The Philip DeFranco Show - Trump FIRED Kristi Noem, Iran US War Escalates, & The CIA Iraqi Kurds Situation is Crazy

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

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An Israeli minister just said that he wants Beirut to look like Gaza. Kurdish rebels back by the CIA may be about to turn this into a ground war. Azerbaijan's threatening retaliation after Iranian drones hit its territory. NATO says that it supports the U.S. campaign, and AOC is arguing that Trump may have started this entire war to distract from the Epstein files. Hi, welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show, though. The situation is spiraling. There's even more that we've got to talk about, but let's start here.

Are you at fighting in Lebanon picking back up this week after Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in response to the strikes on Iran? And Israel's responses killed at least a hundred two people so far, according to Lebanon's health ministry, though it may actually be about to get worse. Over the past few days, the Israeli military has issued sweeping evacuation warnings across southern Lebanon, sparking fears of a ground invasion. And then he saw they issued an evacuation order for the De Heiaa, which encompasses the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah has long held influence and where anywhere from 300 to 700,000 people live. And so it's actually believed to be the first time in this conflict that they've ordered large portions of the capital to evacuate. And before this, they've been targeting specific buildings.

And also there's a history here with what's known as the De Heia Doctrine referring to the strategy of using overwhelming and disproportionate force against civilian infrastructure named after the 2006 Lebanon war where large parts of the area were destroyed. And with all this, you have Bar-Right Israeli finance minister Smolk, saying the quiet part out loud, saying that Aheya will look like Khan Yunus, which is a city in Gaza that was decimated

during Israel's bombing campaign, and he added, you wanted to give us hell, but you've brought hell upon yourself. Meanwhile, you have strikes continuing across Iran with the Israeli military saying that it was beginning a new widespread wave of attacks in Tehran. U.S. Central Command also posting today, the Iranian regime's ability to impact U.S. forces and regional partners is rapidly declining

while American combat power continues to build. Trump's also said that destroying Iran's navy is a key objective, and there you have the U.S. now claiming to have sunk more than 20 Iranian naval vessels, including a ship in the Indian Ocean that Hegeseth confirmed was taken out by an American torpedo. And actually, it's now better reported that that vessel was headed home after participating in naval exercises hosted by India and may have actually not been carrying ammunition.

So you had Iran's foreign minister calling it an atrocity at sea and warning, mark my words, the U.S. will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set. Iran's top security official also blaming the U.S. in Israel for the strike on a girls elementary school. They killed 175 writing, Mr. Trump, is this the anthem you composed for freedom in Iran? You also had a spokesperson accusing the US and Israel of hitting 20 educational centers, 25 medical facilities, and six emergency centers. And while the Iranian government, you know, they're not always the most reliable source, you had the World Health Organization independently verifying more

than a dozen attacks on health infrastructure in Iran reporting four healthcare workers killed and 25 injured. And then, as far as the other side, while you have Iran, claiming that it strikes or self-defense, it's also targeted embassies, energy installations, airports, and hotels across the region. It's a lot of the region. It's Today, two Iranian drones fell into Azerbaijan, one hitting an airport and one landing near a school, reportedly injuring two civilians. So you had Azerbaijan's defense ministry saying it was preparing necessary retaliatory measures and warning, these acts of aggression will not remain unanswered. But you also had Iran denying responsibility accusing Israel of launching the drones to disrupt relations among Muslim countries.

So Azerbaijan's president doesn't seem to be buying it, calling it a heinous terrorist act and demanding an official explanation, an apology, and criminal accountability. Also, there was this missile fired toward Turkish airspace yesterday that was shot down by NATO air defenses. And with that, you had NATO Secretary General saying the incident didn't trigger the alliance's mutual defense clause, but did add that NATO supports the U.S. campaign and calling Iran close to becoming a threat to Europe as well, saying there's widespread agreement that the war should end with Iran unable to pose a threat to its neighbors to Israel, the Middle East, to Europe. And notably with that, you know, European leaders are increasingly getting sucked into this, whether they want to be or not. Italy announced that it's sending air defense, anti-dron, and anti-missal systems to assist Gulf countries and Cyprus, where a British airbase was hit on Monday. Spain, the Netherlands, and Greece are also providing support,

the Spain continues to make it clear that it doesn't support the war and won't work with the United States. And you have everyone saying their actions are defensive, almost no one's willing to criticize the US or Israel publicly. And you have the EU's top diplomat barely mentioning their role in a press briefing yesterday while also claiming. Iran is exporting the war, trying to expand it to as many countries as they can to sow chaos. But also, she acknowledged something that the White House either didn't consider or didn't care about. Ukraine. She said that events in the Middle East have actually had a clear impact on the war there. Defense capabilities needed in Ukraine. They're being redirected to the Middle East.

