The Real Reason Trump's Joe Rogan Problem is Getting Worse
PDS Published 09/02/2026
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We need to talk about what this Joe Rogan Lake America situation and fallout really means, and how Trump accidentally exposed himself.
this random Times Square stabbing highlighted a big problem that's just getting Mike Johnson might now be trying to stop Congress from releasing more Epstein files.
you've got a military widow saying that Trump denied her family benefits because he refuses to call his war a war.
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 we need to talk about this lake America's story because it is dumb. But I don't think people realize how dumb and how it's backfiring.
because if you didn't hear this dumbass news after threatening to do so.
Trump signed an executive order last week renaming Lake Ontario to Lake So if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake.
Now all we need is a notion.
is, in addition to whatever that made you feel, it immediately posed a problem for GPS service providers because they had to decide whether to stick with the old name or move on to the new right.
No matter what they chose, they'd be pissing somebody we ended up seeing, were three different companies taking three different strategies MapQuest, which I found out through this situation, I guess is still around,
publicly refused to make the also shout out to MapQuest, not just for this, but for being the reason I probably did not die on the side of a road
several times in my and actually in addition to keeping it Lake Ontario, they're still standing by Gulf of Mexico.
then on the other end of the spectrum, you had Apple Maps totally caving, Slap and Lake America right on and actually according to Trump's interior secretary,
that happened after Trump reached out to Apple directly asking to make the then lastly you would go going, hey, why not show in Lake America to Americans,
Lake Ontario to Canadians, and both names to everybody and while as you had a geographer telling the New York Times that may seem like an elegant technical solution, it raises a big,
huge cartographic is a map telling us what a government calls a place or what the people who live there call then you add another geographer adding.
Although map tech companies appear on the surface to be simply about delivering the latest and most accurate geographic information, they are actually deeply involved in the politics of representing the earth
and shaping whose histories and identities are given visibility and legitimacy on so now.
Thanks to Trump, which navigation software you use has become a political In addition to what I always say, you may not fuck with politics, but politics will fuck with is also true for everyone out there that says, I'm not really into politics.
Everything is politics. don't want it to be that way.
That's just the way the world so actually, as a result of all this, MapQuest is enjoying what some have called a renaissance.
Were you at Forbes reporting that on Sunday alone, the app was downloaded 80,000 times just on iOS?
That's up from an average of about 500 daily downloads before the whole Lake America It shot up to the number one spot for navigation apps in the US, as well as all free apps in you,
the general manager at MapQuest, telling reporters what started as a joke about being so old that we didn't know how to update our maps, quickly turned into a viral but also here's the thing.
This is not a cleanly left versus right well yes.
When Trump did this you had the people that you would expect clapping like fucking also seemed like even conservatives who applauded the Gulf of America stuff are just exhausted at this I don't know, man.
Just renaming things. I'm not sure this is going to do it. I'm not sure this is the way. Oh, man. Whatever. you even had Benny boys colleague in general.
Fuck face Matt Walsh calling it though he also got some cardio in jumping through hoops to make this actually an America first thing saying
yeah, it's funny when Canadians are upset I guess, or whatever, but Lake Ontario, the name itself is American history dating back many centuries.
Not sure how you own Canada by deleting your own then also adding a thing, a very important thing politically.
This is also stupid, because the number one challenge Republicans will face in the midterms is the charge that they haven't used their time in power to advance the interests of everyday Americans.
this kind of thing will be used as evidence to make that case.
which to all that I'll say it's not used as evidence, it absolutely should be used as Because I think anyone with even remotely functioning
brain can see that this is just a distraction, a deflection from all of Trump and Republican politicians failures. and two regarding the history of Ontario and Lake Ontario.
I'll just point to what PM Mark Carney with Carney noting the name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontario, appropriately meaning the lake is beautiful.
The lake is noting the name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.
with a man also taking a jab saying we know that America is changing their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydrogens.
then also adding Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario then, now and always.
but then also with this whole situation, someone that you saw turning on the president here was Joe But what's the purpose of changing the name?
