The Philip DeFranco Show - The Real Reason AOC Says Woke 1.0 Was Crazy
Episode Date: August 12, 2026LIVE TOUR STARTS NEXT WEEKEND! Get your tickets! http://CrashingOutTour.com Shop plans starting at 15 bucks a month at https://www.mintmobile.com/DEFRANCO, Thank you to Mint Mobile for pa...rtnering with us on this video! Go to https://saily.com/Phil and use the code “phil” to get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans! ⛵ Limited time offer. Upfront payment of: $45 for 3-mo., $90 for 6-mo., or $180 for 12-mo. plan req’d ($15/mo. equiv.). Taxes & fees extra. Initial plan term only. >50GB may slow when network is busy. Capable device req'd. Availability, speed & coverage varies. See mintmobile.com.WATCH TODAY’S NEW PODCAST EPISODE! We go in on Flock and Alex Crashes Out on Asmongold & more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyZNhZu1ak0 OUR LIVE TOUR STARTS August 21st! Get your tickets! https://CrashingOutTour.com Grab the Emotionally Exhausted Tee at https://beautifulbastard.com/ Donate to the LFG campaign @ http://lindsayforga.com/donate LISTEN TO THE SHOW iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-philip-defranco-show/id1278424954 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ESemquRbz6f8XLVywdZ2VWATCH 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 JOIN OUR COMMUNITY 📸Instagram: https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco 🐦Twitter: https://twitter.com/phillyd 🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco TODAY’S STORIES 00:00 - Wisconsin Delivers Brutal Reality Check to Democratic Socialists 12:10 - Sponsored by Mint Mobile 13:13 - Texas Surrogate Fights Parents Seeking an Abortion for Unborn Baby 17:13 - ProPublica Uncovers Years of Abuse in Tennessee Juvenile Prisons 23:05 - Sponsored by Saily 24:09 - Treasury Accused of Making it Easier for Traffickers to Hide Behind Shell Companies 25:08 - Shake Shack Accused of Raising Prices for Customers Who Don’t Tip at Kiosks 26:00 - Jurors in Luigi Mangione’s Case Will Be Kept Anonymous 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, Victor Sledge ———————————— #News #AOC #Hasanabi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
And then there's more we gotta dive into in just a minute,
but first let me thank a sponsor and say, you know,
August is a great time for a reset before fall gets chaotic
and my closet, it could use some adult supervision.
That's where today's sponsor, Quince comes in.
Quince makes fewer better pieces from premium materials
the things you'll reach for constantly.
And I really like their staples like organic cotton teas
and Mongolian cashmere sweaters at work all day
and into the evening.
Or basically clothes that make you look put together
without looking like you spend an hour planning it.
Their denim and Taylor Chino start at 60 bucks
with a fit structure and quality
that you'd expect from a luxury designer brand.
And then you've got things like the cotton,
silk short sleeve crew neck sweater. I've been wearing that thing everywhere.
Though even that is when I'm not living in their performance tanks.
Both are incredibly soft, they're comfortable, but also polished enough that I still feel,
you know, put together without trying too hard. And personally, as someone that just, I love a deal.
I love that everything at Quince is price 50 to 80% less than similar brands.
They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen so you're paying for quality
and not brand markups. And hey, while you're at it, they have hotel quality,
bedding, bath essentials, cookware, luggage, and travel must-haves. Basically,
Quince is the affordable elevated one-stop shop.
So hey, upgrade your every day by scanning that QR code or going to quince.com slash defranco for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns.
And they're now available in Canada and the UK as well.
So that's QU-I-N-C-E dot com slash defranco.
Quince.com slash DeFranco.
AOC is so-called woke one controversy split the internet.
And now after the shocking news out of Wisconsin, it's hit a whole new level.
We go inside a wild investigation around allegations with a Tennessee youth prison.
What's really going on around allegations that prices go up if you don't tip?
And you've got accusations that the Treasury is now making it easier for drug cartels and human traffickers.
We're diving into all of that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show you daily dive into the news starting with this.
This dramatic upset that just played out in Wisconsin is big.
I mean, you're seeing a lot of different people having a lot of different takeaways here.
Because the main thing you're people focusing on was the Democratic primary for the governor's race.
And way ahead at everyone else with state representative Francesca Hong.
And Hong, she's a DSA member.
And if she won this and then the general, she would have ended up being the first Democratic socialist governor in American history.