Supply chains for air defense systems. They're now being split between two theaters of war and rising oil prices directly benefit Russia's ability to fund its war. So you're seeing experts say that the perception that the United States is stretched thin, it could encourage Russia to escalate and also undermine Zelensky's negotiating position. And actually, you know, those talks involving Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S. that were supposed to happen in the UAE this week? It's not looking like a great option anymore. Just today, you had six people in the UAE being injured by falling debris after air defenses intercepted a drone.

And you know, the government there is saying that since Sunday, the countries detected eight cruise missiles, 196 ballistic missiles and more than a thousand drones targeting its territory. And while the pace has slowed, the chaos has continued across the region. Qatar intercepted a missile attack today, Bahrain took a hit to an oil refinery, Saudi Arabia, shot down several drones and Iraqi forces intercepted a drone targeting a US military base near Baghdad international airport. And then also we have to talk about how Iran's been striking Kurdish groups in Iraq, including hitting the headquarters of Iranian Kurdish forces in the north today. Or with that, following reports yesterday, that thousands of Kurdish fighters had launched a ground defensive into Iran,

though there's been no evidence of really that happening yet, and several Kurdish leaders have denied the claim. But it could still happen and it might happen at the direction of the Trump administration, even as experts say that it could be catastrophic. Or because for some context here, the United States has a long complicated history with Kurdish militias. Right after the 1991 Gulf War, you had the U.S. encouraging Kurds in Iraq to rise up and then they stood by as the Iraqi army just slaughtered them. And in fact, just months ago, the U.S. was accused of abandoning Kurdish allies in Syria. But also, the CIA has reportedly been arming Iranian Kurdish forces with small arms as part of a covert destabilization program that predated the current war. With the original aim,

apparently being not regime change, but creating distractions and security crises for Iran's leadership. And those operations reportedly ramped up after the 12-day war between Iran and Israel last summer. And actually, just two weeks ago, five rival Iranian Kurdish groups formed a new coalition dedicated to overthrowing the regime. And since the war began, bombs and missiles have repeatedly struck targets in Western Iran along the Iraqi border, potentially clearing the path for a Kurdish incursion. And actually, Trump, he's reportedly spoken personally with at least two Kurdish leaders. With The Washington Post reporting that he offered extensive U.S. air cover and other backing for anti-regime Kurds to take over portions of Western Iran.

Now that said, you had press secretary Caroline Levitt saying that reports that Trump agreed to any Kurdish insurgency plan were completely false. But then today you had Trump saying he'd be all four Iranian Kurdish forces launching an offensive against the regime. And while he didn't officially commit military support publicly, the signal appeared clear. And in regards to all this, you had a lot of experts alarm, where you had a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute telling the Guardian, I've never seen such a resounding opposition to a policy idea in Washington from all sides of the political spectrum as I have when it comes

to this particular idea. with a warning that it could draw Turkey into the fight and ignite unrest among other ethnic groups in Iran. Saying all of this is very risky, very dangerous, and the next order consequences could be very serious indeed. But also the dominoes, they might already be falling, and these groups might act with or without White House support. And ultimately, we're in this situation where you have a Middle East expert at the Atlantic Council, kind of putting it plainly, saying we're only days into the conflict, and we're already seeing the dangerous consequences of the Trump administration's lack of a strategic plan and the total absence of clarity over both rationales and objectives.

And you've got the Pentagon reportedly scrambling to reallocate resources and increase intelligence personnel, which experts see is a sign that the administration really didn't fully anticipate the fallout. With the former diplomat telling Politico, it seems like they woke up on Saturday morning and decided that they were going to start a war. All while, yep, Heggzeth and other officials continuing to deny regime change is the goal. But you then also have Trump telling Axios that he must be involved in picking Iran's next leader, just like Venezuela, after reports came out that the former Supreme Leader's son is likely the successor. Or Trump saying that he'd refuse to accept the son or someone similar and claiming that it would force the U.S. back to war in five years.