Oh. Could distract you from the fact that we're in a war that we can't win around. Doesn't make any sense.
Like who cares? Just Lake Ontario. That's a good name.
We've had that name now side note before we get into even meatier don't worry if you don't want to.
You absolutely do not need to hand it to Joe Rogan You'll see him right back behind Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
And his little platform shoes, smiling ear to ear like the little useful fucking idiot flip flopper he is the moment it serves He is the biggest podcaster in the world.
He helped deliver the white House to Don't start acting like your show doesn't have an impact because you do not like the write. And he's experienced an audience.
Like a lot of the other people that platformed, endorsed and helped get Trump back into office to do exactly what he has been doing to you this whole time.
so they've started publicly distancing themselves, questioning things publicly, while also playing that game behind the scenes with the white So please do not get tricked by these con but then also I'll say speaking of Iran,
because this does genuinely feel like a distraction from all the Trump failures, including Trump's war of choice with A failure that you've
probably experienced in a number of ways, especially if you've filled up your car and now you also have Iran accusing the United States of a war crime after it says that a missile struck a wedding
or you've got state media claiming that at least five people were killed, including a four year old and a 16 year old, while 68 others were with all of this apparently taking place at a private home in a coastal city of southern Iran, and from video that was taken by the Iranian Red Crescent Society.
It looks like a you see the roof blown out with debris everywhere.
There's pattern, flowery wallpaper, chairs and cushions, scattered colorful wedding streamers and other decorations lying around.
Meanwhile, footage reportedly from a nearby hospital showed women and wedding attire watching staff treating injured children.
you had an independent weapons analyst identifying apparent fragments from the munitions as belonging to Boeing's GPS guided slammer no, as far as in response to the US military
saying that it was aware of reports of civilian casualties but insisted that, US military never targets civilians, unlike Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
which it does feel important to point out here is not a denial.
so then also with this you had the chief Iranian negotiator a power acts like Satan, picks targets like Satan and kills like Satan, it's Shields a junior Satan that does the same.
It's the Great with all this we talked about a couple of days ago that the US broke a month of relative calm on Sunday by bombing Iran again, causing them to retaliate.
and so this alleged wedding party, war crime is just one of several strikes that the US conducted last night, with the military claiming that it focused on military targets like air defense
sites, radars and maritime and once again, uterine promising retaliation of its the continuation of American mischief in the region, will be met
with heavier, more extensive and more destructive responses than any country that cooperates with the aggressor. US military must accept the dangerous consequences.
you had Trump firing out on Truth social.
If the failed nation of Iran A retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher but it will not be the biggest attack of them all that is waiting in the wings.
And when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran, they already say that they fired missiles at US targets in Jordan, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE.
So they at least do not seem very frightened.
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but then also say the Iran news doesn't end there because you have things like this Air Force pilot who was killed in the war, you now have his widow saying that she and their children are being denied some benefits because there hasn't been a formal declaration of war.
because all the games Trump's been playing during this war of choice. we're so this is Libby Clinton.
She's the wife of Air Force Major Alex Kleiner, who is one of six service members who died in a KC 135 refueling crash as part of Operation Epic Fury.
which is what team Trump called the first round of bombing back in February when they destroyed Iran's missile production. Its navy and other security infrastructure. Alex.
He was 33 years old when he died. He was a father of three. He had a two year old son and seven month old twins.
He joined the Air Force in 2017 through the ROTC program at Auburn University, where he went to college and met Libby and he was deployed four times and had flown more than 360 combat
hours in 181 combat support hours And when he died back in March, there was that whole ceremony for him and the other victims of the crash.
Trump was there, along with Pete Hegseth and a handful of senators and representatives.
the ceremony, you might remember, was actually the one where Pete Hegseth said that the family members of those servicemen and women came up to him and said, finish this. Honor their sacrifice. Do not waver.
Do not stop until the job is done.
though that story seems unlikely to be true with parents pushing back almost immediately when that made headlines.
and now it seems like they've escalated from lying about these military families to actively harming them, or at least neglecting them. Right.
