The Philip DeFranco Show - This $200,000 Lego War Just Got Way Darker & OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Just Escaped & This is Terrifying

Episode Date: July 22, 2026

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You've got the Bricks and Minifix, Reckless Ben scandal taking a shocking new traumatic turn. Why this Trump's Saudi Arabia nuclear deal is people freaking the hell out. OpenAI's AI just went rogue, escaped to the internet, and hacked another AI company. And while you just had ESPN firing their stars mid-show while they were live. 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, starting with this. This reckless Ben and Bricks and Minifigs War has been apparently so stressful to them that it rose to the level of psychological trauma.

Like we all side a big sigh of relief this morning knowing that he was arrested last night. And then to have this happen all over again, like everyone's feeling some pretty significant trauma that he's just not going to stop. Rainy with that, of course, stemming from Ben going on a bit of an odyssey. Because to give you a quick refresher, Ben is accusing the Lego reseller bricks and mini figs of stealing a Lego collection from this guy, Brian, worth one or $200,000 and then lying about it. And so Ben ultimately goes on this crusade to get the Legos back, ultimately sue in the new local store owner and chasing him around Utah to serve him court papers. But the police, they arrest Ben multiple. times. They search his car for heroin, they raid his Airbnb for stolen Legos, and they try to arrest him again before he fled to Mexico. And now you have Ben, apparently facing a lawsuit in

at least two criminal cases, but that also hasn't stopped him from continuing to pose videos where he says that he's exposing the truth. You have that now including this latest one, which shows portions of body cam footage that Ben just obtained. And in it, you hear the bricks and many fake CEO, Mn Mnf, talking to a cop after Ben got released from jail the first time several months ago. And while the footage is old, the stuff in it is new, and it's actually pretty extreme. And so, for example, you have McNeff repeatedly telling this cop that Ben, he's just a straight-up sociopath. He acts really like cutesy. Like he's clearly got some form of sociopathic disorder because he lies through his teeth. He says and does whatever he can to just get away with

whatever he wants. Honest to goodness, he's a sociopath. We know this guy's a sociopath. And so we're very afraid for our staff. In fact, you have McNeff claiming that he is so scared that he's considering exercising his Second Amendment rights. But at this point, I just need some information so I can tell our staff what is going on because if I need to go and get some of my staff armed so that he can't threaten them. That's what I need to do. In your opinion, would you go get a shotgun and bring it in the store? And as far as how you have been interpreting that, he said.

He's trying to come up with a reason to justify murdering us, I think. You then also have McNeff elaborating in that call. And not only is Ben a pathological liar, he's also threatened to kill the company's employees, which is something that Ben is denied. And then he also delivers this jaw-dropping claim. As we've done some additional searches on him, he has, like, it appears that a relative of him was,

like convicted of like child porn or child, you know, sexual like contact, some of these other types of things. So there's a very real chance that he may have been abused as a child, but that set him through a mental disorder, kind of whatever the case may be. In reaction to that, you have been seemingly just joking about it, like maybe he's got a pedo uncle that he's never met before. Then he also appears to find the person that he assumes McNeff was talking about. You've got this other guy in Ohio by the name of Benjamin Schneider, which Reckless Ben says is just a coincidence. I mean, clearly this person is not me. I mean, it's But also, maybe Amin's not the smartest person in the world, so maybe he thought that we were the same person?

I don't know, but... Hey, despite all these big claims by McNeff, the cops are like, hey, sorry, we're not the ones who released him. You got to take it up with the judge. But then, you also hear the cops saying that he'll stack charges on top of each other to deter Ben from going after the company. Well, we'll stack them until he leaves you guys alone, I guess. You know what I mean? Or they put him in jail, one of the other. I'll try to stack it on this stocking case.

