Taylor Swift Has Bigger Problems Than Bad Reviews & The Jack Smith Conspiracy Collapsed in Real Time

PDS Published 09/29/2026

• Senate Republicans Press Jack Smith on Basketball & Tooth Fairy

  This Taylor Swift encore backlash actually exposed a much bigger growing problem for her and Republicans just embarrass themselves in a way I didn't even know was actually possible while grilling Jack Smith today, and now they're trying to lie right through it with help from Charlie Kirk's and why this weird Sarah Huckabee Sanders welfare ad has her MAGA base crying reverse racism at 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 Today was just another day in the kangaroo court. That is the Republican controlled U.S. Senate.

  Do you believe in the tooth fairy? I do not. How about. How about the Easter Bunny?

  I no longer believe in the Easter Bunny. You make me want to throw up in my mouth.

  Javert from Les Mis would look at you with astonishment.

  So that unfortunately, an embarrassingly is real footage of former special counsel Jack Smith testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. Right where he was grilled by Republicans who want him criminally prosecuted.

  Of course, all of this connected to Smith being the special prosecutor who charged Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his mishandling of classified documents.

  But then, of course, after Trump assumed power again, his lackeys in Congress, they're dead set on using their power to go after the man who was just this close to actually holding the president accountable. Right.

  And you had Republicans long arguing that Smith's investigations were politically motivated to benefit the Biden administration, which is one insane to say because I think everyone outside of the Trump world realizes how useless Merrick Garland was.

  And two is just incredibly ironic, given that Trump has repeatedly weaponized his DOJ to go after his perceived political enemies, and he's literally doing the exact same thing with Smith. Now.

  And also as far as specifics, Republicans have accused Smith of lying to Congress in a closed door deposition before the House Judiciary Committee last year with Representative Jim Jordan asking the DOJ to prosecute him this summer.

  At the time, you're the spokesperson for the Justice Department saying that the agency would investigate all evidence of criminal conduct. But Smith, he's firmly denied the allegations.

  And in his opening statement before the committee this morning, he fiercely defended his investigation and his decision to bring charges against Trump.

  "I stand by my decisions as special counsel, including my decision to bring charges against President Trump.

  I made those decisions without regard to President Trump's political association, activities, beliefs or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.

  Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation.

  If asked whether to prosecute a former president today based on the same facts, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat.

  Rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

  President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power.

  After leaving office in January of 2021, President Trump illegally kept classified documents at his Merrill Lago social club and repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents."

  And a very big thing here is that Smith also defended his previous statements to Congress and accused Trump of weaponizing the DOJ to target people involved in the federal investigations against him.

  "I stand by my testimony before the House of Representatives, and I will not be silenced by continued threats of prosecution from the president and others.

  As I appear before you today, it is my belief that the rule of law faces challenges unlike any we have experienced in our lifetime.

  Individuals are threatened with criminal prosecution because they are perceived to have opposed the Since January of 2025,

  we have witnessed precisely such an effort, including the vilification of the agents, prosecutors and staff who worked on my team simply because of their unwavering dedication to the rule of law."

  I myself have been threatened with jail by the president of the United States. Right. And specifically the allegations that Smith lied to Congress.

  They center around statements that he made regarding his team's access to phone records of GOP lawmakers in the election probe. And is a part of that probe. Smith's team obtained toll records of some Republican members of Congress.

  Right.

  And total records aren't what you would typically picture when you think of phone records.

  They they show the date, length and time of phone calls between two parties but do not include direct recordings or any information about the actual content of the conversations.

  And in his letter to the DOJ accusing Smith of lying to Congress, Jim Jordan said that Smith had told lawmakers that he just requested simple toll records and didn't seek a warrant for the content of any text messages.

  Jordan claimed that newly released documents show that Smith had actually obtained the contents of 44 lawmakers text messages. Right. But here's the thing.

  Those texts were obtained as part of a completely separate subpoena for presidential records containing the communications of various Trump advisers and aides.

  And so you had the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee accusing Jordan of misrepresenting the questions that were actually asked, claiming that Smith was answering very specific questions about a subpoena for the toll records and that Republicans had never even asked him about the presidential records request. Right.

  In arguing that Smith answered their specific question about all records truthfully and had zero obligation to volunteer information about a totally separate data request that Republicans never asked him about.

  So. Unsurprisingly, Republicans made the total records a big part of the hearing, and Smith once again defended his actions.

  "Those records corroborated evidence that we had that the president, President Donald Trump, and his coconspirators were seeking to exploit the violence on January 6th and furtherance of their criminal scheme.