Because just now, nearly six months after Alex's death, Libby says that the Air Force is denying her and their children necessary support.
in an Instagram post this week, you had Libby saying that officials told her because the government hasn't officially declared war on Iran, they aren't eligible for some benefits.
you had Libby saying I came straight from her casualty assistance officer and that the missing benefits are combat pay related and were missing from Alex's last paycheck. it's you had a writing.
So not only was my husband killed in a war he never wanted to participate in, But now the benefits we're left with are being dictated by semantics and public perceptions.
the caption reading six months of a war that we can't call a war. You had this very quickly escape and containment and Libby story. It's spread across the internet.
people then saying things like, she lost her husband and their young kids, lost their dad because he fought for his country, and now they won't be compensated because a five time draft dodger, a drunk Xbox news host, and their enablers.
And Congress won't call a war a war disgusting. also know not everyone was supportive.
in fact, Libby, she eventually had to turn the comments off on her original post, saying that she was receiving, quote, bot comments saying hateful things and that it was getting out of hand. bot or not?
You also had people attacking her, saying, you know, her family has seen an outpouring of support since Alex's death.
people pointing to how her sister actually set up a GoFundMe shortly after the funeral that since raise $1.5 million.
or with the vast majority of that coming before this benefits thing ever saw the light of day.
but then with that, you have people saying, well, those are two completely separate things. One is money and benefits from a public that is thankful for service. That feels horrible about what happened.
the other thing is the denial of benefits for someone serving their country because the Sun Downing president wants to play a word game about a war that he started.
Arguing go fund me or not. That's the breaking of a social contract. it does feel like we were talking about this on the tour the other day.
It feels like we have an administration and a president that love the war, hate the fighter. but also jumping back. Right. This story, it doesn't end with one post.
the waves of backlash have seemingly gotten the attention of the Air Force. Right.
With Libby following with another posting of the director of Mortuary Affairs, reached out and told her that they'd be doing an audit to make sure that Libby and her kids are receiving all the benefits that they're entitled to. right.
Then you also had Air Force officials confirming that they were working with Libby to make sure that she gets everything she can and to answer any of her questions. And we also saw the undersecretary of War, Anthony Tata, saying on Twitter.
well. Benefits cannot replace a devoted husband and father.
We are committed to providing major cleaner his wife and children with seamless, long term support. but also here's the reality of the situation, right.
Whatever comes from this audit, it will still be a horrible look for the Trump administration.
Because either a military family was denied money that it was entitled to for six months until the public backlash became so massive.
or a widow is left with or was left to believe the government refused her benefits because it does not want to call this a war, even though numerous times the president has referred to it as a war.
and then it also begs the question of what is going on with the other 17 families of service members who died in the Iran war. are those spouses and children being told the same thing and left short handed?
because of Trump's insane refusal to label this what it very much appears to be to everybody.
But whatever the case, this is going to be something that we're gonna have to keep our eyes on. right. And then from that, we've got to talk about this crazy at a New York. But first we have a quick word from today's sponsor.
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and then Devin right back into the news.
We've got to talk about this nightmarish combination of Times Square, a mentally disturbed woman, and kitchen knives.
because this woman who's now been identified as 49 year old Pamela Cisneros, ultimately killed a 32 year old woman and and a 68 year old man to the hospital.
When she refused to drop her knives a police approach.
They shot and killed Now we have the square. I don't want.
up. Back up.
we now know that the woman who was stabbed to death was Bank of America employee around 20, the man who was released from Bellevue Hospital yesterday is reportedly from Rhode Island, believed to be visiting his family in New York.
and you're looking at an attack that was completely unprovoked. It was completely random. Cisneros had no connection to either of these people.
but she did have documented mental health history with the NYPD, with incidents in 2018 and 2019. right? You have her father.
Mario is this is now revealing that she's lived for decades with serious mental health problems, and even tried to take her own life in 2019 by jumping in front of a subway.
With the family after that episode, then getting more involved with her care.
And he began taking her to monthly mental health appointments where she would, quote, receive injections that kept her stable. and it at least sounded like the treatment was working for a while, with Mr.
