The Philip DeFranco Show - The Viral $1 Lawsuit Everyone Is Arguing About, The PewDiePie AI Situation, & CBS' Meltdown is So Bad

Starting point is 00:00:00 This Patagonia scandal is tearing the internet apart. You've got huge AI news that ranges from Sam Altman and Open AI lawsuits to PewDiePie. The humiliating meltdown over at CBS News just got worse. We're talking about all of that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco's show you daily dive into the news. So buckle up, hit that like button. Let's just jump into it, starting with this. The internet has gone crazy over this war between Patagonia and Paddygonia. No, I didn't just say the same word twice.

Starting point is 00:00:24 We are talking about the clothing company, Patagonia, and the famous drag queen, Paddy Gonia. Right, her real names went Wiley and she's been building up this persona since 2018, kind of turning into a marriage of queer advocacy and environmental activism. Scientists agree that birds sing to each other in the morning to tell each other that they made it through the night. I think that queer people do the same. Pride is our bird song. Or with her putting on climate inspired drag shows across the United States, reckon up nearly three million followers across TikTok and Instagram and raising millions of dollars for related causes. And you can find her music videos even on YouTube with titles like,

Starting point is 00:00:58 climb every mountain, birds tell us, and won't give up. But most recently, she put out a very different kind of video that took her fans by surprise. Today I'm breaking my silence about the lawsuit that the multi-billion dollar corporation Patagonia has filed against me, a drag queen and climate activist for trademark infringement. Now for some context here, this seemed totally out of character

Starting point is 00:01:16 to a lot of people because Patagonia is generally known for being a very progressive company. They donate to environmental causes, they sued the first Trump administration, and they partnered with the human rights campaign to fight state laws starting LGBT folks. In fact, their founder even handed control over would trust that would donate all the profits to environmental causes declaring the planet Earth

Starting point is 00:01:32 its only shareholder. But when it comes to this lawsuit, you have the company claiming they really had no choice. Because if you own a trademark and you do not proactively enforce it, then it gets weaker. Or with the idea being that you let one person get away with it and that opens the door for others to just do the same in arguing court that it's no longer protected. So you'll see lawyers say, you know, it's a common practice in that world for brands to aggressively police their trademarks against any potential infringement as a rule, even if they do not actually care that much about the specific infringement. And in this case, you have Patagonia insisting that they have no problem with Patagonia, that they were reluctant to sue.

Starting point is 00:02:00 And even though you're seeing a lot of different reactions, depending on where you go on the internet, you're seeing a meaningful chunk of the queer community actually siding with the company here. Even in the lawsuit, Patagonia lists all these different people that have tried to infringe on their, their trademarks before. They have the gun lobbies. They have the, like, fossil fuel industry. They have, like, frat bros.

Starting point is 00:02:16 They basically have all these people that they're like, we don't align with these values. We don't want them to be able to use our trademark. But we also understand that if we don't enforce this unilaterally, regardless of whether or not we agree with the people, then all of these other people will kind of have a pretty easy legal avenue to use our trademark because they can just argue that we're not using it because we're not enforcing it to everyone. But you have Patty claiming that she never got any warning from the company and that the first time that she heard from its lawyers was after they filed a lawsuit. Though that also appears to be contradicted by the emails included in the lawsuit that showed the

Starting point is 00:02:45 company reminding Patty Gonia that she had agreed to not commercialize her name. Right according to the company, they met her in 2022 and she promised not to use Patty Gonia on fonts or designs that mimic Patagonia's. But you have Patty disputing that. There was no agreement. In 2022, when I was collaborating with a third party, Patagonia asked me to follow certain terms, and I did. That wasn't a broad agreement about my future. And so in 2025, she started selling Paddy Gonia branded merch online with a company arguing that she used very similar typography to their logo. Right? And just so you can see, here is the company's logo and here is Patty Gonia's logo side by side for comparison. But again, you have Patty disputing that. I have never used their logo, font, or anything

Starting point is 00:03:23 from their brand on our merch website. Instead, the lawsuit cherry picks a few examples of playful parody and fan art and tries to spin those into some kind of vast use of their logo. Also with this, you have her fans pointing out that the word Patagonia actually predates the company and the drag queen because it's actually the name of a region

