The Philip DeFranco Show - The Candace Owens Charlie Kirk Situation Has Split MAGA as More Accusations Spill Out

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Starting point is 00:01:09 And there's just more and more that we're having to talk about with this. We'll start with updates around his suspected killer, who had his first virtual court appearance yesterday, where you saw him saying his name, standing silently against a wall, and now and then nodding along while wearing a vest designed to prevent self-harm. And as far as the specific charges against him, those included aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm, two counts of obstructing justice, two counts of witness tamper. and the commission of a violence offense in the presence of a child. And you had prosecutors yesterday confirming, yes, they will be pursuing the death penalty. Also beyond that, we learned more with Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray, revealing that it was the suspect's own mother who kicked off the sequence of events leading to his arrest.

Starting point is 00:01:42 The day after the shooting, Robinson's mother saw the photo of the shooter in the news and thought the shooter looked like her son. Robinson's mother called her son and asked him where he was. He said he was at home sick and that he had all. also been at home, homesick on September 10th. Robinson's mother expressed concern to her husband that the suspect shooter looked like Robinson. Robinson's father agreed.

Starting point is 00:02:12 You then also had Gray at one point claiming that the suspect's mother explained that over the last year or so, Robinson had become more political and had started to lean more to the left, becoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented. Gray also said that the mom said that her, son had started to date his roommate who she claimed was a biological male, transitioning genders. Gray adding, this resulted in several discussions with family members, but especially between

Starting point is 00:02:40 Robinson and his father, who have very different political views. And then with that, you had gray pointing to text messages between Robinson and his roommate as a key piece of evidence. You know, we talked about that a little yesterday, but to get into more detail, roommate allegedly received a text message from the suspect, which said, drop what you're doing, look under my keyboard. The roommate then apparently did, as instructed, and found a note that said, I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I'm going to take. And then after reading that note, the roommate responded, what, you're joking, right?

Starting point is 00:03:06 But it appearing that Robinson then responded by saying that he couldn't leave the area because of police activity, also saying that he still had to grab his rifle, which he had stashed nearby. When the roommate asked again whether or not he did it, Robinson replied, I am, I'm sorry, to which the roommate answered, I thought they caught the person. Robinson then responded, no, they grabbed some crazy old dude that interrogated someone in similar clothing. I had planned to grab my rifle from my drop point shortly after, but most of that side of town got locked down. As far as that crazy old guy that was mentioned, who was briefly detained moments after Kirk was hit,

Starting point is 00:03:33 that appears to be 71-year-old George Zinn, and according to Utah County Sheriff Michael Smith, Zinn admitted to police that he had yelled that he was the shooter to allow the actual suspect to flee. According to reports, what he said specifically was, I shot him, now shoot me. Now he's actually being held on obstruction of justice charges, although separately he's reportedly been charged with possession of child sex abuse material. Also a key thing to know here is that the sheriff has currently said that there's no evidence that Zinn was actually working with a shooter in any way. Apparently, this guy's like well-known among organizers of public events in Salt Lake City with, for example, the New York Times reporting, he showed up frequently to public forums with the intention to disrupt the event or question a high-profile speaker. But then, going back to the text messages, you reportedly also had the roommate asking why he did it, to which he replied. I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can't be negotiated out. If I'm able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence going to attempt to retrieve it again.

Starting point is 00:04:21 Hopefully they have moved on. I haven't seen anything about them finding it. But the suspect then saying that he had been planning to do this for a bit over a week and that the messages engraved on the casings from the rifle were mostly a big meme. It's saying if I see notices bulge, oo-woo on Fox News, it might have a stroke, and then telling the roommate to delete this exchange before saying that he turned himself in willingly with his last message saying, you are all I worry about love, don't talk to the media, please, don't take any interviews or make any comments. If any police ask you questions, ask for a lawyer, and stay silent.

Starting point is 00:04:48 Right now, what we've seen since that's been said and reported is just so many theories swirling around online. I'm basically claiming that the messages don't sound like a real conversation between two young people. Or are people saying that it just too conveniently lays out everything that authorities need to make a case? You're even seeing some suggesting that the messages were written by the FBI. Though then, at the same time, you have others arguing that the suspect and his roommate might have staged this conversation to provide an alibi for the roommate. Or those in this camp suggesting that the roommate was actually involved or knew about the plan beforehand. And that being tied into the effort that we're seeing from some to use this against the transgender community. And then, in addition to all of that is the Israel of it.

