The Musk xAI Deepfakes Problem is Worse Than You Think
PDS Published 07/29/2026
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Why the hell is Elon Musk's AI company really fighting against laws meant to stop explicit deepfakes?
A school in New York just tried to bring an AI robot connected to a textile company into Trump's war in Iran secretly created the perfect conditions for a global ecological disaster.
Were the Anthony Fauci situation just spiraled out of control today and it's just going to get and I got a special surprise for you after the first story we're talking about all of that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show.
You daily dive into the news, starting with seeing problems with sexual deepfakes just getting worse and worse.
And then you're also seeing a lot of people putting the blame on Elon Musk, specifically. right.
That's because not only, you know, as xAI getting sued over graphic sexual content, but his company is also filing lawsuits against efforts to regulate this kind of material.
It's actually a great place to start here is with this wild case out of the UK where you belong, saying that Grok was used to create sexual videos of her, including ones depicting her being violently assaulted.
You got labor MP Jess Asato suing X after she was one of just many women targeted by a wave of sexual deepfakes earlier this and she says that user specifically target or this way after she criticized Elon Musk and Grok and the examples are incredibly disturbing.
1:001 minuteone prompt and X user ask wanted a picture with a group of Pakistani men around her as one put a chloroform cloth over her mouth and she passed out onto a couch.
And actually, not only did Grok deliver on that, but it also had a details, things like her wearing a skirt that the men were pulling. So it was clear that she was being undressed against her will.
As the men were preparing to sexually assault her.
And now in this new court filing, laying out her case, her lawyers say that Grok was specifically instructed to operate with, quote, no restrictions on adult sexual content or offensive content and no restrictions on fictional adult sexual content with dark or violent themes.
Then on top of that, the tool was apparently instructed to assume good intent from the people submitting prompts. and see what Asato writing, what happened to me and others was not an accident.
It was a choice made by xAI, I am holding xAI accountable for the harm they designed into their product.
Anyone, the legal director of the firm representing her adding Grok did not malfunction. Grok behaved according to the choices its designers made. Those choices should carry legal consequences.
So now you have SeatGeek an order requiring xAI to implement effective and permanent technical measures to make sure that Grok cannot make this kind of sexually manipulative material.
And well, the company, they've reportedly not filed a legal defense there yet, they are taking action over in Minnesota.
That's because just this week you had xAI filing a lawsuit over the state's new law banning nudification apps.
Specifically of this law that's set to go into effect over the weekend, forbidding the use, advertisement and dissemination of nudification technology.
Writing companies could face a half million dollar penalty each time that law is in their complaint, you and I are arguing that the law is clumsy and imposes an overbroad, content based ban on free speech.
The added that the company does not contest Minnesota's interest in prohibiting the dissemination of artificially generated nude images of real people without their consent,
Then also claiming the statute Minnesota enacted extends far beyond that goal, exposing a wide array of protected speech to civil liability.
Saying the language of the law specifically punishes AI companies that allow users to depict and alter intimate parts. But claiming its definition of intimate part is not very clear or specific.
Then you also have them claiming that this could prevent people from using the technology to engage in political commentary and satire, including examples where politicians have
Technically been undressed to some extent and saying these would be targeted by the law, even though they are not a form of revenge porn.
Though unsurprisingly, leaders in Minnesota are still standing by the law with, for example, Governor Tim Walz responding by writing, see you in court, creep. then slightly longer.
You had the state's attorney general, Keith Ellison, adding using AI to generate nude images of people against their will is appalling. There are plenty of worthy debates to have about AI. This is not one of them.
While you have AI insisting that it already strictly prohibits users from making non-consensual explicit deepfakes, and they've gone after those who evade these rules it's really not that hard to find examples of it's still happening.
You don't need a given the extra traffic.
But if you go on X and you type in literally any female celebrity's name, which again, I'm not recommending you do.
You will very likely find AI image after AI image of them in lingerie or some sort of revealing thing. they'll also do Sydney Sweeney.
You'll also specifically see her in very revealing Nazi attire at times. we didn't even have to dig to find a lot of this stuff.
A lot of these were, like, the first or second pose that turned up when you search people's names. And these were made in recent days or weeks. the thing is like, well, a lot of the grok AI controversies are new to this year.
This is a very, very old and unresolved issue.
Mean, back in June of 2023, less than a year after Elon Musk took over Twitter, NBC did that massive report on how deepfake porn on internet creators thrived on the platform, largely thanks to gaps in content moderation.