Starting point is 00:03:40 in South America known for its beauty. And now with that as far as some of the reactions you're seeing, you have the company's own Instagram post just full of comments threatening to boycott them in favor of North Face. But then also with this on another front, you have the company countering that even if people do not think

Starting point is 00:03:52 that Patagonia's merch is actually Patagonia's, they could still easily be confused about whether the two were somehow affiliated. With that, you have the lawsuit citing examples of times that they say that she blurred the line between herself and the company, like this moment from her TED talk. Oh my gosh, I even see that some of you are wearing my merch. Yes, Patagonia vests are indeed very Ted drag. The company says that the final straw came when Patagonia filed a trademark application, seem to register her name for clothing, marketing, and events. But with that, she claims that that had nothing to do with the company. It was a reaction to a fellow drag queen by the name of Lexi Love, getting accused of

Starting point is 00:04:23 trademark infringement by the adult actress Lexi Love. Within weeks, her bookings were canceled, music pulled, social media gone. I filed to make sure that that never happened to me. But then also in response to all this, as far as Patagonia, the company, they seem to be like, hey, we're not trying to ruin you, we just need to protect our trademark. And in fact, they only sued her for a dollar, apparently trying to demonstrate that it's not about the money. But Patagonia, she argues that they're being disingenuous there, because on top of the dollar,

Starting point is 00:04:47 they're also asking that you pay their legal fees, and if this goes to court, that could total in the millions of dollars. There, you have the company's argument being that it doesn't want to go to court, and they promise that they won't if Patagonia just agrees to three things. One, remove the trademark application. Two, cease use of the mountain landscape logo. And three, stop the sale and promotion of apparel and other products as Paddygonia. The company's saying, if we can agree on this, we can work out everything else, and

Starting point is 00:05:08 Patty Gonia could continue as a performer and activist. I'm saying we share common ground with them, including the goal of saving our home planet and creating a more inclusive outdoors. But then, in response to that, you had Padigonia posting. Patagonia just posted their offer to settle. When I told you that they were trying to erase my advocacy, their bullet number three is what I was talking about. Stop selling and promoting apparel in other products as Patty Gonia. And claiming Patagonia is not just talking about my upcycle t-shirt merch in that bullet point,

Starting point is 00:05:29 saying they're talking about the partnership work with other brands that I've done for years to pay for the education, advocacy and activism that me and my team do. If I can't do partnerships as Pati Gonia, it breaks the whole ecosystem of advocacy and community engagement. And they understand this because their work is built on the exact same model, advocacy work funded through commercial work. Bullet number one and two I've already said I would agree to. Bullet number three, absolutely not. No deal Patagonia. So that post also got hit by a community note that read Patagonia's post explicitly says Patagonia could continue as a performer and activist.

Starting point is 00:05:56 Bullet number three targets branded merchandise sales, not partnership. So as for right now, that's where things stands. And again, depending on where you go online, drastically different reactions and you have people deeply divided on this. Where you have some backing Patagonia arguing that the company's needlessly bullying a queer climate activist who's just developing her own brand. But then on the other side, you have people backing Patagonia arguing that the company seems to be trying to do everything they can to find a solution, but they got backed into

Starting point is 00:06:19 a corner and they had no other choice. And there's also just this group in the middle who support both of them and they just kind of want them to stop fighting. Well, this continues to play out in the court of public opinion and we may see it in an actual legal court soon. I got to pass a question off to you. What are your thoughts here? Where do you land? What can't? What do you think? Why? Let me know in those comments down below. But also, while you leave that comment or you're hitting that like button to help us support the show, I should say that that is not the only big lawsuit in the news right now. Because the state of Florida wants to hold Sam Altman in their words, personally liable for the harm he has caused as the CEO of Open AI, including his utter disregard for the

Starting point is 00:06:48 risk to human life. That's a gist of the complaint that the state's attorney general James ith Meyer just filed against both Altman and his company, claiming that OpenAI ignores safety risks, fuels violence, and puts vulnerable populations in harm's way. And it's a pretty scathing lawsuit. It starts by noting just how quickly OpenAI has grown and exploded, but with that argues, this success has not been earned. The rise of Open AI is attributable to a web of deceit and the exploitation of users leveraging their data and safety to boost OpenAI's market value at unacceptable costs. And claiming that OpenAI has aided and abetted mass shooters and killing sprees, encouraged people, including teenagers to commit suicide, eroded its user's critical thinking