Cisneros saying that he felt his daughter was really turning a corner.
but then this last April, she turned down a ride to her appointment at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, telling her father, no, dad, don't worry. I'm good. Don't worry about me.
but despite the potential warning sign, he says that he never would have expected that his daughter would become violent, telling the times in Spanish. What she did just doesn't make sense. just doesn't fit. adding, I am so sorry.
As her father, nobody should take a life. Not God, not a human being. Nobody.
with him describing his daughter as a noble and polite Christian girl who all of a sudden acted like an animal.
and as far as more details about her mental health prices or her dad really was unclear on what medication his daughter had been receiving or that specific condition that she was being treated for, saying that he did suspect
that she suffered from postpartum depression because he started noticing her mental health struggles after the birth of one of her children.
But when he said he knew for certain is that she was recently growing frustrated and having to rely on medication and was fighting not to take it. there's still saying that he tried to help her in every way possible. Right.
So the mental health aspect of this very big piece of the puzzle that a lot of people been talking about, but then also a big part of the conversation has been the police response. Right.
Because when the police fatally shoot a mentally disturbed person, there's usually days or weeks of discourse that follows with people debating if the death was really necessary and if the police were in the wrong.
I will say there is a little of that on social media. Tweets popping up like American police. Any other way to handle the mentally ill?
Nah. Just murder them in broad daylight at Times Square because we're lazy pigs, and that's what we're paid to do.
so when I was weighing in saying the shooting is deeply troubling, whatever crimes this woman may have committed against others in Times Square, these officers had time and distance, arguing the job is to protect life and property, not simply end a difficult encounter with gunfire.
but also really for the most part, if you're looking online, even with progressives who are not huge fans of the police, they're seeming to support the NYPD's approach to this case.
and actually one of those progressives is New York City Mayor Mamdani.
who I will say, despite a lot of the concerns and fear mongering during the campaign, is actually taking a more moderate approach than expected with the NYPD. keeping Jessica is the police commissioner.
And following her lead on matters relating to the department.
when he talked to the press at a news conference about this time square stabbing, he stood firmly with the NYPD.
want to thank the NYPD officers who stepped in and prevented a horrific attack from becoming even worse.
This is what the men and women of this department do every single day to keep our city safe.
As is standard, there will be an internal investigation and body worn camera footage will be released to the public.
and then notably there, you had an instance where a reporter was reminding Mamdani that he previously advocated for mental health professionals to be at calls like this before and asked him, hey, would that have changed anything in this situation?
but Mamdani, he replied that the mental health professional strategy would not be applicable when there was the threat of violence. And he added.
And what we are speaking about is an alleged perpetrator who stabbed two individuals before then being engaged by police. and you even had younger people on the left on TikTok sharing that perspective.
If I started to stab people and kill them.
Hypothetically, of course, I would actually want you to stop me and shoot but then also right on cue,
you had right wing media politicizing this horrible violence and using it to make sweeping claims about how Democrat run cities are in squalor.
the New York Post even running the headline Time Square stabbing is just the latest proof. Progressives are the enemies of public order. Anyway, Fox News just having a field day.
But the fact that what is happening in this city right now has led you to literally have, you know, eyes behind your head, always looking around.
Is that what the leftist leaders that run this place want this place to be like? Well, that's what it seems like.
You know, they're doing nothing to stop but also, like, if you get away from the the MAGA hallucination land and back into the world of reality, violent crime is actually dramatically fallen in New York City this year, with homicides down 24%.
murders in the first half of the year?
At their lowest count in history, shootings have dropped major crime overalls down.
actually, despite what Fox News and the polls would have you believe, New York's one of the safest large cities in America. but there are more than 8.5 million people there.
Right. So we do not live in a utopia.
We do not live in a country that also just specific to the situation, really cares about mental health, other than like saying some shit online.
so with that specifically.
But also in general, random instances of violence are going to happen, even if you got the very best leadership and the most effective policies in the world in place.
and while that in no way makes what happen in times where any less horrific and sad, I don't think that we take one awful random case and say, hey, that's everything you need to know about New York.