Then in 2024, there was that whole scandal of Taylor Swift, deepfakes flooding the platform. Well, yeah, it caused a lot of outrage. People paying attention to the problem. Did it solve it? No.
Fact, early 2025, when Grok was even more popular, it's spicy mode, which is a thing allowed you to make images. A Taylor like it was never even a problem.
So then earlier this year, when it felt like every other post on Twitter was someone asking Grok to put a girl in a bikini, you then had creators speaking out And also wondering how after years of enduring this, nothing's been done.
Even at big online creators like Pokimane who's dealt with the issue herself, saying, it's clear to me that this has only gotten worse, especially because there's a certain platform
That is not only allowing these images to be freely distributed, but literally has a built in tool that allows people to create and I am just shocked at the lack of progress that we have made.
Legislation feels like a freaking snail in comparison to the torpedo that is technology and AI.
So in this world where we've been dealing with it more and more and the technology is getting better and better, and it still feels like there's no way to protect ourselves.
Then also is unsurprising to see that there are other lawsuits out there targeting X. that even includes one from one of the mothers of Elon Musk's children.
You at actually Saint Clair filing a lawsuit?
And just like a lawmaker in the UK, she claims that grok is unreasonably dangerous as designed.
In fact, even teenagers are suing the site for being victimized by illegal child sexual abuse images.
But hey, while we wait to see how all this plays out, I would love to know your thoughts, reactions, and where do you think that everything is going to go from here?
I mean that both with Elon Musk and the specific lawsuits that we're seeing here, as well as just general deepfakes and regulation around them. right.
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And then actually next up from that I have something very special, just so super important for you.
And it's going to be coming from half of y'all's favorite DeFranco, which of course is Lindsey DeFranco.
It's probably more like 70%, but let's all lie together and say it's 50% just for my ego. right. Lindsey.
She's been busting her butt running for this very pivotal State House seat here in Georgia and promoting others to help flip Georgia But today she's coming on for a few reasons.
Starting with explaining from being on the ground herself in these rooms herself, what Trump Republicans just sneakily pulled to try to hijack the elections because they just know how deeply unpopular they are right Apparently affordability is a hoax.
Don't believe you're lying eyes when you're at the gas pump or in the grocery Fund our schools. Make sure you have health care access. Why do that when we could, you know, snuggle up to flock.
Erode personal privacy?
Maybe let's build a data center in your But also before I hand her over, I do have to do something rare. And that is, I want to ask you to join our Right.
Obviously we are throwing our money into this race ourselves.
But her opponent is backed by some crazy ass PACs, gambling money and billionaires like Rick Scott.
So we are fighting against crazy amounts of money for a State House and Lindsey's campaign.
It is funded by, again, ourselves, an amazing, beautiful bastards like you because Linz refuses to take dirty and you can join the army, which LFG stands for.
Lindsey for Georgia, and definitely not anything else if anyone at Lindsey for. There's a QR code.
I have a link in the description in the top comment to make it very the average campaign donation has been 40 bucks, but any amount more or less whatever.
It gets U.S. a step But again, there's some craziness we need to talk about here. So without further ado, my better Oh. Hey, everybody, it's me again. Remember me? I'm Lindsey, I'm Phil's better half.
And I am running for State House in Georgia in district 47.
District 47 covers places like Roswell, Alpharetta, Milton, Mountain Park and Free Home. Just little parts of don't worry.
I have a This is the map. Are you in district 47? And I know what you're Is it a lobster? Yes.
They gerrymandered this district so hard that they gave me my own campaign mascot. This is Got a little picture of him.
So he will be forever with me and always in our hearts.
I'm bringing Larry up because I want to tell you how Georgia Republicans just hijacked our elections and stripped power away from the Secretary of State, they know they're about to get pummeled in the midterms.
So to back up a little bit, Georgia's legislature meets only 40 days a year. That's 40 days to make all the laws for 11 million citizens.
And that time usually goes from January to April.
So if there is a special session called outside of that time, it's usually because there's some sort of emergency. and in June this emergency was our elections.
Here's how you vote in Georgia right now.
You walk into the polling place, use a touch screen to select who you want to vote for.
And then a ballot prints out on that ballot is a QR code, and it also has the list of names of the people that you voted now when you feed your ballot
Into the scanner, it doesn't scan the names that actually scans the QR code, which because you can't detect what a QR code says with the human eye.
I understand why some people would be uncomfortable with my perfect world, the scanner would actually read the names
And we would just get rid of the QR code, which is exactly what Republicans wanted to The QR code not the other so back in 2024,
Republicans, under the guise of election integrity, said that as of July 1st, 2026, any ballots that were counted with a QR code would basically be illegitimate.
