PDS Published 11/12/2026
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Jensen Huang resigning as CEO of Nvidia is so much bigger than you think.
Actually the story got even crazier as I was making today's show for Pete Hegseth was publicly humiliated. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and now he's trying to save face.
Dive into how crazy this Scott, Mississippi situation is. GTA six has already taken over the week's news. Beautiful Bastard drop it. Just officially broke records for the year.
Talking about all of that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco Show. Your daily dive into the news, starting with this.
Jensen Wong is out. The co-founder of Nvidia, the man who is synonymous with the chip-making giant, is officially done as CEO, because you had him resigning this morning amid reports that he had a second affair, this time with an executive who reported to him.
Then actually, as I was finishing up today's show, you had Reuters reporting that Hwang apparently had a third affair with an unnamed Nvidia employee, though right now we don't have any more information.
And that news was coming just days after he admitted having an affair with a woman who U.S. intelligence determined is a Chinese spy.
For the full deep dive on that one, I'll link to the Monday video. We do a deep dive.
Because super quick, to bring everyone back up to speed.
About two weeks ago, The New York Times reported that Wang had developed an intimate relationship with a woman named Alice Wang, who was not related. And Alice, she's a Chinese citizen and the former chief executive of Singapore-based data center company Mega Speed, which has bought at least $4.8 billion worth of AI equipment containing Nvidia chips.
But according to The Times, U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Alice was a Chinese asset who was funneling information directly to Beijing as part of an effort to learn more about American AI chips, and possibly to influence Nvidia to push for Chinese access to their most advanced chips.
Because since the Biden administration, the U.S. has banned companies from exporting the most advanced Nvidia chips to China to give the U.S. a boost in the race for AI.
That's also key because toward the end of the Biden administration, the Commerce Department started investigating Mega Speed over suspicions that it was smuggling banned Nvidia chips to China.
But then in came Trump, who eased export restrictions, allowing more chips to be sent to China after he started getting all buddy-buddy with Wang, who also reportedly donated at least $20 million to Trump's ballroom.
Then maybe even crazier is that Trump was reportedly briefed on the intelligence about Alice and Jensen Wang's relationship, but he apparently chose not to do anything with that intel because he was worried about disrupting Nvidia's chip sales in the stock market.
And that's huge for a number of reasons, including Wang's been a major influence on Trump's approach to AI.
If Trump knew he was potentially being honeypotted by a Chinese spy seeking AI technology, and still allowed him to play such a big role in determining U.S. policy, that's fucking especially concerning.
Because it appears that Trump didn't even tell Jensen himself about it. U.S. officials apparently didn't believe that he knew that she was gathering information for China when they briefed Trump, but it's also unclear if that's changed.
And you had senior officials saying it is doubtful he remained so. So, just so much insanity and so many more questions.
But then also with this, you had China denying that Alice was a spy.
And Jensen Wang, for his part, he has not publicly addressed those specifics, though he did confirm that he had had an affair. But also, he didn't name Alice Wong directly, and Nvidia's board of directors announced that it would investigate.
Then yesterday, The Times dropped another bombshell report that Jensen Wong had also had an affair with Kimberly Powell, who happened to be Nvidia's vice president.
And this despite the fact that, one, both of them are married, and two, Nvidia's code of conduct directs them to avoid situations where our actions create conflict, including personal relationships.
And actually, according to reports, Wang's relationship with Powell, it's been discussed in the brain.
The two were also allegedly filmed being affectionate at a hotel during an Nvidia conference back in March.
But security workers saw the bystander and sequestered them and then asked them.
And while notably here, it doesn't appear that either Wong or Nvidia have commented on the alleged second affair, you do have a lot of people taking his resignation on the heels of this news as an indication of what's been reported and who else knows.
Then, as far as what happens next, you have Colette Kress, Nvidia's current CFO, now serving as interim CEO while the company looks for a permanent replacement.
And you have the board of directors also appointing venture capitalist Harvey C. Jones as its chairman.