And this practice of stacking charges, it's not new, but we should explain it. It's at least as old as the 19th century, it's a well-known thing, and the idea is that police take what's really just one crime and they chop it up into numerous overlapping crimes to just bury the defendant in charges. I just think divide crime, multiply punishment. So for example, in 2004, there was this completely separate incident where a farmer accidentally let his goat trespass. But the cops, they hit him with 170 misdemeanors, one for each goat totaling 60 years in prison. But also, I do want to know, while people have long criticized his practice, and I think understandably, the cop threatening to do it is not also necessarily proof of some evil sinister conspiracy. And I also have to say a thing that I've stressed along this entire journey, the caveat to that clip and all the others I've shown here is that right now we are

only getting Ben's perspective. And so I mean that generally as well as stuff like the cuts, they're all his. Like we don't know if he's omitting any important context. Right. No matter my opinion, I always think it's a very important thing to flag as we're still waiting for what could be the whole picture to emerge in the court along. Right. And all of this, as you have bricks and many fakes continuing to maintain their innocence. Right. They argue that Ben and Brian, they should really be going after the original store owner, Crystal. Because according to the company, when its staff took the store over, they found spreadsheets showing that she had significantly underreported sales to Brian. And they claim that they even offered to give Brian all the Legos left in the store, whether they were really his or not,

just to put an end to the whole headache and just make him whole again, or at least close to it. But allegedly, Brian refused, and as of right now, we keep getting updates on a situation that it feels like there's no end in sight. Everyone's saying that this is that, oh, the Lego videos are wrapping up, I think the Lego series has actually just started. But also, what I'll tell you is that Bricks and Mini Figs is not the only major corporation dealing with a PR nightmare right now. Because you just had ESPN having one of their most well-known on-air names disappearing right in the middle of a show. At the center of this, you have NFL live host Ryan Clark. You're not someone who follows ESPN particularly closely. Clark, he's worked there as an NFL analyst for 11 years at this point.

Just a couple of years ago, you had him winning an Emmy for outstanding personality studio analyst, and he was making around $2 million a year. So seemingly, he's good at what he does. But he's also had several pretty heated exchanges over the years, including when he dismissed Peter Schrager's opinion as a non-player last fall. But these sorts of things that weren't new, And so no one was really prepared for this sudden absence on the Monday show after a commercial break. And actually, according to reports, the executives had planned to officially give Clark his pink slip yesterday morning.

But then reportedly, you had the word about Clark's impending layoff getting leaked and journalists were starting to ask questions. So the executives, they go, hey, we can't let other people beat us to the punch. Let's just cut it. And while I leave it to you, you know, if that was the kinder or even just the better choice, regardless, he didn't finish out the broadcast. And so it led to a bunch of rumors online. Well, you had a lot of people noting this controversial or that moment, it also is a very important thing that he was not the only person cut. But it turns out he was just a part of the layoff title wave.

There was also Cam Newton, Tom Pelliserro, and Carl Ravich. So you've got some veterans of ESPN, decades upon decades of experience between them, and they still got the X. Which has also sparked a lot of backlash from a lot of people, including the likes of Stephen Hay Smith. Ray knew at him taking his issue with Ryan Clark getting the axe all the way up the ladder, and he made his opinion known. What I care about is that my brother, Ryan Clark, a person that I consider to be, arguably the best NFL analyst. in America is no longer a member of the ESPN. And I can't even tell y'all how much that hurts. Decisions like this, I would imagine, don't come easy.

And we all got to be grown-ups because regardless of the disgust with the decision that was made, you understand they have to be made. You then also the likes of Barstools Dave Portnoy chiming in as well, saying another glaring difference between ESPN and Barstool, loyalty matters here. At ESPN, there is no such thing, not saying our way is right, but just more family versus corporate. That did not touch the outrage from everyday fans. Fans saying things like, it's sad what has happened to ESPN, it really is. They literally invented the TV sports media. They were loaded with fun, talented personalities who made sports fun and was basically appointment TV for any sports fan. But then adding, then they just willfully destroyed their own product from the inside out, a slow death by a thousand self-inflicted paper cuts.

As far as Ryan Clark himself, he issued a response saying, sending prayers and loved all those laid off today, by ESPN. So many of you have poured your life into that company and I know how you're feeling right now. My hope is as this door closes, another opens for you all. Right. But as far as why these cuts, like why did they happen? Well, at least the official reasons seems to stem from the acquisition of NFL network and NFL Red Zone distribution rights that was finalized earlier this year. And you had ESPN chairman, Jimmy Pitaro, saying in a memo, throughout this process, we have taken the time to carefully evaluate our collective teams, resources and organizational structure to best position us for the future. As a result, we had to make some difficult decisions about job impacts. But then also, there looks to be

another piece of this puzzle, at least in a lot of people's eyes. And that is the Pat McAfee of it all. Because while you have ESPN coming in with these layoffs, they're also reportedly closing in on a record-breaking contract extension with Pat, with somewhere between $60 and $65 million per year. Pat's show, partnered with ESPN, and him and his show apparently made themselves so invaluable by securing this niche of younger audiences and bringing them back to the cable television world that they're just throwing money at them. So then with that, you're seeing a lot of people speculating about whether these layoffs are connected to Pat getting that big paycheck. And in fact, this got so big, he addressed it on his show.