And at least according to the polls, it looked like she was on her way.
Right, one of the most recent ones had her at 44% followed by David Crowley with just 22%.
But then when the actual election results came in, there was like a bomb drop.
You had Hong at 39.4% of the votes tallied and Crowley at 39.8%.
Which is incredibly narrow, but one, a win's a win.
And two, she was supposed to blow them out of the water.
And so in the wake of all this, you've seen some shocked, others saying,
I told you so many, also relieved.
Because throughout this race, you've seen more moderate dams kind of biting their nails of the thought of Hong, maybe winning the primary,
and then losing the general because the general public thinks she's too extreme.
And while you've seen this argument even playing out in more liberal places like with
Mamdani and New York City, for extra context here, this is Wisconsin, right?
It was a state with the narrowest outcome in the 2024 election.
You had Trump winning it by just another 30,000 votes.
So in this primary, you'd establish him in Dembs just scrambling to find someone who could beat Hong.
Right?
And at first, it was looking like lieutenant governor, Sarah Rodriguez, but when she dropped out
after questions were raised about her campaign's finances.
Which was then also awkward for Crowley because he had also dropped out even earlier and endorsed Rodriguez.
But then when she dipped, he jumped back into the race, at which point another frontrunner, Mandela Barnes, dropped out as well.
And so that pretty much left Crowley, who got the endorsement of Wisconsin's outgoing governor, Tony Evers, and hung.
She was riding the endorsements of national progressives like Ilhan Omar and Rokana, though very notably not AOC or Bernie Sanders.
So also a very active voice you saw promoting her campaign was Asan Piker.
Rapifier, do you support Repealing Act 10?
Yes.
Universal Child Care. Yes.
Free school meals.
Yes.
Guaranteed pay leave.
Yes.
Abolishing ICE.
Yes.
A one-year data center moratorium.
Yes.
Breaking up Big Ag.
Yes.
Public grocery stores.
Yes.
Right to repair.
Yes.
Legalizing cannabis.
Yes.
Overturning Citizens United.
Yes.
A workers' bill of rights.
Yes.
A free Palestine.
Yes.
A Scott Walker statue that people can go to that are made by local artisans and craftsmen that people can slap up if they want to.
Tentatively, yes.
Is there anything in that list of what you told Hassan Piker that you disavow now?
No.
Right now, after the fact you've got people disagreeing saying Hong, you know, she did as well
as she did because of voices like Asan Piker, though others say being that closely attached, it
weirds out the normies.
But that's also just one piece of a much larger debate about why she lost.
Because for some additional context here, we then have to talk about some of her controversies.
So first of all, the media, especially the right wing media, they latched on to some comments
that she made, particularly on criminal justice.
So for example, she once said that police exist to uphold white supremacy and that she supports
defunding the police as a first step towards a bull
She also told voters, quote, I think that my perfect world would be a world without prisons because we all see the humanity in one another and then we know nobody's disposable. You had many slamming that comment with people like Bill Maher saying, and then we know nobody's disposable.
Well, murder victims are.
I mean, if you heard this kind of nonsense coming out of the mouth of a teenage beauty queen, it would be an eye roll.
Get your head out of your ass. I would vote for Sarah Palin before this shit.
Now with all this, when members of the press, they asked her about
whether she still believes these things.
She usually kind of gave answers
that a number of people thought were kind of wishy-washy.
Because on one hand, she distanced herself from them
saying she's evolved, but then on the other hand,
she'd imply that there's still something
she aspires to in the long term.
Though you did have her as time passed
giving more clear-cut answers.
The governor cannot defund the police,
and I won't defund the police,
and I'm not interested in abolishing prisons.
But again, that was one part of a much bigger situation.
Because you also had Republicans digging up old social media
post that turned this whole thing into a culture war,
Or with a tweeting in 2019, I ate two bites of my kids' cheeseburger at a Culver's in Black River Falls and told him they ran out of ice cream.
Mostly, just wanted to leave because I was on the verge of an anxiety attack too many old white people who didn't think we spoke English.
Many on the right pushing this as she hates old white people.
But that also ended up kind of being dwarfed by the whole Thanksgiving thing.
Because you had hung writing in a since deleted tweet from November of 2020,
cancel Thanksgiving.
Should have done this in 1621.
If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize where you should stop celebrating colonialism
and the original super spreader event that killed indigenous folks and women, so be it.
