The Nolan Odyssey Review Backlash Exposes a Bigger Problem

Jul 9

Written By Guest User

PDS Published 07/09/2026

This Christopher Nolan Odyssey scandal and backlash has exploded online. And what it's really exposing is just so—
Explosive diarrhea is now sweeping across the country, and no one knows where it's coming from. You've got new evidence coming out in the death of Nolan Wells, with video hinting at heated arguments, and the lawyer for his family saying someone deleted messages on his phone, and his friend group is now being dragged online. And you've got the left scrambling. Donald Trump might actually be an unlikely partner. We're talking about all of that and even more on today's brand-new Philip DeFranco Show, your daily dive into the news, starting with this.
American culture warriors, they have found yet another Hollywood blockbuster to sink their teeth into, right? And this time, it's Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated adaptation of the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey.
"Oh, good Lord. Do you have—you have not read The Odyssey without telling me you haven't read The Odyssey."
"I don't know of any Black people that lived in ancient Greece. I just don't."
"Apparently the casting was made by Christopher Nolan's woke libtard wife, along with the modern mandates of feminism, transgenderism, and anti-white..."
Every time I take a little break from doing my job, I forget what big fucking losers these people are. But I get it. They got to do their time in the culture war mines while their president just fucks up the entire country. Jangle those keys to keep the people's eyes off the ball.
So, right off the bat, I'll say Christopher Nolan is an unusual target for the conservative culture warriors out there. Because of all the adjectives that one might use to describe him, "woke" is usually not anywhere near the top of that list. In fact, if anything, he's been criticized for not being woke enough, if we're just going to keep using this stupid word.
You saw The Daily Wire pointing out that Oppenheimer was accused of flattening its female characters. Dunkirk was called out for erasing Indian and African soldiers from the screen. And The Dark Knight raised eyebrows for casting Liam Neeson as the North African Ra's al Ghul.
And yet, when the first trailer for The Odyssey dropped, it was dislike-bombed and littered with comments saying stuff like:
"If I saw this on a plane, I'd still walk out."
"I'm looking forward to missing this."
And so, as far as what the fuss is all about, if you hear them out, the critics have a number of different complaints.
Let's start with the kind of nerdy stuff.
First, some took issue with the way Agamemnon's armor looks—black and shiny, almost like it's modeled off the Batsuit from Nolan's Dark Knight films.
"The cheap-looking armor in the beginning looks like it was created with a 3D printer."
But, setting aside the fact for now that they didn't actually have armor that looked like this back in the Bronze Age, with that you had Nolan defending the aesthetic, saying in an interview with Time magazine:
"There are Mycenaean daggers that are black. The theory is they probably could have blackened bronze in those days. You take bronze, you add more gold and silver to it..."
He added that Agamemnon's costume designer was trying to communicate how elevated he is relative to everyone else. You do that through materials that would be very expensive.
But that was just one small detail.
Much more noticeable is the choice to use colloquial modern American English in the film.
"It's definitely nothing like the dialogue in The Odyssey. It doesn't sound like people in ancient Greece."
With that, you had Nolan defending that choice to the Los Angeles Times, saying he wanted language that has emotional, not intellectual, meaning.
"Maybe I was being naive. It might bite me on the ass, but I wanted an earthy narrative rather than having everyone use artificially elevated language."
But then, for critics, there's still the glaring problem that Nolan didn't even use the original translation. Instead, he relied on the 2017 translation by Emily Wilson, which was the first major English translation by a female scholar.
And so, even before this film was being made, you had conservatives taking issue with her rendering of the epic, claiming that she made it woke, liberal, and feminist.
For example, the opening lines of the original poem describe Odysseus using an untranslatable Ancient Greek adjective meaning something like "many-turning." Previous translators have opted for terms like "resourceful," "skilled in all ways," and "the man of twists and turns."
But Wilson went for a simpler word:
"Complicated."
And so what you saw conservatives do was take that to be demeaning to the male hero—almost like calling him problematic.