But what it does highlight is another example of what can happen when serious mental health struggles go unchecked. right is we're talking about this. There's also the Lindsey Clancy case that's been playing out.
She's the mom who said to have killed her kids while experiencing postpartum psychosis.
without a party going to be another case where someone was very clearly struggling and did not get the help they needed before something horrific happens. and so. There are a lot of conversations that can be had here.
The conversations about how to intervene earlier and be more proactive when people are experiencing mental health crises. Conversations about reaction. Response. Punishment.
hopefully conversations that lead us to a better place and isn't just about trying to get clicks and turning one tragedy into a defining story about a city.
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but then also I feel like I need to mention that this is not the only reason New York and Mamdani are making national headlines right right.
And that's in part because New York City public schools just unveiled what they're calling the most expansive student facing AI moratorium in the and so it'll bar students in pre-K
through eighth grade from using AI in school, a move that's going to impact around 600,000 students.
The moratorium it's going to last a year for the 2026 2027 calendar, which starts next week. It's then going to be reevaluated for future school years.
And then on top of that, individual screens aren't going to be allowed in class until third grade, and students that are older than that, they'll have recommended caps at 30 or 45 minutes, depending on what grade they're right.
And so with this, you had Mayor Mamdani saying in a press Children need their teachers and human connection in order to learn and in order to grow,
and they need to develop skills alongside their peers, build relationships with their teachers, and wrestle with tough problems on their own.
The tech industry wants us to believe that AI in early education is not only inevitable, but that it is necessary. We do not see it that way.
I have yet to see a study showing that AI is beneficial for students in elementary and middle school, with the exception, of course, of research sponsored by the very corporations that stand to right.
This elementary and middle school AI band, it's going to apply to all software using student facing AI and companion chat bots are going to be barred across all grade though very notably, high schoolers will not be subject
to the full band that younger students but all high school students will take to AI literacy courses to teach what the tech can and cannot do, as well as the biases, the risks and ethical implications tied to AI.
and actually, around 50,000 certain general education classes will participate in limited pilot programs with AI education, which will happen at the direct supervision of teachers
using tools that have been vetted and approved by the and so that's why I had mom Dani adding, will embrace new technology, but only when it serves our students and at every step of the way,
we will ensure that the challenge and struggle that are so critical for learning remain at the heart of our educational
I also think it's worth noting to you that there will be some exceptions to the or with that, including for students with disabilities, multilingual learners and those in career
it also notably doesn't stop with the Right teachers will also face a policy of their own that prevents them from using AI for grading and crisis and of course, all of this.
It comes as the debate around AI in schools.
It's been a major issue everywhere, but especially in New in fact, this one year moratorium for younger grades, it falls short of what parents were asking are you writing an open letter in petition urging Mamdani to enact a two year moratorium?
With that letter adding AI in schools is a negative impact on students cognitive skills, critical thinking and creativity, saying it undermines the relationship
between teachers and students, which is at the center of how students and actually also back in June, dozens of city council members wrote a letter to Mamdani asking him to immediately pause AI use in public and so.
While this doesn't address every single concern, some still believe that it is a step But of course this is also bigger than New and in fact, earlier this year,
you would have report from the Brookings Institution finding that at this point in its trajectory, the risks of utilizing generative AI and children's education overshadow its benefits.
which is not to say that there cannot be perks or benefits, right?
There can But Brookings found that the risks of AI undermine children's foundational development and may prevent the benefits from being realized.
it's a part of the belief here is that whatever advantage there might be doesn't matter if the kids are not cognitively able to soak that then on top of that, other studies have found that screen time in general
can hurt kids in class, both when it comes to test scores and emotional right in LA, which is the second biggest district in the country, only behind New York City.
Parents have long been expressing frustrations over screen time in you would places like the New York Times speaking to families who are upset with students being given school issued devices, even just in kindergarten, Also others.
They were upset that kids were easily able to play video games and watch YouTube during class.