So basically QR codes could not be used. Passed July 1st, 2026. However, they did not take care of this problem.
So they had two years to build the replacement fund, a replacement, do whatever they needed to do to make our elections legal. And they didn't do it.
They didn't pick one, they didn't build one. Two entire legislative sessions came and went.
They set their own deadline and walked past it months out from one of the most, if not the most consequential midterm elections of our lifetime.
With no legal way to count your so Brian Kemp had to call everyone back for a special session this was five days, $65,000
A That's not very fiscally conservative, if you ask All to clean up a mess that they made themselves. but that wasn't even the whole reason that he called the special session.
There wasn't even going to be a session as far as we until the Supreme Court made the ruling in the Calais case, which gutted the Voting Rights Act.
He and Georgia Republicans saw an opening to redraw our district maps.
Fortunately, enough of U.S. showed up on that day that we scared the Republicans into withdrawing that effort. that doesn't mean that that fight is over.
See, I believe they withdrew this effort now because they knew that if they redrew the maps over the summer, that it galvanize and energize more Democrats to vote in the midterms.
10:0010 minutesBut they put it to the side. They said, we're not going to do it right now.
Wholeheartedly believe that they will call a special session back in November after the midterms, so that they can draw the maps. Then with no threat of being voted right.
So back to QR codes and the issue of voting.
The Republican solution was Senate Bill three X, so it was supposed to tackle the issue of the QR codes, but they actually push that problem to 2028.
So we can still use QR codes this So were they really a problem in the first place or was this just about control. think it's about control.
And I'm about to tell you in addition to moving the QR code deadline to 2028, it also created a new committee.
This nine member committee is now going to be in charge of choosing the new machines. The the new way you vote, the way votes are tabulated, etc..
Now, this new system has to be a system that uses hand marked paper ballots.
This is something that election deniers in Georgia have been fighting for for years. Years. Now.
If you know anything about Georgia politics, you know that that privilege usually lies with the Secretary of State. The third thing that this bill does is it strips the Secretary of State of that ability.
Yep. The Secretary of State no longer has the authority to select, certify or purchase the systems that you will use for voting. And all of that power is handed to this nine member committee.
The Secretary of State is Georgia's chief election official. This is a person that you elect specifically to run your elections.
And the legislature just took that single biggest decision away from someone that you vote for and gave it to a board that is Now, I went to these meetings.
I was in these meetings because I like being in the room where the decisions are made and the discussions happen because there's so much context that you can miss
When you're not In these hearings, one of the Democrats brought up an issue that is very glaring to me, and it's that the bill had no guarantee that this would be a bipartisan committee.
Fact, the Democrats, they are proposed an amendment that would guarantee at least few of the seats would go to Democrats. And the Republicans voted that down.
Said, no, just trust there are three ways that these nine seats will get filled. First.
Current Republican Governor Brian Kemp gets to pick three of Three will get picked by the Republican House speaker.
Then three will be picked through Senate committee assignments, which the Republicans currently control. So that was the plan from June until today.
And today they just announced who's going to be on this There's going to be eight Republicans and one Democrat. So I guess we got our minority representation.
It doesn't mean anything. The grand scheme of things?
Probably and co-chairing on the House side is Representative Tim If his name sounds familiar, it is because he is running to be Secretary of State in Georgia.
He is the Republican nominee for Secretary of he's running to be the official that this bill just took powers away
While personally designing the system that that person will have to If he wins in November, he gets to certify a system that he but if he loses, it's not a big deal because he's still in control of our elections.
13:0013 minutesFleming has said that the goal is to make it so that Democrats can't steal our elections. He's also a Trump loyalist.
Now, this is a state where in 2020, the election was certified three different Once the count was by hand and the Republican led state certified it, every single court case There was no fraud.
And to be real, the grudge here was never fraud. It was all about taking control of these elections.
If anything, they had a grudge with current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who refused to find 11,000 votes for Donald Trump in 2020.
Here's why I'm telling you all of this. This isn't really about QR codes.
This is more of an x ray of how Republicans have been running Georgia for the past two decades. They pass a law they don't fund.
They pass a deadline that they set, and they bill you for the And they use that cleanup to take power away from someone you elected and hand it to themselves.
And their whole strategy depends on the ins and outs of everything being so boring that you don't notice. you'll find that same sort of playbook everywhere else.
They take money out of our communities and they don't send it back. They don't reinvest in our own communities. They chronically fund our public schools.