  They were taking the fact that law enforcement officers had been brutally assaulted at this institution, and using that to seek to delay the proceedings further in violation of the law.

  It was an important part of our investigation, and it was centrally relevant to the issue of criminal intent."

  Also with this, you had Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse calling Republicans on their hypocrisy, noting that Senator Chuck Grassley, who was absolutely tearing into Smith today, defended Trump's DOJ when they subpoenaed toll records for Democrats while investigating press leaks in his administration.

  That came out, Chairman Grassley said probes into Congress are not unusual.

  He said investigations into members of Congress and staff are nothing new.

  And he said the Justice Department has specific procedures for such sensitive investigations.

  Then beyond all that, this gets us to the thing that I really, I wanted to talk about in connection to this story, especially. Right.

  Because we got to see this absolutely insane interaction with a Republican senator, Eric Schmidt, where he tried to concoct some bizarro conspiracy theory that Smith went to see a Hawks game in Atlanta.

  But he was actually using the trip to collude with Fani Willis, the top prosecutor in the city.

  Willis, of course, was also pursuing a separate criminal case against Trump's attempts to subvert the election in Georgia.

  And I need you to to see and or hear how it went down in the US fucking Senate today. You just have to watch and listen to it because it feels unbelievable.

  "Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on February 3rd, 2024?

  What city would that be in Atlanta? No. Okay.

  So your testimony today is that you did not go to a Hawks game on February 3rd, 2024, is that correct?"

  "I have no recollection."

  "Okay. Is it your testimony that you were not in Atlanta on February 3rd, 2024? Let me let me just give you a little context.

  The day before Fanny Willis came clean with her affair with the prosecutor. You know, the Atlanta prosecutor that was also trying to get Trump the next day.

  Were you in Atlanta?"

  "I do not believe so."

  "What would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta at a Warrior Hawks game on February 3rd, 2024, the day after Willis and Wade announced their affair.

  I don't think you know that we have this stuff. So I'll give you a second to process it so you don't, you know, perjure yourself. You just took it down really quick."

  "If I could look at that again."

  "Okay. Mr. chairman, can we give the witness a copy so he can see what's being read to him?"

  "Well, I think you've already sufficiently answered. I want to I want to run through. We'll put it in a follow up. You can respond. You've. I think you've already perjured yourself.

  But did you or your office. And we see it. Can we see it? Did you or your office seek. This is my time.

  Senator, if you want to use your time to criticize my question, go with Schmidt, then going on to ask Smith about the total records and adding. You have weaponized the Department of Justice against political enemies.

  To an extent that has never happened in the history of this country. You will go down as a total dirtbag."

  And then after that, you had Democrat Amy Klobuchar asking Schmidt staff if they can hold up the poster with the alleged text for more than one second.

  And once he actually sees it, Smith says he can now respond to the question about the Hawks. Here you go.

  "Recall going to a University of Maryland basketball game where Caitlin Clark was playing right around that time, and the Marshal service was there with me.

  You could check if that was the exact date.

  It was Maryland playing Iowa, could it then be that University of Iowa as the Hawkeyes. Could that be it?

  And maybe before we show this kind of thing, I know, but if he was at an Iowa game, is that correct?

  It was because Caitlin Clark was coming to Maryland to play, and so we went to the game. I know, but that might be the confusion over the names of the team.

  But perhaps you should have looked at it more carefully. Right."

  And then you had Schmidt going absolutely ballistic and screaming at Klobuchar for clearly proving him wrong, while also then still doubling down.

  "Whose questioning is this, by the way?

  You are you are you using your time, Senator? Is this what this is? No. We just. Are we just having, like, an open session here? Questions? I just I'm just glad you're trying to rehabilitate the witness.

  But if you are calling a witness a dirt.

  I presented him with text messages about him wanting to meet with people that could have obviously been related to the prosecution.

  That was coordinated with his office in Atlanta.

  Well, I'm going to begin my questions now, but I think that people should have their facts straight. We had someone of being a dirt bag and not get the team.

  I stand by that."

  And not long after that, Klobuchar confirmed it. The Iowa Hawkeyes had indeed played Maryland on the date in question.

  But even then, Schmidt still refused to back down or when reporters asked if he still thought Smith had perjured himself after learning the details of the game, Schmidt responded.

  "We'll find out.

  That's going to be up to a prosecutor to determine saying, my job here today was to ask questions and get answers."

  And then while that clip was going viral with everyone just dunking on Schmidt for being a total fucking clown.