And I just have to imagine, like, whatever Republican strategists found that post got promoted.
It was a post that was like, fuck, Thanksgiving.
Also, she used the X, kind of like the term Latin X, which was just a big loser for a lot of people that were using it.
And so it ended up being just perfect because of course Fox News, they'd love to sound the alarm about liberals and communists and gay people
and whoever else they're afraid of waging a war against all that is good and holy.
War on Christmas, a war on Thanksgiving.
It's war on fun.
war on straws, war on meat, the war on dogs, there is a war on hot dogs, war on cars,
war on appetizers, declaring war on cows, war on soda, there's now a war on styrofoam,
war on red hats, war on all things conservative. And so when they heard that Hong
wanted apparently to cancel Thanksgiving, they had a field day. And with that you
with Tom Tiffany, the Republican that she would have run against in the general, going for.
They just want to destroy our culture. It isn't just abolishing police, abolishing our prisons, it
also destroying the culture that holds us together. All those things that are the glue that
holds America together, they want to destroy those institutions and those days like Thanksgiving.
Granted, that tweet, it was from 2020, and so she had the opportunity to be like, hey, look,
it's an old post, I think it's dumb, or I don't stand by it, whatever. And instead what a lot
of people saw is that when CNN asked her about it, she dug that hole even deeper.
I always think my hospitality background in owning a restaurant for seven, eight years,
that bringing folks around the table to share conversation and build community is always a good thing.
But Thanksgiving is also a time that's incredibly painful for many people in our community.
And then with all this, you with the New York posting of other old tweets where she also seemed to criticize Valentine's Day,
Mother's Day, Father's Day, the Fourth of July, Halloween, and Christmas.
So also I'll say if you read through the tweets, some of them do seem actually anti-holiday, but others are then debatable.
And so for example, like she posted, I miss working in a restaurant every day except on V-Day, as if we weren't invisible
enough to those who don't recognize the emotional and physical labor of service work.
The worst of humanity comes out from folks celebrating on another day.
Capitalism tells you how to show love.
But then for something like Mother's Day, she posted, today could be a beautiful day a celebration
for some and a difficult or melancholy day for others.
Whatever Mother's Day means to you, please be gentle with yourself and kind to others.
Rains, with someone that I wasn't a fan of how my mom mommed, I kind of think this is a nothing
tweet.
But regardless, both varieties of tweet got lumped together as what the post called her dipping or
ladle into her reservoir of misery. So then with all this you had Hong trying to deal with apparently the damage that was
happening here and she did a full 180. My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. Because I love to do it. Yep. I don't want to
cancel it. I actually love it. But yeah, you ended up seeing this controversy just kind of swallowing up her
campaign in the span of two weeks. You even ended up seeing some progressive starting to question whether she was the best
And in fact, you'd reports coming out that a Republican super PAC spent millions of dollars trying to get her elected because apparently they agreed that she would have been the weaker opponent.
But now, at least for this next election cycle, we have no idea how she would have done.
But also in the meantime, you're still seeing a heated debate play out about what her defeat means for the electoral viability of democratic socialism outside of places like New York City.
What is the takeaway that it only really works in deep blue cities and moderate Dems are better for places like Wisconsin?
Or people wondering was Hong just specifically not as strong of a candidate and a different DSA member would have won?
And as that debates played out, you've also seen people that are connected to the
the whole story like Hassan, largely blaming factors that were out of her control.
Guys, Thanksgiving Gate is not as consequential as you think it is, please.
Tony Ivers endorsement of David Crowley at the highest ranking, okay?
Electability arguments as a close second.
Television ads pumping electability arguments all around the state, also a close third.
Also, another debate that's been playing out is that this isn't actually a setback for
Democratic socialism, as you have many saying.
And this is also coming from people on the right, like Ben Shapiro writing.
The dumb take is that the DSA has reached its seat.
and the establishment is fighting back, saying that's totally wrong. The Normie Dems are simply
negotiating the terms of their surrender. And saying those terms are obvious. The Democratic
Party will ingest and mirror the key precepts of the DSA and they won't go whole hog against
DSA candidates who don't totally say the quiet part out loud. In return, the DSA's most
important figures will refrain from endorsing the very worst candidates. This is why Bernie and AOC
didn't endorse HOM. If they had, she would have won. The goal of the pact is obvious.
