This Trump Massie Epstein Situation Is Getting Crazier
PDS Published 05/12/2026
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Sup, 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 and scale 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 at this point.
“Honestly, I don't think justice will ever be served in this case. And and that's just my experience of the past 20 years right. 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. They went down to Palm Beach to organize the shadow hearing, which had no input from Republicans.
But the goal is to learn more about Epstein's sweetheart deal and the other ways the DOJ failed victims when it comes to the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and Glenn. 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 from the by the federal government.”
“Jeffrey Epstein was under house arrest for the molestation of underage girls. At the exact time I was, he was abusing.”
“The fact that he could commit those acts made just 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?”
Only a handful of survivors spoke. They repeatedly emphasized that over 1000 victims endured abuse at Epstein's. And the family of Virginia Giuffre addressed 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 had members of Congress speaking out. Robert Garcia said that the committee would be releasing a new report on Epstein's bank record, showing how Alex Acosta, who was a US attorney in Florida and later Trump's labor secretary, created a sweetheart deal for Epstein that allowed him to continue his abuse.
They 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?”
You also had others like Jasmine Crockett calling out Republican colleagues for 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 JPMorgan executive to sit down for questioning related to the Epstein case. Also, you had members of the committee frequently bring up the fact that Pam Bondi is going to be sitting for testimony in just a couple of weeks.
There, you had Garcia putting pressure on his Republican colleagues.
“We expect Republicans and James Comer, 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, to kind of repeat what 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 had 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 push. Because we are just now seven days from the most expensive House primary in American history.
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And we've got a Kentucky attorney releasing a video alleging serious personal misconduct by Representative Thomas Massie, as you have people pointing out that that same attorney is on the record backing the opponent that Trump recruited to take Massie’s seat. And he lost his own primary against Massie 14 years ago.
But starting with the specifics of this primary, you have Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie running for his eighth term in Kentucky's fourth congressional district. The primary is May 19th.
And as we've talked about, Massie's currently locked in a race where the combined ad spending has topped $25 million. And you've got Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein outspending Massie roughly $14 million to $10 million.
This is a race where you have AI-generated ads accusing Massie of cheating on the America First movement with AOC and Ilhan Omar. There are insults and counter insults and every social issue that you can imagine.
The reason that this primary is expensive is that Massie’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.
And Trump has, in response, made personally destroying Massie’s career a stated political goal.
Polling from April showed Massie 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 Massie to the donor class.”
So the stakes are high and it really will be a test to Trump's ability to personally sway voters.
So that is the backdrop. Which brings us to the video that hit Twitter this morning.
A video that appears to be a deposition-style recording from a woman identified as Cynthia West, Florida school board candidate for Okaloosa 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 cuts to a single camera on West herself.
And in her account, West alleges that two months after Massie’s wife of 31 years, Rhonda, passed away from cancer in June of 2024, Massie reached out to her on social media and they began a relationship.
“Like I said, it was very intense, very quick. He wanted to move to the next stage very, very quickly.”
She alleges that Massie helped her obtain a position as a congressional staffer, not in his own office, but in another lawmaker’s office.
“This was my fairy tale, so I thought, right. And so 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 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 Massie.
“He wanted me to engage in behavior that I just I wasn't comfortable. 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 broke up with him.”
And then she also alleged that Massie 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 on settling, you have an offer of what?”
“Settlement for $60,000. To settle the case for the retaliatory discharge in the Congressional Accountability Act violation with the office of Victoria.”
“But if I do that, then I have to sign an NDA. And so I can't. I can't do that.”
Though I also have to mention with this video, at least as of recording, none of the specific claims have been independently confirmed. And Massie and his team have not yet responded as of recording.
It also really has only gotten attention in right-wing circles. Even though it was trending really high on Twitter this morning, it was very contained in its own ecosystem and didn't make major headlines in the mainstream papers. And 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 Massie that the video does not disclose.
In May of 2012, which was Massie’s very first congressional primary, Marcus Carey was one of his opponents on the Republican ballot, with Massie winning that race.
Also, just five days ago, The Dispatch published a deep-dive profile on the current primary. And in that article, Marcus Carey is quoted on the record describing himself as a supporter of Ed Gallrein, the Trump-backed candidate Massie’s running against.
The Dispatch identified Carey as “an attorney and longtime GOP operative who lives in Owen County and is backing Gallrein.”
His direct quote to The Dispatch was that “Massie won't wear the uniform and won't stand with the team.”
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.
On one side, you've got accounts using the video to argue that Massie 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 “desperate and vile” way of 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.
As we wait to see if Massie responds or what comes next, one of the big questions is: does this move the needle?