Starting point is 00:07:21 skills, and gotten children addicted to tools at feign human compassion. And you woulduthmiyer saying at a press conference, Sam Altman and Chat GPT have chosen the AI race over the safety and security of our kids. They have chosen profit over public safety. We're going to make them pay for hurting our kids. You also have the lawsuit slamming ChatGPT for frequently agreeing with its users saying this can especially harm children because it's designed to keep users hooked into conversations by any means, regardless of truth, because it leads to more use of the chatbot. Saying this leads to chat GPT just making stuff up sometimes, either because it wants to keep the user engaged or because it just straight up is prone to hallucinations. With that,

Starting point is 00:08:01 claiming its unreliability is dangerous and can have serious real-world consequences like medical misdiagnoses, mental health issues, and way more. And it also hits on the chatbot presenting itself as a human-like friend claiming, this false anthropomorphism further seduces you, users into believing they can share information with the program, especially young users who may not fully understand the difference between a real person they are speaking to and a machine. And the lawsuit says that all of this violates Florida's deceptive and unfair trade practices. And with Florida actually being the first state to file a lawsuit like this against Open AI, you have places like Politico saying that the state has become the biggest threat against AI in

Starting point is 00:08:32 conservative America. Because it's not just this lawsuit that takes aim at AI and the dangers it presents. The Attorney General previously launched a criminal investigation into Open AI for allegedly giving advice to a mass shooter who killed two people and wounded six others at FSU. And on top of that, you've had lawmakers in the state backed by DeSantis introducing bills to regulate AI. And actually, interestingly, Trump's picked or replace DeSantis as governor also supports regulations with Politico there adding. Florida Republicans are willing to buck Trump and tech money flowing into their campaigns to take a stand against AI, which is seen as an existential threat among voters.

Starting point is 00:09:00 Right, one of the key things here is that this is coming is there's kind of just a ton of overall backlash from the general public against AI. And while Florida, they're doing a lot here, they're far from the only entity that's going after these company, right? Tons of other lawsuits have accused major AI platforms of harming its users. But with that, I should know that even though anti-AI sentiments are rising, these companies are not going to go anywhere. Google's parent company, Alphabet, just announced it's raising $80 billion for AI spending, anthropic. They just filed to go public. And then there are also even smaller ventures outside of these major players. You even saw a long-time big YouTuber PewDiePie launching his own local AI workspace.

Starting point is 00:09:30 With the focus there, really being privacy. It's called Odysseus, and he described it as a mashup of Claude and Chat GPT, but self-hosted. And this has actually gotten a lot of coverage with, for example, Gizmodo explaining, By running AI models locally instead of pinging prompts and responses back and forth between some data center, there is less of a concern of your behaviors being tracked, shared, and monetized. And you would PewDiePie explaining to people why he had this idea. The more you share by yourself with AI, the better it becomes. The more it understands you, your preferences, your past experiences, your workflow, your work, your work, your documents, your computer.

Starting point is 00:10:05 The more you give it access, the better it works. But the more you do that, the more you're handing over a huge piece of yourself to all these giant tech companies. But it's free, all her chat, autonomous agents, tools, email, research, and more. We're seeing stuff like this pop up as data and privacy risks have also been a major concern when it comes to AI. But as far as what the future of AI is gonna look like and both the short and the long term, we'll have to wait and see. Then there's even more that we gotta dive into in just a minute, but first let me thank a sponsor and say, you know, you ever pour dog food into a bowl and immediately think, there's no way this smells normal. Like, if we're being honest, some dog food has the energy of technically edible. And that's one of the reasons why I love today sponsor Sundays for Dome.

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Starting point is 00:11:44 This is just the latest blowback since Weiss took over last October. Though I will say it wasn't until more recently that she's turned her attention to 60 minutes specifically. Right, last week, she fired four of the show's top producers, including executive producer, Tanya Simon, along with two of the show's seven correspondents, Cecilia Vega, and Sharon Alfonzi. Then you had the network announcing that it had hired Nick Bilton as the show's new executive producer. Right, and Billton, he's a tech journalist, he's a filmmaker. He also's never worked in traditional broadcast news, though arguably I think we are seeing more and more of that. Because Weiss, for example, she also had no prior experience in broadcast journalism when she was named

