements from Bernie Sanders. Most Americans will be able to get it from their pharmacy for a question is everyone who wants it.

That was your promise. I know I never promised that I was going to recommend products with which there is no indication. When you said, and I know you've taken $855,000 from pharmaceutical companies, senator. Every single Republican. I don't mean to be political here, Mr. Chairman, has received pack money for the pharmaceutical industry. Are they all corrupt as well? And I'm telling you,

the American Heart Association has been co-opted by the fleet of history. Everybody but you, Senator, but you know what? When you ran for president, you know, we have a corrupt campaign finance system. Maybe you will agree with me or not. I'm saying that the pharmaceutical industry is a greedy institution which are charging us the highest prices in the world. They are pervasive.

But to suggest that every institution, institution, the AMA, the pediatrics people, is corrupt because they disagree with you as an insult to the American people disagree with me all the time. But then finally, we should talk about Kennedy's reception from the Republicans. In part because, you know, most of them just threw him softballs, asking him open-ended questions like, what are you doing to make America healthy again? But there was one in particular who was clearly unhappy with what he's seen from RFK and HHS so far, and that's Bill Cassidy. And a key thing with Cassidy is, you know, yes, he's on the finance committee, but he's also on the committee that oversees HHS, he's a licensed physician, and he is a supporter of vaccines.

And a big thing is that when RFK was being confirmed back in February, Cassidy was the most visible holdout, and he only agreed to vote for Kennedy after getting several promises from him. Namely, that he'd work within current vaccine approval and safety monitoring systems, accept recommendations from the vaccine advisory panel and work closely with Cassidy himself on health policy. And so when Cassidy stepped up for his turn, he made his dissatisfaction very, very clear. Mr. Secretary, do you agree with me that the president, that the president deserves a noble prize for Operation Warp Speed? Absolutely, Senator.

Let me ask you. But you just told Senator Bennett that the COVID vaccine killed more people than COVID. Wait. That was a statement. I did not say that. It also surprises me because you've canceled, or HHAs did, but apparently under your direction, $500 million in contracts using the MRNA vaccine platform that was crucial. critical to Operation Warp Speed. You've called for, and rightly so, that we should restrict

participation in agencies for those with conflict of interest. What I am concerned about is that many of those whom you've nominated for ASEP have received revenue as serving as expert witnesses for plaintiffs attorneys suing vaccine makers. That actually seems like a conflict of interest. Real quickly, do you agree with that? No, I don't. I would say effectively were denying people vaccine. Senator Cantwell. I hate it wrong. And so, yeah, that was the hearing, essentially. It's unclear if anything productive actually came from it all.

But at the very least, it happened. The wall of this is, of course, RFK's department continues to systematically dismantle the public health system as we know it. And you've got the FDA announcing that it no longer considers taking multiple vaccines or respiratory viruses at the same time, safe and effective. So pharmaceutical companies want to claim that

they'll have to conduct new clinical trials proving it, even though virtually no credible expert doubts. And to be clear, pharmacies can still leak. give you the COVID shot and the flu shot at the same time this fall like they always have, but the extra regulatory hurdle in climate of fear and uncertainty mean that some may be hesitant to. And you have experts saying that could push down overall vaccination rates because many people just won't stomach the inconvenience of having to schedule two consecutive appointments instead of one. But also a big thing is that with the federal government going totally rogue,

states and private organizations, they've been forming their own parallel systems to keep people safe. With, for example, California, Washington, and Oregon forming a West Coast Health Alliance yesterday that'll give its own vaccine recommendations. And then in the north, these, eight states have discussed launching a similar coalition for several months. But then also at the same time, red states are following the White House's lead, with, for example, Florida announcing that it would become the first state in the nation to end all-school vaccine mandates, likening them to slavery. So yeah, just a regular old day in America these days.

But then, in a quick one-minute break, that helps keep the show free for you. Let me say, you know, emails, notifications, random pangs, I find it impossible to focus sometimes. Like, your brain's just unshuffle and the world just keeps hitting refresh. But actually not since I've been using today's sponsor, brain.fm. I tried all the usual stuff, Spotify playlist, noise machines, but it never really worked. I'd get distracted after like two minutes. But BrainDat FM's different. This isn't just music.