Candidates who are DSA in all but name, who receive unified democratic support after
the primaries and who still have a shot at winning a general election. So,
So don't be fool, the DSA is driving the car, choosing the direction.
Normie Dems are just negotiating over the speed.
But with Ben, I'll say there's a few factors at play.
Right, one, I think this is a very transparent attempt to make that general Dem party more associated with communism.
And I use the air quotes on communism because a lot of the things they call communism are just kind of socialist programs.
Like, once again, I agree with the argument that if Mamdani threw out the idea of like,
hey, library should be a thing, they'd be like, he is an evil communist.
And honestly, this bit could, like, that could be a whole video.
But then also, what Ben's missing or leaving out on purpose is that there are a lot of social
and progressives who were saying, hey, we need to change.
I mean, just last Sunday before a bunch of insults
got really weird about her freeze and her eggs,
AOC had this to say about Hong's past comments.
I have a local city councilman that has this saying,
woke one was crazy.
Boke one was crazy.
I mean, did the movement go too far
with some of those positions?
I mean, you briefly supported the idea
of defunding the police.
Well, you know, I think the discussions
that were had in that time were quite fruitful.
I think that when we talk about crime today, it's fundamentally different than the way that
we talked about crime in bringing crime down.
During lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.
And I'm grateful that these candidates have the opportunity to present who they are to their
electorate and what they're campaigning on in this moment.
Right, that woke 1.0 was crazy comment is something that you're starting to hear more frequently
on the left nowadays.
Because especially since Trump's election victory, you've had many saying, hey, whether we're
right or not, what we've been doing is not working. We need to move on. We're saying that they need
to move on from what Box called the Great Awakening, the era that started around the mid-2010s,
peaked in 2020 and came crashing down with Trump's election in 2024. And so the new left
playbook exemplified by figures like Zora and Mamdani is to downplay or even outright renounce
some of the old positions like defund the police and laser focus on issues that are genuinely
popular. They needed so many people. But even that is an oversimplified way of how things are
playing out right now, especially also because candidates are doing different things because they're
different people that stand for different things. But yeah, a lot of the argument now is how much of
what needs to be changed are the goals themselves and how much are just the methods of getting there.
But ultimately, this whole conversation and debate, it's happening now, but it is going to
continue post the election, right? It's going to play out even into 2027 and then into 2028,
depending on who wins what. And some of the most important ones are going to be around Crowley
and Abdul El-Sayette. Right, does who win, who loses, tell a clear
story to a lot of people about electability. Right, is it a BS and fear-mongering argument that
gets you through the primaries? Or is it an especially valid argument in a battleground state? And then
we've got to dive into this super divisive situation that you've got playing out in Texas and
California. But first, one, next weekend, August 21st and 22nd, I'll be seeing y'all in Seattle and
Portland. And then August 28th and 29th, I'll be in Boston and Philadelphia. And you should grab your
tickets right now while you can at crashingout tour.com. Especially because Seattle is now officially
sold out. Get out from behind the screen. Plop your butt in the seat and crash out with
me, and I've said it, but I mean it, my second favorite redhead.
By the way, on today's brand new podcast,
I'll link to in the description, had a huge,
I think it's the biggest crash out he's had in a while.
But honestly, you should come out.
It's a lot more fun than a PDS, but it's still newsy.
And again, you can get your tickets at crashing outtore.com,
and then two, I'll be right back after a quick break.
Have ever looked at your phone bill and thought,
wait, why am I paying this much?
And then immediately thought, yeah, but switching sounds annoying.
We'll spend hours comparing prices on something we buy once,
but somehow ignore a bill we pay every month.
But hey, check out today's sponsorment mobile, right?
because they are making premium wireless easier to switch to
without the hassle that people usually associate
with changing carriers.
Mitt Mobile makes that process incredibly easy.
Everything happens online.
No stores, no pushy sales, people, no appointments.
You can browse plan, sign up,
bring your own unlocked phone, keep your number
and activate within e-sim and minutes.
Right now, Mitt Mobile's summer promo gets you
three, six, or 12 months a premium wireless
for 15 bucks a month.
Any plan, even unlimited, including unlimited talk and text,
free calling to Mexico, Canada, and the UK,
plus hotspot access.
You just choose the plan that actually fits
how you use your phone with options for six, 17,
or 23 gigabytes or unlimited data.
And Mint Mobile runs in the nation's largest 5G network
with 5G coverage reaching 98% of Americans
and 4G LTE reaching 99%.