Starting point is 00:12:14 the network's editor-in-chief, which may also be connected to the fact that she was appointed to the position by a Trump ally and tech billionaire David Ellison, right after his effective takeover of CBS's parent company Paramount and a multi-billion dollar merger. Also as far as Weiss, along with the firings last week, she reportedly issued a memo telling staff that it was time for a new approach at 60 minutes, describing the goal as building a show that thrives in the 21st century. But also yesterday you had built and reportedly opening a staff meeting introducing himself to the team by trying to reassure them that he wouldn't just be taking a wrecking ball to the show. Saying the rumors people are spreading, that I'm going to turn the show into 61-minute episodes,

Starting point is 00:12:43 that it's going to be like TikTok. That is not changing. The show is going to stay exactly like it is for now. Of course, the key word is for now. Especially because he was clear that change would be coming, saying that broadcast is an ice cube that's melting. And reportedly arguing that the show must adapt before claiming that Weiss loves this institution and loves 60 minutes. And it's And it's reportedly at this point that Pelley interrupted and told Bilton, she is murdering 60 minutes. She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she's been doing exactly that. And then adding, she has no qualifications for her job. You have slender qualifications for this job. The changes that she's made at the evening news have been catastrophic. So why should we expect that any of this is going to be any better?

Starting point is 00:13:16 Now, Billton apparently kept his cool saying that he looked forward to sharing his plans and meeting with everyone. But Pellie stayed on the offensive. Ray grilling Billton about last week's firings with Bilton claiming the decision to Little Fonzie and Vega go. that happened before he arrived. Pelly also questioned why Billton even accepted the job, knowing that he will never be welcome with Billton then clapping back. I have no problem taking a job in a place that I am not welcome in. Reportedly saying, I've been a journalist for 25 years, Scott. I've sat across from incredibly powerful people like you have and none of it intimidates me, okay? So you are not going to intimidate me in front of this group of people. I want that to be clear.

Starting point is 00:13:45 But also with that, while Pelley appeared to lead the charge, he was apparently far from the only person in that group of people who had a problem with Bill. One employee, for example, reportedly asked Billton how he planned to train a new correspondent, which is a process that can take years. But there, he responded by saying that he'd bring in people who already know how to do the work, which reportedly led to the staff laughing out loud in his face. Bill and also reportedly claimed that he cared deeply about the institution, which Pelley reportedly interrupted with, and oh, please. That again, eliciting a wave of laughter from the room.

Starting point is 00:14:09 And ultimately, the meet and greet reportedly ended abruptly with Billton saying, enjoy the bagels and then leaving in silence at which point the staff erupted in applause. You know, given everything that's happened over the past few months, none of this really sounds surprising. The pressure has actually been steadily building since even before Weiss took over. In April of last year, for example, while Paramount, they were still working to get that merger across the finish line, the show's longtime executive producer Bill Owens resigned over what he described as a loss of freedom to make independent decisions. And you actually had Pelley applauding the decision live on air, saying no one here is happy about it,

Starting point is 00:14:37 but in resigning, Bill proved one thing. He was the right person to lead 60 minutes all along. Also, last December, you had Alfonzi, right? One of the correspondents fired last week, clashing with Weiss back after she pulled a segment on the brutal treatment of migrants, deported from the U.S. to El Salvador. You had O'Fonzie telling her team in an email. at the time that the decision had been political. And proving her point in some people's eyes,

Starting point is 00:14:54 the segment ultimately only ran with additional statements from the White House and the Department of Homeland Security that were not in the original version. You had her saying in a statement released after getting fired, the wall between editorial independence and corporate interests at CBS is being methodically torn down. Journalists willing to challenge authority are being pushed aside in favor of those who will not.