but we were very honored that we are still partnering with ESPN and Disney for the good of sport for the future. And I hate this. Like we actually hate when we first got there was one of the... It feels like this happens in corporations a lot. There's billions and billions of dollars in these companies. And hard decisions have to get made. And we don't like any of them.

And we hope we're an asset to the company going forward. I hope we continue to be an asset to the company. Also had Pat noting that this is not the first time he's seen this accusation. And that's because back in 2023, shortly after Pat signed his existing $30 million a year contract, there was a huge wave of layoffs there that included several on-air personalities that were household names. But all in all, it is going to be interesting to see how all of this shakes out. Does it affect the ESPN's viewership at all and thus their bottom line and connection to that?

Does it affect the way that people look at Pat moving forward, whether it's his existing fans or people just in the sports space? And also what happens with a lot of these people that got cut, especially the front-facing ones. Do we see them go on their own, start their own online things, or do they get scooped up. And then there's more we got to dive into in just a minute, but first, let me thank a sponsor and say, you know, sometimes the real financial damage, it's not just one huge purchase. Right, it's 12 little charges quietly eating your money every single month. You know the ones. It's only like five bucks and suddenly built a subscription army. And here's the thing,

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And so you have what appears to be this first of its kind AI on AI attack being incredibly concerning to tech leaders, government officials, and cybersecurity experts. And so to try to break this down for you in plain English, Last week, you had the tech company Hugging Face announcing it dealt with a highly unusual security incident. And you've got reports describing Hugging Face as a kind of digital library of AI technology. And in a blog post, it said it found an intrusion into part of its production infrastructure that was, quote, driven end to end by an autonomous AI agent system. And while at the time, they didn't know who or what was responsible, yesterday Open AI released a post of their own,

kind of slowly raising their hand to say, sorry, that was us. Explaining that it was actually driven by two of its models. GBT 5.6 sole and what they described as an even more capable model that has not been released. And apparently they were operating on reduced guardrail so that it could be internally tested on certain cyber capabilities at the time of the hack. So he had them doing this in what's known as a sandbox, which is supposed to be this safe and controlled testing environment. But these models were apparently able to find vulnerabilities to get out of the sandbox and reach the open internet. From there, the models basically decided that Hugging Face likely had answers to its test questions and had just found a remote path to access its servers. Where with one Bloomberg op-ed explaining, the AI wasn't acting with malice.

It was simply pursuing the objectives set by its researchers and cheating on a test to achieve a better score. Now for their part, OpenAI said that they considered this to be a totally unprecedented incident and they're responding accordingly. But you also have them adding that these kinds of events are, quote, something we expect to become more commonplace with the proliferation of increasingly cyber-capable models. You actually had Hugging Face thanking Open AI for its cooperation and adding that they don't believe there was any bad intent and you had their CEO writing. We suspected last week's cyber attack might have come from a frontier lab given the sophistication of the agent. Turns out it did. It's quite mind-blowing that all of this happened autonomously. The investigation is ongoing and we'll share more learnings from what might be the first

incident of its kind. But also, and I think this is an important aspect of it, that same op-ed from Bloomberg, it argued that the back padding over transparency and the accountability, it's really not worth much. And they added, open AI can't be let off the hook so easily. It probably shouldn't be building systems that have advanced cyber capabilities if it can't contain them properly. You, the general counsel of an AI policy group saying, luckily, this time the damage appears to have been limited. But adding, without further industry-wide precautions and safety measures, next time, we may not be so lucky. And you had that also echoed by another security researcher who told the New York Times that, you know, companies, they need to

prepare for AI attacks. Because there are two concerning worlds here. One, a well-meaning person going, hey, let's test this AI. Hey, AI, turn off the lights. Oh God, it just sabotaged all the power plans because that was the easiest way for it to turn off the power.