  You had the absolute chads on the Charlie Kirk show, gassing him up and making it seem like he actually got this huge gotcha moment instead of totally embarrassing himself.

  And Schmidt just played into it. You caught him out on this NBA game, too, by the way, in Atlanta.

  "I want to I want to make sure we get to everything we're supposed to get to hear, Senator. But it was a great moment. So good for you on that. A great job, so got it.

  Got to give you some, some some flowers here, you had text messages from his team confirming that he was going to a Hawks game, and he sat there acting dumbfounded and completely clueless.

  It was the only. It was the only NBA or NCAA men's game going on at that time in Atlanta. He claimed later that he was at another game.

  I don't you know, here's the thing. My job is to ask the questions. He's already and if that's one of his answer is, then that's what his answer is."

  These guys are lying or misleading cooks though. Also, I wouldn't expect anything less from TPU grifters and chubs.

  You blatantly misrepresenting a situation, trying to rewrite history, and you fucking wonder why people are open to Candace Owens version of events.

  Like poor Charlie. Having dumb, dumber and dumb. As being the ones that carry on the flame. Also like I'm sure the people that work with them already know. Schmitt is such a fucking dumb guy.

  But imagine having to go back to work after outing yourself as the biggest, fucking dumbest idiot on the team in the Senate. There's even this slow zoom on Senator Katie Britt, who's just looking on as Schmidt is making a fool of himself.

  And I just love it so much. And so I had to share it there.

  Yeah, you know, that whole interaction, it also then ends up totally overshadowing any actual substance from the hearing.

  The walls were at the same time, like a lot of Smith's testimony, was exactly what you'd expect. Right.

  A lot of what we've already seen before when Smith's talked to Congress in the past.

• Taylor Swift’s Latest Songs Spark Nuclear Reviews and Backlash from Fans

  But then from that jumping into very different news, we should talk about this Taylor Swift encore backlash and the whole situation, because it's bigger than a lot of people realize, Right.

  Because, well, the wave of backlash is a critique of the music itself.

  It's also part of this broader, more complicated critique of her billionaire, apolitical, so-called regressive That's what you're seeing a lot of people saying.

  And you have a lot of people saying that it's getting harder and harder for fans to ignore in an age where our political reality is so kind of bleak.

  And as far as the specifics, you had Swift releasing a deluxe version of her The Life of a showgirl album titled The Life of a showgirl. The Encore.

  Which for many was kind of an ironic title for an album that wasn't received that well upon its original release just under a year ago.

  And, I mean, you had some people calling it the worst song writing of her career. Right in the reaction to these four new tracks.

  For the most part, it was similarly intense and Pitchfork gave the encore version a brutal 4.0 out of ten rating, saw the Telegraph review being titled I'm a Swifty and even I think these new songs are terrible then The Guardian described the new work as flashes of humanity and bafflingly vindictive love songs.

  And a huge thing is it wasn't just the critics.

  One of Swift's biggest fans, the Swift, had this to say in his reaction It's so hard to be the largest at a time like this.

  While all four of these new songs Patient Zero, Cleveland, Pink Clouding and Babylon, they're being debated and roasted to some most controversial award.

  That definitely goes to Cleveland, where the song where Swift laughs at her haters on her way to you had her singing in the first verse, she's not as hot as she was, but she was only a four.

  And with all of that money, why, she dressed like trash. Then you have the chorus.

  That's basically, I don't give a fuck about the haters, because Travis Kelce and I are in love and he took me to Cleveland.

  And so with that, you had a lot of people saying one, it feels like an odd choice to focus so much on online trolls when writing about your happy relationship.

  And two people were noting that she was only engaging with the very shallow and just mean criticisms about her fashion looks and dance so then that puts a bigger spotlight on her refusing to meaningfully engage with criticism about her artistry and, more importantly, her politics, which we'll get to more in a throughout the Showgirl Original and deluxe versions, we've seen Swift choosing to focus on feud, celebrity friends getting canceled, or haters.

  And yes, her dreams of sharing a white picket fence with Travis right. None of that is evil or anything. They didn't stop. Like when she released the album last fall.

  They're being this weird, coordinated online disinformation campaign trying to align the music with Nazi and right wing values. Even say what you want about Taylor Swift and Showgirl.

  But that had nothing to do with Nazis.

  But also you had a lot of legit criticisms saying, you know, her music is starting to feel more and more out of touch, lacking depth, the lacking maturity. Right.