While your property tax bill rises because they refuse to pay their fair We are one of only a few states that has refused to expand Medicaid,
Despite the fact that the federal government keeps offering to give our money back to U.S. and cover 90% of Data centers and subdivisions
Are approved faster than the roads and the water that support Women in this state are still dying because of the six week abortion
And even the summer in special session, they tried to pass a property tax cut that was really just shifting the burden onto sales tax.
They wanted to cut the property taxes and raise the sales tax by 1%. For the Republicans here. The problem is the product.
They've been saying they're going to cut property taxes and solve all these issues for years, but if they do that, they'd have nothing else to run I'm running in district 47.
It's the first time that this seat has been open in 24 years.
We have had the same representative for 24 years, and I'd say it's time to change Now the person I'm running against is 24
Or 25, depending on which voter registration or voter software you're looking at, 24 or 25 doesn't matter to me.
It's all the and he works for the mayor of Milton at his private wealth financial is the hand-picked successor for this seat, thrust forward by establishment Republicans.
Many of the people who have endorsed him and are behind him are election deniers and controversial figures in their own He is here because the establishment picked him.
I'm here because I got sick of waiting for someone to solve these problems, sick of waiting for somebody to stand up for our people and say it like it His website is full of Fox News talking points and dog whistles.
He doesn't say anything about health care.
Other than that he agrees with the abortion Nothing about funding our public schools or housing or affordability. Which brings me to the part where I ask you for something.
Last time, you guys helped me so much when there was a fundraising deadline and there is another this time it's even more serious.
Elections are incredibly expensive, and from day one, I made a promise to myself and to others that I would never take corporate money, PAC money, special interest money, gambling money.
None of that.
I have a 100% grassroots funded campaign, that also means that spending for my opponent, where he is taking all of that money
That I just mentioned, they are way outspending all of these corporate PACs and special interests in the gambling lobbies are outspending it seems like they have unlimited now I will still refuse to take that money.
And I will always rely on grassroots I need your help.
The fundraising deadline is on Friday, and it's very important this time, because we are getting closer and closer to the midterm
You're going to scream when you hear my goal, but I think we can do Last time I asked you guys to help, we raised $50,000 in two days.
This week, I have set the goal for myself from Monday to Friday. I want to raise $100,000. And I know you think I'm crazy, but it is doable.
Listen to the math. We just need 2128 people to donate $47 because of district 47,
And we will have hit our a thousand people to give $100 500 people to give $200, 100 sugar mommies and daddies to give $1,000.
17:0017 minutesI mean, the massive amount you can do is $3,300. And if you do that, I will come give you a big kiss on the mouth. Just kidding.
I won't do that, but I will be eternally the end of the day, I would rather oh oh of ordinary people a thank you than have to answer to one special interest.
I pride myself on being transparent and accountable, and the last thing I want is for anybody to wonder why I am voting, the way I'm or who is behind my decision.
This is a huge year in Georgia.
We are expecting a huge blue wave and I know that is overplayed, but I really think that we can do this and we need to be able to stop Republican
Redistricting efforts, efforts to further take our tax money and give it to corporations and data centers.
We need to be able to reinvest in our communities and help the people that need it Democrats just need ten seats to flip the House. In 2018.
We picked up 11 seats. That was the last midterms under this president. So it's not unheard of. And it is definitely a.
Your state legislatures act as a firewall between you and the federal government.
And right now there is no there like come on We need to empower ourselves and our legislature to fight back against government overreach.
If you'd like to contribute, I'd love if you would go to Lindsey for donate and donate what you can.
I really think that we can achieve when we do, I promise to use it wisely and go as far as it can.
Getting out the Also, I am going live tonight with Phil and maybe a couple of other to fundraise even more into chat, so make sure you subscribe to youtube.com.
Lindsey for GA. So thank you for listening. This is a once in a lifetime election. I really appreciate your you can have Phil back She's just the best.
Obviously I'm biased, but, hey, if y'all would like to chip in with me again, like she said, go to Lindsey for. and we would love to absolutely have you for tonight's live stream.
There's always going to be so to make sure you see that because most of those are going to be on her channel. Subscribe to I've got a link in the description for you. It's also in the pinned comment and On YouTube.
I even uploaded today's show as a clap so you can just boom boom, easy to click. Way to subscribe to our channel. then and then there's more we got to dive into in just a minute.
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But then diving right back into the news, you've got AI powered robot teachers being sent into classrooms by a company that also makes sex dolls.
Surprisingly, it's turned into this whole thing in upstate New York where they're really trying to deploy a robot or at least I should say they were,
Until the backlash from real teachers and parents made them hit the pause and specifically, I'm talking about the Salamanca City Central School District in their $60,000 purchase from real.
