What the Ilhan Omar Raid Really Exposed & MAGA's Talarico Rehab Hoax Just Fell Apart
PDS Published 10/12/2026
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Federal agents just raided Ilhan Omar’s home weeks before the midterms.
But it’s also bigger than you, James Talarico missed nine days with the flu, and MAGA spun it into him being secretly checked into a mental hospital, though it’s crazier than it even sounds. You also had a man just being mauled to death by a tiger after jumping into its enclosure.
We’ve got to talk about the wild updates and attacks on Lindsay. 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 you just had federal DHS agents raid Representative Ilhan Omar’s D.C.-area home. This, and as of recording, we’re still waiting for more details.
This is a fluid, developing situation.
Shortly after Fox News broke the story, with the DOJ confirming that Homeland Security Investigations, which is a branch of DHS that handles criminal investigations, had executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.
The department did not say whether the warrant was related to Omar, nor did it provide any additional information about the nature of the investigation.
And while there is a lack of details here, it has been widely circulated that the search may have had something to do with her immigration. Because if you don’t know the backstory, Omar fled Somalia when she was a child at the peak of the country’s civil war, later immigrating to the United States as a young teenager and eventually becoming an American. But also, a key thing is that ever since she was elected to Congress in 2018, she’s been a regular target, with Trump continually lashing out at her and also going after Somali immigrants, among other things, calling her garbage last year, saying that Somalis should go back to where they came.
But then also, for years now, you had many Republicans repeatedly pushing this unproven claim that Omar’s ex-husband is actually her brother, and that she married him so that he could become a U.S. citizen. And to be clear here, there is absolutely zero public evidence to support that claim.
And Omar has strongly denied it time and time again, but that in a way hasn’t stopped Republicans from repeating it, including Trump himself, who said back at a rally in December:
“We ought to get her the hell out. She married her brother in order to get in, right? She married her brother. Can you imagine if Donald Trump married his sister? Beautiful. She’s a beautiful person. If I married my sister to get my citizenship, do you think I’d last for about two hours? Or would it be something less than that? She married her brother to get in. Therefore, she’s here illegally. She should get the hell out. Throw the hell—”
Notably, Trump seems to have gotten it backward. The allegation is usually that she married her brother to help him become a U.S. citizen, not the other way around. And that claim has been echoed by many on the right, including top Trump administration officials.
Or just a few days later, you had border czar Tom Homan saying that investigators were reviewing her immigration files again and claiming that he had no doubt that Omar had committed fraud.
“The record is now pulling the files. And we’re looking at—”
“But this fraud investigator who I know personally, one of the best fraud investigators in Homeland Security Investigations, said there’s no doubt.”
And actually, when people like Benny Johnson asked JD Vance about the marriage allegation on his podcast back in March, Vance had this to say:
“Yeah. So we actually think that Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America. And I talked to Stephen Miller about this actually recently. We’re trying to look at what the remedies are. That’s the thing that we’re trying to figure out, is what are the legal remedies now that we know that she’s committed immigration fraud?”
Of course, with that, Vance provided zero evidence for that. And I will say, you also had him appearing to kind of walk it back a bit when a reporter asked if he anticipated an indictment against Omar for immigration fraud, framing the situation as an ongoing investigation into reports instead of a definitive conclusion that had already been reached.
“Don’t want to prejudge an investigation. I mean, you read the things about Ilhan Omar and about, you know, who she married and whether she did marry this person or that person. It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the laws, so we’re going to investigate it. We’re going to take a look at it. If we think that there’s a crime, we’re going to prosecute that crime.”
And that’s something the Department of Justice is looking at, right?
But then last month, you had DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin telling Benny Johnson:
“Something’s going to happen. This is an ongoing investigation. We know that she married her brother to try to bring him in the United States. There’s even more. There may be more to this. The whole family migration and possibly some illegal activity for them to come to the United States to begin with. But all of us, in the best—we’re investigating. If we can prove it, then you shouldn’t have been here in the first place. We’ll deport you.”
Right.
When Fox News asked Homan about those remarks, he said that he didn’t want to comment on an ongoing criminal investigation. But then he added:
“If someone committed immigration violation, someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they’re a congressman or not, no one’s above the law, so I’ll leave it at that. We’ll let the Homeland Security Investigations continue the investigation.”
Okay.