  An increasing number of people saying as her celebrity has grown, it doesn't seem like she has grown with you've had no shortage of people arguing.

  You know, it's great that Swift has pushed back against ageism, reminding us in her music and by example that you don't need to lose your romantic side or your lust for life as you get.

  But it's also equally important to grow and become a better version of yourself as you get and with all this, for example, you had The Atlantic review singer's music once put a clever twist on ideas about aging and adulthood.

  Now she just seems to be going backwards.

  And while of course there are going to be plenty of stands that will be thrilled with whatever she puts out and whatever she does, what you're seeing is a lot of Swift's audience, like the review says, seems restless to grow which feels like it means a few different things.

  Or they want music that feels a little less petty and insular and a little more grounded and an evolved, wiser perspective.

  You know, they want their favorite artists to be a person that they can look up to someone who wants to make the world a better which is then, where we and them and everyone get into the politics of it.

  Because one of the things you've seen for a number of years is Swift being criticized for being mostly apolitical, of course, she did endorse Kamala Harris in 2024.

  And she did have a brief political era in 2019 where she got loud about LGBTQ plus rights and women's rights. Something you might remember. If you ever watched your documentary or saw clips or Miss Americana.

  And well, this particular line of criticism, it's just intensified the last few years as a platforms reached unprecedented heights. And she officially became a billionaire in 2023.

  And so now, you're seeing people tie their feelings about the new music to this narrative about Swift embracing the billionaire lifestyle and failing to use her platform in a meaningful.

  So you've got people on Twitter making jokes like Taylor Swift these last few years feels like when the Capitol got as well as the life of a show girl, felt like when Trump beat Hillary, the encore felt like when he beat right.

  So with all this, you've got people saying her silence or her received silence on Trump Palestine and more. It feels definitely loud right now because of what's happening with her Right.

  Because the timing of all this is massively mean, it wasn't too long ago that we were talking about Swift's best friend Ed Sheeran a lot, and obviously not in a complimentary Right.

  Because he recently chose his stadium tour and his Netanyahu loving buddy Robert Kraft over being a decent person and standing with Macklemore as other openers in the Palestinian because apparently saying free Palestine and children shouldn't be genocide.

  It was a road too far for some and then when Ed Sheeran came back out, he had a lot of people saying he was playing victim.

  He was crying on stage about and so then with all of that, you've had a lot of people make comparisons because Sheeran, like Swift, has done a lot to remain a political while both of them they're so big that even if they lose vans they have so many.

  It does seem like a number of music fans.

  They're just not having it ready, seeing an increasing number of people saying the approach that these singers and others are making, it feels like a relic of the early 20 tens Obama optimism or the thinking that you can just make your bag.

  You don't have to put yourself out there.

  Things will figure it out and it'll work itself right, but then where it appears like a lot of people are being more and more drawn to or artists who seem in touch and use their voices for.

  You got people like 23 year old Olivia Rodrigo, for example, launching an annual all women musical festival that benefits organization supporting reproductive rights, maternal health and women's safety.

  Also you got more and more artists, not just Macklemore saying free Palestine on socials and on stage. All of this. It seems like an inflection point for Swift.

  And we're going to have to see where it goes from here. What what reactions are there, any movements? Are there any changes? Know, with all this, I do have to pass the question off to you.

  What are your thoughts, opinions and reactions especially if you are a swifty or you're someone that you generally fuck with Taylor Swift or her.

  Of course I want to know everyone's take on this as far as her career and where things go, like it's her fans opinions that are going to be the ones that matter.

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• Tennessee Set to Execute a Woman for the First Time in 200 Years

  But then diving right back into the news, we've got to talk about how a woman is just hours away from being put to death by the state, and you've got a lot of people desperately trying to save So the woman in question is Christa Pike.

  And it's not one of those wrongful conviction cases, right. She really did commit but also sort of like Lindsay Clancy.

  She claims that because of her untreated mental illness at the time, she should be spared the death and then also like Lindsay Clancy, this case is very much dividing people and so we should dive into it, starting with a Right.

  And so it happened back in 1995 at the University of Tennessee, though Pike was not actually a student Right.

  Instead, you had her attending the Knoxville Job Corps Center, a program for low income adults to get career and education well there, she met her boyfriend to Daryl ship.

  But then also at some point, she became convinced that another girl, Colleen Schlemmer, was trying to steal ship from And so then what she did is that pike and ship lured slimmer into the woods on the pretense that they'd be smoking some weed, and then they tortured and murdered the way it was described is just brutal.