Starting point is 00:15:10 And in her own statement you at Vega, the other fired correspondent sounding off on a similar note, saying that her team had fended off efforts to insert political bias into their stories and added, let's call this what it is, censorship, both imposed and, self-driven, saying it is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy. Also, we've seen things like recently who had an 18-year-old high schooler receiving a $10,000 grant from CBS

Starting point is 00:15:28 the News and Documentary Emmy Awards presented to him by none other than Scott Pelly. And he took that chance to absolutely slam the network as well. While I want to thank CBS News for funding this generous gift towards my education, I want to also acknowledge how the recent direction of the outlet stains the legacy of Mike Wallace, the namesake of this scholarship. As corporate elites take hold over the very pipes through which our information flows. Journalism that serves the people becomes increasingly harder to come by, yet ever more crucial. And what the people want is the truth. So if at any time you hesitate to utter the word genocide or remain silent in the face of blatant lies,

Starting point is 00:16:10 remember to ask yourself, who is this for? I hope you choose us. Right, you might probably look at emotional praising the young man for his words. I know that Mike Wallace is looking down at you with pride at this very moment. Also, while we're speaking of award shows, you actually had Pele getting praise from his old boss, Bill Owens, who gave a speech accepting an award at the New York Press Club Awards, saying CBS had put an opinion writer best known for being an ideologue in charge and adding, Scott can smell fraud from Omyelwick. He stood up the way that I did a year ago, and I couldn't be proud of him,

Starting point is 00:16:43 and I know all of the people had 60 minutes couldn't be proud of him. So in a way, I'll accept this award today on behalf of my friend Scott and all people at 60 minutes. Now, of course, overall, not everyone is applauding Peli. You have some other accusing him of being unprofessional or otherwise attacking him for being a journalist.

Starting point is 00:17:03 But really, whatever you feel about his behavior, what's happening at CBS, it ends up being just a small piece of a much bigger puzzle. You've got Musk with X, Bezos with the Washington Post, you got the Murdox with Fox, and you have Ellison with Paramount Skydance. Which also now, by the way, is trying to finalize a merger with Warner Bros, the owner of CNN.

Starting point is 00:17:18 So many of the ways that people get information, they are controlled by people with a lot of money and an agenda. And that especially matters when you have an administrative power with such a distaste for the truth. Right, and with that in mind, you've got a lot of people today saying that Marco Rubio should be charged with lying to Congress.

Starting point is 00:17:31 Right, because today you had our Secretary of State testifying before Congress for the first time since Trump launched his war in Iran. And despite the fact that he hasn't actually given public testimony on Trump's war until now, Rubio's appearance today, it's actually part of a marathon week where he's set to appear before four different committees

Starting point is 00:17:44 to defend the administration's nearly $36 billion budget request for his agency. But because his first appearance in this circuit was in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, his testimony covered a number of things that concerned the State Department, including Ebola, China, Venezuela, Russia's war on Ukraine, AI, and much, much more. But unsurprisingly, one of the biggest areas of focus was Iran, especially when the Democrats got their chance to ask questions. And right off the bat, you had Rubio coming out swinging, arguing that Trump's war with Iran, it's been a sweeping success in destroying what he described as the conventional shield of weapons that Iran's been trying to build up to protect their nuclear

Starting point is 00:18:13 program. Operation Epic Fury, some of you didn't like it. some of you did, was highly successful in achieving its military objectives, which is dramatically reducing the defense industrial base of Iran, the ability to build these missiles and to build these drones, especially the missiles program, substantially degraded. But nonetheless, even their drone building capability has been eroded. Today, there is no Iranian Navy. There is no such thing. There's a bunch of Boston whalers with machine guns on them, but there is no Navy. Okay, so there's a lot to unpack here, but basically every single claim he made there is wrong. First of all, it's just simply not true that Epic Fury has achieved its objectives.

Starting point is 00:18:47 I mean, for one thing, those objectives have been a moving target since the get-go, with Rubio and others in the administration repeatedly offering competing reasons for the war, only for Trump to then turn around and say something totally different. But then also, when you consider the overlapping objectives that have come out, like destroying Iran's conventional weapon shield, ending its nuclear ambitions, and incapacitating its navy, he's still way off base. Is the Center for American Progress, aka Cap, explained? 13 weeks into what was supposed to be a four-to-six-week war,

Starting point is 00:19:12 and with no end clearly in sight, None have been fully achieved and any marginal progress is subject to rapid reversal. Right on the nuclear question, the International Atomic Energy Agency estimates that Iran still has 972 pounds of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, which is just a step from weapons grade levels at 90%. And then regarding conventional weapons, classified US intelligence assessments and military analysis that's been leaked to the media, they've shown that Iran's retained a major portion of their pre-war capabilities.