And then you also had some claiming that an AI app assigned for fourth graders to use generated sexual right, and then some have also taken issue with apps that kids are given that gamify
their homework and People concern that this will hijack the development of a student's motivation and jeopardize their ability to and actually the outrage from parents there led to the school district
enacting the nation's first screen time restriction, which starts this school so that means that first grade and younger, but not going to be allowed any time with tablets and laptops and the rest, they're going to have weekly limits.
many looking at this as maybe a turning right.
Starting this year, parents in the two biggest school districts in the country, they just got huge wins when it comes to tech restrictions for their based off of the learnings there, there's a hope that that will trickle it
and with this, I will ask especially for the parents out there, what are your thoughts regarding kids in tech and school as well as kids and AI. because I will say I'm a very tech forward person.
And so when I was younger and I heard, oh, well, kids in school, they're going to be using their computers like in every class for every test.
I was like, oh, that kind of makes but now as a parent, especially as a parent that's talked to a number of teachers, it seems like the way that tech is implemented in
schools is very haphazard at best and very detrimental at and I will say this is an issue, that there is nuance one, because there's several categories. right.
AI is in a very different bucket from the bucket that is school issued devices, which is a different bucket from students with their and the impacts can range from what students are actually learning to things like their wellbeing.
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right.
And then we've got to talk about news around Trump, Massey and the Epstein files in just a minute. But first, a quick word from a sponsor. It's doing this show.
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But then from that, we should also talk about the news about how outgoing Representative Thomas Massey's trying to force the House to vote on a bill that could compel the release of more Epstein
but also right now you've got Massey claiming that House speaker Mike Johnson might be interfering to avoid a it's the last month, Maxine, a handful of other lawmakers introduced a bill called the Epstein Files Transparency Act ended a press release.
You had Massey claiming the DOJ is illegally withholding 3 million pages of the Epstein files that they should have released after Congress passed the first Epstein Files Transparency
that number, it's one that's been tossed around before, with many claiming that the department only released half of the files that they actually you've also seen Attorney General
Todd Blanche hitting back, claiming that the missing documents were duplicative, unrelated to Epstein, or protected by legal you've then also had a lot of people pushing back on that claim, accusing the Trump DOJ of hiding key evidence.
and so with that in mind, Massey's bill would give state attorneys general, members of Congress and the victims of Epstein and his coconspirators the legal standing,
to sue the US Attorney General for unlawfully withholding, redacting, delaying, concealing, removing or failing to publish Epstein related records also, the bill would give victims
the right to obtain full, unredacted records about themselves, subject DOJ officials to criminal penalties for withholding or misrepresenting files, and prohibit the agency from using common law privileges to avoid disclosure requirements.
and then actually also beyond that.
The legislation would require the DOJ to provide state and local prosecutors with unredacted records needed for investigations and prosecutions.
that's a really key thing because, as Massey recently explained. Well, we give, as you said in your introduction, three groups of people standing.
Most importantly, state attorneys generals, because they the one in New Mexico hasn't got any cooperation from the US attorney general, which is almost unprecedented.
And he believes he can prosecute some of these crimes under state law if he could get the cooperation of the federal government.
And so we didn't really anticipate that problem with the first Epstein Files Transparency Act.
So now we're trying to create a conduit for the attorneys in the various states to prosecute these crimes.
so in addition to the release of more files, I mean, we're talking about a piece of legislation that could actually help lead to criminal prosecutions and accountability.
but a key takeaway here, the press release also says that if the legislation isn't considered within seven legislative days, lawmakers would circulate what's known as a discharge
or which would force a floor vote on the measure, as long as they can collect signatures from 218 House and if that sounds familiar. This is what he and Roquan did last time because Speaker Johnson refused.
and just like last time leadership has not moved forward with this it's true to his word.
We saw Massey officially introducing a discharge petition when Congress returned from a summer recess this and you had taken to the House floor to call for lawmakers to pass the bill while also demanding accountability for Epstein associates.
Mr. speaker, it's been a year since the president signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and the government continues to withhold over 3 million files.