  They used a meat cleaver and a box cutter and then finished her off with a chunk of asphalt.

  With ship then also really carving a pentagram into her body, which then turned this already shocking story into a satanic panic.

  A pentagram, a five pointed star, a symbol of Satan, was carved into her Rituals and symbols are part of the worship.

  So are sacrifices. Often animals, rarely humans.

  Police say Satanic activity is not widespread in this area, but it does occur when it does. It's usually done in secret.

  I get more drawn into it and there is real power in this stuff.

  The devil has power to give people things, but they eventually begin to lose control of themselves.

  Also you had Pike later bragging to another student that she had kept a piece of slimmer skull as a souvenir, and so a local paper took that and ran with it, Satanists believe the body has to be whole for the soul to escape, said one source.

  By keeping this, they had the soul captive.

  And then you had the report going on to add the Knoxville police chief Phil Keith said a preliminary investigation has revealed 8 to 12 students at the center have some level of involvement in the occult, including satanic symbols in their adding others involved in the probe estimate the number of people involved in the occult at the Job Corps is as high as 25 to adding police don't know if there have been other slayings in the area associated with satanic.

  So all of that, it adds to the idea of what the atmosphere was at the time that these murderers were while you had ship actually getting off with a life sentence because he was only 17 years old, Pike, who was 18, she got the death.

  It is therefore ordered that you shall be put to death in another prescribed by law, that it shall be transferred to the custody of the warden Please hold.

  I love you. I love this and I love me. Right.

  So all of this, it makes for a very unique case for a number of reasons, including not only that, what she young, but she was a I mean, just looking at the data.

  Less than 2% of death row cases over the past half century have actually been women. And one consequence of that was that pike was totally for all but three years.

  She was the only woman on death row in Tennessee.

  And even during those three years, she wasn't allowed physical contact with the other apart from that, actually only one other exemption came in 2001, when there was a fire and Pike had to be evacuated to another part of the prison with two other and actually at that point, the other women began fighting, and Pike used a shoelace to choke one of them and so then you had that incident adding an attempted first degree murder conviction to a record.

  Not that I guess it really but Pike lawyers, they say that since being medicated and attending therapy, she's never been disciplined for violence, and she's expressed remorse for what she did to slim Right.

  Then in 2024, after 28 years a solitary confinement, she was allowed to socialize with other inmates.

  And some of them have said that she's completely different with all that said, as of tomorrow at 10 a.m., the now 50 year old Pike is scheduled to be given a lethal injection in Tennessee, which is actually the first execution of a woman in 200 years among the people who are looking forward to this.

  Saying this gives us justice is the victim's mother, who says she's been waiting decades for this or because, in her view, the media, they've been too focused on Pike and not the actual or where they're saying slammer.

  Her daughter was a vibrant, generous girl who volunteered for the Special Olympics, loved bowling and roller skating, and was pursuing a career in so.

  She argues that if anyone thinks the execution of Pike is unfair, well, so is her daughter being ripped away from why she's driving nearly nine hours from Florida to Nashville just to watch Pike's execution and in hand, she has a photo of her.

  "I will sit there with her, catch her in my hand, and she gets hooked up to a needle to go to sleep.

  She can look at the picture."

  But then with all this. Pike's attorney arguing that, well, yes, what Pike did was awful. And yes, she takes responsibility for it.

  And yes, nothing can justify her actions. She still shouldn't be Right. Arguing.

  For one thing, she was just 18 years old, which on its own arguably does not mean much.

  But with that, they said that she had an extremely traumatic past as the attorneys rolling out evidence that her mother drank heavily during pregnancy, which could have contributed to her bipolar disorder.

  Then between the ages of two and five, Pike says that she was sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend, and then she was raped by a neighbor at age 11, and then raped again by another stranger at age.

  So then, years later, a psychologist who was asked by Pike's attorney to review the case, concluded that her trauma is almost impossible to grasp because it is so severe.

  You had her lawyers arguing that she only intended to fight slimmer.

  But because of her mental illness, she was unable to put the brakes on and ended up killing her in a frenzied I guess during her trial, Pike's former court appointed lawyers.

  They didn't tell the jury about her past or even mentioned her age as a consideration. Ends up actually being a common story.

  Researchers have found that 96% of women on death row they were either raped, sexually abused as children or subjected to domestic violence prior to their.

  Then with that, what experts say, we found that prosecutors were minimizing those experiences or dismissing them but then also, it's not just about the trial, right?