"The only reason her translation exists is to neutralize the significance of The Odyssey. She wants to destroy the significance of an epic that's unapologetically masculine because, in 2026, men—particularly white men from Europe and their descendants—simply cannot be heroic."
But in her defense, you have Wilson arguing that her translation is faithful to the original Greek and that Odysseus is clearly still a heroic figure in her version.
But then also, really, the main thing that's getting people all riled up—it's not the costumes or the writing. It's a lot of the casting.
Because this film has some big, incredibly expensive names: Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Charlize Theron, and Robert Pattinson.
But a few actors have caught people's attention.
Such as the rapper Travis Scott, who plays a bard, with Nolan explaining:
"I cast him because I wanted a nod toward the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to modern music."
And then there's Lupita Nyong'o playing Helen of Troy, the mythological figure reputed for her beauty—whose face launched a thousand ships and started the Trojan War.
And seemingly, a number of people had issues ranging from just not thinking she was attractive enough to seeming to have an issue with her being a Black woman who was born in Kenya.
"Not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong'o is the most beautiful woman in the world."
"You might as well make Helen of Troy Chinese."
"Were there no white actresses available for the role?"
"Christopher Nolan thinks he knows that he would be called racist if he gave the most beautiful woman role to a white woman."
You even had Elon Musk firing off on X:
"I agree that she is beautiful, but casting a Black woman to play a white woman in a foundational work of European literature is no more right than casting a white man to play Shaka."
Then you saw the outrage just kind of get bigger and bigger after Lupita gave this answer when someone asked her what she would ask Homer, the author of the ancient epic, if he were here.
"I'd be like, 'So, Homer, how do you feel about the screen time given to these women, considering how little time you spend with them?'"
And as soon as that clip got traction, conservatives lost their shit.
"There weren't a lot of female warriors in Homer's time—or in any time, including today. That's because, scientifically, based on raw data and reality, men are created differently than women."
As far as Lupita's reaction to all of this, she declined to even engage, telling reporters:
"I'm not spending my time thinking of a defense. The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not."
But what you also saw is that others did spend their time making counterarguments.
For example, one writer said:
"The Odyssey is a long-form poem. It has a long history of being reinterpreted by artists, directors, and translators. Orson Welles cast Eartha Kitt as Helen of Troy back in 1950. Today's critics are culturally illiterate buffoons."
Speaking of which, you even had Ben Shapiro pointing out that the film's white actors aren't authentically Greek either.
"Matt Damon is playing Odysseus. Matt Damon is of what—Scottish? Irish extraction or something? He certainly is not Greek. In fact, none of the people in the movie, so far as I'm aware, are."
So for Ben and a number of people, there was one casting choice that went just too far for them, and that was Elliot Page as a Greek warrior.
"This is ridiculous. I'm not Captain Tall over here. I'm five foot nine, but I would dwarf Elliot Page because I'm a normal-sized human male."
For context, if you don't know, Page is a transgender man.
So the idea that he's playing a character who is supposed to be tough and strong rubs a lot of conservatives the wrong way.
"The character is male, and they've chosen a fake male who's not in any way heroic."
"This is why Republicans still at least have a shot in the midterms."
One of the responses you've had from defenders is:
"Hey, let's wait to watch the movie. If Page is a good actor and delivers a convincing performance for the character, who cares whether he's trans in real life?"
Others have said:
"Even if he's not tall or super buff, in reality we don't know yet how that comes off on screen. What's the full context?"
Again, you've got people like Elon saying Chris Nolan desecrated Homer and groveled on his knees just to meet the woke rules required to win an Oscar.
What a...
But what I will say is, if you look at the reviews from normal critics who have actually seen the film, many are saying it's one of Nolan's best films ever, which is a wild thing to say, and a frontrunner for Best Picture.
You also had Tom Holland—the historian, not the actor—declaring on Twitter:
"It is by some way the best cinematic adaptation of a Greek myth I have ever seen."
To which Elon replied...