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I mean, I've been using them to actually calm my brain later in the day, which, I mean, is not an easy thing to do. And say, hey, if you want to try, you can get 30 days free right now at brain.fm slash defranco or just scan the QR code. That's brain. That's brain.fm slash defranco for a full month of science-backed music that actually helps you focus. But then next up today, we've got to talk about how a dozen federal judges just issued a chilling

warning. Unless the Supreme Court changes course, somebody is going to die. Written that as Trump is asking the Supreme Court to overturn last week's 7 to 4 appeals court ruling that determined he does not, in fact, have the authority to implement most of the tariffs that he's placed on foreign imports recently. Though, the appeals court did give Trump some wiggle room to ask the Supreme Court to weigh in on the matter before the ruling takes effect, which is exactly what he's doing with both Trump and his Justice Department, framing the ruling is catastrophic for the country. And you've got Solicitor General John Sauer saying in a written filing to the high court, the stakes in this case could not be higher. The president and his cabinet officials have determined that the tariffs are promoting peace and unprecedented. economic prosperity and that the denial of tariff authority would expose our nation to trade retaliation without effective defenses and thrust America back to the brink of economic catastrophe.

Trump then asking the Supreme Court to expedite their ruling because, quote, the financial fabric of our country is at stake. And specifically, he's requesting they take up the case by September 10th and then hear arguments in November, which really would be especially fast considering that the high court's new term doesn't even begin until October 6th. And see, now that's a ruling we're definitely going to have to keep an eye out for, but we should also zoom out a bit and talk about how This is, you know, it's really just another example of Trump using emergency rulings from the Supreme Court to essentially rubber stamp his agenda. I mean, you've got lower court judges saying that by allowing Trump to do so, the Supreme Court is potentially undermining the entire judiciary system. And in fact, an incredibly rare interview, you had a dozen federal judges, notably both Republican and Democratic appointees, sitting down with NBC, and all 12 spoke on the condition of anonymity at a concern about retaliation and threats, which, of course, has become a very real problem in recent years.

But these judges, they all pointed to a pattern that's been emerging. They're handed a contentious case relating to the Trump. administration, they painstakingly researched the law to reach their rulings, and when they rule against Trump, they have to deal with the intense criticism and harsh words. And then the case is appealed to the Supreme Court, where an emergency ruling rejects the lower court judge's findings with little to no explanation. And so all of that, leading to lower courts looking shoddy and bias against Trump, which opens up to a whole new level of criticism from big names in the Maga world and even occasionally Trump himself. Hell at one point, Trump even threatened the job of a judge who ruled against him in a high profile immigration case. And you had one of the

judges saying that the Supreme Court is essentially helping the Trump administration undermine the lower courts, and they're throwing judges under the bus. With another adding, it is inexcusable. They don't have our backs. And that judge also saying that major reform must happen or, quote, somebody is going to die. Right, one of the big changes that they're calling for here is for Chief Justice John Roberts to step up and do more to protect them. But with four of the judges

saying that Roberts' chief justice could push back against Team Trump's hostilities against lower courts if and when they rule against Trump's agenda. And while it's been noted that, you know, there have been a couple of times that Roberts has verbally defended the judiciary you had the judges arguing

it's the actions that really matter. Saying that the Supreme Court's unexplained rulings in Trump's favor, they say more than any statement. Right, words are words and actions or actions. And all of this is, you know, an important note here is that, you know, it's not just about the Supreme Court leaning right in their rulings.

Right, the Supreme Court, it's leaned one direction or the other at several points in U.S. history. It is more about the role of emergency cases. I mean, emergency rulings, they're not a new thing. Back in 2015, a University of Chicago law school professor coined the term shadow docket for cases that are fast-tracked around the usual months-long appeal process. And before Trump, this was usually for things like death row inmates' attempts to block their execution at the 11th hour. But Trump has taken the shadow docket to explode with hot-button nationwide dispute cases, starting back in his first administration with his travel ban on

people entering the United States from mostly Muslim majority countries, or which the Supreme Court at the time allowed to partially go into effect. And then his second time around, he's already asked the Supreme Court to block lower court rulings on an emergency basis 23 times. Right, the Supreme Court has agreed 17 times, and of the remaining cases, they've only said no twice. The one is still pending, and the other three being resolved without decisions. And for comparison, it appears that throughout the entire four-year Biden administration, they filed applications for emergency rulings only 19 times.