Or you get a bad actor that has a tool like this in their hands. Especially because while you have both these companies saying this is the first attack of its nature, other AI companies have still found similar issues in the past. Just earlier this year, you had Anthropics saying that it wouldn't be releasing its new mythos model because it posed too many cybersecurity threats.

Right, instead, you have them releasing it to other tech companies so they could protect themselves. You even had the White House getting involved on what AI models the company could release. And actually, with this latest situation, you had Open AI reportedly telling the Trump administration about the incident before sharing details with the public public. Or because this is something the government's been concerned about. And in June, you had Trump signing an executive order, allowing the federal government to vet AI models for up to a month before their public release. So you have many there that fear that the administration hasn't gone far enough. And in fact, you had one member of Congress writing about today's news saying, this is extremely alarming. AI is developing extremely fast with no real regulations to keep us safe. That has to change. We need rates. mandatory independent safety testing and oversight, mandatory disclosure of security incidents, and international cooperation to keep people safe from absolute disaster. And that's also, as you had others, using it to promote current legislation that could address some of the issues. And so with this, you know, while I'm very interested in all your thoughts on any of today's stories that stood out to you, I love going into those comments. I've been also doing audio replies when I get the chance. Especially with this one, I don't know your thoughts on this hack

and kind of this new era of cybersecurity threats that we just might not be ready for. But also, while, you know, the dangers of AI and cyber attacks, they're very real, they're very There's also something else we have to worry about, and that is nuclear war. And while in recent history, there have been concerns about, you know, North Korea, who's been oddly silent as far as the news is concerned, or others worried that something might come from these India-Pakistan fights. But now you're seeing more and more people concerned because Trump just struck a deal with Saudi Arabia that could allow it to enrich nuclear fuel, even while his war to keep Iran

from doing the exact same thing could set off a chain reaction that could lead to both countries pursuing nuclear weapons. And all of this, it's happening as Trump's again threatening potential war crimes against Iran. You've got Pete Heggsets saying that everything with Iran right now, now has cost taxpayers at least $37 billion, but billions more are still needed. And the Houthis, they're turning around ships in the Red Sea to send oil prices even higher. We should definitely start with this deal with Saudi Arabia, because it actually goes years back. Because you had the Biden administration also being in talks to help Saudi Arabia build a civilian

nuclear program, but also only as part of a wider deal that would have involved the country normalizing relations with Israel. You have many saying really any hope of that, it's fallen apart after Hamas attacked Israel in 2023, and then Israel responded by laying waste to Gaza. But now Trump, he separated the proposal for civilian nuclear requirements. operation from any demand that Saudi Arabia recognize Israel. And the deal that he's now agreed to would reportedly last 30 years and be worth tens of billions of dollars. You've got the idea being that American companies will have a leading role in developing Saudi Arabia's nuclear infrastructure,

while foreign adversaries will be shut out. And I will say this deal, it is not without precedent. It's known as a 123 agreement because it's governed by Section 123 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act. And the aim is to enable the sharing of nuclear material and technology for non-military purposes while ensuring the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. In the U.S. actually already has 26 of these agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency and 51 governments around the world. And that includes, for example, Saudi Arabia's next-door neighbor, the United Arab Emirates. With that deal being negotiated mostly under George W. Bush, and then it was finalized and went into effect in 2009 under Barack Obama. It actually came to be known as the gold standard

for international civil nuclear cooperation. So actually, in some way, it's yet another example of Obama making an agreement that Trump hasn't been able to match. And that's because the UAE, it agreed that it wouldn't enrich its own uranium or reprocess spent nuclear fuel. And it also agreed to stringent inspections by signing what it called an additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency. But Trump, he agreed to terms with Saudi Arabia that may actually limit international inspectors from going to any sites in the country

that they think could be a pathway to diverting fuel to weapons projects. And you had Trump also leaving the door open for Saudi Arabia to eventually start enriching nuclear fuel all on its own. And the way that this could happen is that there would be a joint study involving both countries. And if the study concludes that domestic enrichment

as warrants it, it would be American companies that would build the enrichment facility under a secretive black box arrangement that would, in theory, keep Saudi Arabia from developing the technology itself. But of course, that wouldn't change the fact that the facility would exist on Saudi soil. And with that, you had an expert on non-proliferation telling CNN,

you can't be sure that the Saudis would not try to nationalize a facility. And doubting then, the U.S. President in power at the time would be faced with whether they would have to bomb the facility to try to prevent a breakout or something of that sort. But even then, you had this expert also explaining that Saudi technicians and scientists working on enrichment centrifuges could apply their knowledge in other secret facilities that are well hidden and well fortified, which is actually what kind of happened in Pakistan.