Tom Holland fired back, saying:
"The Odyssey is an amazing film, and missing out on seeing it because you think it's woke or whatever is cutting off your nose to spite your face."
And actually, if I can just take a second to be the petty little bitch that I want to be...
Tom Holland's being so nice here.
Elon Musk, how are you so successful and literally the richest man on the planet, and yet also the most pathetic, insufferable little bitch?
You are a walking advertisement for why abortion should be legal.
Or at the very least, we should incentivize people to...
I guess it's good that you're focused on this for a second instead of trying to inspire a fucking race war.
Dear God.
How about this: I will invest in your overly inflated price of SpaceX right now if you promise that on the first rocket to Mars, you're on it.
And actually, back on topic, even Shapiro appears to be, to a certain degree, agreeing with that.
"There's no real indicator from the trailers at this point that The Odyssey is a fundamental betrayal of the storyline. Nolan does have a gift for being able to strip politics out of his films almost entirely. And I have a feeling that this movie is going to perform really, really well."
I just don't think this bleeds over into regular life in the way that so many people in the online world seem to think that it will.
Playing this game where I get extremely, extremely upset about The Odyssey before I actually see it...
Yeah, man.
And yeah, Ben's prediction that it's going to do well seems pretty well-founded.
As soon as tickets went on sale, IMAX screenings sold out. Websites crashed. Scalpers started hawking them for over $1,000.
The film is projected to gross up to $200 million globally during its opening weekend, and that was before all the glowing reviews started pouring in.
It's got an unbelievable amount of hype around it—for the director, for the cast, for the epic adventure, as well as the $250 million production budget.
I mean, I've been kicking myself because I didn't get IMAX tickets in time. I thought I had them, but it turned out I actually got early tickets for something else.
That's probably just going to be more beneficial for the movie because I'm going to watch it when it comes out, and then I'm going to get into a later IMAX showing.
But hey, time will tell.
You know, the future's not guaranteed.
And we're all—most everyone—is talking about a fucking movie that no one's watched yet.
But hey, in the meantime, let me know your thoughts, opinions, and reactions to all this.
And also, are you going to see the movie?
But then also, from that, we've got to talk about a very different kind of backlash that's in the news right now, because it matters if you have a public Instagram account.
It's because now anyone can use your photos and profile to make AI content without you even knowing about it.
That's what's buried in the fine print of Meta's new Movie Gen image model, which is now available in the U.S. via the Meta AI app, website, Instagram Stories, and, in limited rollout, WhatsApp.
And while there are a lot of tools available in Movie Gen, the one that's been getting the most attention is the ability to mention a public Instagram account in Meta AI and generate images based on that user's profile.
With that, you have the platform's Help Center stating:
"If you have a public account, other Instagram users may be able to create new Reels, posts, or stories that reuse part or all of your published photos, videos, or Reels."
In addition:
"People may be able to create content with your Instagram content using AI features, depending on the settings of the other user."
This also means your reused content may be discoverable in search engines.
One of the biggest issues here is that users like you were opted into this automatically.
Reports also say that if someone does use your profile to make AI content, you wouldn't be notified about it.
You also had Meta explaining in a statement that accounts belonging to users under 18 are automatically excluded, while also saying that users can opt out in their settings.
But that also puts the work on you, the user, to know that this is happening in the first place and then switch the settings yourself, which means tons of people have their accounts blindly exposed to this.
And so online, you saw no shortage of people slamming the move.
"This is just a massive invasion of privacy."
You're also seeing people like a director at a tech justice nonprofit telling the BBC that this is "a recipe for disaster," noting:
"We've already seen a catalog of harms from non-consensual AI-altered images on social platforms just in the past year. It is hard to see why Mark Zuckerberg thinks facilitating yet more of this creepy image manipulation is a good idea."
Then you also had CAA, one of the biggest talent agencies in Hollywood that represents some of the most famous people in the world, condemning this in a statement:
"One's name, image, likeness, voice, or creative work should not be used by any third party, including AI models, without clear, documented consent."
