Candace Owens BANNED, Leaked Texts Expose "Young" Republicans, & The Voting Rights Act Seems Doomed

Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show, your daily dive into the news. It is Wednesday, and in fact, there is so much to talk about today, you're getting a double dose.

So after this one, if you wanna watch me crash out a bit, links to that in the description. But again, there is so much to talk about, starting with this. Top young Republicans were just exposed slurs, Hitler praise, and rape jokes. In the chat, they very much would not want you to see. And this, coming from Politico, who just released a massive report

detailing the contents of a leaked Telegram chat that included leaders of young Republican groups across the country. And over the course of seven months, these leaders, they exchanged some crazy texts. And the chat in question is called Restore YR War Room,

and it was created by this guy, Peter Gunther, to become chair of the Young Republican National Federation. Also, just something to mention here because I've seen certain people characterizing the situation in a certain way that it is just not. The Young Republican National Federation is not like a group just for high school kids. This is the GOP's 15,000 member political organization for Republicans between 18 and 40 years old.

And in fact, many of the people included in the chat already held positions within the government or party politics. And that includes one who's actually a state senator. Now, as far as the chat mixed in with formal conversations about social media strategy, logistics, and earning votes, were comments from Gunta like, if your pilot is a she and she looks 10 shades darker

than someone from Sicily, just end it there. Scream the no-no word. With him also appearing to respond to a question about watching an NBA playoff game with, I'd go to the zoo if I wanted to watch monkey play ball. At one point it appeared that he made a comment about loving Hitler and saying that anyone voting against his bid for leadership

of the Young Republican National Federation, quote, is going to the gas chamber. And adding, I'm going to create some of the greatest physiological torture methods known to man. We only want true believers. But it also wasn't just Guinta saying off the wall shit. but like Joe Maligno, who previously identified himself as the general counsel for the New York State Young Republicans, responding to that last comment from Guinza by saying,

"'Can we fix the showers?' Gas chambers don't fit the Hitler aesthetic." Also at one point, the chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, Luke Mossaman, told the chat, quote, "'The Spanish came to America

and had sex with every single woman.'" With him then responding to someone else's comment with quote, sex, it was rape. And to that, you had Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans at the time, responding by saying, epic. Right, in all of this, it's in the midst of a lot of slurs, including slurs about black and Hispanic people, as well as the LGBTQ plus community. With, for example, William Hendricks,

the Kansas Young Republicans vice chair, being specifically called out for using variations a dozen times. And again, like this is just a bit. Politico reports that this goes on for roughly 2,900 pages. And all of this is, it seems like the people involved were aware that what they were saying was deeply, deeply controversial. And according to Politico,

there were occasionally messages about how toxic the chat was and what the fallout would be if anyone outside of their group were to read it. With Walker at point explicitly saying, we would be cooked. And it appears he may be right though, to what degree we'll see. Because the fallout from this chat, even just a day after Politico's article went up, it's been substantial.

Hell, at one point, Politico noted in the article that since they began making inquiries into this story, one member of the group already lost their job and another had a job offer rescinded. But also since its publication, how they've been removed from their positions, there have also been calls for the state senator in the chat to resign, and the Kansas Young Republicans was disbanded by the state GOP.

And we've also seen demands for all the people involved to resign from Young Republicans, and that includes from the organization itself. For you with the Young Republicans National Federation putting out a statement on X saying, such behavior is disgraceful,

unbecoming of any Republican, and stands in direct opposition to the values our movement represents. Those involved must resign immediately from all positions within their state and local young Republican organizations. We must hold ourselves to the highest standards of integrity, respect, and professionalism." We then also saw Republican leaders on the national level chiming in, quickly condemning the chat

and the people in it. We had a senior advisor for Representative Elise Stefanik, who had previously applauded Giunta's leadership, saying that she was quote, "'absolutely app appalled to learn about the alleged comments made. And adding, according to the description provided by Politico, the comments were heinous,

anti-Semitic, racist, and unacceptable. If the description by Politico is accurate, Congresswoman Stefanik calls for any New York young Republicans responsible for these horrific comments in this chat to step down immediately. You also had representative Mike Lawler saying