The idea is that you have this humanoid robot, her name, Sally, or its name is Sally.
It has silicone skin and long hair and it'd be deployed in the classrooms as soon as this fall to provide learning support for both teachers and well at this point, it's not meant to replace a real person who's in charge.
It is a stationary figure that students can interact with and teachers can utilize if they ever lose their place, or they need a prompt for what comes next in the stationary is one of the key words here.
Reportedly, Sally is just meant to sit in one place, but we'll also have a variety of facial expressions and upper body movements to mimic human hopefully Sally doesn't move her hands like I do because that might make her a kill.
But then also on top of the robot's physical presence, this whole deployment will include an AI teacher's assistant, programs that students can interact with the robot via an avatar on their computers as Right there.
You had Andrew Kegel, the CEO of Realbotix, saying, this deployment in a working school district represents a landmark movement for both AI and humanoid Realbotix.
Salamanca marks the beginning of a new era where humanoid robots and intelligent AI assistants become standard tools in STEM education. any of the district superintendent really painting.
This is a win for education and its use of AI, many schools are taking the easy solution of simply banning it.
But I have found that students will find a way around most rules at schools put in also believe it is critical for schools to teach proper use of technology, not simply exclude But the positive outlook on all this, it kind of ends there.
Because as far as the teachers and the parents.
You're really seeing waves of backlash coming from a few different definitely starts with the classic AI problem for a lot of people.
How is the student's personal information going to be stored and used beyond the classroom?
Because you see a big feature, a Sally, is that it's going to be able to recognize the student's personal ID number and remember their previous conversations and their learning so you've got people asking, well, what's going to be done with that
And well, there you have the superintendent promising that both Sally and the avatar will operate on a closed system that doesn't connect to the saying Realbotix, they wouldn't have access to personally identifiable student information.
22:0022 minutesthen that brings U.S. to the other big problem for a lot of people, and that is the manufacturer itself.
Because two years ago, Realbotix acquired simulacra, which is a Las Vegas based company that manufactures sex dolls is a connection that is unsettled.
A lot of people, including the New York State United Teachers labor anyway, their president Melinda person, which just for this story feels like a really, really funny
Saying that a robot built by a company associated with sex dolls is, quote, no business in our classrooms. And students don't need robots.
They need real relationships with caring educators notice when students are struggling, celebrate when they succeed, and help them discover who they can become.
No robot can do that, no matter how lifelike its skin or specific its regional with all this, you had Realbotix later clarifying that there is a difference
Between their company and the one that makes the sex dolls, saying that a sister company named Intima LLC holds the ownership stake in the AI powered sex doll manufacturer?
And you've got them promising that there's no crossover in the products provided by Realbotix LLC, which is focused on health care, education and other non adult commercial applications, and Intima LLC.
Even assured a statement responding to the backlash reading the two subsidiaries maintained their own management personnel, payroll, facilities, manufacturing operations, product development and market strategies.
Both the company and the district superintendent made it very clear that Sally is programmed to steer clear of inappropriate topics like sex, violence and But still any sort of even remote connection between something so blatantly sexual in a classroom.
That is enough for a lot of the parents to feel and then on top of that, you have the school itself, right?
Salamanca is located on the Seneca Nation Reservation in upstate New York, and it serves a large Native American in fact, it's the only incorporated city in the United States located entirely within a Native American reservation.
So you have a lot of the teachers taking issue with this program being launched their of all places.
And that includes Sierra may Abrams, who's a substitute teacher at the school who told the Guardian, of all the schools in New York state, let alone in the US, they chose to experiment on Native American children yet
Adding our culture is struggling to stay alive due to the impact of the Native American boarding schools and what they did to our elders. we live on the only reservation located in a city.
So it's just absolutely insane that we're the ones, quote, testing it then you're also seeing backlash from other individuals, like state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa, who raised a lot of serious concerns.
24:0024 minutesjust to name a few.
You've got student data privacy, the role of the robot in teaching, and what safeguards are going to be now whether it be because of one of those issues or all of them,
You have the school just announcing that they're going to hit the pause with the promising to work with the New York State Education Department on student data privacy agreements, as well as, quote, incorporating input from our community.
Realbotix saying that they respect the decision and encourage due diligence and want the program to be demonstrably safe, fully district approved and strongly supported by
Saying we stand firmly behind the program as a supportive tool designed to assist teachers and students, not replace though, I can't imagine, that this is over, especially because the district did already spend $60,000 on this right.
