The Philip DeFranco Show - This Trump Massie Epstein Situation Is Getting Crazier
Episode Date: May 12, 2026Go to https://HelloFresh.com/defranco10fm now to get 10 free meals + a Free breakfast for Life! One per box with active subscription. Get an exclusive NordVPN deal at https://nordvpn.com/phil Ris...k free with Nord's 30-day money back guarantee! I'm looking forward to seeing yall starting August 21st! https://linktr.ee/crashingouttour BEAUTIFUL BASTARD Premium blanks, signature fits, and the new tie dye drop. Go get your new favorite shirt! 👉 https://beautifulbastard.com 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 WATCH/LISTEN TO MY NEW PODCAST w/ TOMMY VIETOR Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2CePXwDrvdQTes844wflKp?si=55a6b6049c4841ed Youtube: https://youtube.com/acw?sub_confirmation=1 iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-good-faith-with-philip-defranco/id1827016835 JOIN OUR COMMUNITY 📸Instagram: https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco 🐦Twitter: https://twitter.com/phillyd 🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco TODAY’S STORIES Epstein’s survivors testified before members of Congress for the first time today. They told them they have stopped expecting justice will ever come. - https://www.philipdefranco.com/p/epsteins-survivors-testified-before An American mayor just pleaded guilty to working as an illegal agent of the Chinese government and the text messages with her Beijing handler signed off “thank you leader” - https://www.philipdefranco.com/p/an-american-mayor-just-pleaded-guilty Inflation just hit a 3-year high, real wages are going backwards, and the Iran war’s official cost just jumped $4 billion in two weeks - https://www.philipdefranco.com/p/inflation-just-hit-a-3-year-high 00:00 - Epstein Survivor Says She Does Not Think Justice Will Ever Come 04:17 - Misconduct Allegations Hit Rep. Massie’s Already Heated Re-Election Campaign 09:55 - Sponsored by HelloFresh 10:59 - Inflation Soars Amid Iran War 17:41 - Sponsored by NordVPN 18:41 - Mayor of Arcadia, California Will Plead Guilty To Acting as a Chinese Agent 21:49 - SCOTUS Clears Path for Map that Would Silence Black Voters in Alabama 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 ———————————— #DeFranco #Epstein #ThomasMassie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Sop you beautiful bastards.
Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show you daily dive into the news.
It is Tuesday, and there's a lot that we need to talk about today to keep you in the loop.
So buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it, starting with this.
Epstein survivors finally got a chance to speak at a hearing in Palm Beach today.
And as this case is just dragged on and on with no answers and no accountability,
some outright just said they don't think it's ever actually going to come.
At this point, honestly, I don't think justice will ever be served in this case.
and that's just my experience of the past 20 years.
That's a sad reality survivors have to live with.
And for context with this hearing,
it was held by Democrats in the House Oversight Committee
who have been pushing to get an official hearing
on the books with survivors but haven't been able to do so.
And so they went down to Palm Beach to organize the shadow hearing,
which had no input from Republicans.
So the goal is to learn more about Epstein's sweetheart deal
and the other ways that the DOJ failed victims
when it comes to the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and Galane Maxwell.
And there was no shortage of criticism
of how both the state and federal officials dropped the ball.
The Department of Justice released documents that exposed our names,
our social security numbers, and deeply personal information.
Survivors and identities were made public.
Husbands learned about their wives' abuse for the first time.
Children learned about the abuse of their mothers,
from reporters, from strangers on the Internet,
and in some cases, from other kids at school.
When we came forward and we told our stories, man, I was treated like a criminal by the federal government.
Jeffrey Absin was under house arrest for the molestation of underage girls at the exact time he was abusing me.
The fact that he could commit those acts made justice feel impossible to me.
If we continue down this path, the question isn't whether abuse will happen again, but who will be the next Jeffrey?
Epstein. And while only a handful of survivors spoke, they repeatedly emphasized that over 1,000
victims endured abuse at Epstein's hands. Right, and the family of Virginia Joufrey address why so many
still feel like they can't come forward. For years, survivors have been asked the same question.