So stop overpaying for wireless
just because that's how it's always been.
Scan that QR code or go to mintmobile.com slash DeFranco
and get three, six, or 12 months of premium wireless
for 15 bucks a month.
It's mintmobile.com slash defranco.
But then jump it from that and to other news,
we've got to talk about how Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
is intervening in the medical care of a surrogate
who's carrying a child with a congenital heart defect
and wants to continue the pregnancy, even though the parents based in California want to seek an abortion.
You've got this very complicated case playing out right now. It's testing laws on abortion, parental rights, and even more, really.
Right, and you had this starting yesterday when Paxton released a statement saying that he was fighting to save an unborn child diagnosed with the treatable heart condition,
and he's trying to demand a Dallas hospital provide care upon birth.
And according to Paxton, the child who he refers to his baby Gabriel is expected to be born imminently,
though we don't really know how far along the pregnancy is, with NBC News simply saying that the due date is early September.
But what we do know for sure is that the baby was diagnosed in utero with hypoplasis.
left heart syndrome while the surrogate was 20 weeks along. And then after learning about that,
the baby's intended parents from California wanted the surrogate to undergo an abortion.
But the surrogate, who is based in Alaska, refused and traveled to Texas for protection.
And she also apparently sought to be near doctors experienced in treating this, but, quote,
the intended parents have refused to agree that they will consent to the life-saving surgery upon
birth and may attempt to transport a child out of Texas to prevent treatment from being administered.
With a filing saying that they might take the baby to California,
so treatment decisions could be made under California law, not Texas law.
And as far as the details around the diagnosis and the surgeries at the center of this,
Well, hypoplastic left heart syndrome is a, it's a very serious condition where the left heart structures
are underdeveloped. The causes of it aren't clear. It's not preventable. And even though it is possible to treat it
during pregnancy, that usually only works in a small number of fetuses and most need to be treated after birth.
Right and that can involve medications, IB fluids, a feeding tube and a ventilator for breathing assistance.
With the babies then usually needing to undergo a series of three surgeries. And actually
of Boston Children's Hospital saying that the long-term outlook for children with HLHS continues to improve.
But also noting a child's ultimate lifespan and quality of life depends on many factors. And you've
New York Presbyterian saying that without necessary treatment, the life expectancy of an infant
with this condition is a few days to a few weeks at most. And then as far as with the surgeries,
the survival rate, at least, to the age of five, is 72%. And then you have other reports
noting that even with care, a child can experience health challenges throughout life because
of this condition. And that actually seems to be the case in this situation, because,
according to Paxton's intervention, in the child's physician's judgment, surgery offers
a meaningful chance of survival. If he survives, he will live with significant lifelong disabilities.
So just generally, you have this very heavy and difficult situation. And as far as Paxton,
you have him asking a court to issue orders directing medical care for the child after he's born,
barring his removal from the state of Texas,
and setting an expedited hearing on any refusal of treatment.
With Paxton saying, baby Gabriel deserves a chance at life,
and I will not allow anyone to unlawfully deny him medically necessary care.
My office will use every tool available to protect innocent lives
and ensure that every child receives the care required under Texas law.
And not long after his filing, you would a court issuing an order
ensuring the baby will receive medical care.
And specifically, it, quote,
prevents anyone from withholding or obstructing necessary treatment
or removing, discharging, or transferring the child while the court considers the case.
The hospital will also have to notify all parties of the child's birth, medical assessments, and refused
also a court will still have to hold an emergency hearing if treatment is refused, and the order also specifically notes that the surrogate mother retains the right to make decisions safeguarding her own health.
So as far as the responses you're saying to this, you have the pro-birth anti-abortion crowds celebrating Paxton's legal victory,
with, for example, the Texas Alliance for Life saying we applaud Attorney General Ken Paxton for taking swift action to protect baby Gabriel's life, saying no contract should have the power to require a child to die because of a disability or diagnosis.
We are proud to live in a state where the sanctity of human life is recognized and protected from conception to natural death.
But again, this is also a legally complicated case because while the surrogate is in Texas to try to get parental rights as the birth mother,
there is also a separate parental case that's playing out in California that we have fewer details on.
And according to the Texas Tribune, under gestational agreements like the one the surrogate and the couple signed onto,
typically the intended parents, not the surrogate, have the parental rights to make choices relating to the fetus.