But also, you know, it is hard to talk about going back to war when we have no idea when the current one's going to end. And if the House expected to vote on a war powers resolution, it's not expected to pass and one just failed in the Senate. And actually with all this, you had Republican Senator Tim Sheehe getting involved in a confrontation between Capitol Police and a Marine veteran protesting the war that ended with the protester getting his arm broken. You know, as it becomes clear that the very little planning seemed to be going into this, some people are asking whether the chaos is the point. He impulsively went in on Venezuela. He impulsively went in on Iran. there was no exit and no end game for either of these situations.

And every time he's done that, it has been consistent with a spike or a revelation in what is happening with the Epstein Files. And I actually think that it is one reason that he must be removed from office because if this has that, if the Epstein Files has such a hold on President Trump on this administration,

that they are willing to plunge us and risk world war in order to save themselves. politically, that is a person, the definition of someone that cannot make objective decisions for the American people. And you're your own person, you can agree or disagree with that theory, but the fact that a sitting member of Congress can say it out loud and a significant number of Americans find it very plausible, it kind of tells you everything about where trust in this administration

stands right now. Right, and actually, on the note of trust, we need to talk about how the House just killed a resolution that would have forced the release of all congressional sexual misconduct reports, with the vote being 357 to 65. And now you're seeing this very real debate play out about where the Congress buried it to protect abusers and their own ranks, or because the resolution was genuinely flawed in ways that could hurt the victims that it was supposed to help. Because looking into it, both of those things might be true.

So this resolution was actually introduced by Republican Nancy Mace, who's been vocal about our own experience as a survivor of sexual assault. And it would have directed the Ethics Committee to preserve and publicly release all records tied to sexual misconduct investigation into members of Congress, including reports, conclusions, draft reports, recommendations, and accompanying materials. All the documents would have had victim names and identifiable information redacted, and Mace introduced it after reports alleged that. that fellow Republican Tony Gonzalez had an affair and sent sexual messages to a female

staffer who later died by suicide. And for a while you've had Gonzalez denying wrongdoing, he's also resisted mounting calls for his resignation, including for Mace. With Mace saying, these people need to be called out for their behavior. I don't care if they have an R or a D by their name. They need to suffer the consequences. And saying if you sexually harass someone in Congress, you do not get to hide behind closed doors. The American people deserve answers. Staff deserve answers. Women deserve answers. No more protection for predators in Congress. And then of course, you had the House voting 357 to 6. to refer the resolution to committee, which effectively killed it.

With Mays then go and scorched earth, posting the name of every single person who voted against it on social media, saying, shame on every single one of you who voted to protect predators in Congress over the women they prey on. And adding not one member who voted against our transparency resolution gets to pretend they care about Epstein's victims. You voted to protect predators in your own government. But also you had the people who voted it down, who fall on both sides of the aisle saying they had real reasons to vote against it. And in fact, you had the Ethics Committee releasing a statement saying that the resolution could actually silence the victims and chill future cooperation, noting, quote, victims may be re-traumatized by public disclosures, and witnesses who often only speak to the committee confidentially

or on condition of future anonymity could fear retaliation if their cooperation is made public. With an AOC laying out a more detailed case, saying that she supports the idea behind the measure, but called the text, rushed and not thought through. And her concerns were that the resolution would also release documents related to claims found to be false, meaning that innocent people would get lumped in with actual abusers. All while, there was zero victim consent or consultation. Victims gave their statements with a promise of protection and anonymity, and the resolution gave them no mechanism.

to control what became public. And you would AOC pointing out that even with names redacted, house offices are so small that it would be incredibly easy to identify victims from their statements alone with no way for them to stay private. And ultimately you would AOC saying, as a survivor, I know why the vast majority of women never report at all. And a lot of those reasons, even if unintentionally

or inadvertently, were included here. For me, at least, guaranteeing the safety and agency of victims and survivors would get me to a yes. You know, this is the tension that makes accountability on sexual misconduct so difficult, and it's the same tension running through the Epstein investigation. Everyone says they want transparency, Everyone says they want to protect survivors,

but when it comes time to actually write the rules that the two goals can pull in opposite direction. You know, Mace is right that Congress shouldn't be a place where predators are shielded by process, and AOC's right that a transparency measure that re-traumatizes victims or outs them without consent isn't actually protecting them. And so now the 357 members who voted this down,

they have to answer a very simple question. If this resolution was not the right way to do it, what is? Because voting it down without offering an alternative, it just looks like the status quo one again. But then, actually, next up, this is breaking news, I wanted to make sure to include it in the show. Christie Noem just got fired though, they're trying to call it another thing. With Trump writing on Truth Social this morning that Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen

will become the United States Secretary of Homeland Security Effective March 31st, 2026. And according to Trump, Noam, she served the administration well, but she will be moving to be special envoy for the shield of the Americas, our new security initiative in the Western Hemisphere we are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida. You know, as far as Mullen, Trump described him as a maga warrior and former undefeated professional MMA fighter who knows how to advance the America First agenda. Though most non-Republicans know him as the guy who was cowering on January 6th, but then later minimized January 6th. But notably, all of this, it comes as there was a ton of pressure for Nome to be ousted from her job.