And regarding whether this affects the primary, it depends on three things:
One, how Massie responds. Does he stay silent? Does he respond badly? Does he produce evidence or claim the allegations are fabricated?
Two, whether the mainstream press picks it up. Right now it really hasn't. 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 the situation. Massie’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. So there is a chance that framing this as a smear attempt could actually help him with certain voters.
But again, there are multiple variables that we just don't know how they're going to play out. And it's involving a race that is very, very close.
And this is already a primary that we had eyes on because it is fundamentally about whether the Republican Party can tolerate dissent from Republicans who criticize the president. Because former Republican representatives, many just don't even run for reelection anymore.
For now, we'll have to wait to see what happens.
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But then getting right back into the news, the war against Iran, it's pushed 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 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.
But 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 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 March and 2.4% in February.
And this comes as the jobs 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 why people like the chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union are telling CNBC, “Inflation is the key drag on the US economy.”
Saying this is hurting Americans.
And actually it may be even worse than the government's numbers suggest, 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.
That increased by almost a whole percent from March to April, which marked the third largest single-month increase in the index’s 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.”
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 that would only help a bit. That would shave about 18 cents off a gallon.
And that 50% increase equated to around an extra buck fifty on gas. 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.
While in this case you've got some Republicans and even some Democrats getting behind the idea, you've also had members of both parties skeptical, 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 US.
Everything is connected. Everything.
And so a gas tax suspension could mean delayed roadwork and all while we're likely waiting for the increased cost of fuel to translate more and more into higher prices for other products.
Or 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.
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, when the Iranian revolution kicked off, with the authors describing it as a second and more severe wave of inflation followed by an initial wave a few years earlier.
Them explaining, “The Great Inflation was not the initial surge. It was the failure to prevent the second wave.”
Of course all of this is also being paid for with tax dollars. Though the question is how much.
And well with that, last month you had Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst 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 Hegseth to defend the Pentagon's record-setting $1.5 trillion funding request, he said that the number had gone up to $29 billion.
Saying that this new estimate was because of updated repair and replacement of equipment costs, and also just general operational costs to keep people in the region.
With that also saying that the number is subject to change depending on both ongoing assessments of the damage and what happens next.
Which is an important note because, as we talked about, Trump recently rejected Iran's latest offer as “totally unacceptable.”
Yesterday, he said that the ceasefire is the weakest it has been and described it as being “on massive life support.”
Then today, he said in an interview:
“It's just a question of time. We don't have to rush anything. And 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 material.”
Right there, he's referring to Iran’s stockpile of nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium that's enriched to 60%.
That's also something that he pretty much has to get out of there if he has any chance of kind of trying to play this off as a win of some sort.
But Iran, at least publicly, has given no indication that it's going to let that happen.
You had a national security spokesperson in Iran's parliament actually claiming today that if the US or Israel attack Iran again, it 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.
You had a commander with the Revolutionary Guard Corps naval forces saying that the regime had expanded its definition of the Strait of Hormuz.
“In the past, the strait was defined as a limited area around islands such as Hormuz and Qeshm. But today that has changed. The strait has grown larger and has turned into a vast operational area.”
Then also today you had officials saying, “Ultimately we control the strait, because nothing's going in that we don't allow to go in.”
Also you had them claiming that it's evident that the ceasefire remains in effect.
“As you know, for the most part, a ceasefire means the fire is ceasing. And we know that has occurred while negotiations occur.”
But of course the fire hasn't actually totally ceased.
Iran has not only attacked several countries in the region, but also targeted American forces. The US has fought off those attacks while also launching strikes on Iranian territory in response.
On the question of whether the US would attack Iran again, officials said they wouldn't give any information. But they said it remains a possibility and 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 US 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 Hegseth is too keen on answering.
“The munitions 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’ Face the Nation that it is shocking how deep the US has gone into its munition stockpiles.
And that's not just yapping. That is a claim backed up by independent reporting from multiple media outlets and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
In fact, Hegseth 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 Senator, because the timeframe we were existing under was unacceptable.”
“Okay.”
“Well what this budget does—”
“I mean months and years, past years. I mean we're building new plants in real time though, just to replace what we would send.”
“If I said months and then you said years. But it depends on the weapon system.”
But despite all that, after Kelly's comments on CBS, Hegseth accused him of leaking classified information and announced that the Pentagon would review his security clearance.
With this coming only a few days after an appeals court seemed to reject Hegseth's attempt to punish Kelly for being one of the several Democratic veterans-turned-lawmakers publicly urging service members to refuse illegal orders.
Even after a federal judge already ruled earlier this year that the Pentagon's efforts were unconstitutionally retaliatory.
Actually, Kelly responding to this latest effort by denying the accusation and sharing the clip of their previous exchange, saying: “Not classified. It's a quote from you.”