“So you’re confirming that there is an investigation into Congresswoman Omar?”
“I’m confirming that HSI—”
“Yeah.”
“Like I said months ago, that is something that’s been reported and needs to be looked at.”
But Omar, she told reporters that she was not aware of any criminal investigations into her, claiming that she hasn’t been made aware of anything and that DHS has not reached out to her about any investigation.
Again, to be clear, we still do not know the exact focus or the scope of the investigation that prompted the search this week.
But you did have sources telling Fox News that the raid stems from a criminal fraud investigation into Omar’s immigration paperwork, which was filled out by her father when she was a child.
And you had The New York Times also reporting that the search warrant lists a series of potential immigration crimes under investigation, including false statements and fraud in immigration paperwork, as well as a general conspiracy charge, according to a source familiar with the matter.
And then with that, adding that in recent months, federal investigators had opened an investigation into Omar’s immigration, including whether her father lied or omitted certain information while seeking legal status in the U.S. before becoming a citizen.
And then going on to say that investigators were looking into whether Omar derived her own citizenship from a father who might not have been eligible for naturalized status.
And that is an incredibly important key thing here.
A key thing, and that’s because even though Trump and his allies have continued to push this story about her ex-husband supposedly being her brother, ridiculous as that sounds, or whatever your opinions are, legal experts have noted that that could be a nonstarter because felony marriage fraud has a five-year statute of limitations.
And Omar formally divorced that husband in 2017.
And actually, even then, some have also said it’s not a deportable offense. But as you have The Times explaining, if there is conclusive evidence that she derived citizenship improperly, the Justice Department could pursue a criminal or civil case against her.
And adding that if she was successfully denaturalized and stripped of her citizenship, she could face deportation proceedings.
Of course, with this, Omar has repeatedly denied allegations that she or her family did not immigrate to the U.S. legally. And actually, in a statement following the raid, she hit back at the Trump administration, accusing the president of weaponizing law enforcement to target his political enemies, and going on to say:
“For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.”
That’s something you’ve seen echoed by more and more people.
And actually, there you even have others noting that the timing here is especially suspicious because it comes just three weeks before the midterms that Omar is running in. And that stands out for a number of reasons, including that the DOJ literally has a longstanding policy that instructs officials to avoid taking public steps, like executing search warrants or making indictments in political cases, 60 days before an election.
Right, and the entire point is to avoid getting the department embroiled in cases that could be perceived as politically motivated and could affect elections.
There, I also know that there is not a blanket rule that explicitly prohibits the department from acting within 60 days before an election. The policy has been broken, right?
Actually, the most famous example is connected to the first election of Trump, because you had then-FBI Director James Comey deciding to publicly disclose new developments in the email probe of Hillary Clinton just 11 days before the presidential election.
But the DOJ does have a written rule that bans officials from specifically timing certain investigative steps or public statements to influence an election.
But ultimately, here, you’re seeing a lot of people accusing the Trump administration of, once again, not only shattering norms to target and harass the president’s perceived enemies, but taking it to a completely crazy level.
Arguing that it’s clear that they’re intentionally doing this right before the election.
And with that, accusing Trump of abusing his power and using federal agencies for racist political purposes.
With this, while you have a lot of people arguing this is just a clear attempt to distract from just how deeply unpopular Trump and his policies are heading into the election, and just how bad the situation is for Republican politicians.
Also have to think that there is a chance that this could backfire.
Right in there.
You even have people like Chris Murphy tweeting, “We all see what’s happening here. And it’s not going to scare people into silence,” saying it’s going to cause more people to—
Hey, time will tell if that turns out to be true.
But of course, you also saw plenty of Republicans celebrating the news, though some appear to have maybe taken it a bit too far.
For example, Stephen Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, saying the quiet part out loud, sharing an article about the raid and writing on Twitter, “Promise made, promise kept.”
Seeming to imply that Trump was keeping some promise to go after Omar, which, at the very least, is not the best look.
Look, if you’re trying to convince the American people that this is not a politically motivated stunt from a president who has vowed to target his enemies, it’s weird that it seems like Katie Miller realized that, because she deleted that post.
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Right, and actually jumping from that to another crazy bit of news, we’ve got to talk about MAGA’s crazy attempt to spin James Talarico’s flu into a secret mental breakdown and treatment stint in Ohio.
Right.
