The Philip DeFranco Show - The CNN Trump “Plenary Authority” Situation is Crazy, Israel Gaza Ceasefire Details, & Hank Green

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

Watch my new podcast with Hank Green: https://youtu.be/1npsqOYrGUM?si=5cKNh-jnKk1if3qz Go to https://sundaysfordogs.com/phil to get 50% off your first order of Sundays for Dogs! LISTEN TO THE SHOW iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-philip-defranco-show/id1278424954 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ESemquRbz6f8XLVywdZ2V WATCH CRASHING OUT w/ PHILIP & ALEX Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCergKLoy-Yv9zlPk3XQYK7Q?sub_confirmation=1 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2DkU87umhGH9mH1z24Bi9w?si=6sSdjhVNQjyVeBQDLiXcyg Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crashing-out-with-philip-defranco-and-alex-pearlman/id1843429519 WATCH/LISTEN TO MY NEW PODCAST w/ Hank Green Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2CePXwDrvdQTes844wflKp?si=55a6b6049c4841ed Youtube: https://youtube.com/acw?sub_confirmation=1 iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-good-faith-with-philip-defranco/id1827016835 JOIN OUR COMMUNITY 📸Instagram: https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco 🐦Twitter: https://twitter.com/phillyd 🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco TODAY’S STORIES 00:00 - Man Arrested for Starting Palisades Fire Had AI Delusions of Burning LA 04:44 - Trump Says “We Took Away the Freedom of Speech” 09:36 - Sponsored by Sundays for Dogs 10:44 - Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Gaza Ceasefire Plan 17:46 - Hank Green Talks Lived Experiences vs. Scientific Tests THE TEAM Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino ———————————— #DeFranco #Israel #DonaldTrump Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news. It is Thursday, and there is a lot to talk about, in fact, so much so you're getting a double dose. Because I also just uploaded my brand new podcast with Hank Green. You feel bad for editors? You treat them like people? Links is always in the description.

Definitely check that out. But that said, there is a lot to talk about today, starting with this. This man right here is believed to have started one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. His name is Jonathan Rendernesh, and he's a 29-year-old Uber driver from Melbourne, Florida. And just this week, he got arrested outside of his home on suspicion of starting the Pacific Palisades fire at the beginning of the year. A fire, just to remind you, that killed a dozen people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes. And so with that, according to the officials, Jonathan was working on New Year's Eve,

and he dropped off a passenger in a neighborhood in the Pacific Palisades where he used to live. And he had a couple of Jonathan's passengers that night, noting that he appeared agitated and angry. And after dropping off his last passenger, Jonathan reportedly walked up to a nearby trail and tried calling a friend who didn't answer. He then took videos of the view from the trail and listened to a song that officials noted features lighting things on fire. And then roughly 12 minutes into the new year, he started what was later called the Lackman fire with an open flame. Right after that fire was said, official said that Jonathan actually called 911 several times, but he wasn't able to get through because of the spotty service on the trail. And then by the time he did get through, he was at the bottom of the trail and someone else had also reported the fire. From that point, you had an official saying that at first Jonathan left the scene in his car, but then he turned around to watch the firefighters handle the blaze, even reportedly taking big.

videos while they did. Now, while that fire ended up getting suppressed quickly, LA was also facing a massive windstorm in the following days, and the embers were still quietly smoldering underground. With the men reigniting and causing the Palisades fire, making it what's known as a holdover fire. And the rest, you know, it's history. It becomes one of the most destructive fires in California history. It kills 12 people, destroyed some 6,000 structures in homes and charred more than 20,000 acres. Now as far as Jonathan, weeks after the fire started, it was reported that he was interviewed by police, and according to officials, he lied. Jonathan said that he just saw the flame.

while hiking at the bottom of the trail, and that's when he called 911. But geolocation data from his phone indicated that he was just 30 feet away from the flames as they began to spread. And that is also not the only piece of damning technological evidence that investigators found on Jonathan. Because over the course of the nine-month-long investigation, you had officials determining that the fire was intentionally lit, and they looked into Jonathan specifically. And one of the things they found on his devices were chat GPT generated images of a city on fire and people running away. He also apparently told that he wanted the images to be dystopian and put in the prompt. On the other side of the gate and the entire wall is a conglomerate of the richest people.