Right now, we do not know the kind of major economic ripples that could come.
Because, like Jensen Wong, he's not just some dude. And he is not just some company.
Nvidia controls 90% of the market for computer chips, and before all this went down, the company was worth $4.5 trillion, regularly going back and forth with Apple for the title of the world's most valuable company.
And because of its essential role in American AI production, Nvidia has also become crucial to propping up the U.S. stock market, which is being heavily influenced by AI.
And so all of this makes it unsurprising, and also very concerning, that Nvidia stock has totally crashed.
Shares in the company dropped as much as 14%, and while it's rebounded a bit as of recording this, some outlets are reporting that the drop has slashed Nvidia's market value by $2 trillion, falling 35% from a record.
And all of this kind of makes Jensen Wong a Helen of Troy.
And to that, I say, okay, that's cool, but Jensen Wong has a dick that blew up 1,000,000,401. The guy, like, and if you're not familiar with the guy, his resignation, it makes sense that it would have such a huge impact.
This is not your typical CEO departure. Wong is integral to Nvidia as the co-founder.
He co-founded Nvidia. He is the only CEO. He has led the business as it has gone from a startup for video game graphics cards to really being ahead of the curve on what those cards could do and the future of AI, to then becoming the face of the AI boom.
And apparently saying he was instrumental in the business is probably downplaying it.
The Times explained that he ran Nvidia almost single-handedly. His influence was unusually central.
And even the corporate fabric of the company seemed to be designed for his control.
Nvidia operates with a flat organizational structure and an executive team of more than 60 people who report to him, putting him at the epicenter.
And so it's believed that that structure could be very hard to unwind.
And it's a transition that will also be further complicated by the fact that the company literally does not seem to have a clear successor.
The whole thing was built around Huang and his leadership.
So there's no obvious successor, and there doesn't even seem to be a clear internal replacement.
Which is then seemingly in part why you're seeing so many big names in Silicon Valley arguing that his affair, even with an alleged Chinese spy, is a reason ousting him would be so detrimental.
And some are arguing that America cannot actually afford to lose him.
You have many arguing that same point even after the news, so we'll have to wait to see what happens within Nvidia and the economic impact that the transition of power is going to have.
But things are also not over for Huang. I don't just mean, like, where is he going in the future? What company is he going to start or be part of?
You're seeing things like Republican leaders of at least three influential House committees asking him to appear for briefings on his interactions with Alice Wong.
And today, you had the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee saying that Wong had agreed to testify before Congress.
We've also seen members of Congress on both sides of the aisle calling for congressional and federal investigations.
Many lawmakers, including some Republicans, have also called for probes into Trump and others in his administration.
Because Trump's denied that he was informed about the Alice intel during a state visit to China in May that Huang accompanied him.
Multiple outlets have reported that he was personally briefed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio shortly before Huang boarded Air Force One.
And then there's also a bunch of sketchy shit about the administration that's come out in the last few days.
Earlier this week, The Times reported that investigators at the Commerce Department were deep into a months-long investigation of Mega Speed when the case was abruptly taken out of their hands and transferred to the DOJ after it was compromised by a Trump appointee.
And specifically, Nvidia's general counsel allegedly emailed Commerce Department investigators seeking information about their probe and noting that Jeff Kessler, a top official in the department who reports directly to the secretary, had given the company permission to reach out about the case.
The agents were alarmed by that because Kessler's interaction there would violate government procedure and potentially taint the case entirely.
Some were also questioning why Kessler was discussing the case with Nvidia when they hadn't been ruled out as a subject of the investigation.
And so, as a result, sources say that the case was quickly transferred to the DOJ to avoid compromising the investigation of Mega Speed.
Meanwhile, multiple prominent Republicans are calling for the Commerce secretary to explain why his agency didn't block Mega Speed from buying advanced chips despite the U.S. intelligence warnings about Alice.
Then just today, you had Singapore's government saying that when it launched its own investigation into Alice, the U.S. provided very little information.