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And then there’s more that we’ve got to dive into in just a minute.
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But then diving right back into the news.
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The mayor of an American city just confessed to working in the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign government. That government is not just any government. It is the People’s Republic of China.
“Hello everyone. My name is Eileen Wang. 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’s San Gabriel Valley, just northeast of downtown LA. It’s home to about 56,000 people, nearly 60% of which identifies as Asian.
But really, residents of all ethnicities were shocked to learn that their mayor took direct orders from the CCP.
Also, I’ve got to say, looking into it now — and maybe it’s like hindsight’s 20/20 — you could tell that something was a bit off about it from the start.
Just judging by her 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 of her for a while now. And that’s in part because in late 2024, her campaign manager and treasurer, Mike Sun, whom she called her boyfriend and fiancé, was also charged with being a Chinese spy.
And so then everyone’s eyes kind of went towards Wang and she was like:
“Mike Sun, who’s that? Number one, he’s not my fiancé. Whoever I want to say he’s my fiancé or former fiancé, please give proof.”
And this even though she herself said the opposite previously.
“To my fiancé, director Mike Sun.”
Then people were like, okay yeah, she might be a Chinese spy.
“Excuse me Miss Wang, can we speak with you about these allegations? Can you just give us your reaction to the sentence?”
And well, it turns out the skeptics were right.
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 looked pretty legit. But sprinkled in 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 Zhang via WeChat, and 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.
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.
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.”
And so now both Chen and Zhang are already in federal prison.
Wang is facing up to ten 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 by the way, it’s just kind of crazy that someone who was elected to represent an entire city actually represented the Chinese government. Right?
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But then for our final story today, we should talk about the situation in Alabama that just raised the stakes for their primaries and beyond.
Because black voters there just lost their voice at the polls with a Supreme Court decision that’s going to leave them with only one district, even though they make up a quarter of the state’s population.
It’ll likely give Republicans at least one more seat in the House after the midterms. And now people are saying that it’s no longer 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.”
Because back in 2023, Alabama 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.
When Republicans circled back again, they left that second district out.
So at that point, a panel of judges drew Alabama’s maps with the extra black district, and that eventually gave Shomari 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.
And those maps were supposed to stay put until the next census.
But that is out the window with yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling.
Since they got to the Voting Rights Act, Alabama Republicans have been thinking strategically. So they’ve already passed the bills needed to make sure that once this decision came, they were cleared to hold special primary elections in the districts that would be affected.
And so now we’ve 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.
As far as responses go, the dissenting judges sounded alarmed. Their main point was they may have gotten the VRA issue at hand here, but the 14th Amendment still exists.
With that, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said:
“Nothing in the district court’s work in the amendment analysis is affected by this court’s opinion in Callais. It said not a word about the standard for 14th Amendment intentional discrimination.”
In other words, 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, many said that this will cause only confusion as Alabamians begin to vote in the elections scheduled for next month.
Alabama is set to move forward with their primaries on the new maps.
And so that means four districts are going to be wondering if their voting locations are going to change, how they’ll make transportation adjustments, and other logistical questions if they really only have a few days to figure this out.
The majority justice’s 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 conservatives across the country.
They’re making it one seat already turning blue as we speak. But they’re going for a full seven-to-nothing advantage by the time that it’s all said and done.
And that’s exactly why you’re seeing black voters calling this decision a return to Jim Crow, telling people to show up in November to put an end to 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, 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.
Back then, black voters were threatened, intimidated, and even assaulted at the polls.
Now in majority-black counties that Trump lost six years ago, they’re having to protect their poll workers from the DOJ trying to get ahold of their personal information.
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 happening as we just heard Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries catching what many say is a racial slur from conservative host Rich Herrera, while critics say that US Representative Jen Kiggans just sat back and let it happen.
“If Hakeem Jeffries wants to be involved in Virginia politics, then I suggest he does what all bunch of New Yorkers are doing. Leave New York, move down here to Virginia. Run for office down here. You could represent us. If not, get your cotton-picking hands off of Virginia.”
“That’s right.”
“Ditto.”
“Yes, yes.”
Though Kiggans said that she doesn’t condone that type of language, saying that she was just agreeing to the point that Jeffries 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 saying things like:
“First they go to the Voting Rights Act. Now they’re using brazenly racist language to attack black leaders. This is what we’ve heard over and over since this redistricting fight. 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 don’t have to take it from me. You can take it from the leaders sitting in these communities.
“What’s happening is rolling back the clock in real time.”
And many are saying it’s falling on black voters to stop it.
But then, my friends, you beautiful bastards, that is the end of your Tuesday Philip DeFranco Show.
Thank you for watching. I love your faces. And I’ll see you right back here tomorrow.