So what happened is that Talarico was off the campaign trail for nine days to recover from the flu.
But then with that, you had a lot of Republicans just lying and calling it 12 days or two weeks, and it just gets bigger and bigger, like a bunch of guys that are 5'10", but say they’re 6'1" online.
And you know what? If we’re at 6'1", we might as well say six-two, right?
Then also during this time, you had these conspiracy theories brewing up. And they were encouraged by Talarico’s opponent, Ken Paxton.
Over the weekend, tweeting on Saturday, “James Talarico claims he was missing for 13 days because of the flu. Who actually believes—”
And then with that, the conspiracy theory that you saw really take off was the one centering around the Lindner Center of Hope in Mason, Ohio.
You had that boosted by the likes of reality star and failed L.A. mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt and naturally, Megyn Kelly.
“Truly, we need proof of life. Where is he? Let’s see a photo with today’s newspaper. Let’s see video. Let’s hear him talk. Let’s find out what facility he’s—if this guy had a mental breakdown weeks before the vote, the people of Texas deserve to know. The people of the United States deserve to—”
Right.
But then from that, you saw this reaching new heights when MAGA influencers Nick Sortor and Ryan Marker claimed that during a Saturday night phone call, a Lindner employee confirmed to them that Talarico had been released from the Ohio facility that night.
“It looks like just this discharge this evening. That’s why I don’t have it.”
“Oh, he was discharged then.”
With that tweet and audio going viral, Elon Musk pushing it a number of times, you had these influencers thinking, and boom, they did it.
But then you had people very, very quick to notice some of the obvious holes in the investigation.
Right. Huge things like Talarico had already returned to the campaign trail on Friday and attended a Kacey Musgraves concert on Saturday. You know, unless he had a time machine, very confusing how that would be possible, right?
So even if you were buying the very random Ohio part of this, though, the timing just doesn’t add up because he was out and about before they said he was discharged.
And then there’s a tiny little issue that it appears that these guys reportedly edited the phone call recording to cut out the parts where the employee repeatedly denies anyone named James Talarico is in their system.
With the whole thing actually being six minutes long, and it was obtained by The Bulwark, right?
So with all this, after they posted the misleading clip, you had a spokesperson for Talarico quick to call the story a lie designed to promote a pathetic conspiracy theory.
Also had the Lindner Center saying in a statement, “Representative James Talarico has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope.”
With Talarico even retweeting that and adding a laughing emoji, saying, “I’ve never even been to Ohio.”
That pretty much clears up the conspiracy.
He still then is also having to talk about this because the lie spread so fast. So even Adam reacting to the conspiracy theory during an interview yesterday:
“That’s not true. I just had the flu, and I feel much better. But it’s a good reminder that you can’t believe everything you read on the internet.
“I think it’s mysterious that Ken Paxton hasn’t responded to a request for a debate in 85 days. I hear that people are getting really concerned about the attorney general. And, you know, I’ve heard rumors that he has a rare medical condition that causes clinical levels of cowardice.
“So I know Ken Paxton has asked for proof of life for me. I’m asking for proof of spine from—”
We’re so there.
You have Talarico alluding to the reason why people might want to try to invent an October surprise, just because things are not looking good for Paxton, a guy who has a famously lengthy résumé of fuckups, including an impeachment trial, securities fraud charges, cheating on his wife, and the list goes on and on.
And even in a bad polling year for Republicans like this, this is still Texas. He is a uniquely unpopular candidate.
I mean, he’s behind Talarico in the polls, and we’re talking about a state where a Democrat has not won a Senate race since 1988.
You even have the likes of Megyn Kelly saying that Paxton’s not a charismatic or particularly likable candidate, right? Making it clear why she leaned into the Lindner Center theory.
And also, just again, you think about it, it’s genuinely insane that she’s saying this. This is a woman who was publicly attacked and humiliated by Donald Trump, and she carries water for him every day.
Even she’s like, “Fucking Paxton’s the worst.”
But even after everything was proven wrong, she decided to double down, writing what many are calling one of her more pathetic tweets:
“Could you please clarify? Lindner Center of Hope. Has James Talarico been to your facility at all? At any point in the last nine days? And was the facility operator who said he had been there mistaken? Will you allow her to speak publicly?”
And she wasn’t alone, right?
You also saw other desperate responses from other Paxton allies, including a tweet from Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet.