And actually, according to reports, Singaporean authorities seized Alice's passport to prevent her from leaving the country from June of 2025 until February this year over potential false declarations regarding Mega Speed.
And as part of that probe, Singapore tried to get information from an American server maker and close Nvidia business partner called Super Micro, which sources say was a supplier of Mega Speed.
But Super Micro, which has also been the subject of chip-smuggling probes, wasn't cooperating.
Then also, when Singapore raised the issue with the DOJ and FBI and requested their assistance in securing the company's cooperation, they received, quote, "limited information or assistance."
So, very clearly, there are a lot of very, very, very serious allegations that are floating around.
And while we're going to see how this plays out in the immediate future, it also feels like you can bet your ass that Democrats are going to start looking into them when they assume power in January, and they go balls to the walls, all in on investigating so many things with this corrupt administration.
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Robert, then, gentlemen, from that other news, we've got to talk about why Pete is in crazy damage-control mode right now.
Well, obviously, the big conversations around him right now are: When is he going to get impeached? Is he going to get impeached at all?
Also, this crazy viral clip where a guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier starts scolding him and his entourage.
It was a rough day for Pete yesterday.
I mean, just to start, the audience booed when Trump just mentioned his name during the Veterans Day remarks at Arlington National Cemetery. The Secretary of War, Peter Hegseth.
I had a feeling that was going to happen.
It was bad enough for him.
But then immediately after the ceremony, he managed to tank his reputation even further after posing for a photo at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with his wife and advisors.
It seemed like they forgot exactly where they were and the type of decorum that's expected.
And the U.S. Army guard stationed at the tomb, Specialist Thomas Iglesias, was forced to remind them.
And after what many are calling a completely justified reprimand, you had the group walking away without giving Iglesias any attention.
With that clip then just blowing up wildly online, the backlash was fast and fierce.
You had countless people calling Hegseth disrespectful, saying he should be fired and applauding Iglesias.
And it wasn't just everyday people saying this.
You had both current and former lawmakers and even high-profile veterans pushing back.
That includes former Representative Adam Kinzinger, who called the situation abhorrent and said Hegseth doesn't know how to conduct himself, even at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.
Saying his behavior is unbecoming of any visitor to the tomb, let alone that which comes from a Secretary of Defense.
Also, you had retired Air Force Colonel Mo Davis chiming in, calling Hegseth a daily dishonor and disgrace.
And then there was the more direct approach that you had.
Paul Rykov, an Iraq War veteran, a former first lieutenant in the Army and prominent veterans advocate, taking on Hegseth, said:
"He's a piece of shit. I have to say it like we can all see it now. The whole world can see it. He's disrespectful. He's despicable. He's dastardly. He's a liar.
He's lied to his wives. He's lied to the country. He's lied to the president. And they are bad people.
And it's no more obvious and egregious than on Veterans Day when they act like that."
And all of that, you know, it was just a small taste of what was blowing up.
You had people on every corner of the internet.
And it seemed like even they understood, oh, there's no spinning this.
You even had the Pentagon itself coming out in support of the guard, with chief spokesperson Sean Parnell, while commemorating this solemn day, saying a soldier correctly and respectfully reminded everyone to maintain proper decorum.
Then trying to provide a little spin, saying the secretary and the entire department have always honored and will always honor the sacrifices our military men and women have made to keep America free.
And it seems that, or at least someone in the PR department at the Pentagon, knows exactly how bad this looks.
The Old Guard, the regiment of soldiers assigned to the tomb, has been guarding the tomb 24 hours a day, every day since 1948, and they reportedly have to give these types of corrections out a couple of times a year.
But the fact that the so-called Secretary of War, a member of the president of the United States' Cabinet, needed that reminder, especially this was starting to make the military and its quality and conduct look bad.
It was no wonder that this got such a strong reaction.
And in fact, so strong, you've got Hegseth trying to do some damage control, with photos dropping this morning of Pete awarding Iglesias the Joint Service Commendation Medal for the execution of his duties at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on November 11th.