And as you had a law professor at the University of Texas explaining,
what the AG is asking the court to say is that Texas's jurisdiction because she is the birthman.
mother and that's the default rule. But the exception to this law would be if the Dallas judge agrees to
the contract signed and recognizes the intended parents' rights to make medical decisions here.
And with that, the professor again added, if the intended parents decided they didn't want their
child to have surgery at birth for whatever reason, like painful disability, you know, they have
that right. They have the right to deny treatment. But even still, the state does have the power
to override their decisions if it believes it is needed to protect the baby's welfare. But for now,
we're going to have to keep our eyes on this, see what updates we get. And of course, in the
meantime, I'd really love to know your thoughts, opinions, and reactions to this whole situation.
But then jump in into other news we need to talk about
serious abuse at several juvenile detention centers in Tennessee
was just uncovered by ProPublica.
And it all appears to be run by one guy who they say has gone to serious lengths
to keep it all under wraps from both the state and the public.
And maybe one of the best examples of what's going on
is the story of Thomas Jarvis.
He's a 20-year-old who spent more than three years
bounce between facilities as a teenager after being charged with arson.
And back in 2024, he was placed at the Middle Tennessee
Juvenile Detention Center where he was attacked by other teens
while a guard looked on and even approved.
Or with Thomas reportedly dragged across the floor
the anti-suicide smock that he was wearing, getting pulled over his head to expose his naked body,
and he was stuffed into a cell. And when the other teens were done, a guard said to have closed and
locked the cell door and flashed the group of thumbs up. You had ProPublica saying the whole thing was
caught on video, which then made its way to the desk of Tanya Webb, the medication supervisor at the center.
And when she saw it, you had Tanya saying that she knew that this needed to be reported to both the
state and Thomas's family right away. Right, I mean, state law literally requires it.
But when she took the video to the facility's compliance director, weeks went by without
any sign of an investigation. So you then had Tanya confronting the deputy executive director who told her,
that they had no idea what she was talking about.
And actually, when a ProPublica asked
the state's Department of Children's Services
if it had received an incident report
from the facility around that time, the answer was no.
And also a key thing here is that this wasn't even a first
for Thomas.
A couple of years earlier, he was placed at the Hollis Academy
when at a routine doctor's appointment,
his medical provider found bruises covering 80% of his body.
And notably, they were all in various stages of healing.
And when you had a DCS investigator looking into it,
they found that the facility never reported
any of these injuries to Thomas's state case manager
or to the state itself,
which again, is required by law.
And while there's a number of reasons,
things might have played out this way, there was something that these two facilities had in common.
They're both run by a Tennessee businessman by the name of Jason Cruz. And Cruz is the CEO of
Wayne Halfway House, which operates most of the facilities in Tennessee that hold youth that are
convicted of crimes, and it also runs all three of the state's highest security youth prisons.
And while for a long time, Cruz was actually a pretty minor player in the system, right, he ran two
mid-sized facilities for decades. You then had the state looking to expand operations for its youth
prisons, and he saw an opportunity. His facilities reportedly started taking in teens who other
providers either couldn't or wouldn't handle, so he made himself essential. So in 2020, when the state
started looking for a new operator for Mountain View Academy, its largest private youth prison,
guess who got the contract? Right, it was Cruz. And also, this was not a small project. In Cruz's
own words, Mountain View was a, quote, beast nobody could tame. This place holds Tennessee's
worst youth offenders, including those who were convicted of rape and murder, and under its previous
operator, it was plagued by riots. Or you had the police from a little town nearby getting
called regularly for months, and at one point, the mayor said the situation was not fair to the locals. But then a
The big change that Cruz implemented when he took over
was that any issues Mountain View had
were to be kept out of the public eye.
And the way that played out, based on the interviews
that ProPublica conducted, was that leadership told staff
not to call for outside help unless given the express okay
from Cruz. So that meant no ambulance, no police,
nothing until Cruz said it was all right.
And this wasn't just a verbal wink, wink, nudge,
everyone knows thing.
This was actually written down in the 2024 version
of the company's emergency response plan
that ProPublica got their hands on.
And you had the policy reading,
before law enforcement or emergency services
enter our building at any time, Jason Cruz
CEO must and will be called no exceptions.
If possible, the disturbance is handled internally.
And while naturally, not calling out as often meant that the facility's relationship with the town,
it improved, and so did their reputation, it also put the staff of this facility in incredibly difficult situation.