Some lawmakers calling for her to be impeached, others demanding she resign. In part, that's because there's been a lot of outrage over ISIS operations under her tenure. I mean, yesterday we talked about how half of Americans now want the agency abolished. And Nome this week had two hearings where she tried again and again to dodge any accountability for how she and the department have handled the killings of Renee Good and Alex Prattie. Though I will say that's likely not what did her in. Because you also have reports that Trump was pissed at Noem over how she responded when pressed about a $220 million ad campaign that encouraged self-deportation. You had Senator Kennedy, who's a Republican grilling her about it, pointing out that the contract went to a company that was created 11 days before getting the deal, and it was run by people tied to Noem's political circle. And you had Noem claiming that Trump knew about the decision to approve the campaign contracts.

But then after the hearing, you had Kennedy saying that Trump called him and said that their recollections are different. So Noam told Congress that the president approved it. The president seemingly said he did, and now she's done. Or I guess only kind of done because in Trump two, You don't fully get fired. You get kind of moved around like a Catholic priest back in the day. But for now, we'll have to wait to see how any and all of this plays out. And then there's more that we've got to dive into in just a minute. But first, let me thank his sponsor and say, you know, spring is here.

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That's fast-growing trees.com slash DeFranco Code DeFranco. Offers valid for a limited time, terms and conditions may apply. Then, diving back into the news, we need to talk about how Tim Walls just told Congress that the Trump administration sent 2,000 masked, untrained ice agents into Minnesota, under the guise of fighting fraud, then got two American citizens killed

and they haven't solved a single fraud case. So you had Republicans firing back that Walls actually knew about billions in fraud for years and just did nothing. And this hearing that was supposed to sort it out, it kind of went absolutely nowhere. Right, and for some quick context here, Minnesota does have a real,

fraud problem. It's serious enough that it contributed to Wallis dropping his reelection bit. But the administration's response was to flood the state with ICE agents, target the Somali community, and cut $259 million in Medicaid funding, which knocked 400,000 kids off of healthcare. And you've got the situation where two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Freddie were killed by ICE agents during those operations, and federal law enforcement still refuses to cooperate with state investigators on their deaths. And so yesterday you had Walls and Attorney General Keith Ellison sitting in front of the House Oversight Committee and it was kind of ugly from the jump. As governor, I expect you to know this information. Thank God you're not Vice-P

President of the United States. Now, before the hearing started, you had the Oversight Committee releasing a report with serious allegations against Walls and Ellison. You were aware of this level of fraud and investigations, and yet it seems like nothing was done. Why didn't you do something sooner? With the report claiming that Walls and Ellison were aware of fraud problems as early as 2019, and they just allowed state agencies to continue funding groups suspected of fraud to avoid accusations of racism. It also made claims related to Feeding Our Future, which is a nonprofit that became central to the scandal. and do the committee saying that all of this resulted in potentially billions of dollars of Medicaid-related funds being lost or at risk.

And so you saw Republicans at the hearing very focused on taxpayer money. We believe that's your fault and the Attorney General's fault because you do nothing about fraud, even though everyone in America sees... Our Medicare error rate is Lord. The American taxpayers have had enough. Ellison also got hit hard too. Are you leading the criminal investigative effort into this massive fraud across the board in the health care spectrum? in the state of Minnesota or not. We are following the law and...