He posed with him and other members of the Old Guard inside the Pentagon for pictures, which Hegseth then shared on Twitter with the caption:
"We love soldiers, we love standards. Well done, Specialist. Carry on."
You saw a lot of the replies just not letting that go.
Calling him disrespectful, a war criminal, disgraceful and demanding a real apology.
But then also, speaking of him being seen as a war criminal, it's worth mentioning that this whole thing is happening just days after Democrats dropped the ball in getting him removed.
Because earlier this week, House Republicans were able to kill the effort to impeach Hegseth.
Republican Representative Thomas Massie had gotten Republicans voting and pulling off a 211-to-204 win to send the matter back to committee.
And a huge key thing there is that 11 Democrats missed this vote.
You know, we should put them on screen and list them:
From California, you have Julia Brownley, Lou Correa and Nancy Pelosi.
Then Laura Gillen of New York. Steven Horsford of Nevada. Jonathan Jackson of Illinois. Brittany Pettersen of Colorado. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico.
Marilyn Strickland of Washington. Frederica Wilson of Florida. And then finally, good old Haley Stevens of Michigan.
You've got them facing some serious heat, both from their constituents and their colleagues.
With reportedly Representative Katherine Clark in Massachusetts, the second in command, tracking down what happened.
Both started coming down hard behind closed doors yesterday.
You also had Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed doing the public option, going on CNN to bluntly tell Democrats, quote, "Show up and do your job."
But as far as why these 11 didn't show up, they seem to all have varying reasons.
Some said it was traffic delays. Some said personal emergencies. Some said medical procedures.
Nancy Pelosi said she was receiving a lifetime achievement award from a veterans group, and then others blamed Republicans.
You've got many saying, you know, whatever your reason or excuse, your absence cost the vote.
The American people gave Democrats a huge victory because they expect them to try to do something.
And to that point, we've seen some of them apologizing for dropping the ball on this one.
With, for example, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico posting a four-minute-long apology video online, saying that she had been stuck in horrible rush-hour traffic with a motorcade blocking the street.
You had many saying her absence specifically was a huge deal because she has been actively trying to get Hegseth impeached for a while now.
With all that, you do have a number of people saying, hey, it is not fully confirmed that these absences lost the vote for Democrats.
People noting that there were some absences on the Republican side as well.
And who knows how things would have gone down on any other day.
Still, for what seems to be most people, it just is not inspiring confidence that they're going to take advantage of the majority that the people have handed them.
Well, of course, come January, you're going to have a different Congress.
At the very least, you had people critical of these 11 as well as their leadership.
Hey, in the meantime, I love your thoughts on all of this, including the whole Veterans Day situation.
And then there's even more we've got to dive into in just a minute after a quick break with our sponsor.
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This is history. And also kind of the biggest F-you to MAGA and Trump from the whole midterms.
Mississippi's Scott Colom has pulled off an insane historic upset, beating Republican incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.
You had to take more than a week of ballot tallying.
The Senate race was finally called last, with Colom leading by about 4,700 votes.
And in addition to being the state's first Democratic senator since 1982, Colom is Mississippi's first Black senator since Reconstruction.
And in his victory speech, the senator-elect reflected on keeping the faith throughout his campaign.
"For me, this journey started with a prayer, y'all.
And in Mississippi, our prayers have often changed the course of history. We need faith.
And I'll tell you, throughout this campaign, there were many times where I had to have faith.
There were times that I couldn't get donors to answer the phone. They did not believe a moment like this was possible, but I kept the faith."
But also, on top of this being an unbelievably historic, important moment and just generally shocking, you have a lot of people saying this is karma for Hyde-Smith.
Because you see, back in 2023, then-President Biden nominated Colom to serve as a U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Mississippi.
And you had Democrats and Republicans alike supporting that nomination, except for Hyde-Smith, who blocked it.
And Colom has actually said that he would not have run for Congress if he'd been confirmed to the court.
And so, I guess in a weird way, we should all do it together, class.
Thank you, Hyde-Smith, for leading us through this delicious moment.