Right just nine months after Cruz took over, a control room guard said that she saw a few other guards getting jumped by more than a dozen teenagers.
And while she tried calling her supervisor like she was told to, she didn't get an answer.
And so after 20 minutes, she finally called the police.
And so of course they sent officers, they got the attack under control.
But then days later, this person was fired.
And so you had her telling ProPublica that the company leaders said she was fired for, quote,
calling outside help and breaking protocol.
She's also in suit, saying the policy's negligent and she was wrongfully terminated, telling ProPublica.
I thought I'd done something to save somebody's life.
You shouldn't have to choose a person's life over your job.
And the thing you see is that that was not an isolated incident.
Another example is in 2024, you had a nurse being pressured not to call 911 against her own professional judgment.
Because a guard was attacked in a dorm, got pepper sprayed, kicked in the head repeatedly, and his ribs smashed.
But when she told the other guards that they needed to call 911, because this guy almost definitely
definitely had internal injuries. She was told, quote, we don't do that.
Whether they're then putting in her notice shortly after and telling ProPublica,
at that point, I was like, they care more about their reputation than their employee's literal life.
And one of the important things that you need to take away with this is like,
this is reportedly how Cruz runs his whole business, right? This is not just an issue with one facility.
You have employees who work closely with the C-suite saying that there was an expectation that serious incidents be kept secret.
And that apparently came from Cruz himself with Kim Watts, the former human resources director, saying,
you always call Jason and nothing gets reported without his permission, and that's wrong.
And of the three dozen former residents and staff of Wayne Halfway House that were interviewed,
more than a dozen of them said that the company failed to report serious safety failures,
which meant that the state never knew about the problems in their facility.
And he knew one of the former managers that was interviewed saying that Cruz told them to stop reporting as much to the state because it would make the company look bad.
And now with ProPublica bringing this all to light, the mentality, it's raising a lot of red flags from experts.
And that includes from Liz Ryan, who oversaw juvenile justice programs for the Biden administration saying,
Wayne Halfway House Inc. and its leadership, including CEO Jason Cruz, appear to have demonstrated a documented pattern of disregard for
state law, federal law, and professional standards, saying they're putting kids lives at risk.
Absent immediate and vigorous state oversight and intervention, this seems like a disaster
waiting to happen as allegations of this nature are warning signs in need of immediate examination.
Though, of course, you have Wayne Halfway House denying all this.
Claiming neither Cruz nor the company instructed staff not to call 911 or not to report things
to the state, claiming the former employees that ProPublicas spoke to are untrustworthy sources with a
clear bias against the company and their allegations are substantially flawed, and they denied ever
firing anyone for calling out for help.
Whatever the case is, this is all captured the attention of the state itself.
With Tennessee's DCS, now finally looking in DeWain Halfway House thanks to ProPublic as a reporter,
and the agency releasing a statement saying it is comparing the information provided with department and provider records
to determine whether required incident and abuse reports were made, whether appropriate medical care and notifications occurred,
and what actions were taken in response.
And then there's even more news we've got to dive into in just a minute, but first, one, this is a friendly reminder to hit that like button to keep these videos in your feed.
Two, if you want ad-free episodes, you can go subscribe at philipdefranco.com.
And three, I'll be right back after this quick break.
You know the moment, wheels touch down, everyone unbuckles all at once, and you're already dreading it.
Not customs, not the baggage claim, the internet.
You're comparing Sims at an airport kiosk while your phone's at 2%.
That's not how you want to start a trip.
And that's why I use today's sponsor, Sayley, whenever I travel abroad.
I don't want to compare SIM cards, fight with my carrier.
I don't want to finance my roaming fees.
And Saley, they're an ESIM app from the team behind NordVPN that works in 200 plus destinations worldwide.
And the setup simple.
You download the app, you pick a plan, install the ESIM.
Boom, done. And then when you land, you're connected. No airport kiosk, no SIM card surgery. You don't need a new ESIM
every time you visit another country. And they've also launched SAILI phone numbers. And as someone who's traveled
internationally, this is just one of those features that just makes sense. You get a real US number right
inside of the app, which means calls, texts, apps that require a US number and those inevitable two-factor
authentication codes actually work while you're abroad. And awesomely, no contracts and no extra physical SIM
to deal with. Plus, Saly helps block trackers, malicious sites, and annoying ads. So, hey, if you got travel
coming up, scan that QR code or download the Saley app and use code Phil for 15% off your plan.