They are chilling, watching the world burn. He also allegedly told a relative that he had burned a Bible and told Chachy-B-T, it felt amazing. Right, and all of that, as he's also accused of asking the app, are you at fault if a fire is lit because of your cigarettes? And then all of that, it brings us to Jonathan's arrest on Tuesday when he was picked up outside of his home in Florida. He then yesterday had his first court hearing, though he has not entered a plea yet and likely won't do so until he arrives in California. And so with all that, you had the acting U.S. attorney for L.A. saying,

a single person's recklessness caused one of the worst fires Los Angeles has ever seen. With then, other California leaders like Gavin Newsom chiming in writing, this marks an important step toward determining how the horrific Palisades fire started and bringing closure to the thousands of survivors whose lives were upended, saying this tragedy will never be forgotten, lives were lost, families torn apart, and entire community is forever changed. And there must be accountability. But also with this, you've got people saying the blame game regarding the fire,

it's actually far from over. Or because you also have some pointing fingers at the fire department for allowing the initial New Year's fire to continue underground. With, for example, an investigator saying that the cleanup after the fire, it fell short and that more could have been done. And so then with that, you had places like the LA Times noting that the big question for homeowners, insurers, insurers, attorneys, and more, it's going to be who's to blame. Right, the alleged arsonist who started the fire or the firefighters who potentially didn't do enough to stop it from reigniting. Right, and with that, you had a former leader of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Arson Unit telling the Times,

there needs to be a commission examining why this rekindled fire was allowed to reignite, saying the arsonist set the first fire, but the fire department proactively has a due to to do certain things. But that also as you had Kenny Cooper, the special agent in charge of the investigation for ATF, saying that the fire crew did their best with, quote, a very difficult fire that burned deep within the ground and roots and in structure and remained active for several days. And adding, fire departments cannot proactively prevent holdover fires. The person who started this fire is solely to blame. I will never blame our brave firefighters when we know how this fire started. And then adding that it can be very hard to detect activity underground

that even infrared imaging systems, they can sometimes miss it. But then, you know, As far as what can be learned for the future, you had the LA Times saying that this should underscore the danger of re-ignition, noting that several modern devastating fires were holdover fires. But ultimately, that is where we are right now, and it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out both with, are there any changes as far as how the fire department is supposed to handle these things, investment, things of that nature, as well as what happens with the alleged arsonists. But then next up in the news, we need to talk about Donald Trump, Antifa, and your rights.

And a lot of this, it centers around these insane videos of Trump that have gone viral over the past 24 hours. With both of those clips coming from a roundtable on Antifa that Trump held at the White House. In just a few minutes, into the event, you had the president talking about conservative journalists and media personalities who he claims have been attacked by Antifa. There, he specifically mentioned Nick Sorter, a conservative influencer who claimed that he was attacked after trying to stop people from burning an American flag at an immigration protest. And there, you had Trump going on to say, We took the freedom of speech away because that's been through the courts and the court said, you have freedom of speech, but what has happened is when they

burn a flag, it agitates and irritates crowds. They've never seen anything like it on both sides and you end up with riots. So we're going on that basis. We're looking at it from not from the freedom of speech, which I always felt strongly about, but never passed the courts. So that can be a little hard for some to parse through exactly what Trump is saying there. But it appears that he's referring to an executive order that he signed back in August that directed the DOJ to investigate and prosecute people for burning the American flag

to the fullest extent that the law allows. Right. And that last part right there is very, is very key because even the order itself explicitly notes that the Supreme Court ruled back in 1989 that flag burning is protected under the First Amendment. But Trump and his team, they argue that there is still room to prosecute flag burning if, quote, it is likely to incite imminent lawless action or amounts to fighting words. With another big thing being that the order also called for the Attorney General to pursue litigation that could challenge the longstanding Supreme Court precedent. But still, as many including experts have noted, the high court ruling still stands at police for now and the president just doesn't have the power to

suspend a First Amendment right because he wants to. Right, and on the note of Trump assuming sweeping powers, we also saw this bizarre clip of Stephen Miller getting a lot of traction online. Right, and in it, you have Miller doing a live interview with CNN, and then he appears to kind of freeze up right after mentioning plenary authority, which is a legal term, that essentially just means limitless power.