That's why we've introduced the Epstein Files Transparency Act two, to bring the fight to the state courts, accountability to the Department of Justice and closure for survivors.
We want perpetrators of these crimes to be investigated and prosecuted.
Men like Jess Staley, Leon Black, Les Wexner, David Copperfield, Lapo Elkann,
Tom Pritzker, Glenn Dubin, Frederick Ficci, Eduardo Teodoro, Ronnie John, Luc Brunel conveniently dead by suicide in prison Danielle
Khaled, recently discovered dead in Paris Ramsay, l'Ecole and Prince Andrew, who committed sex crimes in the United States to.
And women like Leslie Groff, not a victim who conspired with Epstein to traffic other women.
Perhaps hearing these names will shame the Department of Justice into delivering justice. notably here. None of those names are bombshells, right?
All those people have appeared in the documents released by the DOJ.
of course I have to note, being mentioned in the files doesn't automatically implicate criminal action. And most of them have denied wrongdoing.
but in a social media post, you had Massey describing the group as coconspirators who should be investigated and prosecuted with him, also noting that he was collecting signatures for his discharge
the with that I do have to note while Massey and Khanna you know they were successful last time, it might be even more of an uphill battle this in order to get enough signatures, Massey
and his allies need all the Democrats and three Republicans to sign but unlike last time, they don't have Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was one of the four Republicans who signed on to the first version last and in fact,
a big part of the reason she left Congress was because her falling out with Trump over his handling of the Epstein files and her demands that they be It's one of the reasons that Massey is going to be a former Congress
But with that said, as far as where things stand, you had Massey announcing yesterday that Representative Nancy Mace, who also signed the first discharge petition, has now added her name to And so with Massey. That makes two Republicans.
And if they can get Lauren Boebert to sign on again as well, they'll have enough Republicans.
That's also assuming that all the Democrats will add their then on top of that you have Massey claiming that Johnson could get in the way again with him writing on Now, there are rumors Speaker Johnson will soon recess the House until after the midterm elections to avoid the and to his point.
You know, Johnson does have a track record of doing this the first When lawmakers tried to bring it to the floor.
Last summer, he moved the House to an early recess, cutting the vote and then for nearly two months, he delayed the swearing in of a Democratic representative who vowed to become the final signature needed for the discharge and well, there's been speculation that Johnson may call an early recess.
It's also been reported that the reason is apparently because Republicans just want to get back home ahead of the midterms.
It's not about not wanting real accountability when it comes to the Epstein why would you think that? What? Because Trump's and the Epstein files a million times and has a storied history.
And also, while he was president, he openly wished Glenn Maxwell that's crazy, he said sarcastically. you know, we'll see what happens.
The lower chamber, it's already set to recess on October 1st.
And leadership says that they're focused on passing a spending bill on the government and avert a shutdown, with the House actually approving a stopgap funding measure yesterday. I will say Massie.
For his part, he did express optimism about f to that's actually partially connected to the midterms because he told reporters that even if he can't get enough Republicans on He's confident that he'll reach the 218 threshold if Democrats retake the House majority.
and so seemingly just yet another reason to vote in these upcoming midterms thrown on top of the I will say for all my differences and there are many that I have with Thomas If it is a seat that a Republican has to have.
It is disappointing that Congress will be losing one of the single biggest voices, and again, one of the only Republican voices who has fought for accountability on all things Epstein and call on the Trump administration to stop all their bullshit.
But that my friends.
You beautiful bastards, is the end of your Wednesday though actually have more for you right now and in the and that's because one right now because it's Wednesday.
That means there's a brand new episode of my podcast crashing out with me and my buddy Alex Pearlman that's out It's great for a little bedrock session, a second screen while you work it.
Or maybe oh my gosh, while you go outside.
then the note of going outside, you could do that for a second to come crash out with us, live at crashing outward. not this, but next weekend.
We're going to be in San Francisco, Phoenix and then Denver, Followed by five more shows and five different cities.
And then who knows when we're going to go on tour Links in the description and top comment, as always. But that said, thank you for watching. I love yo faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