Right, that's where you're the scientist by the name of Abdul Kadeir Khan. He's considered the father of Pakistan's atomic weapons program and is believed to have relied upon centrifuge blueprints from a European company. And Khan, he's also believed to have shared that knowledge with other countries, including North Korea and Iran. Though also notably, Pakistan and Iran's civilian nuclear programs started in the same way. Or with the help of the United States, under an initiative known as Adams for Peace, launched under the administration of Dwight Eisenhower. In fact, an American company built Iran's first nuclear reactor. But of course, it was a big difference. A lot of people forget this.

They were the closest U.S. ally in the Middle East at the time. But then, there was that revolution. it became the Islamic Republic of Iran, and decades later, drastically a different situation. And while to be clear, Iran is believed to have pursued nuclear weapons in the past, and following Trump's withdrawal from an Obama-era nuclear deal, it enriched uranium to near weapons grade, there was no new intelligence that we know of when Trump attacked, suggesting that they had any plans to build a bomb. Now, of course, you have many saying that the regime is more likely to do so

because it seems like it's the only option to deter the United States. In connecting all this, you now have experts saying this deal with Saudi Arabia, it just adds to the pressure. Are you at the head of the Middle East program at a DC-based think tank writing on social media? Saudi enrichment would put immense pressure on Iran to get the bomb. Is Trump trying to provoke Iran into weaponizing? And then of course, if that happens, more are gonna follow suit. Where you've got Saudi Crown Prince, Mohamed Bonesaw, saying unequivocally,

that his country, which actually like Iran, is theocratic, authoritarian, with little respect for human rights, it would build nuclear weapons if Iran does. And so you've also had people like the head of the non-proliferation policy education center claiming that the idea that this will have a happy ending is delusional. But also I should note, there are at least some who see potential here. Where you've got Robert Einhorn, a former State Department official who advised both Republican and Democratic administrations telling the Wall Street Journal,

the agreement could help revitalize the U.S. nuclear industry, strengthen U.S.-S.-Saudi ties, and deny Russia and China a strategically important role in the Saudi nuclear program. Though we then also added that unless it contains adequate constraints, including on enrichment, it could increase nuclear proliferation risks in the Middle East and beyond. But it's far from clear right now whether those current safeguards are enough. And that's as there's even more than we don't know, because Trump also reportedly agreed to what have been described as two secret side letters with Saudi Arabia. The White House, they're reportedly expected to argue that they contain proprietary business information and deal with sensitive national security issues, but also who the fuck knows with this administration, honestly.

And well, yeah, many members of Congress, they're likely going to have a lot to say about it. None of it really matters unless there's a two-thirds veto-proof majority to stop the deal. But also speaking to Congress, they do technically still have the power of the purse, at least. And that ends up being very important because Defense Secretary Pete Hegset appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday to ask for $67 billion in additional funding to cover the costs of the war, a war that he claimed it, cost taxpayers around $37.4 billion. So a very big thing there, a key thing, is that that number does not include the cost of rebuilding American military bases

in the Middle East damage during this conflict. And in fact, there might even be more that's left out, which is while you had Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the committee, calling the estimate suspiciously low. Though I will say probably the most heated exchange might have been between Hegseth and Michigan Democrat Gary Peters.

Because Peters, you had him saying that the Trump administration's efforts to win the war have been an utter and complete failure. And while you had Heggseth at the queues in Peters as smear in the troops with that statement, Peter's made very clear who his words were directed at. I will tell you how I used the word failure. Because I use the word failure to their leaders.

You, sir, are the failure. Not the men and women who are on that front line, but if there's a lack of a winning strategy, they're in harm's way, their leaders have failed them. And that's what's happening. We have political leadership. You, you don't have a strategy, you don't have a long-term plan to actually win this war.