Adding:
"We call on Meta to make protection the default on Movie Gen, not the exception. Artists deserve to decide if and how their likeness and work is used, with consent and the ability to set their own preferences. The future of creativity depends on respecting the ownership and autonomy of those who make it."
But in the meantime, if you or someone you know is freaked out about this and wants to opt out, here's what you can do.
First, if your account is set to private, no one can reuse your content. So that's one way of getting out of it.
If you want to keep your account public but still opt out, you can go to Instagram Settings, then Sharing and Reuse.
Under Allow people to create with and reuse your content, toggle off both Posts and Reels.
Then, under the next section, toggle off the Audio Reuse feature as well.
You can also change your settings for each individual photo or post if you want.
Also, I just want to say, for Meta specifically, their backend is so fucking cluttered and stupid compared to other platforms that them automatically opting you in feels even more nefarious.
It really feels like they're throwing a key into a dumpster pile and saying, "Yeah, you'll figure it out."
And then also, as you know, this isn't even the only trouble Meta has found itself in this week.
Because you saw in court filings this week that Meta said four states are seeking $1.4 trillion in penalties for alleged safety and addiction violations.
And yes, trillion with a T.
That number is nearly all of Meta's $1.5 trillion market value.
You got Meta, unsurprisingly, not happy with that at all.
They shot back, saying:
"A sanction of that size has no analog in the history of consumer protection. Plaintiffs' outlandish calculations have no basis in fact or law."
As far as the four states involved, you've got California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey.
The lawsuit alleges that Meta has prioritized profits over the safety of kids and fueled the mental health crisis.
As far as right now, you've got the trial slated for August.
And as for how the states came up with that $1.4 trillion number, according to Reuters, the states calculated the penalties by multiplying the number of violations by the fines set by state law, with the violation total based on how many teens are estimated to have been impacted by Meta's conduct.
A huge thing is that this is just these four states.
Meta is also facing lawsuits from dozens of other states, mostly accusing the platform of violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
And then there's more we're going to dive into in just a minute.
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And then, diving right back into the news with you…

We've got to talk about this huge explosive diarrhea outbreak because right now you have a record number of people in Michigan suffering from a parasitic infection that causes explosive, watery diarrhea.
And those are the CDC's words.
But also, literally no one knows where it's coming from.
So the parasite in question is called Cyclospora.
It typically spreads through produce and water that have been contaminated with human feces.
Past U.S. outbreaks have been caused when people consumed fruits and vegetables that were irrigated with contaminated water.
Though public health experts also say another major source can be the lack of toilets and sanitation stations at farms that grow produce.
While you've got some infected people reporting no symptoms at all, the CDC says the most common symptom is watery diarrhea with frequent—and sometimes explosive—bowel movements that can sometimes last for weeks.
It's not your run-of-the-mill 12-hour regret after you had some midnight Taco Bell.
Actually, beyond that, other symptoms can include cramps, nausea, fatigue, loss of appetite, low-grade fever, and vomiting, all of which can last anywhere from several days to over a month.
But the good news is—I guess, if you can call it that—is that these infections are rarely life-threatening.
While people with weakened immune systems are more at risk, most symptoms resolve on their own.
And the infection can typically be treated with antibiotics.
I also should note here that Cyclospora is actually a seasonal illness in the United States, with outbreaks usually taking place in the late spring and summer because the parasite favors warm, damp climates.
Actually, thousands of Cyclospora illnesses are reported in the United States each year.
You had a CDC official telling reporters that, even with the current outbreak, it's still unclear how unusual this year will be.
But that's also kind of where the downplaying ends.
Because the official also noted that the national case total so far is four times higher than it was at the same time last year.
That's just going off CDC national data, which usually lags behind state reporting.
The CDC's most recent surveillance still says there have only been 145 cases this year, which we know is objectively wrong because the data from states paints a very shitty picture.
Michigan, as of yesterday, had nearly 1,000 reported cases.