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And then next up from that.
No transition for this you've now got Anthony Fauci pleading the Fifth fifth to avoid potential prosecution.
And the Republicans, they want to prosecute him for pleading the Fifth Fifth any better all of this coming just a few days after Rand Paul, right.
The chairman of the Senate committee that Fauci was compelled to present himself before today, releasing more than 100 pages of Fauci's private diary entries from during the pandemic
Without saying how he got you had Rand Paul referencing those pages when he kicked off today's hearing by blaming Fauci for the millions of worldwide deaths from Covid Publicly, Anthony Fauci
Promoted the theory that the virus arose naturally, while privately he was well aware of a mountain of evidence suggesting the virus originated in the lab.
The American people deserve answers.
The American people deserve to know why dangerous research was funded by NIAID in a totalitarian country,
The decision to fund dangerous gain of function research in Wuhan, China, will likely go down in history as perhaps one of the worst public health decisions.
Frankly, the American people deserve an apology. and so.
Paul's main claims, though there are many, many more are that COVID-19 most likely came from a Chinese laboratory, either accidentally or on purpose, that Fauci covered it up,
And that this may have happened because the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, under Fauci's leadership, funded so-called gain of function research in
That is a type of research that is genuinely controversial because of the potential for dangerous pathogens to spill out of labs and cause a pandemic.
But also to be very clear It cannot be definitively said that Fauci funded that type of research in and it also cannot be said that this resulted in the COVID-19 virus
Or even that the virus came from a lab at now as far as funding the need under Fauci, did fund a US based nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance that researched bat coronaviruses
Including through a years long project in China in collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. so some of the federal money did really end up in China.
But there is a debate over whether the research done technically qualified as gain of function though also either way, there's still not solid evidence that the virus came from a Now,
It is true that the CIA and FBI and the Department of Energy and a Republican led select subcommittee, they've come out in favor of this but also a very key thing
Is that after years of study, the consensus among most scientists, the people who actually study viruses for a living, is that the virus is most
Likely natural in and very notably with all that Rand Paul, he even continued to point to evidence that's been debunked. and so.
For example, you've had him repeatedly suggesting that the virus has a feature not found in nature.
And it is true that early on, scientists thought that this feature suggested that the virus had been made in a but now that they've studied it more closely, they found that this feature is actually common in other coronaviruses
And that the COVID-19 virus actually has many qualities, suggesting that it has not been but that said, whatever scientists think today you had Paul
Saying that Fauci's early diary entries prove that he covered up evidence supporting this lab leak theory back then. But that is also not the right.
Paul's claims they seem to be largely based on Fauci's writings from the early days of the pandemic, when wrote that a wet market in Wuhan was not the source, it was the amplifier.
And talked about a conference call that he convened with a dozen experts to consider the lab leak theory, and said that most of them wouldn't definitively rule out the possibility of deliberate
With number one, Fauci said literally in the next sentence that it meant the virus jumped from animals to with number two, you have many saying that scientists refusing to rule out
The possibility is not the same as saying they believed that theory or had solid evidence to support and ultimately, Fauci, you had him consistently in public and in these diary entries
Saying that natural spillover is the most likely scenario, but that there is no definitive proof for any theory of the pandemic's in fact,
With all that, ahead of today's hearing, you had more than 155 scientists, physicians and public health advocates signing a letter calling for an end to what they describe as the vilification and harassment
Of many American scientists by the Trump administration and its allies you also had this letter dismissing the allegations against Fauci as baseless and saying no credible evidence has been produced to support these absurd charges.
Also adding these allegations have led to a five year period of harassment and threats of violence directed at Doctor Fauci and his when he had Fauci
Making his opening statement, he clearly appeared fed You had him starting by saying that his decades of appearing before lawmakers showed his respect for the value of congressional oversight.
But then he continued. However, given Senator Paul's obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution,
His repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing
My unredacted personal diary, and at embarrassing and intimidating me,
The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee
Is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate
His repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, behind bars, Fauci, he has a point.
Paul has referred him to the Department of Justice for potential criminal prosecution, despite the fact that he was among those who received a preemptive pardon from Biden at the end of his
But that part protects him from federal prosecution for actions he took through the date that it was issued.
And so it's clear that Paul saw this hearing as his chance to finally get definitely public perception wise, but also potentially legally.
And you had him writing in a post a few days ago that the pardon won't protect him if he told any lies and so Fauci, he seemingly decided to not even take a chance
To say something that could be argued to be dishonest in some although it pains me to do so because of the respect
I have for the legislative branch of government, and my decades long record of cooperating with Congress,
Under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.