Who were the names? The truth is, many survivors stay silent because many of these individuals
still hold power, wealth, and influence in our society. You also have members of Congress
speaking out, and Robert Garcia said that the committee would be releasing a new report on Epstein's bank
record showing how Alex Acosta, who was a U.S. attorney in Florida and later Trump's Labor Secretary,
created a sweetheart deal for Epstein that allowed him to continue his abuse. He also questioned
why leaders from multiple administrations, both Republican and Democrat, didn't do more to help
these survivors? How could Les Wexner have never been interviewed by our own government,
who was the source of most of Jeffrey Epstein's wealth and was never questioned? How can some of the
folks on this document the FBI had in their possession, not ever have been questioned.
Also, you had others like Jasmine Crockett calling out a Republican colleagues who are not
participating in the hearing.
The Republicans could have shown up today too. They didn't. So let me be clear, I am going
to be full on partisan. You have to vote. If you care about this, you have to vote and
you have to understand who is fighting for you. Now, for the Republicans, this week,
you did have James Comer, the chairman of the Oversight Committee, asking a former J.P. Morgan
sit down for questioning related to the Epstein probe.
Also, you had members of the committee frequently bringing up the fact that Pam Bondi is going
to be sitting for testimony in just a couple of weeks.
And there you had Garcia putting pressure on his Republican colleagues.
And that we expect Republicans and James Comer could it's his decision alone to ensure that
that testimony is recorded under oath and released to the American public.
The survivors deserve nothing less.
So once again, you know, it's a kind of repeat where the survivors said there themselves,
right now the government's really done nothing but fail them to the point where
they don't think that justice is ever going to come.
And even though there are more upcoming testimonies,
Democrats fear that political games are going to prevent that
from actually moving the needle.
For example, if Bondi's testimony isn't recorded,
Republicans can just spin it however they want.
Though, that brings us to what Crockett was kind of pushing for
and it asked the question of,
does this make a difference in the midterms?
Does it influence how people vote?
Which on that note, it brings us to a crucial house race
involving one of the lawmakers who's leading the Epstein charge.
Because we are just now seven days
from the most expensive House primary in American history,
and we've got a Kentucky attorney releasing a video
alleging serious personal misconduct by Representative Thomas Massey.
Though that, as you have people pointing out,
that that same attorney is on the record backing the opponent
that Trump recruited to take Massey's seat,
and he lost his own primary against Massey 14 years ago.
Starting with the specifics of this primary,
you have Kentucky Representative Thomas Massey
running for his eighth term in Kentucky's fourth congressional district.
The primary is May 19th,
and as we've talked about,
Massey's currently locked in a raise
where the combined ad spending is top $25 million.
You've got Trump-backed challenger Ed Galrain,
outspending Massey roughly $14 million to $10 million.
This is a race where you have AI-generated ads
accusing Massey of cheating on the America First Movement with AOC and Ilhan Omar.
There are insults and counter-insults on every social issue that you can name.
And the reason that this primary is expensive is that Massey's become one of the loudest Republican
critics of Donald Trump, especially around the release of the Epstein files.
And among other things, he was the only Republican to publicly push back on Pam Bondi
at a congressional hearing earlier this year on it.
And Trump has, in response, made personally destroying Massey's career a stated political
project.
Pulling from April showed Massey in the lead, but even he has said that this is going to be
a close race.
You've got people like Candace Owens echoing these concerns.
saying that we cannot lose Massey to the donor class. So the stakes, they're high and it really
will be a test to Trump's ability to personally sway races. So that is the backdrop, which brings us
to the video that hit Twitter this morning. Or the video that appears to be a deposition style recording
from a woman identified as Cynthia West, a Florida school board candidate for Okalusa County.
It opens with a Kentucky attorney named Marcus Carey introducing the situation saying that West was
nervous about coming forward and needed encouragement to share her story. The video then cutting
to a single camera on West herself. And in her account, West alleges that two months after
Massey's wife at 31 years Rhonda passed away from cancer in June in 2024,
Massey reached out to her on social media and they began a brief romantic relationship.