And making this even juicier is that on election night, she referenced that whole situation and was all excited to prematurely announce:
"I blocked Scott Colom from being a federal judge, and you've blocked him from being a U.S. senator."
But not so fast.
And actually, there were also questions about whether or not she would concede the race.
Because you see, a few days ago, Hyde-Smith was requesting that Mississippi election officials preserve certain ballots and election records, seemingly preparing for a legal challenge.
But in the end, you did have her acknowledging her loss.
"While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters.
I want to congratulate Scott and wish him well as he takes on the tremendous responsibility of representing our great state."
And so now that this has actually happened, you have more and more people asking, how is this even possible? How did this happen in Mississippi?
Because it's Mississippi.
When you think of one of the most red states ever, you think Mississippi.
Trump won Mississippi by 23 points.
And, well, you've had people generally attributing the blue wave to voters being furious about Trump's war in Iran and the ongoing affordability crisis.
Colom seems to have just really figured out how to capitalize on that frustration and how to effectively communicate with voters.
And honestly, he did most of it alone because Democrats, they weren't even paying attention to this race until the very end.
It was widely seen to be a given that this would be a Republican win.
But among several key things, you had him energizing the state's Black population, which was key.
Right, because Mississippi actually has the highest percentage of Black residents in the country, clocking in at around 38%.
And he won more than 90% of Black voters and about 25% of white voters, which turns out is all Colom needed.
And he would really focus his messaging on affordability, accessible health care and saving rural communities, aka shit that really matters to Mississippi.
And he also had a lot of success roasting Hyde-Smith's comments.
Because you see, for example, when Hyde-Smith was asked about rising beef prices during a TV interview, she gave just maybe the flop response of the year, suggesting that Mississippians should just choose another protein.
And Colom's team, they were like, okay, we can work with that.
And they dropped this hilarious response.
"Prices of beef continuing to go up. If you know you have so many proteins to choose from, take another protein."
See it? I'd rather pick another senator.
And they ran with that.
"Pick another protein."
She done lost her damn mind.
I'd rather pick another senator.
She's picking up the protein. What the? Pick another cylinder instead.
With that ad going viral, the campaign just really leaned into it.
You had him driving around in a "Pick Another Protein" truck that offered free protein.
And then after all the attention from the ad, you had the Democratic Party finally starting to take this race seriously.
They swooped in at the 11th hour and threw cash at it.
Weeks, about two weeks before the election, the PAC associated with Chuck Schumer donated $1.2 million.
And also on top of that money, you saw a bunch of major influential Democrats joining Colom on the campaign trail.
People like Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Bill Clinton and Raphael Warnock.
And hey, yeah, maybe that ultimately helped him get over the finish line.
Again, 99% of the credit should really go to Colom and his personal team and local organizers because they just taught the party a huge lesson.
Pay attention.
Actually, if you actually try to reach the voters and relentlessly focus on the issues that they actually care about, you can have a winning campaign even in the most unexpected places.
And while this win also then makes what happened with the Democratic Party and Angie Nixon in Florida extra infuriating, you had Colom maybe putting it this way:
"I've been in Mississippi 15 years. Most of the times, the Democrats conceded the state.
Morally, how could you not compete in a state where people are being denied health care?
How could you not compete in a state where folks are, you know, getting betrayed on tariffs? Farmers getting betrayed, consumers, small businesses?
How could you not compete in a state where voting rights are being attacked left and right?
When you say, listen, I can't win those voters, what you're saying is I don't care enough about those voters."
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But then jumping from that to other news, we've got to talk about how AIPAC spent at least over $55 million on losing races this past election cycle.
That's what you had The Responsible Statesman reporting after Election Day, meaning that they lost two-thirds of what they spent on this year's midterms.
And AIPAC, of course, they're the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
They're a pro-Israel lobbying group, and they gave hundreds of candidates money this election cycle throughout the primaries and the general election.
And the key thing is that AIPAC gave directly to candidates itself and through its donors.