Starting point is 00:19:36 According to one report, Iran still is roughly 70% of its mobile launchers and has been able to retain about 70% of its pre-war missile stockpile. And they've also regained access to around 90% of its underground missile storage and launch facilities. But then also, beyond that, Iran's effective use of drones, it's shown that they can still effectively target enemies in the region. And then when it comes to the Navy, it is true that it has been destroyed in a traditional sense, but as CAP explains, Iran's ability to improvise is ensured that it retains a naval presence in the Persian Gulf. Noting that Iran's still been able to mine waterways using fast attack craft and commercial vessels, which is also utilized to launch drones against ships in the Gulf, and then also adding,

Starting point is 00:20:09 Iran may not possess a formal navy, but it clearly has naval power. rendering U.S. success in this domain more than a little hollow. And then outside of military goals, experts also say that Trump's war, it's done very little to stop Iran's regional proxy network. If anything, it's just emboldened them, nor has it successfully overthrown the authoritarian regime. Similar to the proxy groups, Trump's actions in Iran, they're likely to have a hydro-like effect. You cut off one head, three more vicious and dangerous ones that grow back in its place. Then of course, there's the fact that the street Hormuz is literally still closed and the American people, like the rest of the world, are facing higher costs from the economic disruption. But also the difference is that other countries that other countries that are really

Starting point is 00:20:42 refused to get drawn into Trump's pointless war, but American taxpayers, they're being forced to pay for it. And it's a pretty fucking big price tag. Moody's just estimated that the war has so far cost U.S. families $100 billion. But despite all that, it looked like Rubio just kind of repeatedly gaslit Americans even saying at one point that the war was over. Mr. Rubio, you keep telling us how we're winning this war. The president keeps saying, well, the war's over now. Completely annihilated. The war is not over. And yet the American people see how we're losing at the pump and with their costs. And yet this thing still hasn't been resolved. Every day he tweets out, oh, we've obliterated them, we've annihilated them, they're going to

Starting point is 00:21:15 surrender, but yet we still find ourselves spending billions of dollars a week. To Booker's point there, he does honestly feel kind of insane for Ruby to try to convince the American people that the war is over when you're still suffering financially because of Trump's short-sighted impulsivity. And that's actually something that was echoed by Senator Chris Van Han in this clip that's been getting some traction online. This is your first public hearing since President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu launched an illegal war. against Iran. Netanyahu said he's been waiting 40 years to do this. Turns out he finally found a president who was both stupid and reckless enough to join him. The war has killed 14 American

Starting point is 00:21:56 service members, wounded hundreds more, and killed thousands of civilians. It's driving up the price of gas, food, and much more. Trump obviously doesn't care. He called high gas prices peanuts and says, I don't think about Americans financial situation. That's from the President of the United States. And all for what? Let's face it, Mr. Secretary, the Trump foreign policy has become a dumpster fire. But also, Rubio's insistence that America's triumph, it became even more confusing because he also said that the administration was getting closer

Starting point is 00:22:30 to an agreement on key aspects of a peace deal, which of course implies that the war is not actually over. Though notably, that's kind of the same thing we've been hearing from the administration for the last 90-plus days. There is the prospect before us. which could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week, that for the first time, certainly in my memory, they have agreed to negotiate aspects of their nuclear program that just a month ago or just a year ago they were refusing to even mention, much less into discussions about. That is not a guarantee that ultimately will lead to a deal that's acceptable to the Senate or acceptable to the American people, but we'll be able to engage them in a process to truly test the

Starting point is 00:23:07 proposition of how far they're willing to go. But very notably here, Iranian media reported just yesterday that Tehran had suspended talks with the United States over Israel's recent escalating attacks on Lebanon. At the same time, you had Trump contradicting himself telling reporters yesterday that he couldn't care less if talks are over because they've taken too long and it become very boring. His words. But then in a truth social post literally the same day, he claimed that the talks are back on and continuing at a rapid pace. And unfortunately, we live in a world where people are genuinely perplexed of who to trust here, the president of the United States or Iranian media. Somehow we now live in a world where that has actually become a real toughie. And then on the note in negotiations, you might have seen this clip going viral where you had Senator Jackie Rosen questioning Rubio about his whereabouts during high-stakes talks in Pakistan. I'd like to remind the American people that as the Secretary of State, your main duty as America's chief diplomat is to maintain our relations with foreign nations.