While he had him trying to downplay the whole disaster, he just made it worse, saying, “It genuinely doesn’t matter if it was a mental health hospital or the flu. Bailing on the biggest job interview of your life by disappearing for two weeks is damning enough all by itself.”
A key thing that I want you to remember here is this whole “doesn’t matter if it’s true or not” thing.
This is a huge part of the current right-wing infrastructure. You even had people like Grant Cardone saying shit like this:
“Whether it’s true or not, people deserve to know the potential of this.”
What do you mean, whether it’s true or not? Doesn’t it matter if it is true?
Because, right, you’ve seemingly got people out there going, “Hey, it doesn’t matter if you slander someone, as long as you change the focus, as long as you change the narrative, the conversation.”
Again, because, yes, the cycle Republicans are unpopular. But also, Ken Paxton is uniquely a bad candidate.
Some would even argue a uniquely just bad human being.
And with all this, it’s going to be important to keep our eyes on it, because you have some saying, “Hey, Talarico and Lindner Center of Hope, they might have legal cases.”
For now, we’re going to have to wait to see how this plays out, both legally and with the election, because, again, yes, the midterms are November 3rd. Make sure you’re voting.
But also, in a number of states, early voting has already started. Here’s your little cheat sheet for the states and the dates where early voting starts.
Texas, for example, it starts 17 days before the election.
In Georgia, I’m actually going to be out there voting tomorrow. I’m so excited.
Although also, I’ll be voting for my wife, which is just amazing. Ossoff and really just blew the cycle.
Hey, in addition to your cheat sheet, you can go to Vote.org to find your polling locations. Make a plan, get out there, and be a part of the change you want to see.
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And then actually from that, let’s talk about this. This has been one of the most requested things over the past two weeks.
People have been asking for it because my fantastic wife, Lindsey DeFranco, is running for a state House seat in our home state of Georgia. It’s HD 47 if you’re in Georgia. That means it’s in Milton, parts of Alpharetta and Roswell, Mountain Park, and the Free Home area of Cherokee.
And what initially started as this long-shot bid has now turned into this insane, crazy situation.
We’re through this seat, and the promotion of others. It might actually flip the state.
And so, to break down the update as well as the new attack ads, I give you Lindsey DeFranco.
Okay. Me again.
When we first entered this race for Georgia’s House District 47, we weren’t even on the map. They didn’t really even consider us able to flip it.
But after all the hard work that we’ve put in and all the generous contributions from y’all, we are now listed as the number one most open House seat in the state.
All of your contributions have enabled us to run an extremely thorough, well-rounded campaign because from the very beginning, I promised myself and everybody else that I would not take any outside money.
No corporate money, no PAC money, no dirty money, nothing like that, just from individuals. And it’s worked so far. And in Georgia, early voting starts tomorrow.
I cannot believe we’re here. I have not been sleeping. I have just been a wreck. But, like, a good wreck in a way.
I guess you could say this is a final push, and we need more help, because what our polls have shown is that once people learn about my background and my policies, they completely ignore the R next to my opponent’s name, and they switch immediately because they know that I’m in this for the right reasons and that my policies are good.
But getting that information out in front of people is incredibly expensive.
Let me show you what I’m up against, because it shows you just how scared my opponent and the entire Georgia House Republican Caucus are.
It’s not only have they filed a bogus state ethics complaint against me, they’ve tried to manipulate AI to make people think that I have shut down my campaign.
My opponent backed out of our virtual debate ten minutes before it was supposed to happen. It’s up on Athens News. We still did the debate anyway without him.
What really shows you how scared they are are the mailers that they have put out against me.
And I want you to notice that on these mailers, they don’t talk about my policies at all. They talk about me.
“The California menace, Lindsay DeFranco, bringing the California Nightmare to Georgia.”
And they made up all these dumb things about me on the back.
And then this is the second one that they sent: “Lindsay DeFranco Says the Darndest Things,” with stuff I never said.
And then on the back they say how I have advocated for sexually explicit content to be available to kids. Just crazy. And they say, “Vote no on Lindsay.”
They don’t even say vote for the other guy. They just say vote no, which is not even an option.
So anyway, they aren’t attacking my policies. They’re attacking me because they know that I am a threat and that people like my policies, and they’re trying to make them question who I am as a person.
But good luck with that.