You've called the district judge's ruling blocking the deployment of National Guard in Oregon legal insurrection. Does the administration still plan to abide by that ruling? Well, the administration filed an appeal this morning with the Ninth Circuit. I would note the administration won an identical case in the Ninth Circuit just a few months ago with respect to the federalizing of the California National Guard. Under Title X of the U.S. Code, the president has plenary authority.

Stephen? Stephen? Hey, Stephen, can you hear me? It seemed, Steven, I apologize. It seems like we're having a technical issue. We'll try to fix that and get back to you after a quick break. Right, then, after the commercial break, the interview just resumed like Norma with the host again, apologizing, saying some wires got crossed.

Right, and then you had a spokesperson for CNN, later claiming that guests who appear remotely wear ear pieces to hear audio from the anchor, but because of a technical issue, audio from another CNN channel started playing in Miller's ear. With that, if you have looked online, there were plenty of people who didn't buy that explanation, that explanation. Right, you'd many speculating that Miller cut himself off and pretended it was a technical glitch because he wasn't supposed to talk about Trump having absolute power. It was other saying that his audio is cut on purpose or that someone in his ear told him to stop.

You also had some accusing CNN at trying to cover something up. Reclaiming that they're lying about the audio issue and noting that when the outlet uploaded the clip online, it cut the entire incident out. But also on the note of Trump potentially exceeding his power as president, we saw this clip from the Antifa roundtable going viral as well. Have you given any more thought to possibly suspending Mbius corpus to not only deal with these insurrectionists across the nation, but also to continue rapidly deporting illegal aliens. Yeah, it's suspending who? Habeas corpus. Oh, I don't know. I'd rather leave that to Christy. What do you think? And so with that, you had some speculating that Trump doesn't actually know what habeas corpus is.

So you also had others arguing that he does know what it is, right? The legal right that allows a detained person to challenge their imprisonment, but he was just having hearing troubles. With people pointing to him asking reporters to repeat themselves at other recent events. So even with that, you had people saying, well, that just highlights the growing health concerns around having a nearly 80-year-old president. Which actually, on that note, these clips, they came the same day that you had the White House press secretary saying that President Trump will be getting a routine yearly checkup when he visits the Walter Reed Military Hospital for a meeting with troops on Friday. Well, that, it normally wouldn't be any kind of cause for concern about the president's health or really be a standout thing. This would actually be the second yearly checkup that Trump has gotten in the last six months. For his last known medical screening, it happened just this past April.

Though counterpoint, it might just be that scientists want another crack at understanding how he is just so, smart and tall and handsome and really charismatic, right? And definitely not about any kind of concerns around physical or mental fitness. And you know, definitely not connected to any speculation that's grown around, you know, his bruises that appeared on his hands, swollen ankles,

and various mental lapses. But again, that said, I'm sure he's fine and we can definitely 100% without ever questioning it. Trust whatever report comes out about a president. And then there's more we've gotta dive into in just a minute, but first let me take a minute to say, imagine if your dinner was advertised as mystery meat flavored crunch nuggets.

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That's half off to finally upgrade your dog's bowl to something worthy. But then next up in the news, we've got to talk about Hamas and Israel now agreeing to the first phase of a peace plan for Gaza. Or because this is huge news, but also there's a lot of questions remaining about what this means, what comes next, and what might come after. Though to start, we should talk about how we got here. And I don't mean the decades of history that have led us here, but rather today's news, it's notably coming almost exactly two years after Hamas led an attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, 28 of whom died in captivity, more than 100 of whom have been released, and about 20 who are believed to still be in Gaza. Right, and that, as the Israeli military has directly killed roughly 70,000 Palestinians, obliterated Gaza's homes, schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure, as well as created the conditions for famine and starvation. Right, and as we've covered on the show, activists, experts, and rights groups, all having collected evidence to say that what's taken place is genocide.