At least 40 people have been hospitalized.
That's the largest outbreak they've had in their entire history.
They normally see around 50 cases a year.
But it's by no means limited to Michigan.
Northwest Ohio, which borders Michigan, has also reported more than 500 cases.
Nationally, as of mid-June, the CDC reported cases in 17 states.
Again, the national data lags way behind.
It could be way worse, and we just don't know it.
Why?
You've currently got public health investigations into similar illnesses in 28 other states.
One of the biggest pains is that no one really knows what's causing this.
If you look into it, Cyclospora is notoriously hard to track.
I mean, it can't be grown in a lab, and it's often very difficult to figure out what food sick people had in common because it usually comes from a simple, common ingredient—something like basil.
Then you're trying to figure out supply chains to both restaurants and grocery stores.
So in the meantime, people are just kind of looking back at history and going, "Okay, well, what do we know?"
It's often connected to contaminated fruits and vegetables, including:
- Salad greens
- Raspberries
- Basil
- Cilantro
- Green onions
- Snow peas
- And other fresh produce
Wash your fruits and vegetables really well.
Though, I mean, there's still a risk with raw produce.
Also, cook your vegetables when you can.
And when you're eating lettuce, buy whole heads instead of pre-washed bags, and remove the outer two or three leaves before eating.
While there's a whole other conversation to be had around experts attributing the increase we're seeing here to both global warming and better detection, I'll end on something that is maybe almost optimistic.
Health officials say the chances of human-to-human transmission are low.
And there's currently no evidence indicating that the parasite has evolved to become more infectious.
Though I imagine that's probably not the most comforting information to have if you end up getting this and you're kind of stuck to a toilet bowl for almost a month.
But then we also have to talk about a different kind of shitstorm: the Maine Senate race.
Because Graham Platner is officially out of the running after being accused of sexual assault.
And now you're seeing the race to replace him underway.
You have right-wingers arguing that Democrats knowingly backed a monster while, at the same time, insisting they must keep that monster in the race.
And that's even as others—including none other than Donald Trump himself—have, in some ways, come to Platner's defense, seeming to suggest that the sexual assault allegations against him could just be made up.
Well, of course, at least right now, it is just an allegation, but it's widely been seen as a credible one.
It's only the latest thing that's called Platner's character into question.
You've had him going from scandal to scandal since launching his candidacy last summer, including:
- Social media posts dismissive of sexual assault.
- A tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol.
- Sexually explicit text messages that he sent to other women after getting married in 2023.
- Allegations of toxic and abusive behavior by ex-girlfriends.
While his polling stayed pretty strong through all of that, and high-profile supporters including Senator Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren stood by Platner through those controversies, on Monday, that changed.
One of those ex-girlfriends came forward with a new, disturbing claim that Platner had not only mistreated her but had raped her, entered her home drunk and uninvited, and forced himself on her despite repeated refusals.
As a result, many of the Democrats who had supported him up to that point turned on him, calling on him to withdraw from the race.
Then, the next day, another woman who had already accused Platner of getting physical with her came forward and claimed that he had removed a condom without consent during sex—a practice known as stealthing, which is classified as a form of sexual assault in several states.
Throughout all of this, Platner has denied the allegations of non-consensual behavior, and his campaign suggested the allegations were politically motivated.
But ultimately, Platner decided there was really no coming back from this—at least not in this election.
Several of his closest advisers reportedly pleaded with him to strike a conciliatory tone in the announcement ending his Senate campaign.
Platner reportedly told them that he'd only move forward with the announcement if he were allowed to say everything that he wanted.
And it at least seems like he probably did that because his video announcing his decision is more than 11 minutes long.
It starts off with Platner again denying the allegations and then blaming the establishment and the system for essentially his campaign's demise.
"A corporate media system and the political establishment got to act as judge, jury, and executioner."
"There is a reason this is happening. This was the last week to try to get me off the ballot."
"It's not the false allegations, though, that have brought us to where we are. It's the fact that they are being used by the political establishment to put structural pressure on us."