  It's also about the manner of execution as Because you had advocates of sexual trauma survivors telling the courts they believe the likelihood Pike will, quote, involuntarily relive her rapes during her execution is extremely high.

  Saying, quote, she will likely believe she is being raped to so.

  Then, at the very least, you have our lawyers requesting an all female lethal injection team, though she'd prefer hanging or better yet, not to be executed at Right.

  With Pike writing, I was a mentally ill 18 year old took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I'd even more, to accept how many lives I affected.

  I took the life of someone's child sister, saying it sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a with pike, then also telling The Times of London she feels a kinship with Lindsay Clancy, explaining are both females who got into trouble because of uniquely female wedding, one thing is Times have changed a lot on awareness of women's issues since I was put on adding,

  I am pleased you received a mistrial and is getting the help she there are so many women who don't get the help they need, me and And likewise, you had our attorneys arguing Krista was broken, not was broken by a mental health system, juvenile system, and a criminal justice system that ignored, misdiagnosed, and mistreated her at every.

  Then with this, you're the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, telling local I think that if Christa was tried today, her jury would not sentence her to death.

  But then with all that, the Tennessee Supreme Court, they declined to stop her execution.

  And Republican Governor Bill Lee, he refused to grant her clemency so now, really, her last chance is the US Supreme Court.

  But that clock is ticking down, and I think it's doubtful whether the conservative majority would be sympathetic here Right.

  And so you have Pike now writing a letter saying whether my clemency is granted or not, I am at saying I am not afraid to die.

  I'm only nervous about the all in all I will say at the very least, this situation, it feels like something we are going to continue to see more or with a massive divide and debate we've seen around Lindsey Clancy, the fact that there was a mistrial in that even though it was only because of one juror, I think a lot of people have gone, oh, there's an opportunity.

  Or whether they genuinely believe in that defense, an argument that is a completely other thing to it has worked.

• Trump Pushes Forward on AI as Tech Companies Pump the Brakes

  So why not try it But then for today's show, we should jump from that to another controversial topic, though a very different one, and that is AI.

  And a lot of it centers around the idea that the rest of the world wants to pump the brakes.

  But Trump, he wants to bring forward AI is a so-called golden and actually with all this this morning in Veiled America, which is a new AI powered site that's meant to serve as a one stop shop for all government resources.

  And so if you ask a question about things like veterans resources or how to change your address with the Postal Service, it'll give you instructions similar to how ChatGPT of course, with people being people and the internet being what the internet is.

  People are already goading it into admitting that the election wasn't stolen and seeing if it'll dodge questions about the Epstein Right.

  Interestingly, reports say that it was made in partnership with both the Gemini and Grok.

  You know, given the climate around AI right now, it's not surprising to see that the site puts a lot of emphasis on privacy and but also when Trump tried to touch on it himself, he really didn't do it with a ton of confidence.

  "Everything stays totally private, cannot, in theory be hacked into, and when they figure a way to do that, we'll end it, okay?

  Because they always figure a way, right?

  They always figure, you know, when you have 197 IQs looking to do things, they can take it, but we can also counteract them.

  If anything does happen, we think it might not happen."

  Actually, and then also one of the big things that we're seeing is that Trump has been spending a lot of time on his effort to rebrand artificial intelligence as superintelligence, calling it see.

  Which feels a little bit crazy.

  When he was at the UN, he said, you know, artificial intelligence, it makes it seem fake, but it's not fake. It's amazing.

  And myself and Alex Pearlman, while we've been on the crashing tour, we were like, why don't you just call it amazing intelligence? You don't even have to change it to see it's it would still be AI.

  And also the name is the least concerning part about Right. The conversation around AI, it's not all one thing.

  We've seen and heard amazing stories about it being used in the health care or with it, among other things, being used to help identify cancer and screenings that maybe a doctor might have.

  But no Trump, he says, you know, it's the name artificial seems to sinister and so super it just sounds because when you say artificial intelligence, it's artificial.

  "This isn't this is extreme intelligence. It's superior intelligence. It's supreme also intelligence.

  But the word super is the best word of all."

  And then of course, he also just really hammered how important it is to win the AI Whoever wins, superintelligence wins.

  "You can have a winner and a loser, and you're probably not going to have a second place. You're going to have a winner or you're going to have a loser.

  We're leading now over China and everyone else, and I want to keep it that way.

  We do not surrender to fears about what technologies will do to I'm saying, you know, we want these tools and the people running them to behave honestly."

  He also really didn't dive into that and just said that the DOJ and FBI would handle it if something goes.