Starting point is 00:05:23 Because one of the big theories is that Israel is involved or somehow behind Kirk's death. You also had people like longtime friend to Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, at the very least looking to counter the public narratives around Charlie Kirk having the best relationship with Israeli or Jewish leadership. The truth is that Charlie was under immense pressure and he was facing financial threats over his shifting stance on Israel, over who he was hosting, over from his podcast to people that were on stage at America Fest, Dave Smith, Tucker Carlson. That is reality, my friends. Again, I want those people to know. Your money means nothing to me. I already said no to it.

Starting point is 00:06:03 And it's really expanded from there. Tucker Carlson saying that Charlie Kirk revealed to him that he really didn't like BB Netanyahu. He felt that BB Netanyahu was a very destructive force. He was appalled by what was happening in Gaza. And then also at one point, Tucker talked about the alleged pressure that Kirk was under around Israel before his assassination. He was dependent to a great extent on his donors, of course. It's a nonprofit. And they went after him and tormented him, not all, of course, many were supportive, but the ones who were offended by my speech in there was a small, very intense group who were tormented Charlie Kirk until the day he died. Two days before he died, he lost a $2 million donation because he had publicly pledged to bring me to the next

Starting point is 00:06:46 turning point conference in December. And he told me, over the past couple of months, he was losing a lot of donations over that pledge. They put out a flyer basically saying that I was going to be at this event giving a speech. And so he would text me and say, man, I'm really taking a lot of heat for this. And people are really mad.

Starting point is 00:07:03 The American Jewish committee called in a statement, Charlie Kirk, an anti-Semite and, quote, dangerous. Charlie Kirk, an anti-Semite. He was not an anti-Semite. Though then at the same time, you had people like Senator Ted Cruz tweeting, I'm getting really tired of Tucker and his cronies falsely claiming Charlie agreed with me that Israel is terrible and the problem in America is all the damn Jews,

Starting point is 00:07:24 saying I knew Charlie well, and indeed the very last conversation we had was how deeply concerned he was about the rising toxic wave of anti-Semitism on the right. But that is also just a small taste of what's been happening on that front. With the same time, while that appears to have been happening organically, you're also seeing reports that pro-Iranian groups have been pushing the conspiracy as well. With a number of people saying this is just one of the ways that foreign powers maybe spreading disinformation about Kirk's killing in order to so even further division in the United States. Right, and that is also we're seeing reports that Russian groups are actually trying to tie Kirk's death to U.S. support for Ukraine.

Starting point is 00:07:52 But some even spreading the lie that the Ukrainian government killed Kirk because of his criticism of that age. But again, a lot of this isn't about the creation of it. It's the amplification of it. You've got people out there like a senior research manager at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, noting that in many cases, the campaigns, they're not adding new claims, but the recycling ones that just emerge naturally from American users. It's saying they're picking up domestic actors and amplifying them, which then with that, I'll say, brings us to another aspect of the situation, and that is a lot of people are talking about what this means about social media in general on multiple levels. Because for one, the suspects been described as someone that's chronically online, which is something that describes a lot of people nowadays, especially young people. And it's also come to describe a growing number of people who have committed violent acts in the U.S. with, for example, the Guardian reporting that, quote, in recent years, a growing number of shooters have left behind writings, whether full manifestos or single sentence posts online that contain nihilistic injoke. and references that aim to differentiate their extremely online cohort from the normies who will

Starting point is 00:08:46 struggle to understand them. And with that, you had them pointing to perpetrators of mass shootings in Texas, New York, California, and even New Zealand, just to name a few. And then connected to that, there's also the fact that conspiracy theories and divisive content are actually being pushed into social media feeds by design. Because that's one of the big kinds of content that keeps people on the platforms for longer periods of time. Which is also something you saw Utah Governor Spencer Cox pointing out a few days ago. It's like the most powerful companies in the history of the world have figured out how to hack our brains, get us addicted to outrage and get us to hate each other. And also, I'll say, regarding Governor Cox, he has

Starting point is 00:09:17 kind of stood out for a number of reasons, but especially because he's someone that on the Republican side has not joined the course of people who have just blamed the entire left. And that has resulted in things like Obama praising Cox for his handling of the situation, that at the same time, Steve Bannon has called Cox a national embarrassment and even said he should be investigated. And then all of that, of course, is Donald Trump, members of his administration, and many Republican lawmakers have just kept turning up the temperature. We're continuing to insist that political violence and the rhetoric fueling it is just a problem on one side with Senator Eric Schmidt, for example, saying yesterday,