And even with that, the court only gave the thumbs up 10 times. But going back to Trump, of the 17 cases that the state, Supreme Court okayed for his administration just this year, five of those reportedly offered no explanation for their ruling, and seven of them reportedly had less than three pages of reasoning. Though that's also not a complaint exclusive to Trump, I mean, of the 10 wins the Supreme Court gave the Biden administration, eight of those had no explanation. And that ends up being a problem because as one of the 10 judges explained to NBC, the Supreme Court has a responsibility to explain their rulings in a way that the public can understand. And the lack of those explanations,

it's resulted in serious problems for lower court judges who are required to follow the Supreme Court's leave. But then because of the lack of explanation, they're not sure. what they're supposed to do or how to proceed in the related cases. Especially in cases where the Supreme Court undermines established precedent without overturning it entirely. Right, then there's also the unspoken message at the Supreme Court sending by churning out emergency rulings in favor of Trump's agenda. With one of the judges telling NBC that the Supreme Court is effectively endorsing team Trump's stance that the lower courts are biased against them and adding. It's almost like the Supreme Court is saying it is a judicial coup. And so ultimately that's where we are. We have this growing concern and it remains to be seen, you know, is this just going to continue?

Is Robert's going to do anything different? We'll have to wait and see. But then, next up from that, we should talk about how Donald Trump wants to pick New York City's next mayor. And to do that, his advisors are reportedly thinking about offering current mayor, Eric Adams, a job in his administration. With the idea being that Adams would then drop out of the race, and it would give Andrew Cuomo a better chance of defeating Zoran Mamdani.

And actually, for the same reason, Trump's people are reportedly trying to find a place for Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa in the White House. And actually, you have Mamdani speaking out about this, saying, you know, he's not worried about losing either way, but that this is about more than that. Today, we have learned what New Yorkers have long suspected, that Andrew Cuomo is Donald Trump's choice to be the next mayor of this city. We feel just as confident as we did yesterday

that we will win this race in November. This is, however, about an affront to our democracy. An affront to what makes so many of us proud to be Americans. that we choose our own leaders. Not that they get to pick themselves. Not that they get to be picked by the president of the United States. That is what this news has revealed to us today. And that is what this campaign is fighting.

Not simply any other candidate that will be on the ballot, but the notion that New York City is for sale. But the reason that so many New Yorkers are fed up with politics as they know it is because of news like this. Backroom deals, corrupt agreements, all of which serve to increase the sense of disaffection and despair as it pertains to how people feel about politics across this country. Now with all that, I'll say Adams and Slewa,

they've denied speaking with the president or receiving a job offer. Adams also claiming he has no plans to exit the race, but also saying he wouldn't discuss any private conversations he might have had. Though the specifics of the wordings in the situation probably matter, as you have the New York Times suggesting that intermediates for Trump have been in touch with associates of Adams. With one source saying the administration's been looking into, making Adams an ambassador. Also someone else telling Politico that he's actually already been offered

a position at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. But also notably, let's say, you know, even if all that isn't true, you have people saying that Mamdani's point about backroom deals and corrupt agreements, they still stand. Right. Adams became mayor in 2022. And last September, after a year's long investigation, prosecutors charged him with conspiracy, bribery and other crime saying that he had, one, accepted more than $100,000 in flight upgrades and airline tickets. Two, pressured the city's fire department to sign off on the opening of a new high-rise Turkish consulate building, despite safety concerns, and three, fraudulently obtained millions of dollars in public funds for his campaign. And then after that, you know, for whatever

reason, just randomness, probably unrelated, you had Adams refusing to criticize Trump, telling his top aides to do the same, also changing his stance on immigration and ultimately kind of just doing whatever he could to curry Trump's favor. Again, probably completely unrelated to the situation when Trump got back into office, Adams' lawyers formally asked for a pardon. Then, one week later, Adams' lawyer getting a call from one of Trump's top political appointees of the DOJ, saying he wanted to talk about potentially dismissing the case against him. And wouldn't you know it, after some back and forth, that's exactly what happened. Even had the judge who ultimately granted the motion to dismiss the charges, saying it looked