Does code Phil for 15% off? Download Saly today and stay connected wherever you go.
Ready to take your investing knowledge to pro level? This is Fidelity Connects, your daily edge
in the markets. Get deep insights on real-time market topics that may impact your investment
portfolio. Listen to Fidelity Connects on Spotify today and power your next move tomorrow.
Hey, y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if, like what if it doesn't
hold up. That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair,
there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit wayfair.ca.
Wayfair, every style, every home. And that's it into your final block today. Let's cram in some more
news you need to know before I let you go. Starting with the news that the people running the
treasury just made it easier for drug cartels, human traffickers, and money launderers to create
shell companies all across the US. Or at least, that's what you have critics saying, so you be the judge.
Right, because you have the Treasury officially shooting down the rule that forced businesses to report
anyone who owned or had any substantial control over the company to their financial crimes unit.
And while they'll still have to report information about their foreign owners, any Americans that are
involved, they'll be able to stay under the radar. You've got the Treasury even planning to delete
any information that it already has on them. And so you had Senate Banking Committee Republicans thanking
the Treasury for quote, standing up for job creators. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson saying they
removed a quote, burdensome reporting requirement for millions of law abiding business owners.
And you've got other officials claiming that it's going to save small businesses $6.7 billion over the next
decade. But you then also have anti-corruption experts saying, this is a terrible decision that is
going to put national security at risk. And with that, you had Senator Elizabeth Warren, saying it is a gift
to cartels, criminals, and U.S. adversaries that exploit shell companies to move millions through
our financial system. And a key thing is that you have experts pointing out that this is just the
latest in the Trump administration's push to ease up on anti-corruption efforts. Then you have other news that
starts with a question, is Shake Shack inflating prices on you if you do not tip? That's what you've had many
asking after this video went viral of a guy ordering from a kiosk, right? He gets three shakes, two for
599 and then one for 648.
Except when he hits the no tip option, he gets this message, uh-oh, there's been a pricing update
on one or more of your card items.
Please review those changes in your cart.
And then as he clicks okay, all three of those shakes appear to jump up 50 cents a pot.
So you have this video blowing up, people furious saying this is just the latest example
of why tipping culture is so out of control, especially because this is a fast food restaurant
where typically you wouldn't tip.
Now you have Shake Shack responding and they claim that this was actually all an error in
their system, saying that charging customers for not tipping is not company policy.
And you're the company that owns and operates that location, HMS,
also doubling down on that claim saying that it was a glitch in their system and saying they've now resolved it.
And while the response, it'll work for some, there's also going to be just so many people out there really not buying it.
And you've had many saying it just looks like HMS host or ShakeShack, they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
Also in other news, you've got some big Luigi Mangione updates.
Because we just found out that any jurors in his trial are going to be kept anonymous due to safety concerns,
with the prosecutors already reporting threats against people connected to the case.
And this is you've had Mangioni's trial becoming sort of a pop culture phenomenon at this point.
The memes and the engagement on social media, it's only grown since he allegedly killed health insurance executive
Ryan Thompson back in 2024. So now, he has what I guess you would call a fan-based.
Some even calling themselves Mangianistas. Some saying that they were waiting for a
mysterious hero like him to appear. And on top of that, you also have report saying that his
case has shown widespread support for vigilante violence. Prosecutors have even tried to claim that
Mangione's actively tried to influence others to follow in his footsteps. And so with the judge in the
case saying, given the extraordinary public attention and hostile behavior, the court finds that
disclosure of juror names to the public poses an unjustifiable risk of interference with the administration
of justice. While you'd Mangione's lawyers actually pushing back on this a bit, worried that this move would
make the jurors think that he was uniquely dangerous or that he would bring on some undisclosed threat
against them. This is also something we've seen happen in a number of cases that just get so big.
The recent examples include people like El Chapo or even Trump back in 2024. You've basically
being seen more as more as the cost of doing business in a case this big. And so for now,
you have jury selection set for September 8th and it is, I'm sure, going to be an absolutely wild trial.
But that, my friend, you beautiful bastard is the end of your Wednesday show. But of course,
if you're not 100% filled in, you're just a click away from today's brand new episode of the podcast.
And or if you missed last night's show, I got you covered there. Enjoy. I love you,
faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