So here’s the thing.
We have almost 4,000 individual donors, with the median donation being $25, and I am so proud of that because it shows that you believe in me and you’re not expecting anything in return.
While my opponent only has 85 donors, and most of them are corporations, PACs, lobbyists, developers, people with something to gain. Why would they do this?
For a 24-year-old with no life experience, no legislative experience, if they didn’t expect him to just be a rubber stamp on whatever they wanted?
This man has collected so much money from corporate PACs, developers, AI data centers, special interests, the insurance lobby, organizations that want to defund public schools.
His boss, who just so happens to be the mayor of Milton, he works for him in his private wealth management firm. His boss and his family have donated over $16,000 to getting this kid elected.
The fix is in.
And here’s the biggest kicker: the gambling lobby has spent over $200,000 trying to get this kid elected.
But I don’t know what’s coming next, what’s coming towards me. It could be more of this BS, who knows?
But at the end of the day, I know that I’m the better candidate, and we just have to get my name out there.
Because when people know about me and they know about my policies and they know about my experience, they switch.
So that’s what we need help with. That’s what we need money for.
Pretty much cleared out our savings trying to do this. And there’s still more, and there’s so much reform that needs to be done.
But I’m wasting your time right now. You can contribute. There are other ways you can help.
We’re going to have phone banking trainings. If you want to do some phone banking, just email info at Lindsey for to sign up.
You can also just share my social media posts. Whatever they are, just share them, because we need to get the word out to people in the district, and we will win because we are the real representatives of what we need in this district.
Just a few weeks left, and I hope that the next time I am sitting here and talking to you will be me saying, “Thank you so much. I am your new state House representative.”
So if you do want to donate, please go to Lindsey for—okay.
Love you so much. Bye-bye.
I’ll see you on the other side.
That was a fantastic Lindsey DeFranco, everyone. Round of applause.
Why are you clapping? You’re watching a YouTube—also, side thing, I think whoever is putting out these hit-piece mailers, I think secretly has a crush on my wife. Those are some bomb photos they’re using.
But with all that said, there’s a lot more we got to dive into today.
But first, a quick break with a sponsor.
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Despite his officials doubling down in the face of serious backlash, it does seem like Trump is second-guessing the plan for a livestream execution.
For a quick recap, Army Major Nidal Hasan shot and killed 13 people and injured more than 30 at Fort Hood in Texas back in 2009.
And with that, you had him convicted by a military jury in 2013, which found him guilty on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of premeditated attempted murder.
And then sentenced to death, with an announcement coming early last week that he would be executed by firing squad this December.
Right. And that in and of itself, that was already big news.
It was worth noting because it’s both the first approved execution by firing squad since World War II and the first military execution since 1961.
But then the thing that grabbed a lot of people’s attention was Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth saying:
“We know what it is. It was a radical Islamist attack in uniform inside the ranks. And so he’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be. And we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that this is—there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
So, a public execution, the first in the United States in nearly a century, but also not just your classic town-square public execution.
The Pentagon then followed up Hegseth’s promise with a statement saying that the execution will be livestreamed, a move that even had a number of people who support capital punishment saying that sounds barbaric and dystopian.
As far as Trump, you know, at first he gave it a stamp of approval.
“The execution, the livestream, is according to the order. Did you—”
“Absolutely.”
However, what you saw was that after the backlash and pretty much everyone started rolling in, he changed his tune a bit, and he told reporters that he would be the one to make the final call about just how public this execution would be.
“There are two thoughts: don’t show it and show it. Because, you know, by showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did. So I’ll make a decision. Ultimately, I know what the military would like to do, but we’ll make a decision.”
Right now, if it’s to be believed, it would seem like he’s leaning the other direction.
With Axios reporting that Trump has privately expressed some serious concerns about the whole thing, reportedly telling his confidants that the livestream may not happen at all, with sources then telling Axios that he doesn’t seem, quote, particularly enthusiastic about it.
And that appeared to be JD Vance’s read of the situation as well, telling reporters that he doesn’t know if the livestream is actually going to happen, then also adding that even if it does, Vance himself is not going to be watching.
Right.
It seems like what could be causing the White House’s shift in position here is the optics.
Maybe not just because it’s barbaric, but also, you know, they want this guy to pay for what he did, but they also don’t want to accidentally make him a martyr in the process.