Like I said, it was, it was very intense, very quick.
He, um, who wanted to move to the next stages very, very quickly.
She alleges that Massey helped her obtain a position as an congressional staffer,
not in his own office, but in another lawmaker's office.
This was my fairy tale, so I thought, right?
And so, um, he, I, I didn't have a job, but then he texted.
me and he got a job for me at another congressional office that would have allowed me to,
you know, work that schedule to be with him.
She then alleges that she ended the relationship over her uncomfortable behavior,
that she was subsequently fired from her congressional staff job,
that she believes that it was retaliatory and that she filed an ethics complaint naming Massey.
He wanted me to engage in behavior that I just, I wasn't comfortable.
So I couldn't, I couldn't stay in that relationship.
I would say emotionally abusive.
What'd you do?
Well, I mean, at that point, I brought.
broke up with him.
And then she also alleged that Massey attempted to keep her quiet through a cash offer and a later
$60,000 settlement conditioned on signing an NDA, which she says that she refused.
Have they made any efforts to resolve this with you?
Yes.
So I have an offer at the house for approval, but.
You have an offer of what?
Settlement for $60,000 to settle the case for the retaliatory discharge and the
Congressional Accountability Act violation with the Office of Victoria Sparts.
But if I do that, then I have to sign an NDA.
And so I can't, I can't do that.
Though also I have to mention with this video, at least as a recording,
is that none of the specific claims have been independently confirmed and Massey and his team have not yet responded as of recording.
It also really has only gotten attention in right wing circle so far.
Even though it was trending really high on Twitter this morning, it was very contained in its own bubble.
It didn't make major headlines in the mainstream papers and that
That ends up limiting the kinds of responses and conversations surrounding it.
But that then brings us to why the source is such a big topic of conversation.
You've got plenty of people today noting that Marcus Carey, the attorney who recorded and released this video,
has a documented on-the-record history with Thomas Massey that the video does not mention.
In May of 2012, which was Massey's very first congressional primary,
Mark Carey was one of his opponents on the Republican ballot with Massey winning that primary.
Also, just five days ago, the dispatch published a deep-dive profile on the current primary fight.
And in that article, Marcus Carey is quoted on the record describing himself as a supporter of Ed Galrain,
the Trump-back candidate Massey's running against right now,
with a dispatch identifying Kerry as an attorney and longtime GOP operative
who lives in Owen County and is back in Galbrain.
And his direct quote to the dispatch was that Massey won't wear the uniform and won't stand
with the troops.
But with all that said, as far as the reaction, especially from the right-wing internet,
it's been kind of split down the middle.
Right on one side, you've got accounts using the video to argue that Massey is a hypocrite
who built a brand on Epstein transparency while allegedly behaving badly himself.
But then, on the other side, you've got conservatives saying this is nonsense.
That this is just a, quote, desperate and vile way of trying to,
trying to take a swing when they can't beat a man at the ballot box.
With some even drawing a comparison to Trump and saying MAGA used to not fall for this,
now it's what they do.
And while we wait to see if Massey responds or what comes next,
one of the big questions is, does this move the needle?
Regarding whether this affects the primary,
depends kind of on three things.
One, how Massey responds.
Does he stay silent?
Does he respond badly?
Does he produce evidence that the allegations are fabricated?
Two, whether the mainstream press picks it up right now, it really hasn't.
You know, if a major outlet independently verifies any piece of West's account, that definitely shifts
this in a lot of people's eyes. And three, how local voters actually read this situation.
And as he's base is by seemingly every account unusually personally loyal to him. And he actually
just recently gave a two-hour interview with Tucker Carlson laying out exactly this kind of
attack playbook in advance. And so there is a chance that framing this as a smear attempt,
it could actually help him with certain voters. But again, there are multiple variables that
we just don't know how it's going to play out right now. And it's involving a race that is
very, very tight. Right. And this is already a primary that we had eyes on because it is
fundamentally about whether the Republican Party can tolerate dissent from Trump.