You're not leading. You're not leading. I'm gonna say, Mr. Chairman, that the Attorney General of State of Minnesota should resign. But also you had walls kind of coming out swinging with his opening statement. The people of Minnesota have been singled out and targeted for political retribution at an unparalleled scale. Under the guise of combating fraud, the federal government has flooded Minnesota

with masked, untrained, and unaccountable agents who are wreaking havoc in our community. havoc in our communities. He also argued that he's been reaching out for federal support to solve the fraud problem, but the resources aren't there. And the investigators and teams that he'd need, they've left his ICE operations escalated. Right now, those lead investigators and basically that whole team has left that office. We're going to prosecute as we have every single person that's involved in fraud, but we can't do it alone. And you also saw him being direct about what Operation Metro Surge was actually accomplishing. Operation Metro Surge did nothing to address fraud in our state, it harmed our economy, it scarred our people, and it dealt a devastating blow to fraud

enforcement in Minnesota. And you Democrats backing Walls' argument that ICE has done nothing to actually address fraud. They all suppress on how ICE operations are affecting the kids. Are you seeing families who can't go to work, who can't go grocery shopping, and who can't take their kids to school or the library or the park because you're terrified to leave their home? Are you seeing that? Yes, that's what we are seeing in Minnesota. And you had walls highlighting the impossible position that the states in when it comes to cutting off programs where fraud exists, but children depend on the services.

We're not going to stop payments that feed children until we have the proof that things happen. And that's one of the biggest things here. 400,000 kids in Minnesota. They're already off health care because of the administration's Medicaid cuts. And again, the fraud is real, but so is the collateral damage of the response. And with all this, one of the major points of contention is the feeding our future nonprofit, which grew rapidly during the pandemic. And while it came under fraud suspicion in 2021, had its funding cut, it then saw the, that funding restarted a short time later. And its leaders were actually eventually convicted,

but not before taxpayer money was already gone. And so one of the big questions yesterday was, how did this funding get restarted, given all the red flags? But the hearing never actually landed on a clear answer. You had walls pointing to the courts, the courts pointing back to walls, and everyone watching was kind of just left confused. So I wanna know, why didn't you tell the truth?

Congressman, the attorneys at the Department of Education interpreted that differently. Both of those judges are no longer on the bench. So the court's lying? I can't tell you, Congressman, but the interpretation was- And so with all of that, you know, We'll see if anything comes for a bit, but my kind of like what I was left with after going through all this. This hearing kind of embodied one of the reasons that a lot of people just are tired of politics.

I felt like politicians clip hunting for social media likes. I felt like nothing was really learned. And it generally feels like other than people getting hurt in the meantime, nothing's going to change. We're not anywhere closer to people being held responsible or even being monitored more closely, especially given like ice. And then as it relates to fraud in Minnesota, like as far as relief for taxpayers, I don't see that kind of. although the fraud issue is also not completely solved, and no one seems to have a plan or to support or solve it. All while Trump seemed like he was more interested

in kind of trying to use this as an excuse to terrorize people. And also he's got his hands full with the war in Iran that also, I guess, isn't a war, even though he keeps calling it a war. But also I'll say he's probably busy because he's now being sued over allegations that his TikTok sale was an illegal sweetheart deal that benefited allies who personally enriched him, giving them free reign to censor political content

while still allowing China to spread propaganda. Or guess in other words, the deal may have done the exact opposite of what the law was supposed to accomplish. And as far as the specifics of the lawsuit, who is brought by the Public Integrity Project, which is an anti-corruption law firm on behalf of two software engineers from rival companies who say that they suffered financially from the administration's actions. And in addition to Trump, the lawsuit targets Attorney General Pam Bondi over their handling of the 2024 law that Congress passed and Biden signed, which forced TikTok's Chinese owners bite dance to sell its US assets or face a ban. And while that law

was supposed to take effect the day that Trump took office, he directed Bondi not to enforce it and signed four executive orders extending the deadline until he could reach a deal that he lighten. And the lawsuit says that both the extension and Bondi's refusal to enforce a law were illegal. But then also, even the deal itself may violate the statute. Right? This law, it bans bidetans from maintaining an ongoing operational relationship with TikTok's American operations. But under Trump's deal, bite dance still owns the app's algorithm and runs key operations, including e-commerce, marketing, and advertising. And so the lawsuit argues that the deal allowed bite dance to keep control over all the essential elements of TikTok, meaning that China can still push

propaganda and censor content to the platform, which would completely undermine the entire point of the law. Preventing Chinese influence over the app was literally the reason that the legislation existed. That was a sales pitch. So if the deal doesn't actually solve the China problem, who does it benefit? Well, under the agreement, TikTok's American operations are overseen by three managing investors, private equity funds, Silver Lake Tech Company Oracle and the investment firm MGX, each holding a 15% share. Though also, you know, there are several smaller investors, but the suit alleges that many of these firms or their leaders have close ties to the president and have at times personally enriched him.