And it also has a super PAC, United Democracy Project, which focuses on independent expenditures like ad spending.
And according to a review The Intercept did specifically looking at the primaries, it spent in over 300 races, and in the vast majority, its candidates won or advanced.
And so that painted this positive picture for AIPAC on its own.
But then, like I said, they still threw a huge chunk of cash down the drain this year.
You can see that marked by these orange dots here.
Especially in Democratic primaries, it lost some of its most expensive races.
And in the ones where candidates advanced, there were some where they had no opponent or it just wasn't a close race to begin with.
Actually, to get a greater sense of AIPAC's role in these midterms, as well as where it stands going into 2028, we spoke with Kayla Lacey, The Intercept's senior politics reporter.
And you had her noting that in recent years, AIPAC has been very vocal about who it's been supporting, very proud and public about saying pro-Israel politics is good policy.
And sort of taking credit not only for incumbents that it backs winning, but also for ousting these very prominent critics of U.S. military support for Israel from Congress.
But that is a strategy that has led to a lot of backlash.
Polling shows that Americans do not approve of Israel's actions in Gaza.
And about one-third of U.S. adults believe that it has committed a genocide against Palestinians.
And while, yeah, there was a lot on voters' minds this year, it does seem like AIPAC's association with some politicians backfired.
Many of the candidates that they spent the most on lost their races.
"We saw candidates who were openly critical of our policy towards Israel win in key races that helped Democrats win control of the Senate, namely Michigan."
And we've talked about this in the past, but AIPAC spent $30 million alone on the Michigan Senate race and ads either attacking Abdul El-Sayed or supporting his primary opponent, Haley Stevens.
And then, a huge thing: after El-Sayed advanced, they started backing his Republican opponent in the general, Mike Rogers.
But now you have Michigan Senator-elect El-Sayed, and it appears that he was able to make AIPAC's spending against him a key part of his campaign.
"We've got people who are sick and tired of watching our foreign policy get dictated to us by a foreign government because of AIPAC spending.
You want a politics where big corporations and AIPAC spend tens of millions of dollars to misinform the public on 30-second glossy ads.
To the super PACs and special interests who tried to beat us, we are coming for your system."
And while AIPAC was definitely most central to this race, it also came up in Mississippi.
In a video shared by Scott Colom, who just flipped a Senate seat in Mississippi blue, which is mind-boggling, you see a voter ask:
"Have you taken any money from AIPAC?"
"Absolutely not."
A year defined by an affordability crisis that saw the richest man in the world spend historic amounts of money on the election, it's almost around half a billion dollars.
Voters cared who their candidates were taking money from, and that was regardless of whichever side of the aisle they were on.
And with this, you had Lacey noting the fact that both parties are beholden to the AI industry and corporate PACs, and the financial industry, and the real estate industry.
These are things that voters are waking up to more and more.
The fact that AIPAC gives money to both parties is not necessarily surprising to voters.
It's more of an indictment of this system that allows people to wear different jerseys but effectively legislate in the same way.
I think the energy around calling out these similarities between both parties is something that motivated voters of all backgrounds.
And now you've got AIPAC already shifting its strategy.
Just before November, you had the group announcing that it was going to refrain from endorsing candidates and making direct contributions to their campaigns in upcoming elections.
They even called this election cycle one of the most challenging environments in recent history.
That seems to be largely in response to the mounting criticisms against them.
"I think they are very aware of the issues that they're facing, as we just discussed. But I don't think they're going anywhere."
I think that's sort of the big takeaway, at least from the analysis that we did this week.
Because, as Lacey's report noted, even if their very visible and direct spending gets dialed down, AIPAC is not disappearing.
One, it'll continue supporting candidates via its United Democracy Project super PAC.
Two, the group had actually already been testing out strategies where they gave in more hidden ways that voters could not immediately identify.
And so, for example, The Intercept found that in some primaries this year, the group's donors put money into races where AIPAC did not officially endorse and United Democracy Project also gave money to other committees.