Win the war. The men and women are going to be able to do it, but they need to have leadership. Of course we have leadership. Of course we have leadership. Will you show me or you then also had this huge moment with Georgia Senator John Asop reading back Hegset's past statements from early in the war claiming that Iran's military had been destroyed and made combat ineffective that the U.S. had achieved every single one of its objectives

and that the operation had been a historic and overwhelming victory. Then when you had Asaf asking Hegzath whether those statements were accurate, he spent several minutes refusing to just give a yes or no answer. Even though those statements are verifiably false and that is not an opinion. All the evidence you really need is the fact that the war is still happening and Hegset is there asking for tens of billions of dollars to keep fighting it. And then as far as the war, you had the US military saying last night that it had completed its 11th straight night

of strikes on Iran. And that's even as a new US intelligence assessment has reportedly concluded that these strikes are unlikely to get Iran to soften its demands or back down. And all the while, of course, you have Iran still fighting back. That's why you had Trump today attending the dignified transfer of the four US troops who lost their lives in this conflict over the past week.

And actually, he claimed that they had all spoken in support of the war. All of them said very strongly, we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. They won't have a nuclear weapon. But of course, one, almost no one's buying that. And two, you got many believing that it's just an attempt to justify the fact that he might be about to send even more troops to their death. Because you now have it being reported that he's debating between trying again a diplomacy

or just launching a massive joint military campaign with Israel to try to force Iran to finally bow down. And that at least seems that he's leaning toward that second choice. But he's been dismissive of potential talks and you had him saying yesterday that the US will bomb Iran's pickax mountain. We'll be hitting that area very probably pretty soon. And it's not a thing they can do about it. Normally I wouldn't say that. If I thought they could do something about it, I would never say that. But we'll be hitting that area pretty soon and very heavily. Right. And Pickax Mountain is the home of a secret underground facility that's believed to have been under construction since 2020 and isn't operational yet. But also earlier this week, with the

Wall Street Journal reporting that Israel provided the U.S. with intelligence suggesting that Iran had moved thousands of centrifuges there. Though Iran, they've insisted that there's no nuclear activity at the site and you had a spokesperson for the country's foreign ministry, claiming that the new focus on it is nothing more than a fabricated pretext for aggression, destruction, and sabotage. But also, like, really, whatever the case is there, it is not an easy target. You've got the site reportedly so far underground that experts say that even the U.S.'s most powerful bunker busting bombs, or like the ones used to attack the other nuclear sites in the country in June at 2025, those might not be effective. And so Trump instead, he might opt for softer targets

with him today going back to the tried and true approach of threatening potential war crimes. Writing on social media, from this point forward, anytime the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by missile, rocket, drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy one bridge or power plant, including those located next to or in the capital city of Tehran. But then also, while there, he's desperately trying to come up with something to get the straight of her moves back to normal, the new Houthi blockade, the Red Sea, that's already happening in effect. You now have at least seven ships that have reversed course since it was announced earlier this week. And as you have

all this going down, the price of oil has also gone back up past 95 bucks a barrel for the first time in six weeks. And so as long as this has been going on, as bad as it's been, this still could just be the beginning. And then there's even more that we're going to dive into in just a minute, but let me thank a sponsor and say, you know, Belessa, they're giving away a free rose toy to every single one of you. And no, not just some of you. Everyone who signs up at BB vibes.com slash defranco wins something. That's the deal. Because Belessa, they reached out again and I guess last time I did a giveaway, you guys went nuts. And I'll be honest, you know, I normally in the past would hesitate on a sexual wellness brand, let alone doing a deal again, but they seem to be the real deal.

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with the Alberta Eye Gaming Corporation. Standard message and data rates may apply. Gregus believes in the art of living in choosing the pleasurable over the practical. It's why we craft our premium vodka in France using pure spring water from Jensack. And why you hear the celebratory pub of our cork reminding us to make every Martini cocktail count.

So go on and make every moment count because there's no better time than now. Gregus, make time wait. Cip responsibly. Then for your final block today, right, I've got to make sure that you're fully and properly filled in before I go. Let's quickly hit some more news you need to know.