Republicans who criticize the president become former Republican representatives.
Many just don't even run for re-election.
For now, we'll have to wait to see what happens.
And then there's more we've got to dive into in just a minute,
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meals plus free breakfast for life. Because honestly, nothing hits like home cooking. But then,
getting right back into the news, the war against Iran, it's push inflation to its highest level
in years. The estimated cost of that war has risen $4 billion in just the past two weeks. And
while Trump and his cronies, they claim that it's going to be over soon, the regime,
they're expanding their claim over the Strait of Hormuz and threatening to bring the stockpile
of uranium that it still possesses to weapons grade. Right. But let's say,
Let's start with what's most directly affecting everyday Americans, and that is higher prices.
Because according to new official data, year-over-year inflation hasn't been this high since May of 2023.
You've got the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting that the Consumer Price Index grew by 3.8% in April compared to the previous year, up from 3.3% growth in February.
And this comes, as the Johns Report released last Friday, showed that wages only went up 3.6%,
meaning that it is also the first time that inflation is outpacing wage growth since 2023.
Which is then one of people like the chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union telling CNBC,
inflation is the key drag on the U.S. economy now, saying this is hurting Americans.
And actually, it may be even worse than the government's numbers suggest.
Right with one firm which tracks daily prices of millions of consumer products sold by online retailers finding,
that the annual inflation rate actually reached 4.5% as of mid-April.
And saying that it increased by almost a whole percent from March to April,
which marked the third largest single-month increase in the index history going back to 2008.
Now that said, you also had the head of this firm noting in a press release that food, household equipment,
and health prices showed relatively normal seasonal increases,
saying the only small comfort is that for now, the dramatic moves in inflation are largely limited to fuel prices.
But also, it's not a ton of comfort for the lower income Americans that are hit hardest by rising gas prices.
Which, by the way, are up roughly 30% since last year and roughly 50% up since the start of the war.
It's gotten so bad that Trump's now confirmed that he'd like to suspend the federal gas tax.
But also, it only help a bit. That would shave about 18 cents off a gallon.
And that 50% increase, it's equated to around an extra buck 50 on average.
So helpful, but not what I think a lot of people are wanting, which is anything with a massive impact.
Plus, it would require congressional approval.
And while in this case you've got some Republicans
and even some Democrats getting behind the idea,
you also had members of both parties seeming skeptical.
Right, with some noting that this would mean lost revenue
for the Highway Trust Fund, which is the main federal funding source
for highway and mass transit projects in the country.
Right, everything is connected to everything.
And so a gas tax suspension could mean delayed roadwork and repairs.
All while, we're likely waiting for the increased cost to fuel
to translate more and more into higher prices for other products.
Right, with Citigroup, for example, telling its clients just this week,
that energy costs likely would not start to feed through
to core goods prices for at least a few more months.
And while current inflation is still well below 2022, which reached a 40-year high at 9.1% year over year, though, of course, people treat those as the COVID years.
You still also have some economists suggesting that we are on track to eclipse that.
One recent analysis actually drew a parallel between the situation today and the situation in the late 1970s.
Or when the Iranian Revolution kicked off what the author is described as a second and more severe wave of inflation, followed by an initial wave a few years earlier.
With him explaining, the great inflation was not the initial surge, it was the failure to prevent the second one.
And of course, all of this, it's also been paid for with tax dollars, though the question is,
how much? Well, with that, last month, you had Pentagon comptroller Jules Hearst, telling lawmakers that
the war had come up with a $25 billion price tag up until that point. And then today, while joining
Defense Secretary Pete Heggseth to defend the Pentagon's record setting, $1.5 trillion funding
requests, he said that the number had gone up to $29 billion. And saying that this new estimate was
because of updated repair and replacement of equipment costs and also just general operational
cost to keep people in theater. And with that, also saying that the number is subject to change,
depending on both ongoing assessments of the damage and what happens next. Or which is an important
No, because as we talked about, Trump recently rejected Iran's latest offer is totally unacceptable.