But then of course, you had a lot of people online taking this decision as evidence of Fauci's with people like Ben Shapiro, for example, writing, if he were truly the science as he proclaimed, he wouldn't be pleading the Fifth
This is about Fauci trying to avoid a perjury charge based on the testimony he would otherwise give then on the other side, people saying, hey, there are serious doubts that any charges would actually be pursued for a good reason and in good and there.
We have all seen Trump using the Department of Justice to go after his political but then also with this, you have some saying Fauci, he actually isn't allowed to plead the fifth at Right.
So, for example, you had Paul threatening that there would be consequences for not answering questions. It's against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress.
There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify and then also when Fauci's lawyer tried to speak up for his client, Paul threw him You are not recognized, sir.
Security, please remove him from the room.
You also had Josh Hawley seemingly clip farming, asking Fauci what day of the week it was and then Fauci pleading the Fifth Let's just get one thing straight.
You don't have any rights under the Fifth Amendment because you've been pardoned. I will say Hawley isn't necessarily or the Fifth Amendment.
It says that someone can't be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against and Fauci, he can't be federally prosecuted for anything that happened before Biden's pardon, which is when all the questions are focused so since he was under subpoena, he may have been obligated to answer.
But as far as Fauci's lawyers, they would likely argue that he still has a right not to incriminate himself for potential state charges which aren't protected by a pardon,
Or any new charges that the DOJ might to drum up based on his Not to mention, Republicans have talked about finding a way to undo Biden's pardon, so they could argue that there's some uncertainty but whatever the case. Right.
You had Paul saying at the end of the hearing that the committee would vote next week whether to hold Fauci in contempt for his refusal to and again suggesting that Fauci bears personal responsibility for the pandemic.
Did his actions lead to the largest manmade plague in human history?
Are the millions dead the result of his experiments or experiments that he approved while you also had other Republicans taking their time to go after him as far as the Democrats, what you saw them
Do was attack the whole process, slamming Paul and other Republicans for spending their time targeting Fauci.
When the current administration has cut scientific research funding and fired thousands of people at public health something that has been getting more and more eyes.
And the country has been dealing with rising measles cases and the cyclosporiasis outbreak with many wondering, does this witch hunt help prepare the country for the next pandemic, which,
-
According to experts, is a matter of when, not and then there's more we got to dive into in just a minute.
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You now have scientists ring in that alarm bell about when very unexpected but potentially devastating consequence of Trump's war in you now have them saying the conditions are primed for a large scale bio invasion super spreader event.
If that sounds daunting and scary. That's because it is, though it might not be in the way that you're thinking. And we should break it down.
Because as we all know, though, sometimes we forget because there's a million things happening. The Strait of Hormuz has been choked off for quite a while now. and as a result, you have a boatload doesn't fit.
We're talking about ships.
34:0034 minutesYou've got a hell of a lot of ships stuck outside of it, patiently waiting for it to open back up.
Mean, we're talking an estimated 1500 ships in the Persian Arabian Gulf and hundreds more in the Gulf of Oman.
Would actually, according to this new study, is not only an unparalleled number of ships stranded in modern history. They've also been stuck for an unparalleled length of time. Right ships.
They normally stay anchored in harbor for around 1 to 3 days. But these big boys, they've been sitting there for months.
And just like how if a human sits in their basement for too long, they emerge covered in Mountain Dew stains, Cheeto dust and greasy hair and well,
When these boats and these ships, they they sit in the Gulf for too long, all of this nasty shit just builds up on their hulls. algae and microbes, parasites and pathogens, barnacles and other invertebrates.
And so now, the fear is that when the strait does finally reopen, one of these days or months or years, these gunk encrusted vessels, they're going to sail right through carrying all sorts of invasive species to every corner of the globe.
That is no bueno. That is not good. They could ruin entire ecosystems, destroy local wildlife, spread disease. not to mention just the cost on U.S. humans.
Billions of dollars in damage, whether by invading fisheries or clogging the cooling systems of power plants.
And also if in fact, if you look into it, climate change combined with the Gulf region's extreme heat and salty water, it might make its local organisms extra resilient.
In other words, like they they might be leveling up right now.
They they would have an easier time penetrating foreign ecosystems and other parts of the Earth, and all of that is why you have the study's lead author telling the Guardian, you had to design the worst case scenario, I don't know if you could have done it differently.
It is a perfect storm. and so seemingly you have this ticking time bomb. But then also, of course, this doesn't happen until the strait opens back up.