Even had one of Axios’s sources saying, “This is an old dude in a wheelchair. We’re shooting—”
We want to livestream?
That’s actually what Margaret Brennan from Face the Nation asked Secretary Markwayne Mullin over the weekend.
“Has the administration thought about the risk of making this guy a martyr to his cause?”
The short answer, at least for Mullin, was:
“I think people need to understand, if you attack America, we will come after you, and we will make sure that the punishment fits the crime. And in this case, he killed 13 individuals on Fort Hood. I have no sympathy for him.”
And I give absolutely zero thought to the way that this man dies.
With Mullin also adding that he’s going to follow Trump.
And if you don’t want to see the execution, don’t watch the livestream.
With this risk of bringing the wrong kind of attention to Hasan, it was definitely something that we saw in all the backlash.
Right, in the waves and waves of criticism.
You’ve got people saying things like, “The Fort Hood mass killer isn’t already a celebrated martyr to jihadists? Livestreaming his execution will make him one. There is no doubt.”
“Hasan deserves to die, but broadcasting his execution has beneath the dignity and decency of our country.”
Saying Americans will use violence if and when justified, but we do not rejoice in it. “Kill him swiftly and silently. Streaming his execution is not just a stain on our morality. It also gives the terrorists free propaganda that they will use to radicalize and recruit more terrorists like—”
It’s not just everyday people or people online. You even had Republicans in Congress all but begging Hegseth and Trump to reconsider.
And so you had, for example, John Curtis, a Republican senator from Utah, warning that Rome’s bloody spectacles corrupted the people who watched, saying:
“A civilization erodes when it cultivates an appetite for executions as a form of entertainment. Secretary Hegseth’s planned livestream of the Fort Hood execution risks feeding that appetite. Broadcasting a death diminishes us and is not an effective—”
Then you had several others, including outgoing Senator Tom Tillis, Georgia Representative Austin Scott, and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, saying broadcast executions are something, quote, oppressive dictatorships and terrorists do.
I mean, you even have victims’ families speaking out.
For example, Kelly Banneker, the daughter of 62-year-old Michael Grant Cahill, who was killed that day in 2009, saying:
“Livestreaming and taking joy in a tragedy that has deeply affected our family doesn’t bring back my—”
Saying this is a serious event, and it’s not there for people’s entertainment.
“Regardless of the fact he did horrific things that affected our family, making this something we can all watch stabs us in the—”
Saying it is putting more attention on the killer rather than the families and the victims.
You had the father of George Stratton, the third teenager who also died that day, adding that while he believes they should have, quote, “put Hasan down a long time ago,” the idea of a livestream execution is kind of morbid, and he doesn’t think he’d watch it.
And then you’re also seeing experts pouring in, with several raising questions about the legality of the situation, because there’s really no precedent.
We’re saying that with this, there’s a chance that Hasan could challenge a public display of his execution in court. He could even go to federal civilian court for a habeas corpus petition, which could add years to the whole process.
And then also, on another aspect of this, you have people like retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling telling MSNBC that this goes beyond what we can reasonably ask soldiers to do.
“Shooting a fellow citizen, even if they have committed a heinous crime like Major Hasan does, is not something we should ask soldiers to do in a firing squad.”
For now, we’re going to have to wait to see what comes from the coming days.
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And then jumping from that, we’ve got to talk about how Elon Musk has quietly spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to support Republicans in the midterms since just July.
Meaning that in total this election cycle, he has spent over $360 million, which is well ahead of what he spent for the 2024 campaigns.
If that at all is surprising to you, it might be because you remember Musk last year saying:
“In terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future.”
“And why is that?”
“I think I’ve done enough. Well, if I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I don’t see a reason.”
So, he was either lying, he found a reason, or a little bit of both.
Because according to The New York Times, he is the largest known donor in these midterms. And it’s not even close.
Right. He is what Republicans say George Soros is.
He is spending money like a man who has done some bad, bad things and needs to stay out of jail, and/or stay in a position where he’s allowed to extract enormous amounts of wealth from those beneath him.
But you can come to your own conclusions.
But the difference between this cycle and the last cycle is that he’s been doing it a lot more quietly this time. He’s been taking more of a backseat in campaign events and just letting the money do the work.
One of the key things here is he is not the only ultra-wealthy person funneling insane amounts of cash into who we elect.