Starting point is 00:09:49 we've heard years, years of the left, their loudest voices calling anyone on the right, extremist, extremist, mega- Republicans, fascist, Nazis, an existential threat to democracy. Check yourself. And don't give me this, both sides, bullshit. And with this, I'll start by saying, Schmidt is not lying when. He says that people, including prominent Democrats, have used this type of language before. Though notably, one, there are experts on democracy and fascism who have said that language isn't without reason. And even J.D. Vans, ones compared Trump to Hitler.

Starting point is 00:10:18 But also separately from that, Trump literally called Kamala Harris fascist multiple times in the campaign trip. And there's a long list of violent remarks that Trump has made, including, for example, suggesting that General Mark Millie should be executed. Right. And the point of all that isn't to just keep playing the blame game and say, hey, it's all the Republicans' fault. But just to be very clear about the hypocrisy of what people like this are saying. And that is also true if you're just looking at randos on social media, you can find people saying outrageous shit in every unique flavor you can think of. But then also, of course, when it comes to actual political violence that has taken place, we should look at the data. Because the economists, for example, pointed to an analysis of felony criminal cases involving political violence done by researchers at the University of Cincinnati. And what you see there is that extremists on both the left and right commit violence, but more incidents appear to come from right-leaning attackers.

Starting point is 00:11:00 Also another study looking at political violence between 1990 and 2020 found that there were far more frequent and deadly attacks. by the hard right than the hard left, although left-wing violence increased throughout the study period. You also had the Anti-Defamation League, finding it from 2010 to 2019, 76% of extremist-related murders were committed by those on the right. Also, the Cato Institute found that over the last five years, 81 people have been killed by political violence in the United States, and right-wing terrorist account for over half of them. And the Center for Strategic and International Studies analyzed almost 1,000 terrorist plots between 1994 and 2020, and they concluded right-wing attacks and plots account for the majority of all terrorist incidents in the United States since 1994.

Starting point is 00:11:36 Also, as we're talking about data and studies, we should know that after Kirk's murder, the Justice Department actually removed a government study based on three decades of research, which also found that far-right extremists have killed far more Americans than any other domestic terrorist group. But of course, you know, none of that it means that Trump's going to actually back down on his vow to punish the so-called radical left, which really the more that he talks just sounds like anyone on the left that does not like him. And with that, we're seeing as teams reportedly crafting an executive order nominally aimed at combating political violence and hate speech that could come as soon as this. week. And so we're gonna have to wait to see what that actually looks like. Though one thing we know is that they're talking about targeting tax-exempt statuses of non-profits, right? And possibly by designating them as domestic terrorist organizations. And also with this, I'll say you had deputy attorney general Todd Blanche saying yesterday that even people noisily protesting Trump could face investigation if, quote, it's part of an organized effort to inflict harm and terror and damage the United States. Right, with that being part of a defense of Trump's comments earlier in the week that

Starting point is 00:12:31 attorney general Pam Bondi should prosecute people who loudly protested outside of a restaurant where he had dinner last And with that, you also had Blanche trying to do some damage control on Bondi's comments about prosecuting hate speech, which she herself had to try to walk back. And she said, oh, I'm only talking about speech promoting violence, even though initially that's not really what it sounded like she was talking about. But in any case, a key thing that Trump said that he asked Pam to do is to look into prosecuting those protesters by bringing RICO cases against them. And that's something that he's been talking about a lot lately. I mean, he's called for a RICO investigation at George Soros without providing any evidence of wrongdoing. He's suggested it might be one of his ways of going after the left-wing groups that he's claiming for Kirk's death. For those that don't know, you know, RICO, it's the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. It basically allows prosecutors to charge everyone in a criminal organization, even if certain individuals weren't directly involved in the crime. It's a decades-old law that's been used against the mob. And notably, Ted Cruz is already pushing a bill that would expand the law's powers,

Starting point is 00:13:24 mainly by adding rioting to the list of offenses that could be used to bring a case. Right, and that would potentially enable federal prosecutors to seek charges against and seize the assets of organizations and individuals who fund or coordinate protests that resulted violence. So separate from the legality of this, you have experts saying that, you know, even if they don't win, the intimidation, the legal costs, it all has an impact. So, you know, this is definitely something we're going to have to keep our eyes on because it does appear to be part of a concerted effort to crack down. But then in a quick one-minute break that helps keep the show free for you, let me say, you know, I didn't buy Tocovus to suddenly become