like the department had offered the mayor a quid pro quo, with prosecutors who had worked the case also saying the same. And notably, since switching to run as an independent, there's only been more allegations swirling around Adams. Last month, one of his former advisors was indicted on charges of corruption and bribery, and another faced similar allegations after handing a reporter a potato chip bag, stuff with cash. And then, of course, there's the Cuomo of it all. Cuomo is a former governor of New York. He's run it as a third party candidate after getting whooped by Mom Doni in the Democratic primary. You know, notable to the situation, he resigned as governor

after facing sexual harassment allegations. He's been investigated for lying about the underreporting of nursing home deaths in the state during the pandemic, and he may be more than willing to accept help from Trump than he's let on. In fact, it's actually been reported that he spoke to Trump on the phone about the race, though I will say both men have denied that. Also, more recently, in private, Cuomo has told business leaders that he doesn't want a combative relationship with Trump, and he's told wealthy Hamptonites at a fundraiser that he actually expected Trump would ultimately help him win the race. So again, he has since denied that saying in an interview yesterday that it would actually make more sense for Trump to support Mumdani.

And actually, to be fair, that does seem to be the prevailing view among many Republicans who do think that in fact that they could use Mumdani as a sort of socialist boogeyman to shape elections around the country. And actually connected to that as far as Trump's talked about this publicly, I mean back in July after baselessly claiming the Mumdani immigrated to the U.S. illegally and even threatening to arrest him if he interfered with immigration enforcement in the city, you had him saying, I'm not going to let this communist and lunatic destroy New York, which you could, one, see as an example of how they would want to use the situation and constantly kind of make him the lightning rod for attacks. So this also is, too,

there have been reports saying he is genuinely trying to find another candidate that has the best chance of defeating it. And then actually, beyond that, you have New York, real estate moguls, developers, and billionaires seemingly all teaming up to do whatever they can to stop Mumdani. And backing Cuomo, it seems like their best bet. Because Mumdani, I mean, he's generally been leading the polls with anywhere from around 30 to 40% of the vote. Whereas Cuomo's support, it's been hovering in the low to mid-20s, Slewa. You know, he's been in the teens. Adams has been in the single digits. But all of that is, you know, it's also not clear that any of them dropping out would drastically change anything. And actually, if they did, they might actually not be able to remove their names from the ballot at this point in the race. But hey, for now, we're gonna have to wait to see how all this plays out, not even just on this front of if we see certain Democratic politicians, the ones who, you know, just less than a year ago were shouting, hey, you got to vote blue no matter who. They will endorse Mumdani, or at the very least bring that same vote blue no matter who energy. Because otherwise, I I don't know, certain people like Jeffries might seem like hypocrites or people might tie it to them receiving

A-PAC money. But then in a quick one-minute break that helps keep the show free for you, let me say, without today's sponsor, Hello Fresh, dinner time would just be me in the kitchen, staring at random condiments while my kids ask, is popcorn a meal dad? But Hello Fresh, it keeps me from that level of parental failure. You know, I love it. I think you'll love it, too. And they've also just made their biggest menu upgrade yet. Right, it's bigger. The menus doubled, 100 recipes every week, so even the pickiest person at the table can find something they'll eat. It's healthier. They sneak in two or more veg. for dish plus high protein option, so I don't feel like I'm taking a nap right after dinner. It's also tastier steak and seafood every week, three times more seafood and no extra cost and seasonal produce. I mean, snap peas to stone fruit to corn on the cob. And hey, bigger

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That's HelloFresh.com slash DeFranco 10 FM to get 10 free meals and a free item for life. But then next step for the news, Donald Trump broke the law by freezing more than $2 billion in research funding for Harvard University. That is what a federal judge just ruled saying that the White House violated Harvard's First Amendment rights, and this is huge. But the judge also telling Trump that he can't block any of the school's federal research funding, quote, in retaliation for the exercise of its First Amendment rights, on any purported grounds of discrimination without compliance with the terms of Title VI, which is the law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin,

and programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. And that matters here because Trump's supposed justification for pulling Harvard's funding included the claim that there was rampant anti-Semitism and discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students on campus. Right back in April, the Trump administration sent the school a letter, telling it that if it wanted to keep its funding, it had to deal with that, demanding that it changed its admissions and hiring policies and NDI programs, among other things. But then Harvard, they refused. and within hours, the White House announced that it would begin cutting off funding.