"We live in a political system that is not built for normal people. It is a system that is built structurally to make sure that movements like ours cannot flourish. That if they begin to succeed, they can be crushed."
From there, Platner turned his attention to the process of replacing him, saying that it needs to reflect the will and values of the people who built his movement.
Adding:
"Decisions should not be made in back rooms by people in places of political power. Party apparatchiks are not the ones to make these decisions."
"These decisions need to be made in the open by the people of this state."
"The people who got us here."
"This is exactly the kind of political system that everyone voted against on June 9th."
"For that reason, we need to be assured that it is going to be open and democratic as we move forward."
With all that, right now it's really not clear exactly how this process is going to play out.
All we really know is that the Maine Democratic Party has until July 27 at 5:00 p.m. to decide on a replacement, and they say they're going to do this through a nominating convention held sometime before then.
Actually, another big thing is that before announcing his withdrawal, Platner reportedly told campaign staff on a call that he had asked the Democratic Party for assurances that they would ensure a replacement process that respected the will of the voters who voted for a different kind of politics.
Then, with that, you had the head of the Maine Democratic Party claiming that Platner's team had repeatedly reached out to them in an attempt to, quote, "put their thumb on the scale" of the selection process.
Adding:
"We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner's team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee."
While that may be true, you also have a lot of people saying they need to be very careful with both who they pick and how they pick that person.
Because it would be a mistake to go with someone who doesn't represent the same values that Platner's supporters backed.
So now, what you're seeing—and by no means is this universal—is a lot of his supporters, or maybe former supporters, rallying behind former State Senator Troy Jackson.
While a lot of people note that his most recent campaign was a failed bid for governor, where he finished third in the Democratic primary, many are saying he might be the perfect mix of politician and working-class populist.
He's won elections before.
He was actually Maine Senate President for a time.
You've had him fighting for and running on:
- Lower prescription drug prices.
- Universal school meals.
- Protecting union jobs.
- Expanding rural health care.
- Delivering property tax relief.
- Safeguarding the environment.
- Passing laws that would put power back into the hands of working Mainers.
In his most recent post after announcing that he'd thrown his hat into the ring, he said:
"I will be a vote for Medicare for All in the U.S. Senate."
"Susan Collins, on the other hand, recently helped advance $990 billion in Medicaid cuts so the richest Americans could get another tax break."
But he's definitely not the only option.
You've got other candidates including, but not limited to:
- Nirav Shah, the former public health official who finished second in the Democratic primary for governor.
- Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who finished fourth in that same race.
Then, in the meantime, you have a lot of people—including many on the right—echoing Platner's claims, suggesting that this is the establishment getting rid of a candidate they think is no longer useful.
You're seeing people like conservative commentator Tomi Lahren comparing this to what happened with Democrats during the last presidential race, writing:
"Well, Maine Democrats Biden'd Platner."
"The party of democracy props up candidates and then pulls the rug out."
Then, with this, you had many conservative commentators also pretty much accepting the sexual assault allegations as true while arguing Democrats were willing to overlook them as long as they thought they could win.
For example, the Republican Party's X account posted:
"Every Democrat that endorsed Graham Platner endorsed a rapist."
Adding:
"Democrats are okay with predators."
You also had Lara Trump telling Fox:
"We've known who Graham Platner is for a long time. But the Democrat Party was willing to look the other way because they wanted so desperately to retain and regain power."
"How can you possibly trust a party that is basically willing to lie to you and tell you that this guy is okay?"
With all that, of course, there are a lot of people looking at Platner's history now and questioning why so many people stood by him.
But then, with that, you have a number of people saying:
"Hey, the first specific sexual assault allegation against Platner became public on Monday. It's now Thursday. He's out of the race."
But then, maybe more notably, to your father-in-law, Donald Trump—and for the rest of the Trump supporters—the person you back every single day, bend over backwards to defend, is Donald Trump.