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Starting point is 00:15:01 Where he and Melania, we're greeted by members of the royal family for a two day visit, where a lot of events are gonna be taking place at Windsor Castle just outside of London. Last night, right about when Trump was touching down in the country, protesters projected images of him and Jeffrey Epstein onto the castle. And they even played videos of the two together,

Starting point is 00:15:17 projected the alleged letter from Epstein's birthday book, and a quote where Epstein said, I was Donald's closest friend for 10 years, with then four people being arrested for reportedly malicious communications. And those arrested were between 36 and 60 years old, and authorities said they stopped the projections quickly and an investigation is underway.

Starting point is 00:15:34 But that wasn't the only making major stunt that called Trump's ties to Epstein because you also had a group called Everyone Hates Elon taking credit for displaying a massive banner of Trump and Epstein outside of Windsor Castle. Also in the town of Windsor, there was a truck driving around with an image of the two with a text, Welcome to the UK, Donald. And there is a history of protesters turning out in the UK when Trump visits. And there are many other demonstrations in the country against Trump right now focus more on his policy rather than just the Epstein scandal. But this comes as, you know, Epstein is a hot hot button issue over there, right? Because at least for the first thing, the Prince Andrew of it all.

Starting point is 00:16:03 But then also, I mean, just last week, Prime Minister Kier Starrmer fired the country's ambassador to the U.S. over his ties to Epstein. He had multiple news outlets publishing emails that the ambassador had sent to Epstein, including one where he suggested that Epstein's conviction was wrongful and should be challenged. So he had Starmor saying, you know, if he had known about this, he would have never appointed him. And he claimed those emails cut across the whole approach that I've taken on violence against women and girls for many years and this government. Right, and all of this, as Starmor is set to meet with Trump during the visit to discuss a tech deal, the war in Ukraine, and a lot more. It is expected that they're likely going to face Epstein-related questions during this time as well. Especially because in addition to everything happening in the UK, over in the states, we're getting Epstein updates. Because the House Oversight Committee just released the transcript of Attorney General Bill Barr's deposition yesterday.

Starting point is 00:16:46 And in some standout moments, he shut down conspiracy theories about Epstein's death saying, quote, it was undoubtedly suicide. With Barr claiming there was evidence about his state of mind pointing to suicide, and he just didn't think that it was possible for someone to reach Epstein without being caught on camera. He even called the video, the icing on the cake, though, he did acknowledge that there did appear to be a blind spot in the footage as well as other errors made in the prison. And then, as far as Trump, you had Barr saying that he only discussed Epstein with the president on two occasions. One, when Epstein came up as the news of the day in a conversation, and Trump apparently said he had broken things off with Epstein a long time ago and pushed him out of Mar-a-lago. And then also when Barr informed Trump of Epstein's death, with Barr apparently telling Trump something to the effect of, he better brace for this.

Starting point is 00:17:26 According to Barr, Trump, quote, had the same reaction I did, which was how the hell did that happen. in federal custody. But also, that situation's not over because the House Committee is set to interview more people and is seeking even more information from Epstein's estate, so we're going to have to keep our eyes on this. But the next up in the newsday, we've got to talk about how RFK Jr. just got called out on the Senate floor by Dr. Susan Monares. Right, and she was the CDC director until RFK Jr. forced her out last month, and today she told her side of the story. And specifically, you had her testifying before the Senate Health Committee alongside Dr. Deb Howery, one of the three top CDC officials who resigned in protest after her firing. Very

Starting point is 00:17:59 Notably, the chairman of that committee, Bill Cassidy, was a crucial Republican holdout during Kennedy's confirmation hearings. So we then finally voted for RFK after getting a promise that the new health secretary wouldn't threaten vaccine access. Promise that's now clearly in Tatters' RFK, among other things, fired the entire vaccine advisory panel known as ASIP and filled it with people who have been described as anti-vaxxers and vaccine skeptics. All of which led to the Senate Finance Committee hauling him up for questioning last week and he defended his purges absolutely necessary. If we don't end this chronic disease, we are the sickest country. in the world. That's why we have to fire people in CDC. They did not do their job. This was their job to keep us healthy. Thank you. And I need to fire some of those people to make sure this doesn't happen again. With that then bringing us today where we got to hear from two of those people,