And with that, yesterday he said that the ceasefire is the weakest it has been and describing it as
being on massive life support.
But then today, he said in an interview, it's just a question of time.
We don't have to rush anything and adding, we've wiped out their Navy, we've wiped out their
Air Force, we've wiped out their leadership.
I think we'll get there with them and 100% we get the nuclear dust.
Right in there, he's referring to Iran's stockpile of nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium that's
enriched to 60%.
And it's also something that he pretty much has to get out of there if he has any chance
kind of trying to play this off as a win of some sort. But Iran, at least publicly, has given no
indication that is going to let that happen. You had a national security spokesperson in Iran's
parliament actually claiming today that if the U.S. or Israel attack Iran again, you would consider
enriching this uranium to 90%, which is considered weapons grade. You also recently had a government
spokesperson saying Iran is still ready to go after fighting a 40-day war with the world's greatest
military power. You had an official with the Revolutionary Guard Corps naval forces saying that the regime
had expanded its definition of the Strait of Hormuz, saying, in the past, the strait was
defined as a limited area around islands such as Hormuz and Hengam. But,
But today, that has changed.
The strait has grown larger and has turned into a vast operational area.
But then also today you would Hegg Seth arguing.
But ultimately, we control the strait
because nothing's going in that we don't allow to go in.
Also, you had him claiming that it's evident
that the ceasefire remains in effect.
As you know, for the most part of ceasefire means the fire is ceasing,
and we know that has occurred while negotiations occur.
And of course, the fire hasn't actually totally ceased.
Iran has not only attacked several countries in the region,
but also targeted American forces.
And the US has fought off those attacks
while also launching strikes on Iranian territory in response.
And on the question of whether the U.S. would attack Iran again,
Heg said wouldn't give any information,
but he said it remains a possibility in that the conflict will ultimately be resolved on Trump's terms.
We have a plan to escalate if necessary.
We have a plan to retrograde if necessary.
We have a plan to shift assets.
How this gets resolved will be on our terms, on President Trump's terms,
and we have all the munitions and capabilities necessary to enable that.
But on that last part, while the U.S. may have enough for whatever comes next with Iran,
the real question is whether it has enough for
what might come after that. And that doesn't seem to be a question that Hegset is too keen on
answering. The munitions issue issue has been foolishly and unhelpfully overstated. We know exactly
what we have. We have plenty of what we need. With that coming, just days after Democratic
Senator Mark Kelly told CBS News's face the nation that it is shocking how deep the U.S. has gone
into its munition stockpiles. And that's not just Yappen. That is a claim backed up by independent
reporting from multiple media outlets and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
And in fact, Hegzeth himself had this exchange with Kelly in his previous testimony before Congress.
We can't make these munitions overnight, and it's clear from your budget request that you know that,
can you tell us how many years specifically is it going to take to replace these systems?
I think that's exactly the right question, too, Senator, because the time frame we were existing under was unacceptable.
Okay, well, tell me.
What this budget does?
I mean, months and years.
Fast, years.
I mean, we're building new plants in real time.
So just to replace what we have.
I said months, and then you said years.
But despite all that, after Kelly's comments in CBS,
Hegset accused him of leaking classified information and announced that the Pentagon would review his actions.
With this coming, only a few days after an appeals court seemed to reject
Hegset's attempt to punish Kelly for being one of the several Democratic veterans-turned lawmakers
publicly urging service members to refuse illegal orders.
Right even after a federal judge already ruled earlier this year that the Pentagon's efforts
were unconstitutionally retaliatory.
And actually, Kelly responding to this latest effort by denying the accusation and sharing the clip of
their previous exchange and adding. That's not classified, it's a quote from you.
And then there's more that we've got to dive into in just a minute, but first let me thank a
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But then diving right back into the news.
The mayor of an American city just confessed to working in the United States
as an illegal agent of a foreign government.