So the school sued a week later, and since then, this lawsuit has just been one part of a much bigger battle. It's from trying to bar international students from attending, threatening the university's accreditation and tax-exempt status, and even cutting off more funding to the school. And a huge thing is that all of this as other Ivy League universities, including Columbia, Penn, and Brown, have made deals with the White House to avoid punishment. But then with all of this, it feels very important to go back to the anti-Semitism, or at the very least, the supposed anti-Semitism of it all.

Because while the judge said that Harvard has had serious issues, with anti-Semitism, Trump's funding freeze, it was illegal, and a review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other than that the defendants use anti-Semitism as a smokescreen for a targeted ideologically motivated assault on this country's premier universities. And saying, we must fight against anti-Semitism, but we equally need to protect our rights, including our right to free speech, and neither goal should nor needs to be sacrificed on the altar of the other. And adding, now it is the job of the courts to similarly step up, to act to safeguard academic freedom and freedom of speech as required by the Constitution

and to ensure that important research is not improperly subjected to arbitrary and procedurally infirm grant terminations, even if doing so risks the wrath of a government committed to its agenda no matter the cost. But then on the other side, the White House, as expected, not happy with the decision. They condemned it, and a spokesperson said, Harvard does not have a constitutional right to taxpayer dollars and remains ineligible for grants in the future. Right, and then adding that the government's going to appeal what they called an egregious decision. But then next up today, let's talk about Newsmax versus Fox News. Because News just filed an antitrust lawsuit against Fox News claiming that they engaged in, quote,

an exclusionary scheme to increase and maintain its dominance in the market for U.S. right-leaning pay TV news, resulting in suppression of competition in that market that harms consumers, competition, and Newsmax. Or in other words, they're essentially arguing that Fox News has been a legally hogging conservative news market. As far as how, you have Newsmax claiming that Fox does this in a number of ways, including by intimidating cable, satellite, and TV providers into exclusionary contracts, and saying, Fox leverages this market power to coerce distributors into not carrying or into marginalizing other right-leaning news channels, including Newsmax. And alleging that Fox will actually force distributors into unfair terms and impose financial penalties on

them if they carry Newsmax and others in their standard cable packages. Right. Notably, this suit was filed in Florida, and it claims that Fox's misconduct, it goes beyond just these contracts. With Newsmax saying that ever since its cable channel began, it's actually faced threats and smear tactics from Fox News, including Fox hiring private detective firms to investigate Newsmax execs. And then also claiming that Fox would pressure its guests to stop appearing on Newsmax. And if those guests didn't listen, producers were told to avoid booking them all together. And then they further alleged that when Newsmax confronted Foxx regarding this

anti-competitive conduct, Fox News responded, welcome to the big leagues. Right, with all this, I think some important context is that Fox News, I mean, they're not even the biggest right-leaning cable news channel. They are the most watched cable news channel in the country. So obviously Newsmax's ratings, they don't compare to what Fox is pulling. In the past, you've even had the New York Times calling Newsmax the David to Fox News' Goliath. Though, I will say in recent years, Newsmax has seen some moments of growth, including when Tucker Carlson left Fox in 2023. I mean, that created a time slot for Newsmax to grow. And actually, according to the lawsuit, it also saw boostering Trump versus Biden, with the lawsuit claiming of the 2020 election highlighted the consumer demand for