Just last week, you would see NBC reporting that the top 20 largest donors and donor groups in this cycle have contributed about $1.2 billion.
That is around one-eighth of what’s been raised this cycle, and 14 of those 20 largest donors are backing Republican candidates and groups.
So this money gives Republicans an upper hand, with a VP at one Democratic think tank explaining:
“We don’t have the kind of donors they’ve got. The advantages that the Republicans have are enormous. And no amount of donor enthusiasm on our side is going to close that gap.”
And then you can also see how the spending plays out when it comes to advertising, right?
Because just since the start of September, Republicans have made more than $700 million worth of advertising bookings in congressional races, compared to just $430 million from Democrats.
Meaning that in the Senate races, nearly seven out of every ten newly booked advertising dollars are coming from the Republicans.
There is a reason that Republicans likely feel the need to spend so much money.
You just had the Cook Political Report saying that the GOP is on track to lose the House and just shifted 15 House races toward the Democrats, even rating the Senate a true toss-up, which just a year ago seemed impossible.
So then with this, you got places like The Washington Post saying these midterm elections may be remembered as the year the wealthy dominated in political spending for congressional and state elections to questionable results.
So that’s likely where we’re seeing people like Musk coming in, with massive, massive amounts of money.
You had a major chunk going to the main super PAC trying to maintain the Republican Senate majority.
In fact, he gave $158 million to that fund alone, which is one of the largest political donations in our country’s history.
And it is more than the Democratic equivalent of that group raised all quarter.
As you had that heated Texas Senate race playing out, Musk is also spending a lot of money on Paxton.
Which makes sense for a number of reasons, including it’s now Musk’s current home state. And Talarico is actually outspending Paxton.
And so on the right, you’re seeing plenty of people celebrating Musk’s donation, seeing it as a lifeline in the midterms.
Also, there’s an argument here that Democrats can use Musk’s money against him, right?
The more political influence he’s gotten, the less people in the country seem to like him.
Right. Just last year, you had an AP poll finding that only one-third of U.S. adults view Musk favorably, and the majority believe that he just has too much power.
So the Democrats, they should highlight how he’s spending record-breaking amounts of money on the Republicans to show who’s benefiting from Musk’s power.
And actually, we’re starting to see that happening. This big New York Times report on just how much money Musk has spent, it was published this morning.
And already you have major Democratic voices like Bernie Sanders saying:
“Elon Musk spent $290 million to elect Trump. It paid off.”
Adding, “Since his election, Musk got $696 billion richer and became the world’s first trillionaire.”
But adding that’s not enough.
“Now Musk is spending $366 million to keep Republicans in control of Congress. Stop Musk. Stop oligarchy.”
Right.
This taps into a sentiment that exists for big money in general, whether it’s coming from Musk or any ultra-ultra-rich person, right?
Voters do not like seeing insane sums of money spent on super PACs in the middle of an affordability crisis.
And so there’s effective messaging here on how much billionaires like Musk are spending that could end up hurting the Republicans.
Because, as one government ethics expert noted, having money matters.
But it isn’t always about who has the most.
Adding, “Having tons of money doesn’t guarantee victory. The contrary is true. Not having enough does guarantee defeat.”
Adding, “No one ever really knows what enough is.”
So in some of these races, it is likely going to come down to whether or not Democrats have enough in the races where it really matters.
So what we’re going to be seeing is definitely an amazing test case.
And what are the caps of how much you can move the needle with even insane amounts of money, right?
Can you fearmonger culture war and get people to not believe their lying eyes when they’re at the gas pump or paying their bills, or doing insert bad thing from the last two years?
That’s what you have a lot of the Republican establishment and Musk doing right now.
We will see after November 3rd how it all plays out.
And then I’ve got three more news stories we’ve got to talk about today.
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But first, a quick self-promo.
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Like, I want that on a tank top.
Is this show and working out really the only thing that’s keeping me sane these days?
And of course, that’s in addition to our other bestsellers like:
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With all of that and even more available at Beautiful Bastard, so go snag a new pair of tees and wear your feelings.
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And then diving right back into the news.
We’ve got to talk about how a man was mauled to death this weekend after climbing into a tiger enclosure at a UK wildlife park.
Specifically, it was Saturday at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, and according to witnesses, you had this man happily enjoying his visit, dancing around and even asking someone to take his photo with the tiger behind him.