That government's not just any government.
It is the People's Republic of China.
Everyone, my name is Eileen, public safety,
homeless issue, transportation, education, all are my priority.
So that's Eileen Wang.
She's the 58-year-old mayor, or I guess, as of yesterday,
former mayor of Arcadia,
which is a city in Southern California San Gabriel Valley, just northeast of downtown L.A.
And it's home to about 56,000 people, nearly 60% of which identify as Asian, but really,
residents of all ethnicities were shocked to learn that their mayor took direct orders from the CCP.
But also, I've got to say, looking into it now, and maybe it's like, look at, you know, hindsight's 20-20.
You can tell that something was a bit off about her from the start, just judging by our strange campaign videos.
Right. And several of them, you just watch her walking around random locations while extremely intense EDM plays
and even some frankly god-awful country music that kind of sounds AI generated.
While you might not be totally sure how that was supposed to persuade people to vote for her,
it somehow worked because in late 2022, she got elected to the Arcadia City Council,
from which she was then selected to be mayor.
I will support and defend the constitution of the United States.
I firmly oppose any attempt by any foreign governments to influence or interfere.
One of the big things here is that people have been suspicious to her for a while now.
And that in part because in late 2024, her campaign manager and treasurer, Mike Son,
on whom she called her boyfriend and fiance
was also charged with being a Chinese spy.
And so then everyone's eyes kind of went towards Wang
and she was like, huh, Mike's son, who's that?
Number one, he's not my fiance.
Whoever wanna see he's my fiance or former fiance,
please give proof it.
And this, even though she herself said the opposite previously.
To my fiance, Barack Mike's son.
So then people were like, okay, yeah,
she might be a Chinese spy.
Excuse me, Ms. Wong.
Can we speak with you about these allegations?
Can you just,
Give us your reaction to the sentence?
I'm sorry, I don't have it.
And well, it turns out, the skeptics were right.
Or because the Justice Department announced
that she has agreed to plead guilty
to working for the CCP chiefly
by running a pro-Beijing propaganda outlet.
It was called US News Center
and at first glance it, you know, it looks pretty legit.
But sprinkled in there, there were articles
denying human rights abuses in China
and otherwise promoting Beijing's interests.
And well, according to the DOJ,
those articles were pre-written by the Chinese government,
sent over to Wang and Son via Weechat,
then posted online.
One time, Wang even allegedly received edits
from a PRC official,
made the revisions,
and then sent back a screenshot
showing the article had been viewed over 15,000 times.
With the official responding, great, to which Wang allegedly said,
thank you leader.
And it appears to go all the way to the top with prosecutors alleging that Wang was in contact
with John Chen, who's a high-level Chinese intelligence official, who met personally with President
Xi Jinping.
And with that, they say, for example, that she once asked him to post an article and added,
this is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send.
So now, both Chen and son are already in federal prison, Wang's facing up to 10 years too,
though she will likely get a more lenient sentence thanks to her plea deal.
And or if maybe she buys enough Trump meme coin.
At least for now, her attorney's defense is.
that one, she's very sorry for spying on the United States,
and two, her espionage took place before she was elected, not after.
Which is true, but it also doesn't appear
that the feds are claiming that she acted
on behalf of China in her capacity as mayor.
But really, either way, it's just kind of crazy
that someone who was elected to represent an entire city
actually represented the Chinese government.
But then, for our final story today,
we should talk about the situation in Alabama
that just raised the stakes for their primaries and midterms.
Right, because black voters there just lost their voice
at the polls with the Supreme Court decision
that's gonna leave them with only one district,
even though they make up a quarter of the state's population.
likely give Republicans at least one more seat in the House after the midterms.
And now, people are saying that it's no longer to speculation, that we're not just being
dramatic, that the writing is on the wall. They're taking away the black vote in the south.