Starting point is 00:23:55 This is why I was shocked to see that you were at a party with President Trump in Miami instead of accompanying Vice President Vance to Pakistan for negotiations. What party was at? I was at a party? It's publicly reported and there's photos there. But what party? No, no, no, no. I'm going to say that. I'm going to answer it. I'm going to answer that question, because that's an absurd statement. I was not at a party.

Starting point is 00:24:15 If I finish my paragraph, he can answer. People are going to slander me. I'm going to answer it. Pete Whitkoff and Jared Kushner, both of whom were never confirmed by this body to be America's diplomats, accompanied the vice president in the negotiations. We confirmed you to be our secretary's state. We confirmed you to be in the negotiations that are happening. And it's just unthinkable to me that you are not, you are missing high-stakes negotiations or that you're not involved. a party. Where I was is next to the president because in the midst of those negotiations, I was in communications with them. I know your staff wrote up this cute statement for your

Starting point is 00:24:49 TikTok video, but it's not true and it's not real. That's not what happened. Right now, the event that Rosen's referring to there is a UFC fight that Rubio attended with Trump, while others were at the negotiations in Pakistan. So you had a lot of people online sharing photos from the fight, noting that it really didn't look like Rubio and Trump were doing too much high level national security work. Based on how, let's say, Zooted, he looks in those photos, we should all kind of maybe just pray to God that he wasn't actually doing any important work at that fight. But on the note of accountability, we also saw many Democrats grilling Rubio on the Trump administration's total failure to properly inform Congress about the actions that it's taken in this war or get their

Starting point is 00:25:20 consent. And there, you'd Senator Tim Kane noting that the administration is giving Congress opinions from the Office of Legal Counsel that justified two recent military actions, right, including the capture of Maduro, but it hasn't done the same for the Iran war. We're 92 days into a war against Iran and the administration will not let Congress look at the OLC legal opinion justifying the war. You know what kind of thinking we do. If you've showed us the legal rationale for two wars and you won't show us the legal rationale for the third, hmm, is there something in the rationale they don't want us to see? Is there a dissenting opinion that says it's not legal? Are there conditions like you can't strike civilian infrastructure like schools and bridges? Are there factual assertions

Starting point is 00:26:01 It's like the war will be over in two days, or Iran will never close the straits of our moves. You know, while this first testimony that Rubio was giving, it certainly, you know, an important landmark and the ongoing conflict, it really ended up kind of being just more of the same. What appears to be lying and gaslighting from an administration that has entered into an illegal war that no one wants, and clearly they do not give a shit about how it impacts the American people.

Starting point is 00:26:20 That said, it will be interesting to see what goes down in the other Rubio hearings, one of which is actually happening in the house as I'm recording this. Sometimes I feel like we just need to turn this into a four-hour live show and then clip it. And then there's even more that we gotta dive into, again, in just a minute, but first, let me thank a sponsor and say, you know, at this point, your personal data has probably been passed around the internet more than some viral TikTok

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Starting point is 00:27:25 So, hey, scan that QR code, or go to incogni.com slash DeFranco and then just use code DeFranco for 60% all. That's incogni.com slash defranco code DeFranco to get your personal data off the market. But then, for the final block of your show today, more news you need to know, starting with the fact that President Trump is backing off of his $1.8 billion slush fund that was going to be used to help people that he said were unfairly prosecuted by the government, which has widely been expected to put money into the pockets of Jan Sixers and way more. But you have two anonymous sources telling the New York Times that he's been leaning towards scrapping the fund for days. And after a judge put the fund on pause until June 12th last week, he told ABC News yesterday, we are subject to the courts,

Starting point is 00:27:59 At this moment, that's what it is? If a court doesn't allow it, what can you do? You also have the Justice Department saying that they would fall in line with the ruling, even though they disagreed with it. Also, you're seeing reports saying that some Republicans were relieved to hear that the administration was easing up on this, at least for now. And that's not actually all that surprising. They weren't exactly giving it high reviews in the news anyways. Do you believe this is a legitimate fund, and do you believe those terms are fair?

Starting point is 00:28:18 I think that there are, and will be, continue to be, a lot of questions around that that the administration is going to have to answer. I think that the weaponization fund is a bad idea from the start. And I would encourage the administration just to drop it. It's deeply offensive to me. It's stupid on stilts. It's horrible politics. It's horrible timing.