But then, for reasons that still aren’t clear, you had him climbing into the enclosure as other visitors tried to pull him back.
With witnesses saying that once he was inside, he got down on all fours, appeared to be praying, looking up at the sky.
One person described him as seeming almost in a trance, like he wasn’t fully connected to reality.
He also reportedly even tried to communicate with the tiger, telling it to stop being naughty and using what looked like sign language to communicate.
Right.
All this led to people speculating that he might have been autistic, but also, as of recording, police have not identified him yet, so none of that’s confirmed.
What we do know is that the tiger attacked.
And by the time that emergency crews reached him, it was too late.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
While the park has stayed closed while police investigate what led to all this, they confirmed that the tiger, whose name is Altai, is safe and is not going to be put down.
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Then also today, you’ve got a good-news, bad-news situation coming out of Russia and Ukraine.
Right, with the good news being that Trump announced a historic energy ceasefire that was agreed to by Russia and Ukraine.
The bad news is that he never actually talked to Ukraine about the deal.
And it contradicts a 2022 law banning Russian fuel imports.
And as far as the deal, it would be for both countries to stop bombing each other’s energy grids, although it’s probably not for altruistic reasons.
Trump also made a deal to lift sanctions on Russia and buy Russian diesel to lower U.S. gas prices ahead of the midterms.
And it’s a lot easier to actually get the diesel if Ukraine is not blowing it up.
So understandably, Ukraine is furious.
First, it looks like Trump made a deal for them and didn’t tell them about it.
Secondly, this now means that the U.S. would be directly funding the Russian war effort, which is a stab in the back.
Not that it even mattered, because Russia wasted no time and just continued to bomb Ukrainian energy targets.
So the deal was dead in the water.
But still, despite that, you had Trump blasting Zelenskyy and saying that Ukraine needs a president who can make a deal.
He then had Zelenskyy saying, “Bet,” and claimed that Ukraine would be happy to hold elections if Trump could guarantee a 60-day total ceasefire.
Something that seemingly Trump just could never accomplish.
You’ve got Trump feeling like these attacks, they’re going to hurt him in the midterms.
But also, it’s actually more than he realizes.
Ukraine has also targeted Russian bot farms, and engagement in political spaces such as subreddits or X has plummeted.
You’ve got these troll farms looking like they’ve essentially been silenced after the strikes.
While not all of the pro-Trump rhetoric, it kind of went out the window.
So over the past 48 hours, you’ve seen peace deals that don’t exist and airstrikes apparently giving us a political detox.
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And then finally today, you’ve got another scandal.
This time, it’s actually about Trump’s new press secretary, because you’ve got them now launching an investigation into some suspicious trades.
I predicted that he would choose conservative commentator Katie Zachariah.
That’s because Zachariah, she was nowhere near a frontrunner in the lineup to replace Karoline Leavitt.
Specifically, she was reportedly seen as having a 1% chance at the job.
But then reportedly, at around 10:43 last Thursday night, someone bet $19 that she’d get it.
And then you had two more bets for her coming in at around 1:41 Friday afternoon, one for $74 and the other for—
Then at around 2 p.m. that same day, less than an hour after those last bets went in, we started seeing reports that she got the job.
So that $19 turned into $1,900.
The other two, they are now worth $3,000 and $404,000, respectively.
So those tight timelines, they raised some red flags, which also makes sense given what we’ve been seeing happening with these prediction markets in Washington.
You just had Trump’s teleprompter operator getting fired after he pocketed more than $100,000 from betting on his own—.
The White House has also had to send out warnings to staff members when some conveniently timed bets started coming in about the war in Iran.
We’ll see what happens.
It’s wild that someone had said they were going to drain the swamp, has made it seemingly swampier.
Then also, why are you committing crimes for $1,900?
Possibly committing crimes by being so close to very, very important, privileged information, and you’re like, “I’m gonna risk it all for half a month’s rent in San Francisco.”
Like, my advice is, you know, don’t commit crimes at all.
But this is crazy.
And then, my friends, your beautiful bastards, this is the end of your Monday Philip DeFranco.
Thank you for watching, liking, and subscribing to these daily dives into the news.
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Hey, no matter what you do, stay safe out there.
Stay sane out there.
And I’ll see you right back here tomorrow.