  Notably, he delivered those remarks as he's also hosting a lunch with a slew of tech leaders, including the CEOs of Meta, Nvidia, Palantir, Google, Anthropic and and you've got many wondering how much they're going to discuss issues within the.

  Because like we talked about yesterday, these tech leaders themselves are the ones that have been sounding the alarm the most.

  Like many want government intervention and regulation to keep this tech in. Seemingly, agents are going rogue. Even sites belonging to the US government are being impacted in this tech.

  It's growing faster than our ability to keep it and it's going to be very important to keep an eye on, you know, as pressure increases on these companies to keep things pushing forward. Does the government add guardrails?

  As far as what we have, you had a Trump giving us the seating chart, which puts him between Elon Musk and Nvidia as Jensen Wong. Well, he's across from Mike Johnson and JD Vance.

  You've seen a lot of people trying to read into all this with, for example, one Bloomberg reporter claiming that this could end up being one of the most pivotal meetings in human history if AI worriers are and adding this chart appears to give an advantage to AI acceleration.

  Also you'd people noting that during a press briefing, he just seemed out of touch with other AI related issues when he touted data centers instead of regulation.

  "This is a group that loves local communities.

  They love our country, and they're going to work with local communities for the data centers in particular.

  And they're going to work to make the community data centers are going to be very popular."

  But again, even as Trump wants to forge ahead with AI, some companies are still making the call for things to slow.

  OpenAI, for example, just yesterday they canceled the release of their newest model over safety. It's known as GPT 6.1 Astra. And it was set to debut in October.

  So in just a few weeks or even you've got the Wall Street Journal reporting that researchers they found concerns during internal testing.

  And they're saying this is one of the clearest signs so far that agent misbehavior could stymie the industry's rapid and this new GPT model apparently regressed in a few ways by not abiding by what humans wanted it to do and then showing high levels of Right.

  Not telling its users what actions it took or did not it would also just go forward with tasks without asking user permission and reach for tools that might be unsafe.

  And so you had OpenAI's had a safety system saying for anything regarding safety and alignment, there's a trade saying the new model didn't quite meet the bar in terms of staying within the scope and authorization and how it communicates back to the user about the type of work it's.

  So now the company trying to figure out what was causing these issues with Astra.

  And they're going to later still try to use it as a base that will later create future GPT six but then also with this, you're seeing a debate over how we're supposed to handle the very real threats that this technology.

  If you ask the American public, they seem to be on just the slow down with a recent Reuters poll finding that 73% of people worry that AI companies, they haven't done enough to prevent the tech from causing serious harm, and 55% saying that it would be good to ease the pace of development.

  And then there's even more we're going to dive into in just a minute.

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• Conservatives Mad that Arkansas Gov’s Welfare-to-Work Ad Depicts White Man

  And then for your final block today, I'm on to cram in some more news you need to know before you go, starting with the news that Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has her voter base completely pissed off about an ad she just put out. Me.

  "Brown bread is turned relaxing into a full time profession. But you you actually work hard.

  You pay taxes to cover welfare for guys like Brad who just choose not to work. Wow. That's why I launched a welfare to work requirement.

  Almost there. Now more Arkansans are working than ever before. Oh, even. Brad."

  Now on the surface, this seems like everything you'd expect from a Republican ad there, trying to appear like there on this crusade to make sure the people aren't taking free handouts and soaking up tax money.

  But apparently for many of her people, the messaging was not the issue. It was the guy they used to deliver it.

  "You are demonizing white men inappropriately when they are not the primary demographic that is engaged in welfare fraud.

  We are really, really tired of anti-white racism, especially coming from our own people."

  Right. So with the guy in the ad being seen as this loser freeloader riding on government benefits, you had people claiming that, hey, she just made young white men the face of welfare.

  And you tried to like Matt Walsh claiming, hey, this is another example of Republicans shitting on them at every possible opportunity.

  Although their the party's voter base, even arguing that, quote, Republicans don't have the balls to do this ad with Shaniqua as the villain.

  And it seems obvious to many that Matt Walsh is just a bigot, this whole situation, it then got a lot of people looking at the specific numbers.

  As far as Arkansas, as of 2024, white people, they made up about 57% of Medicaid recipients, while black people only made up about 20%.

  In 2023, 54% of SNAP recipients were white, while about 34% were black.

  And well, obviously for like a deep dive into this topic, you have to account for how their overall population plays into that, as well as how racism has historically put different people at different backgrounds into different starting positions, and how that has played out over years and years and decades.