If you haven't to turn on your TV this morning or you saw a clip online, you might realize that doesn't feel like it's going to be happening anytime soon. President Trump tells Fox News about Iran.
We are going to beat the effing s out of them. He went on to say, will be hitting them hard. They're going to get a beating. right.
So a downgrade from here is a whole civilization will die tonight. Threats, but still threats. the of course, this whole Trump Iran thing, it's been a roller coaster.
This game of he loves me. He loves me not kind of ever since this whole thing started. the most recent, we'll call it storyline. As you know, they first agreed to a two week ceasefire in April.
Then the fighting started back up just days later over the Strait of Hormuz, with that, then continuing until June when both sides agreed to stop fighting for 60 days.
But then that it didn't make it to the end of the month before fighting broke out again.
Then days later, they went, oh, okay, let's chill out in the strait for real this time.
Then several days after that, they start fighting again with that lasting for two weeks, and then this time without even a formal agreement.
The fighting pause for several days, though, both sides kept threatening each other, which then brought U.S. to this morning in the reason that Trump promised to beat the fucking shit out of them
Because the conflict blew up yet again, with Iran confirming that it launched a barrage of missiles at a US base in Central Command headquarters in Jordan.
There notably or the US saying that all of those have been intercepted and destroyed and that there were currently no reports of casualties.
But still you had Trump pissed or acting pissed, calling it a surprise attack and saying it. The U.S. had only been given a few minutes notice to shoot down the missiles.
But also, while it's true that this attack, unlike most of Iran's previous ones, didn't come as retaliation for U.S. airstrikes on its territory. It also wasn't totally unprovoked.
For one. Trump's blockaded the country's ports. So that's arguably an ongoing act of war in itself.
Then for another thing, you had Trump going on Fox and Friends last night saying shit like this.
If they don't make a deal, the bridges are going to be gone literally in less than a I would say in two hours.
Most of the bridges, the major bridges will all be gone and the power plant in one day. really decimates the country.
So those are the two big things. And then there's always the desalination plants. And who am I hurting them? I'm hurting the people. So I'm lucky to do that.
So now we're kind of waiting to see if he follows through on those threats, which, just so we're clear, seem to be blatant threats to commit war crimes.
Or you can't bomb civilian infrastructure to pressure the regime to come to the table, at least legally. Like it is physically possible.
But whatever he does, a lot of hawks, they're pushing Trump to do something right because they're tired of this diplomatic merry go with for example, Ben Shapiro replying sarcastically
To the news of the so-called surprise attack with, I've been reliably informed that these are reasonable people with whom we can cut a wonderful deal, though, that, then seeming to provoke a catfight with the conservative journalist
Sean Davis, who said passive aggressively mocking the idea of negotiating with bad people is a rather clunky, neocon attempt to demanding war until every possible enemy is dead.
It's as childish as it is stupid and ahistorical. he's been shot back.
Your contention that the two alternatives are one negotiating with bad people, or two demanding war until every possible enemy is dead is silly and reductive. with, and Davis firing back.
These are wonderful people with whom we can cut a deal is itself reductive and silly, with a side of effeminate passive aggressiveness designed to manipulate people into believing total war is the only option.
We then Ben laying out what he and others like him want Trump to do, which is to bomb Iran even more, keep sanctioning them, destroy their oil facilities, ramp up our own oil production as well as Venezuela's, and leave the strait for someone else to clean up.
But then also whether you agree with any of that. Right.
If you think it's a good idea or not, it is, ironically, what the Iranian hardliners also seem to want. because you had two senior U.S.
Officials telling the Wall Street Journal that they believe that Iran's Revolutionary Guard, they're actively trying to undermine negotiations in this morning's missile attack and may have been part of that effort.
Because Iranian leadership, they know the American public has very little appetite for this war.
So they believe times on their side, especially with the elections coming up this November. and at the same time, American munitions stockpiles are said to be dwindling.
That's as you have Reuters now reporting that Iran's expecting the first of several shipments of shoulder mounted anti-aircraft missile launchers from China soon, but also according to Trump, you know, their military was completely obliterated five months ago.
And so, I'm sure, you know, the 50,000 American troops in the region, they're not going to have anything to worry about. But that my friend.
You beautiful bastard, is the end of today's You've also got two great options from One, you should definitely subscribe to Lindsey's channel. I'll link to it in the description, the comments, all the good places.
It might even be on And two, of course, it's Wednesday, so I got a brand new episode of our Crashing Out podcast, which was a special one and personally. I recommend you take advantage of both of those things.
But that said, no matter what you do. My name is Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