Right, but with all that said, peace talks between Israel and Hamas began taking place in Egypt this week, based on a 20-point plan negotiation between Israel and the U.S. without Palestinian involvement. And yesterday, you had Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Whitkoff, along with son-in-law Jared Kushner, arriving to represent the United States. And in fact, you had those talks continuing as Trump was holding a round table event with top officials and conservative influencers about Antifa. And that led to more than an hour into the event. You had Secretary of State Marco Rubio handing Trump a note and then getting up and whispering something in his ear. A photographer from the Associated Press actually captured an image of the piece of paper, which said, very close. We need you to approve a truth social post soon so you can announce a deal first. And then you had Trump immediately sharing the news.

I was just given a note by Secretary of State saying that we're very close to a deal in the Middle East. and they'll get to need me pretty quickly, so we'll take a couple of more questions. With Trump, then ending the event 10 minutes later by saying, We're going to get peace in the Middle East. That's what we want to do. Thank you very much. Right, and from there, it wasn't long until you had him posting on truth's social. I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first phase of our peace. This means that all of the hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their troops to an agreed-upon line as the first steps toward a strong, durable, and everlasting peace.

All parties will be treated fairly and saying, And this is a great day for the Arab and Muslim world, Israel, all surrounding nations, and the United States of America. And we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this historic and unprecedented event happen. Blessed are the peacemakers. And then you've also since had Trump saying he'll likely address Israel's parliament in the coming days on the invitation of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. And with that, you've also had Netanyahu convening his cabinet to officially approve the deal, although as recording, this hasn't happened yet. But if the deal is approved as expected, you've had an Israeli spokesperson saying that a full seat. ceasefire in Gaza won't go into effect until 24 hours after the government endorses the deal.

And it's from that point, according to the spokesperson, that Hamas would have 72 hours to return all of the hostages. Because a big thing here is that even after Trump announced the deal, you had Israeli military operations continuing in Gaza this morning. Now, with all that said, I will say at least as of recording, we still haven't seen the full text of whatever's been agreed upon or what's been changed from the original 20-point plan. Though that plan stated that once all hostages are released, Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners, plus 1,700 Gazans who were detained after October 7, 2023, including all women and children detained in that context. And adding that for every Israeli hostages whose remains are released, Israel will release

the remains of 15 deceased Gazans. But also what we've heard from Trump is that the hostages would be released Monday or Tuesday, which would be potentially after that 72-hour mark. And you also had him acknowledging that Hamas may not be able to produce all the bodies of the deceased hostages. Also, a big thing, again, as I'm recording this, is the list of Palestinians to be released that reportedly hasn't been finalized yet. You actually had one Hamas official already claiming that disagreement over the list was already endangering the deal. Writing on X, it appears that Netanyahu is striving to blow up the ceasefire agreement before its implementation by back tracking on the lists of prisoners. Now, that's said, assuming the deal does stay on track, the first phase, it would also reportedly involve Israel pulling back its troops when an agreed upon line in Gaza. And while it's not clear exactly what that line is as of right now, you did have an IDF spokesperson saying today that

it will lead to Israeli forces controlling and holding about 53% of the Gaza Strip. You had the Israeli military also confirming today that it was preparing to lead the operation for the hostages return and to, quote, transition to adjusted deployment line soon. And then the last big thing that's expected to be a part of this first phase is an increase of aid into Gaza. But again, we've got few details right now. Though, very notably, did have the UN Humanitarian Office calling for immediate access for 170,000 tons of food, medicine, shelter, and other supplies that it says are ready to be