Including so-called pop-up PACs, which registered just before the primaries and were able to delay disclosures until after the election.
In fact, during the Democratic primaries, they spent $13 million by giving money to committees whose names had no tie to Israel-related issues.
The spending that we see from AIPAC in these races, like the ad spending, never mentions Israel policy because they know this is an unpopular issue.
And so that's why we saw them funneling money through groups with names like Electric Women or Pro-Choice Majority, or groups that have these anodyne names.
So the ads, they don't mention Israel. They just use other issues, whether it be women's rights or whatever, to sway voters' minds on the candidate that AIPAC wants elected.
But with this, you had Lacey noting that even as they hide behind this, knowing the brand is toxic, they still use some of their ads to fuel racism and Islamophobia against various candidates.
And because AIPAC has been increasingly using tactics like this, as well as heavily relying on the United Democracy Project, Lacey said that their choice to not publicly endorse candidates or spend directly may not actually mean much.
"We see them retreating from that publicly, but again, privately, they're going to still be spending from this super PAC. And I can only imagine that we'll see them spending more."
Right, because, as she reported, AIPAC might be weakened, but it's still here.
And it is going to be this issue that both political parties are going to have to address.
Even as you have people celebrating this blue wave, there are very real questions about whether or not the Democratic Party will meet this moment.
And largely, that is the Democratic Party.
At least as of right now, the two people most likely to lead the chambers of Congress are Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, both of whom were shouted out by AIPAC in a post that celebrated the election.
And that's as, among other things, Jeffries got almost $280,000 from AIPAC in donations.
And this is meanwhile, you had Bernie Sanders rallying donations and spending $1 million himself to try to counter AIPAC's spending against El-Sayed.
So even within one party, there are two very different approaches.
And then with the Republicans, you're seeing things like in his novel-length postmortem on the election, JD Vance said that the U.S.'s relationship with Israel was one of the top issues for voters.
And so it seems like at least some of them know that this is something that they might have to recalibrate with.
But this is also coming from an administration that had no trouble turning on Thomas Massie, who was defeated in his primary after AIPAC and UDP spent around $4 million.
This sets up a very important and interesting dynamic heading into 2028, as the hundreds of candidates who take AIPAC money have to try to figure out how to move forward.
Five years ago, the general person probably did not know what AIPAC was.
I don't know that there's a way that they can fix the damage that's been done to their reputation.
And so that raises really interesting questions about what the pro-Israel lobby will look like in the next election.
And with that, you've got some groups seeing this as an opportunity.
Earlier this year, for example, you had a group called American Priorities announcing itself as a PAC dedicated to countering AIPAC.
And you had it throwing its weight behind pro-Palestine candidates, though they didn't have nearly as much money.
According to Axios, it spent over $6 million this year, and they do plan to spend more in 2028.
But it's also kind of nothing compared to what AIPAC spent.
Though I will say, for their part, AIPAC has pushed back on the narratives.
In response to a political report noting its allies in Congress are dwindling, you had the group saying that so far, more than 245 candidates supported by AIPAC members won, including dozens of Democrats.
Saying AIPAC members support Democrats.
So yes, unfortunately, 10% of the candidates they backed lost in a race.
A spokesperson telling the outlet that they're looking forward to working with both the returning and newly elected members.
And Lacey noting that, yes, they faced significant losses this year, but it just may not impact their influence as much as people think.
Even with all these candidates coming out and rejecting AIPAC money, they gave to more than two-thirds of the people who were running in primaries.
This is still a very widespread sort of normal thing in Congress.
And so we wait to see how a lot of this is going to start playing out come the new year.
And as we immediately start now rolling towards the primaries for the 2028 election, I'd love to know your thoughts, opinions and reactions on the current situation.
And then there's a few more things we've got to dive into after a quick break with our sponsor.
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Then diving right back into the news, we've got a few more things we have to talk about, starting with the fact that GTA 6, it doesn't launch until November 19th, but reportedly, preorders have already blown past an estimated $1 billion.
You're looking at more than 10 million copies before a single person has even played the game.