Starting point is 00:28:41 Right, and that's people on his side, because you knew what to expect from the Democrats, with them calling the fund Trump's most brazen act of self-dealing and one of the most corrupt schemes ever launched by a president. So with everything appearing to be on ice, you have Republicans looking for a concrete decision from the White House and what are the next steps. With Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana saying, the Trump administration should clearly state that it was giving up on the $1.8 billion fund if it had changed its position. Meanwhile, you have Democrats standing back and standing by with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying,

Starting point is 00:29:06 if Republicans return to reconciliation, we will be ready with amendments to shut the fund down. And adding, if they try to bury the issue, we will force them to the Senate floor. If they try to sneak behind appropriations, we will fight them there too. Also, another news is that it'll be interesting to see if we see a trickle effect, we see it popping up elsewhere. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp just confirmed that he will not be extending the Georgia gas tax suspension. And so that means that Georgia drivers are going to see gas go up about 33 cents a gallon overnight. So if you use diesel, that'll be 37 cents more a gallon. And of course, you had Kemp starting the suspension back in March trying to offset the price increases stemming from Trump's war,

Starting point is 00:29:34 and he actually extended that twice. But now, you have a spokesperson from his office saying, after renewing the suspension of the state gas tax to help hardworking Georgians get through the Memorial Day weekend, the gas tax suspension will expire at 11.59 p.m. this evening, while the state also keeps a financial eye toward any unexpected needs in the future. But them claiming that the gas prices have been stable here recently, though notably the stable prices without the tax, it was still about a dollar more than prices were in 2025. We've been sitting at an average of about $3.80 per gallon, according to AAA. You know, some drivers, they were already struggling to keep up with that.

Starting point is 00:30:03 How much a day do you can't get that from you said? 55-60? I just don't look at it. There's no point I'm looking at it. While I look at something, I'm going to make you depressed. Every day we're depressed by something on a news, so don't even bother it. Just get gas, don't look, then leave. You know, it's not a black and white situation. A difficult thing here is that the gas tax is used to keep up the roads.

Starting point is 00:30:21 So the idea is that by holding out with lower prices by removing the tax, that the more issues you'll see down the road, making it more dangerous to get from point A to point B. Of course, that's in a world where the money and resources are actively being used in a way that is helping the community. And just looking across the country, Indiana put a gas tax extension in a place back in April, but that's had to expire in five days of their governor is now saying that he's looking into ways to continue it. And Utah passed a bill that created a short-term price reduction of the pump, saving them six cents a gallon from July 1st to the end of the year. And so maybe we're going to see more states trying to offset rising gas prices with moves like this.

Starting point is 00:30:51 And also with places that have embraced this move, do they follow Kemp's lead here, Especially as there's that question again of how long can these local governments do this and sustain this without creating other issues for themselves. And then finally, today we've got the news that a judge just blocked the defense team in the Charlie Kirk trial from restricting public access to the hearing that'll lay out the evidence in the case. Because Tyler Robinson, the 23-year-old, accused of shooting Kirk last year, his legal team wanted to close hearings during the trial, keeping motions and evidence sealed and restricting media coverage of the case. They said that keeping things public would make it harder to find jurors who aren't already against Robinson. But the judge in the case, Tony Graffs, that the jurors are going to be questioned about how much they've seen in the news. whether these hearings are public or not. Because for one, surveillance footage of Robinson

Starting point is 00:31:27 near the scene of the crime at Utah Valley University, that's already been out for months. The alleged timeline of his travels between there and his home, that's already been in the news as well. And the alleged text messages between him and his roommate and romantic partner confessing to the crime, that's already gone viral as well. And with all that, you are the judge saying

Starting point is 00:31:40 that Robinson's lawyers failed to demonstrate that their concerns about negative publicity outweighed the public's right to an open judicial process. And to the hearing, that's set to begin next month, and from there, we'll be waiting to see when the case goes to trial. But then, my friend, you beautiful bastard

Starting point is 00:31:51 is the end of your Tuesday, Philip DeFranco Show dive into the news. Of course, have more for you to watch if you haven't been filled in fully yet. But whatever the case may be, let me just say, thank you for watching, thank you for like, and thank you for subscribing. I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.

The Philip DeFranco Show - The Viral $1 Lawsuit Everyone Is Arguing About, The PewDiePie AI Situation, & CBS' Meltdown is So Bad

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