delivered into the territory. And this aid, I mean, it could not be. needed more. I mean, you've got the World Health Organization reporting earlier this week that 400 Gazans had already died of malnutrition since the start of the year, including more than 100 children, most of them under the age of five. And there was a study published this week that estimated that almost 55,000 Ghazan children under the age of five are acutely malnourished. It's just the hope that, you know, this deal could bring an end to some of that suffering. It's had some Palestinians in Gaza celebrating and we've even seen some Israelis doing the same as well. Also, as far as

world leaders, this has been received very, very well. But, of course, there are still many who remain skeptical right now and really for a good reason. Two previous deals, they already failed to bring an end to the bloodshed. And then on top of the question still remaining about the first phase, some of the most difficult issues between Israel and Hamas, they've seemingly been left to a future phase of negotiations. So for example, it's unclear whether and to what degree and how Hamas would lay down its weapons, which has been a longstanding demand of Israel. And while Hamas has long said that it'd be willing to release all the hostages only in exchange for the complete withdrawal of Israeli military forces from Gaza, a permanent end of the war and the release of Palestinian prison,

The deal this week, it only guarantees one of those three things, the prisoner release. And so you're seeing analysts out there saying that Hamas is actually taking a big risk by agreeing to release the remaining hostages in Gaza, giving up their only real leverage. And so with that, you already have the group calling on Trump and others to compel Israel to, quote, fully implement the agreement's requirements and not allow it to evade or delay carrying them out. Right. And so there's all of that, as also there's definitely people in the Israeli government itself that aren't too happy about this. And possibly chief among them would be finance minister Betzal Smokrich. He's an extremist who is openly called for Gaza's destruction. And so unsurprisingly, he's already opposed the deal, threatened to quit the government and said that Hamas should be destroyed once the hostages are returned.

But then also, if the issues that we're talking about here, right, they get worked out and Israel doesn't continue its attacks after the hostages are released, there's still a massive question about, well, who's actually going to govern Gaza? Right, I mean, you have Trump's 20-point plan, which called for him to head up a so-called Board of Peace that would oversee what it called a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee. And there's also a lot of emphasis on creating and attracting investment. With some fearing that this is something that he and others might see as kind of more of a real estate opportunity.

And there, you've got people pointing to his past comments about turning Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East, as well as leaked plans that were considered by the White House, which would establish a resort named after him in the territory. Then, on top of that, this planet used a lot of vague language. Saying things like a full Israel military withdrawal or Palestinian statehood could only happen if certain conditions are met, though without specifying those conditions. And so all of that is to say that the news that we're seeing that a peace deal is here. that is fantastic. That is, I think, what most everyone wants to see the suffering, the needless suffering and horror end. But it is also very important to talk about and be aware of just the millions of ways that this could fall apart. So really, as always, I'll hope for the best,

expect the worse, and we will see what happens over the next few hours, days, months, and weeks. But then from that, finally today, I wanted to do one more thing. Just this morning, I shot an hour-long podcast with Hank Green, who he has so many identifiers. He's really someone And I like when he talks, I just, I listen. So I wanted to end today by playing this bit. Can I say something to Ben? Yes. Ben, I didn't mean to invalidate your lived experience.

What I will say is that lived experience is the foundation of almost every scientific insight. We find things that we experience and then we test them. And so I will, I shouldn't have invalidated your lived experience or anyone else's. We need to like, if you experience something, then we test it and figure out whether or not as true. And many times we discover things are true. And when we don't listen to lived experience, then we miss things that science should otherwise be discovering. But if we only rely on lived experience, that allows lawyers like RFK Jr. to tell stories that are fake. I don't believe that apology because I see no ukulele in your hands.

So thank you so much. I appreciate you. Well, that it brings us to the end of this video. You've got even more just to click away. You've got my brand new interview and podcast with Hank Green. It's interesting. It's serious. It's goofy. It goes off the rails at times. And or you can watch the newest Philip DeFranco show that you haven't seen yet right here. We've even got links for both in the description so you can get filled in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. That said, thank you for watching. I love yo faces and I'll see you right back here next time.