The comparisons and context here are crazy.
GTA 5 back in 2013 also hit $1 billion, but at least took three days of actually being on sale to get there.
The company behind the game won't give exact numbers.
Their CEO did say that preorders are at, quote, "unprecedented levels."
You've got both Sony and Microsoft saying that it's already the most preordered game in the history of their stores.
Interestingly, about three out of every four of those orders are on PlayStation.
Making this extra insane, when GTA 5 launched, it broke the world record for the most money made by any entertainment product in a single day.
GTA 6 is already past that before launch.
And analysts actually think it could pull in up to $5 billion in its first week alone.
Honestly, who knows how much money is going to be made over the years, and how much money they'll make later with the online version.
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Then jumping from that to much heavier news.
At least eight people are dead, including two children, after a building collapsed in Brooklyn.
And as far as what we know as of recording, at around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, a three-story building on Flatbush Avenue suddenly came collapsing into a construction site right next door, tearing the side off the building on the other side.
People nearby saying the whole thing started shaking and then just fell, with witnesses describing hearing screaming from blocks away.
You had firefighters getting there almost immediately.
And more than 250 emergency responders have been digging through the rubble ever since, working overnight in what officials have called a race against time.
And now, they believe that people still may be trapped.
In addition to the eight who were killed, nearly 20 more people were hurt, at least four of them critically, and at least seven of the injured were kids.
And then also with this, there's a part that's going to be under investigation.
There was active excavation work happening at the construction site next door, and several of the victims are believed to be construction workers.
But to be clear, officials have not yet said whether the work caused the collapse.
And right now, that's what they're trying to figure out.
And as you have crews still searching the rubble, this is still developing.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that he was heartbroken, adding, quote, "There are no words for a loss of this magnitude."
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Then finally today, you had a gunman killing a man and shooting four other people in a situation that people are now calling a senseless act of gun violence.
With all of this happening around 8:00 in the morning in the D.C. neighborhood of Logan Circle, about a mile away from the White House.
With sources saying that the suspect is not Matt Lambert.
And apparently, he just walked into a gym and shot his first victim in the neck.
With witnesses saying that someone else rushed over to help, but it looked like he died almost instantly.
And from there, you had people scrambling, both because of the gunshot and because alarms had gone off after this guy had reportedly also set parts of the building on fire.
And in that chaos, that's when the shooter ran out as well.
And that's when reports say that he shot the four other people who were all outside of the gym.
And it would seem like it was random within the whole neighborhood.
Scared, police responding, shutting down nearby streets and placing armed officers on surrounding rooftops.
And at that point, officials say that this guy had run to his nearby apartment and barricaded himself.
That's where the story starts to come together.
Because apparently, he had been in litigation with his building's management over mold and moisture problems in his apartment.
And authorities believe that the first man that he shot was one of the building managers.
He'd even been sharing a lot of his frustrations with that process, though I will say technically and officially, that has not been named as the motive.
But still, you had city officials saying that this was a targeted attack, and that it's just so sad and so senseless to kill someone over a dispute that should be worked out.
But with all that, after locking himself in his apartment, he apparently fired more shots from within.
At some point, they got him on the phone with negotiators.
They apparently talked for over an hour before reports say they heard a gunshot.
And at that point, he stopped responding.
And that's when officers forced their way into the apartment.
But he had already killed himself.
As far as the victims that he shot after he killed the first man, they were all taken to the hospital.
And as of recording, only one is in critical condition.
And now we're also getting reports that apparently he confessed to the shooting in a phone call shortly after the fact, when someone else on the apartment management team was calling around to check on residents.
But as of recording, this is still developing.
So we'll have to keep an eye on it.
And that, my friends, brings us to the end of your Thursday show.
There's more to dive into right here, or I'll even link a video in the description.
No matter what you do, let me just say thank you for watching.
Like and subscribe and share in these daily dives into the news.
Of course, my name is Philip DeFranco.
You've just been filled in.
I love your faces, and I'll see you right back here next time.