And specifically, you have Oracle's co-founder and chairman Larry Ellison, previously hosting a $100,000 per person fundraiser for Trump at his personal estate. MGX is also backed by the UAE's sovereign wealth fund, which previously made a separate $2 billion investment in another company using the Trump family's cryptocurrency. And the founder of one investor donated $16 million to Trump's SuperPack, the CEO of another gave $1.25 million to his primary political committee. And here's a number that I think kind of ties it all together.

These firms, they bought TikTok for just $14 billion. Sounds like a lot of money, is a lot of money. Analyst have valued the U.S. operations at $40 to $50 billion. So it's been widely seen as Trump allies getting the deal of a lifetime on one of the most valuable platforms in the world. But as far as what happens from here, who knows, the lawsuit actually isn't seeking to ban TikTok. Instead, it's asking the court to order a renegotiation of the deal, one that, quote, doesn't put administration allies in a position to censor political content on one of the world's most popular media platforms. So whether that actually happens, that's an entirely different question, regardless of what happens with the lawsuit itself. Because this isn't news to you.

The administration has a track record of ignoring court rulings, skirting enforcement, and daring the judicials. system to do something about it, which it often doesn't. Right, but then from that, finally today, there's two last things. One is a congratulations and the last is a piece of news. So first, congratulations to Maya K, C Geek's latest weekly winner who just scored $500 in tickets to see Hillary Duff.

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It's good to know just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada. Final thing we need to talk about today. This is a jarring mood shift. The state of Rhode Island just accused its own Catholic Church of sexually abusing roughly 300 children across seven decades and then systematically covered it up so that the accused priest face zero consequences. Or with the investigation finding that the diocese shuffled at least 30 of these priests to new assignments up to five times each.

And even those numbers are believed to be maybe an undercount. Right, so Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Narana released the findings of an investigation that began back in 2019. His office reviewed a quarter of a million pages of records and conducted 150 interviews. And they found that since 1950, approximately 300 children were sexually abused by 75 priests in Rhode Island. And 20 of those priests were not previously on the diocese's own list of those credibly accused. And the fact that abuse is happening, you know, that's not a new revelation. The Catholic Church's abuse crisis, it's been at the forefront for years, especially since 2018, when a Pennsylvania grand jury found more than a thousand children were abused by some 300 priests since the 1940s.

But this report, it's the most comprehensive look at what happened specifically in Rhode Island, and what makes it damning isn't just the abuse. Right, it's the cover up. According to Narana, the diocese transferred at least 30 accused priests to new positions up to five times each. He shuffled them around without fully investigating the allegations, sent them to treatment and placed them on sabbatical. And they were trying to completely shield them from consequences, both from the church and from law enforcement. with Narana saying, so much hurt and harm could have been avoided if the diocese had simply removed the accused priests from duty. Nothing explains it. Nothing justifies it. And he was also clear that these numbers are likely and complete. But his investigation was limited to what the diocese chose to provide. And as he put it,

I have no way of knowing if they produced everything we asked for. As far as why he made this report, it was to spur legal reforms that would boost investigative powers and help victims seek justice. And then as far as the diocese, they move quickly to try to minimize the findings. But their statement stressed that the report didn't happen because of any legal compulsion, calling it a voluntary records review made possible only because they freely granted access through a 2019 memorandum of understanding. They also highlighted what they called their own unprecedented and voluntary agreement to extraordinary transparency. They also noted that they were under no obligation to cooperate, acknowledge serious missteps in handling earlier cases, but then argued that the protections they've instituted since, they've been overwhelmingly effective.

They added that any abuse of children is an abhorrent sin and a terrible crime. But not everyone, you know, is inclined to take the diocese at their word. and you would lawyer Mitchell Garibedean, putting it plainly, saying to trust the Diocese of Providence, to now protect children after decades of abusing them, is akin to trusting seasoned bank robbers to become bank tellers. It makes no sense morally or otherwise. And as for the victims, this report matters in a way that goes beyond policy reform. At Ann Hagen Webb, a survivor of childhood abused by her priest, she spoke at a press conference about what the report means to her after years of being dismissed.

Saying you have no idea how important this is to me. To be called non-credible by the diocese has haunted me. And doubting this report should make Rhode Island Catholics gasp in horror. Read it, please read it. By reading it, you honor the children who are hurt. But that, my friends, you beautiful bastards, is the end of your Thursday, Philip DeFranco's show. Thank you for watching. I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here next time.