A man who's in the Epstein files, has been accused of sexual misconduct multiple times over decades, and who has been found civilly liable for sexual abuse, which the judge clarified, in practical everyday terms, was rape.
That's not me just throwing out a random accusation.
That is a judge saying that.
And he's leading an administration that's filled with people like Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who not only has tattoos that have been linked by some to Christian nationalist and white supremacist movements, but has also been accused of sexual assault.
Those allegations were detailed in a police report that didn't lead to criminal charges.
But he later reportedly paid the woman $50,000 to stay silent.
And of course, with all this, I'll note that in all of these cases—with the notable exception of the case in which a court found Trump civilly liable for sexual abuse—these remain allegations.
That actually brings us to another whole wave of reactions that have not just focused on pointing that out, but really giving weight to the idea that the accusations against Platner may be fabricated.
You had Trump, for example, saying:
"I'm sure you're questioning whether or not you believe the woman. A lot of people say big falsehoods."
You've also had the investigative outlet Drop Site News reporting that the first woman who accused Platner also told Politico that she had messaged him that night saying she needed her glute massaged.
The Drop Site News reporter argued that omitting that detail was "a shocking breach of journalistic ethics."
Although others quickly fired back that this sounded more like an attempt at victim blaming.
With one person comparing it to saying:
"She was also wearing a short skirt."
But ultimately, that is where we are right now.
There's a lot that's going to have to play out.
That ranges from the accusations against Platner, whether more evidence comes out, whether Platner—outside of the race—continues trying to defend himself, and then, separate from all of that:
- Who is the replacement?
- How are they picked?
- What's the public reaction?
And I mean that both from the left and the right.
Because, as devastated as you're seeing a lot of people on the left right now, there's even a lot of anger on the right.
Something you're seeing, though it's not always public, is reporting that behind the scenes they're absolutely furious.
A lot of money and time had been spent digging up information on Graham Platner and preparing to take him down before November.
Now, some of them see a risk that Democrats could simply copy and paste Platner's policies onto a new candidate—without all the baggage.
So seemingly, one of the biggest things everyone is going to be focused on right now is how Democrats choose the nominee.
That's going to be a major make-or-break factor in this situation.
But for now, we'll just have to wait and see.
And of course, in the meantime, I'd love to know your thoughts.
Then, for your final block today, I've got more news you need to know, starting with the whole Nolan Wells situation.
Because to start, you've got deleted text messages, arguments on the water, and a judge defending her son from accusations.
And all of this is just blowing up since Nolan Wells' body was found earlier this week.
Now you've got Ben Crump, the same lawyer who fought for the families of George Floyd and Trayvon Martin, stepping in because Wells' family says there are too many unanswered questions.
You've got them claiming:
"There is nothing right about this case."
"You're trying to tell us to just accept this as an accident and sweep it under the rug."
His mother, Christine, and his father say they will not allow that to happen.
With all these questions and suspicions, you've got a lot of people pointing fingers at Wells' friends, asking why they left him behind on the island in the first place.
One of the guys he was with is the son of a judge in the area.
She then went to Facebook to deny rumors about their involvement, saying:
"No one in our family is trying in any way to impede the investigation."
She also claimed the kids had to leave the island that day because of an issue with their boat and that Wells decided to stay behind and catch a ride with another group of friends.
But then you also had Crump saying that Wells had a conversation with a girl who apparently gave a different version of events.
"They are conflicting."
"She's saying he went and got on the boat. They say he didn't get on the boat."
"So which is it?"
"All we know is Nolan is dead."
Then, with that, you've also got authorities asking for more information about a video that's been circulating from that day.
In the video, you can hear what sounds like people arguing in the background.
Though right now, no one has confirmed whether Wells was involved in that argument.
Then, on top of those issues, you're seeing concerns about Wells' phone making things even more complicated for the family.
They're saying messages were deleted from his cell phone.
"So they want to try to search that area and cross every 'T.'"
"They're trying to look at what that's about."
"There's so many inconsistencies going on."
Also, underlying all of this is the issue of race.