  Bottom line for many is that if Sanders was paying attention to the numbers, Brad actually made sense to use for the ad. He had a lot of people clapping back there.

  "What they're mad about, is that they didn't put a black person in the set. Let's just be clear about that for a second.

  They want to cast all black people in America as lazy and living off the government teat. It's absolutely disgusting stuff.

  Now they're seeing it reflected in their own face, in the way that they look, and they're very upset about it."

  But then also even if you look past the numbers. Sanders is running for reelection against a black man by the name of Fred Love.

  You had a number of people saying, hey, if she ignored the stats for the sake of a few angry white guys, that would have led to a whole other set of problems for, so with all that, you with Sanders standing her ground, focusing on the core message of the ad, saying next thing you know, they'll say, I should have used cookies instead of cheese balls.

  As far as if this is going to bite her in the midterms. We'll see.

• Senate Passes Bill to Overhaul College Sports

  It's still Arkansas. Also and then it was the Senate just did something very rare a vote of 77 to 22.

  Both parties mostly agreed on a thing And that thing could actually change college sports forever.

  You've got the Protect College Sports Act, and it's a sweeping attempt to bring order to what everyone's been calling the Wild West of college athletics.

  And so in it, you have schools being allowed, roughly double what they pay their players up to about $50 million a year per school, also athletes got to keep more of their name, image, likeness money because agents can now only take 5%, for the first time, athletes and women's and Olympic sports get a guaranteed cut of that pool.

  Then also there's a trade off Athletes can only transfer once without a penalty, and they get a tight five year window to play. It's seemingly one of the biggest winners here is actually the NCAA.

  Because the bill hands them something that they've wanted for years a shield for the lawsuits that have been slowly tearing its rulebook apart. Then that is where you're seeing critics come in. Right.

  Because you've got them arguing that the protections for women's and Olympic sports expire in nine years. But the NCAA legal shield never does.

  Then while there's a cap on how much the players can earn, there's no cap on what the coaches make.

  But ultimately, we won't know if this is going to pass until after the midterms because the House has to pass it and they're not in session right now.

• Hegseth to Cut Posts for Generals and Admirals by 20%

  And then your final bit of news day is that America's military leadership is about to get with Pete announcing a 20% reduction across generals and of course that brings up a question for you.

  Is he trimming it because of bloat or is he cutting valuable leadership experience why the way.

  This is really one of the most aggressive leadership shakeups at the Pentagon in modern. In total, dozens of top leaders across the Army, Navy, Air Force and other branches are going to be cold as part of a directive to trip what thinks is a top heavy bureaucracy.

  Instead the Pentagon will focus on, quote, war fighting readiness. You've got supporters arguing at the top. Brass has grown unnecessarily bloated. And it created chains of command that weren't streamlined.

  In times of war, convoluted chains can be a problem. But politicians across both parties are skeptical.

  If we're really at that point because the US military does have a significantly higher ratio of officers to troops today than during major conflicts like World War also basing it off that ratio kind of misses a key fact.

  The or being an officer requires a degree which can defer your service in times of war, whereas everyone else has to go.

  So of course the ratio is then add in the fact that being an officer is a big career move.

  And of course people want to stay in the then with this, you've got critics adding that purging top brass so quickly it risks politicizing leadership and stripping away vital institutional experience at a time when we're in an active war and global tensions are very, very.

  That's before remembering this isn't the first.

  Right back in 2025, already ordered that at least 20% of the National Guard's general officers be purged, while general and flag officers were cut by.

  Also blocked the promotion of officers slated to become 1 or 2 star general, saying that such promotions are not guaranteed and that they serve at the pleasure of the.

  Then also, regardless of if this ends up being a good move or not, or it kind of doesn't matter, it seems like just the optics, they're not rate of Trump he hadn't started this war of choice with Iran, this would probably be a much smaller.

  With active fighting and fears that are escalate?

  You people wondering is this really the hill that wants to die and that, my friends, you beautiful bastards.

  Brings us to the end of your Tuesday, Philip DeFranco show another daily dive into the news in the and well, of course we'll see you right back here tomorrow as we dive into the news this weekend.

  Quick reminder if you're in or around or want to go to DC and or Pittsburgh.

  Myself and Alex Perlman are going to be doing our final two live shows of the year. You can get your tickets at Crashing Out. Tor.com.

  They want us to add some more shows, but I just need 100% be here for Lindsay in the family as she finishes her run for this we've got a lot going on, but it is all good things.

  So on that note, let me just say thank you for watching. I love your faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.