Right, because back in 2023, Alabama's Republicans drew maps that got shot down by a lower
court, who said that they had diluted the black vote. And to fix it, they were supposed to
draw a second majority black district. But when Republicans circled back again, they left that
second district down. So at that point, a panel of federal judges drew Alabama's maps with
the extra black district. And that eventually gave Shamari figures a seat in the house.
By the way, that was only a few years ago when it was the first time in history that
they had two black representatives despite how big the black population is there.
And those maps were supposed to stay put until the next census, but that is out the window with
yesterday's decision. Since they got at the Voting Rights Act, Alabama Republicans have been thinking
ahead. So they've already passed the bills needed to make sure that once this decision came,
they were clear to hold special primary elections on the districts that would be changing.
So now we got basically no voting rights act, no bar on when they can't throw new maps into the mix.
The primaries are literally around the corner and the case for these new maps is being sent back downstream.
And really, unless Democrats can pull off some sort of miracle, it's not looking good there.
And as far as responses go, the dissenting judges sounded off.
And their main point was they may have gotten the VRA out of here, but the 14th Amendment still stands.
With that, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said nothing in the district court's 14th Amendment analysis is affected by this court's opinion in Calais.
It said not a word about the standard for 14th Amendment intentional discrimination claims.
Or another word, she's saying that the Louisiana decision only fixed half of the problem with these new maps,
but the issues around discrimination are still there.
And then on top of that, Sotomayor said that this will cause only confusion as Alabamians begin to vote in the elections scheduled for next week.
because Alabama is set to move forward with their primaries on the 19th.
So that means four districts are gonna be wondering if their voting locations are gonna change,
how they'll make any transportation adjustments,
questions, yet they really only have a few days to figure out.
And the majority just his response to all this is, well, we don't know because they didn't give one.
But Alabama Republicans are saying that this is a massive victory,
not just for Alabama, but for the conservatives across the country.
But they're making it known.
One seat's already turned in blue as we speak,
but they're going for a full seven and nothing advantage by the time that it's all said and done in November.
And that's exactly why you're seeing black voters calling this decision a returned Jim Crow,
telling people to show up in November to put an end all this while they still can.
Also opposing, leaders are saying that they're ready to fight to keep their current maps in place,
but also, if I'm being honest here, that is going to be a hell of a fight to have because state after state, district after district,
we're seeing the black vote just getting chopped and screwed to the point of no return.
So the Jim Crow comparisons, they are big claims, but the similarities are there.
Right back then, black voters were threatened, intimidated, and even assaulted at times.
And now, majority black counties that Trump lost six years ago,
they're having to protect their poll workers from the DOJ trying to get a hold of their personal data.
Well, back in the day, there used to be white primaries where black people couldn't even vote for their candidate.
Now they're just playing around with the map.
So even if they do vote, their votes are watered down.
And all of this is we just heard Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries catching what many say is racial slur from conservative host, Rich Herrera.
Well, critics say that U.S. Representative Jen Kiggins just sat back and let it happen.
If Hakeem Jeffries wants to be involved in Virginia politics, then I suggest he does what a bunch of New Yorkers are doing.
Leave New York.
Move down here to Virginia.
Run for office down here.
You can represent us.
If not, get your cotton pick and hands off of Virginia.
That's right.
Ditto, yes.
Yes to that.
Now, Kagan said that she doesn't condone that type of language,
saying that she was just agreeing to the point that Jefferies needed to stay out of Virginia politics.
But still, you have people calling for her to resign over this.
And even past that, other Congress members are connecting the dots here.
Saying things like, first, they go to the Voting Rights Act.
Now they're using brazenly racist language to attack black leaders.
And this is what we've heard over and over since this redistricting fight started.
We know the intention here is to be racist.
It is to take the only majority black district out of the United States Congress,
and it is to allow for white representation and white majority districts to exist, period.
You know, you don't have to take it for me.
You can take it from the leaders sitting in these chambers.
What's happening is rolling back the clock in real time,
and many are saying it's falling on black voters specifically.
But then, my friends, you beautiful bastards, is the end of your Tuesday, Philip DeFranco's show.
Thank you for watching.
I love your faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