The family has expressed concerns about the State of Mississippi investigating the death of a young Black man where young white students may be looked at as having some culpability.
When you look online, you're seeing a lot of people expressing similar concerns, saying things like:
"I absolutely do not believe it was an accident."
"There should be a completely independent investigation because I do not trust Mississippi at all."
"He was left behind on a Mississippi island."
"We love to preach equality until a Black boy is the only one in the group."
"Then it's silence, suspicion, and accidents."
You now have Crump saying they're flying the body to Washington, D.C., for an independent autopsy.
He's hopeful they're going to get results back pretty soon.
So for now, the case is to be continued.
Then also in the news, you should know about Marsha Blackburn and her campaign, because she has a lot of people calling one of her new ads blatantly racist, ignorant, and Red Scare-mongering garbage.
"How hard am I going to crack down on China? Well, here's a clue."
"Marsha Blackburn worked with President Trump to take on Communist China."
"It doesn't take a fortune cookie to figure it out."
"Here in Tennessee, we're going to stop Communist China and protect Tennessee land."
Right. And Blackburn, if you're fortunate enough not to know, is a U.S. Senator out of Tennessee, and this year she's running for governor.
You had her campaign just getting a $1 million boost in ads from the Tennessee Freedom Fund PAC.
And apparently this was her first order of business with that money:
An ad that talks about her standing with Trump and hunting down communists.
And the backlash we've seen has been pretty bad.
Starting with, you know, the imagery behind all this, people finding it just absolutely, unironically hilarious.
First, you have people pointing out that fortune cookies really aren't actually much of a thing in China, so that's really not helping her point.
Then you've got the soy sauce on the table, which looks a lot like Kikkoman, a Japanese brand.
Also, the beckoning cat at the end? That's Japanese as well.
Among other things, you've had people saying stuff like:
"Some TV ads are subtle, and some..."
"Well, hey, no one said racists were smart."
Well, hey, yes, there is a lot to make fun of here.
But I do need to say, there is an impact behind these types of ads.
One, unfortunately, there's a group of people out there that will just gobble this up like slop.
And two, we saw violence against Asians rise following COVID when the president was saying things like, "China virus."
The anti-immigration rhetoric and the legislation that he's been pushing even more in a second term aren't helping the problem either.
And so, despite how ridiculous and clownish a lot of these people are—and what they do can be—we also need to appreciate and acknowledge that ads like this fuel an issue that can lead to very real harm in communities across the country.
But then, last up in the news today, we've got an update on the Charlie Kirk case.
Because you have his family reportedly asking for the release of video footage and other evidence against Tyler Robinson to be made public.
You have their attorney saying:
"They believe strongly that if the evidence is being admitted in this preliminary hearing, it should be made public for the world to see."
Adding:
"To not be transparent here, to not be open, to not let the world see what happened, will create doubt and distrust in the judicial system."
Notably, this evidence would include an interview with Robinson's roommate, Lance Twigg, who was first interviewed back in September and was eventually granted use immunity.
But with that, you've got Robinson's defense attorney arguing that making the interview public could threaten his client's right to a fair trial.
He also raised the same concern regarding Discord chats and text messages that would become public as well.
Saying prosecutors could frame it all as a confession, even though he claims they're simply statements made by an individual.
But then you have the judge in the case actually ordering prosecutors to prepare an edited version of the interview that contains only the excerpts he is considering making public.
With that, they actually played portions of the interview in court earlier today.
They also revealed some Discord messages that Robinson sent to friends, along with other communications he had with Twigg.
Most of that has already made its way into the public.
But as far as what else may come out, we still aren't sure.
Really, whatever happens here is going to be big—both for the court of public opinion regarding what's happening online and in the real world, and also for how it impacts the actual court case moving forward.
But hey, my friends, you beautiful bastards, that is the end of your Thursday show.
Thank you for watching.
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My name is Philip DeFranco.
You've just been filled in.
I love yo' faces, and I'll see you right back here next time.