a right-leaning pay TV news alternative to Fox's establishment platform. With them adding before and after the election, Newsmax's rating grew because it offered viewers fresh and different right-leaning news, with new talent and new opinions. And so then with that, you have Newsmax alleging that at that time, Fox News actively saw Newsmax as a threat, and they pointed to text and other messages, executives and talent allegedly sent one another. It's some execs, apparently calling Newsmax a surge troubling and saying, we are on war footing, others claiming that they were more worried about competition from Newsmax than giants like CNN and MSNBC. And that's when Newsmax claims Fox began a coordinated campaign to suppress it and other right-wing news outlets. With Newsmax adding,

that campaign has caused some revenue, growth, and advertisers. So now they're asking for a court to stop Fox, from trying to maintain a monopoly and for some monetary damages as well. As far as Fox, they slammed this lawsuit, saying Newsmax can't sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace to chase headlines simply because they can't attract viewers. So this is definitely going to be an interesting one to watch, not just because you know, the girls are fighting, but also because it highlights the the cracks and the breaks that we've seen in kind of MAGA media world. We've seen a pop up with certain personalities and certain kind of alt news organizations online, but this is a big mainstream one.

But the next step, you've got the news that Texas is about to a dramatic expand its abortion ban. Right, and they already have one of the strictest laws on the book, banning abortion as early as six weeks and allowing private citizens to sue doctors or anyone who helps facilitate an abortion. But now, this new proposal, which was passed by the State Senate yesterday and is expected to be signed by Governor Greg Abbott soon, it goes way beyond that. Specifically, the bill will make it so that private citizens can sue any individual or company that manufactures, distributes, transports, delivers, or males abortion pills to or from Texas. And that's regardless of whether a woman actually even takes an abortion pill.

In fact, according to reports, pharmaceutical companies that make the drug could be held liable as good delivery services like FedEx and UPS. And during debate in a Texas house, the Republican who wrote the bill even said that a parent of a pregnant minor could be sued for obtaining the pill for their child or even just calling a clinic outside of Texas to ask about mail order pills. Now notably here, like Texas's current law, women who end their pregnancies can't be sued nor can doctors who perform abortions in emergency situations. But even if they can't sue the woman, anyone can still bring a lawsuit against facilitators regardless of whether they have any connection to her. And also if they're

Successful, the defendants would be required to pay as much as $100,000 in damages. But only the pregnant woman herself, the man who impregnated her and direct relatives of the fetus. They would be able to get the full $100,000. Anyone else, they'd be able to pocket $10,000 with the remaining $90,000 going to charity. Though there are also limited exceptions like a man who impregnated a woman through sexual assault. He wouldn't be eligible for damages, but it's also unclear how that would be enforced. Then it looks like Sidney's Controversial Good Jeans campaign has been insanely good for American Eagle. And in fact, you now have the company saying they're going to do more work with Sweeney later

this year. Because while there's some backlash of people saying that it was kind of dog whistly or it was promoting eugenics. Jeans are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like her color, personality, and even I color. My jeans are blue. Siddy's Twini, Casper Keynes. It appears that, you know, some people loving it, some people hating it. Any publicity is good publicity because American Eagle stock soared 30% as of this morning after the brand released a strong earnings reporting claim that Sweeney's campaign was largely the thing. With American Eagle CEO saying during an earnings call that because of the ads, the company experienced record-breaking new customer acquisition and brand awareness. So it also wasn't just Sweeney.

The clothesmaker also said that the boost in customer awareness, engagement, and comparable sales, was also driven by a new collab with Travis Kelsey and the lifestyle brand True Colors. A project that also very notably was launched just one day after the news of his engagement to Taylor Swift was made public. And in fact, he had American Eagle reporting that its customer count was up more than 700,000. since the launch of the campaigns, which together have generated 40 billion impressions. And so with all that, you had the chief marketing officer telling investors, Sidney Sweeney has great genes, is not going anywhere. Sydney will be part of our team as we get into the back half of the year,

and we'll be introducing new elements of the campaign as we continue forward. And while that, it brings us to the end of this video, you've got even more just a click away. You've got my newest podcast right here with Free Speech Attorney Ari Cohn. We actually just finished everything up right before today's show, and, you know, we talked about the attack on the First Amendment and so much more. You can also click or tap right here to watch the newest Philip DeFranco show you haven't seen. I've even got links in the description for both of our Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and wherever else you prefer to get filled in.

Thank you for watching. I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here on Monday.