Starting with how you have New York Mayor Zornamadani coming out and saying he doesn't have the authority to put Benjamin Netanyahu behind bars, but he should be. Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people. As I've said, I agree with the ICC that Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested and tried for his crimes. And you've got this stemming from the ICC issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu back in 2024,

where they accused him and as a defense minister at the time of intentionally and knowingly depriving Gaza of food, water, fuel, and medicine. And Mamdani, he's been pushing hard to get those warrants executed. But of course, the problem there is that America is not part of the ICC. And in fact, you have Trump's team trying to get rid of it as we speak. And so according to legal experts, even if Netanyahu did get out of it, did get arrested behind those warrants, it probably wasn't going to happen on American soil. But that also didn't stop Mamdani and his team from looking into how they could do something. My administration has refued every avenue available under applicable law

to determine whether New York City could execute the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant if Benjamin Netanyahu came here. It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant. The federal government, however, does. But of course, that's going to die with the federal government. Trump and Netanyahu, they're essentially best buddies, even though we hear the random report of, Oh, Trump got angry. And most experts, and I think reasonable people understand that what happened in Gaza does not get to that point without a Trump presidency.

And earlier this week, you had Trump flat out saying that Netanyahu wouldn't be arrested in any way, shape, or form. But still, Mamdani coming out and saying this and doing this, it is a flashpoint as far as U.S.-Israeli relations stand. And it'll be interesting to see with Mamdani taking such a stand like this, what happens as far as the polling on the issue. Because U.S. approval of the Israeli government and Netanyahu, it's all-time lows right now. And one of the biggest questions there is, is that permanent on both sides, whether it be left or right? Then also at news about alleged criminals, you have the Tate brothers, of course. But because there, you reportedly have a Trump senior administration official saying that they have no plans to block the Tate's extradition to the UK after their arrest last weekend. One source even said that Rubio thinks these guys are scum, which is huge of true because Rubio, he could actually keep them here if he thought this was all politically motivated.

Something you've had the Tate's attorney saying there's no question that it is. But Rubio, yes, he does Trump's bidding on things that he cares about, but he's also a conservative Catholic. He fought for stronger human trafficking laws as a senator. So you've got sources saying that he's just not going to be first in line to help two people accused of rape in human trafficking. And while of course, Trump would be the Trump card, apparently Trump doesn't want anything to do with him either. Are you a former campaign advisor saying the Tates want to pretend they were responsible for the president's victory in 2024, but they weren't part of our strategy and the president doesn't know them. And finally, we got to talk about Texas AG Ken Paxton

dealing with a lot of scandals that are standing between him and a seat in the Senate. Except actually at this point, you got him really not dealing with him at all. He's literally just running away. Are you'd Paxton holding this press conference with a bunch of officers who endorsed him in his race against James Talleyagher ago. But then, the reporters there, they were a lot more interested in everything surrounding his race. General, I wanted to give you a chance to respond to State Representative Tala Rico in his campaign. They've made a lot about the reports that have come out, one in the New York Times, about

you acquiring properties worth not many. So Jack, can we keep this to law enforcement today? Well, you answer a question about why you voted in the county, clear that out. So we're just going to do questions on law enforcement today. But your reporters heading on two out of the handful of scandals that he's been carrying with him on the road to the midterms. But I guess before they start poking at that anymore, his team figured that it would be just best for him to exit. I have a question. We're gonna get it out here.

Thank you guys. I have a question. Here, we're gonna get out of here. Thank you. Can we not have more than one person answer a question? What's your question? And so immediately, after hopping out of the hot seat without any answers to go on, people online, they were kind of dunking on them and pushing back. Are you people saying things like, I don't see how Texas sheriffs can

sheriff's can't endorse a law like Paxton? How can Texans trust them to enforce the law? And others saying, what a disaster for Texas Republicans. All while, recent point Poles have shown that he does not have much wiggle room for slip-ups like this. But again, this is a Republican running for statewide office in Texas. So, even with the energy and the races that we've seen with Tala Rico, it is Paxton's race to lose. But it also genuinely feels crazy that seemingly Ken Paxton's answer to, hey, you seem to have a million scandals as I think Tala Rico is a

weirdo who has low testosterone. But like, that could actually work there. But hey, that is where a big old Wednesday Philip DeFranco show is going to end today. I've got more for you to dive into just to click away, I'd love for you to crash out with us today. Because me and my buddy Alex Perlman, we just uploaded the weekly episode of crashing out. If you're looking for something cathartic and fun, one, you should definitely check out this episode. And two, we're actually going on tour in a month. You can get tickets right now at crashing outtour.com. But whatever you do, let me just say, my name's been Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you right back here next time.