Starting point is 00:18:45 starting with Minars herself, who said that on August 19th, RFK told her she would need prior approval from political leadership for policy and personnel decisions. Then on August 21st, she said that she was told to return from Atlanta to D.C. immediately, which she said she was unwilling to do, because it would have meant that she would miss the memorial for the police officer who died during the shooting by an anti-vax gunman at CDC headquarters that month. Which also would say with that, Manara has testified that RFK never gave the agency so much as a courtesy call after that attack. But regardless, everything seems to have come to ahead on August 25th when she apparently had a very contentious meeting with Kennedy. Secretary Kennedy demanded two things of me that were inconsistent with my oath of office and the ethics required of a public official. He directed me to commit in advance to approving every ACIP recommendation, regardless of the scientific evidence.

Starting point is 00:19:38 He also directed me to dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy without cause. He said if I was unwilling to do both, I should resign. I responded that I could not pre-approved recommendations. recommendations without reviewing the evidence, and I had no basis to fire scientific experts. In other words, I'll just let her anger translator Bernie Sanders, but a little more clearly. She took the radical position that she wanted to examine the scientific facts before drawing conclusions. It is absurd to have to say this in the year 2025, but vaccines are safe and effective. But then continuing with Minara, she said that she resisted RFK's demands, and he just blew up.

Starting point is 00:20:29 He called in that context, CDC the most corrupt federal agency in the world, emphasized that CD employees were horrible people. He said that CDC employees were killing children and they don't care. He said that CDC employees were bought by the pharmaceutical industry. He said CDC forced people to wear masks and social distance like a dictatorship. And the one I think that hurt me the most was a particularly vivid phrase, he said, during the COVID outbreak. CDC told hospitals to turn away sick COVID patients until they had blue lips before allowing them to get treatment. Menara also said that after her meeting with Kennedy, she informed the health committee that she was concerned that she might not be able to keep the commitments to integrity and transparency that she had made to it.

Starting point is 00:21:17 And then the committee reportedly reached out to the White House for an explanation. And when RFK found out, apparently he was not happy. He was very concerned that I had spoken to members of Congress, and he told me I was never to do it again. Which, if that is true, that is a very serious big deal, because the health committee, it's meant to oversee HHS. So ordering executive appointees not to speak, it arguably denies the legislative branch its power of oversight. And that's without mentioning that, you know, would break the Trump administration's promise of so-called radical transparency when it comes to health policy. But anyway, after that exchange, both Monaras and Kennedy, they agree that there was a discussion of her. trustworthiness. But they disagree about what was sick. I told her that she had to resign because I

Starting point is 00:21:58 asked her, are you a trustworthy person? And she said no. Secretary Kennedy told me he could not trust me. I told the secretary that if he believed he could not trust me, he could fire me. Regardless of whichever version of events you believe, R of K saying, I can't trust you, her saying, well, if you can't trust me, you could fire me. Or RFK saying, can I trust you? And then the person saying no, regardless of whichever version of events sounds more realistic to you, Kennedy did end up firing her a couple of days later, claiming that it was because she admitted to being untrustworthy while she says it was because she wouldn't rubber stamp his panel's decisions before knowing what those decisions even were or even seeing evidence.

Starting point is 00:22:35 I could have kept the office, the title, but I would have lost the one thing that cannot be replaced my integrity. And then you had Deb Howary, who, by the way, was the agency's chief medical officer saying much the same thing. I resigned because CDC leaders were reduced to rubber stamps, supporting policies not based in science and putting American lives at risk. I first learned that the secretary had changed our CDC COVID vaccine guidance on an ex-social media post. And then illustrating just how cutoff she and other scientists were from the political leadership, she said that neither she nor any

Starting point is 00:23:09 center directors ever briefed Kennedy about anything. We would have loved to have had the conversations with them. I offered to two different HHS leaders that we would like to brief the secretary. He never received that. And many times I would send emails to our our leadership team to share with HHS when he did say things that weren't scientifically correct so that we could help support him. But we again, our requests were not received to brief him. But then also a big standout from this is just like the Democrats grilled RFK during his testimony, Republicans went after Minas during this one, where they accused her of being a political partisan, hiring anti-Trump lawyers, trying to humiliate Trump, that type of thing. You also ended up seeing

Starting point is 00:23:46 some back and forth like this thing with Rand Paul during his five minutes. Does the COVID vaccine prevent transmission? When you have reduced viral load, you will have reduced transmission. But in other words, it doesn't prevent transmission. You can still transmit the virus if you've had the vaccine. Does the COVID vaccine reduce hospitalization for children under 18? It can. It doesn't.

Starting point is 00:24:07 Does the COVID vaccine reduce the rate of death for children under 18? It can. Once again, it can. That's a ridiculous answer. No, it doesn't. I just would not pre-commit to approving all the ACIP recommendations without the science. Untrue. But then also at least one Republican chairman, Bill Cassidy, has clearly had enough of what he's seen from RFK. If someone has fired 29 days after every Republican votes for her, the Senate confirms her, the secretary said in her swearing in that she has, quote, unimpeachable scientific credentials, and the president called her an incredible mother and dedicated public servant, like, what happened? Did we fail?

Starting point is 00:24:51 And that question, it appears to be a sensitive one for him, because for the past several months, he's been walking a tightrope when it comes to this committee. Right on one side, he himself is very pro-vaccine. I mean, he's a licensed physician outside of his political office, but then on the other hand, he's a Republican and one who's facing a primary challenge back in his home state of Louisiana. And so now that he's already confirmed, RFK, he has to balance his conviction that what the health secretary is doing is wrong with the political pressure being put on him by the system.

Starting point is 00:25:14 The one, I don't think really yet, no matter what he does is going to give him political will with people that are like, you're responsible for this. And two, all the while this is playing out, you have Kennedy's people still chugging along. And in fact, RFK's newly stacked vaccine advisory panel is set to hold its second meeting tomorrow. And then I've got more news for you in just a minute. But first, let me say, you know, 4.4 million Americans just got screwed when trans union. Yes, that trans union was hacked on August 28th. Named social security numbers, emails, phone numbers, billing addresses dumped onto the dark web.

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Starting point is 00:27:09 is cutting the federal government off at the knees regarding the fight against human trafficking. That is what we're learning from this insane new investigation from the Guardian. Because Team Trump, they reportedly cut key initiatives for fighting human trafficking in five different departments of the federal government. We're talking the State Department, the DOJ, the Labor Department, HHS, and Homeland Security. And there is a lot of play here. So I'm going to give you the highlight, starting with Homeland Security. Right, because they've

Starting point is 00:27:30 moved tons of agents who were formerly dedicated to investigating and arresting human traffickers to focusing on deporting immigrants. And that move came in response to Trump's executive order back in January, changing the primary mission of the Department's Investigations Unit from pursuing crimes of international nexus to investigating illegal entry and addressing the unlawful presence of aliens in the U.S. And among other things, according to the dozen, Kern, and former DHS agents, analysts and officials interviewed by The Guardian, the change in directive caused morale to tank for a lot of agents. Or you saw things like one former Investigations official retiring last year as the Chief of the Integrity Investigations Division at ICEA. We were hired to stop major

Starting point is 00:28:03 crimes. These are cases where there are real victims, child sexual exploitation and human trafficking victims. And then to now have to go out and basically comb the streets and look for folks through immigration raids, it's a bad use of resources. And another retired investigations official added that moving agents away from investigating it makes it, quote, easier for exploiters and traffickers to get away with their crimes and saying it's impunity for traffickers. But also in other cases, there were workers just getting axed rather than being shifted. You had things like the State Department's tip office, which is meant to monitor and combat human trafficking, seeing a cut of more than 70% of their workforce. Cuts

Starting point is 00:28:36 that had Representative Sarah McBride of Delaware pushing for explanations from Deputy Secretary of State Michael Regis. Mike, he defended the guts saying, oh, those were just redundancies in staffing and that most of the people fired were actually just writing reports, right? They weren't out in the field. So to that, you had McBride responding. It boggles the mind and defies belief that 71% of this department was so dispensable amidst a global crisis of human trafficking.

Starting point is 00:29:01 But also the mention of reports, it's very important because we've not seen the release of the annual trafficking in persons report, which seems very questionable. This is the report that's meant to chart trends in human trafficking. trafficking in the U.S. and around the world and provide an assessment of each country's work to combat human trafficking. It's even mandated by federal law to be presented to Congress by June 30th, and I don't know if you've noticed, past June 30th. And the release event for the report, it got canceled and was never rescheduled. And that, despite the fact that multiple sources have confirmed that the report is complete. All while, in the 14 years that this report has been produced, it's never been delayed beyond July.

Starting point is 00:29:33 And this report, it's incredibly important for a number of reasons, including this is the metric by which countries are graded for receiving many forms of foreign aid. If your country gets poor marks on this report, you're likely not getting much of any cash from the United States. And then on top of that, Team Trump's reportedly held up grants for nonprofits fighting human trafficking around the world. The State Department has historically awarded approximately $80 million a year to support research, training, and victim services. But some of those grants, they've been withdrawn, and the department has issued a new call for anti-trafficking grant opportunities since January. Meaning you've got organizations coming down to the last of their dollars from the last grant cycle, and so they're having to make changes, pause training, or just limit services to victims. And so you've got groups like Preble Street, a nonprofit in Maine that relies on federal grants to support services for workers trafficked into massage parlors, teenage runaways, and victims of forced labor, and it's director of anti-trafficking services saying, we're planning for the worst-case scenario. And we're still answering the phone, but we're trying to do our best, but we also believe in transparency, so we're letting people know services may look different.

Starting point is 00:30:28 And another researcher saying, you are taking away critical resources that protects survivors of trafficking in vulnerable communities across the world. Right, and with this, you had the guardian reaching, the Trump administration for a response to the findings that they're like, laying out here. And in fact, they said they sent a list of 23 questions and that a Trump spokesperson answered none of them. Instead, the guardian saying they received a three-sentence response calling their findings total nonsense and accusing the Biden administration of, quote, coddling and apologizing for criminals and sexual predators. And then adding that Trump has totally secured our border to stop the trafficking of children and implemented tough-on-crime policies that go after human traffickers and hold these disgusting monsters accountable to the

Starting point is 00:31:02 fullest extent of the law. And that, it lines up with what Team Trump has said in public statements regarding human trafficking, pointing to its immigration enforcement strategy as its way of fighting the problem and saying that their method has led to the removal of criminal illegals, including gang-related traffickers. And you also have Team Trump pointing to its work protecting minors who have migrated without their parents, though while they make that defense, it's also worth noting that they cut funding for legal services that help protect unaccompanied migrant children, leaving 25,000-plus kids in limbo. And that cut, it reportedly led to kids as young as five years old, showing up an immigration court without an attorney, and you had anti-trafficking advocates saying,

Starting point is 00:31:34 If it was about trafficking and kids, they would not be sending kids to court by themselves by cutting off funding for legal representation. And with all this, it's important to know that Team Trump's, you know, they're backpedaling on decades of bipartisan work in the government for the fight against human trafficking here. And it's something that's shocked many because during Trump's first term, he was actually applauded by advocates across the political spectrum for his administration's work on these issues. But also, you're seeing some chalking this change of heart up to the ripple effects of the Epstein scandal. Because we all know how much criticism that Trump's gotten about that from both Democrats and his own base. But according to Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, Epstein is just part of the calculation. You've got this memo that he and his staff shared with the Guardian accusing the Trump administration

Starting point is 00:32:11 of systematically dismantling efforts to prosecute sex crimes and hunt down traffickers and saying, President Trump in office has repeatedly taken the side of criminal sex predators and violent abusers against their victims, and this pattern goes well beyond his strenuous efforts to bury the Epstein files. But then Raskin from there going on to point out several key Trump policies that he believes of help criminals and traffickers. Right, things including the dismantling of USAID, moving agents from criminal cases to immigration enforcement and canceling grants to local law enforcement and nonprofits, helping victims of human trafficking, and then adding, these findings reveal the Trump administration's structural bias in favor of human traffickers, rapists, and sexual violators, and against their victims, survivors, and opponents. The question of why this alignment exists cannot be answered in this memo, but the pattern is unmistakable. But ultimately, that is where we are, and the true impact of this, we might not fully understand or comprehend it for, one to who knows how many years from now.

Starting point is 00:33:02 But of course, in the meantime, I love to know your thoughts, opinions, and reactions here. And with that, it brings us to the end of this video. You've got even more just to click away. You can watch or listen to my newest podcast here with Governor Wes Moore. It's actually one of our shorter ones, but it's a great one. Or you can watch the newest Philip DeFranco show that you haven't seen you. I've even got links for both of those if you want to watch or listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. But hey, also, no matter what you do, thank you for watching.

Starting point is 00:33:24 I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here for more tomorrow.

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