something similar in his own statement, saying the deeply offensive and hateful comments reportedly made in a private chat among members of the New York state young Republicans are disgusting. Saying they should resign from any leadership position immediately and reflect on how far they have strayed from basic human respect and decency. And that sentiment was also echoed by others, including New York governor, Kathy Hochul,

and Vermont governor, Phil Scott. But that is not to say that everyone's on the same page here. Vance, for example, notably not condemning the chat and its participants, and instead, drawing a comparison to Jay Jones, who's a candidate for attorney general in Virginia. With him sharing a screenshot of Jones acknowledging he'd previously said he hoped the children of the former Republican Virginia House Speaker would die.

With Vance saying, this is far worse than anything said in a college group chat and the guy who said it could become the AG of Virginia. I refuse to join the pearl clutching when powerful people call for political violence. Right, you also had some coming to the defense of Guenta and friends here, saying that this is all clearly sarcasm, or at least a lot is.

Or with many specifically pointing to Guenta's Hitler comments, saying that it's a clear response to Democrats calling those on the right Nazis and referring to Trump as the new Hitler. And so you had super conservative commentators

like Matt Walsh saying, if you actually read the Politico hit piece, many of the messages are being taken wildly out of context. For example, the guy who said, I love Hitler was clearly being sarcastic. It's explicitly meant to be a sarcastic joke. He was saying, yeah, I'm so right-wing, I guess I love Hitler. Basic sarcasm of a kind deployed

by right-wingers all the time. I have theocratic fascist in my bio. Again, Politico made this the headline of the piece, fundamentally dishonest, But then you had no shortage of people pushing back against this idea that many or any of those comments were meant as jokes. And that includes big creators in the space who you might've thought would land somewhere else

or you were unsure where they'd land on this topic, like Asmongold saying on X, if you think all of these are jokes, you're in for a very bad time over the next 10 to 15 years. Craydon, it was sarcastic, doesn't appear to be the route Instead, his response to the situation has been an apology for the quote, insensitive and inexcusable language

in the messages. That we then appeared to undercut that apology by seeming to imply that the messages may be fake. Saying, while I take complete responsibility, I have had no way of verifying their accuracy and am deeply concerned that the message logs in question

may have been deceptively doctored. Which definitely is a take. And one, I'd love to hear your thoughts, opinions, and reactions on along with the rest of this story. But then next up today, we need to talk about the US announcing that it's revoked visas for at least six people

accused of celebrating Charlie Kirk's death. With the State Department saying in a post, "'The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans.'" And while they didn't disclose the names or identities of those who lost their visas, they did post a threat of comments. Reporting to a Mexican national who allegedly said

that Kirk died being a racist, he died being a misogynist, there are people who deserve to die. And saying there are people who would make the world better off dead. As well as a German national who's accused

of justifying Kirk's murder by writing, when fascists die, Democrats don't complain. Right, and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, he previously said that he planned on doing this and you had tons on the right, very supportive of measures punishing those perceived to have mocked or celebrated Kirk's death. But there's also been a ton of backlash and tons of people slamming the Trump administration

for officially revoking visas over this. Or with free speech organizations like FIRE writing that, you can't defend quote, our culture by eroding the very cornerstone of what America stands for, freedom of speech and thought. And saying the Trump administration must stop punishing people for their opinions alone. The Supreme Court has been clear that non-citizens have a right to freedom of speech.

In America, no one should fear a midnight knock at the door because of their political views. Right, in this news about the visas, they actually came as Charlie was getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom yesterday, where we talked about how it was gonna happen on the show.

And then once the ceremony actually happened, it went viral. Moments like this one where Trump brought up the assassination attempt that he survived. They've rammed vehicles into federal law enforcement,

fired sniper rifles at ICE agents and me, you know, but I was, I made a turn at a good time. I made a turn at a good time. I turned to the right. Charlie couldn't believe it actually. He said, how the hell did you make that turn?

I said, I don't know. And then this pair of clips where both Trump and Erica Kirk discuss Charlie's feelings about his enemies, those got attention as well.

He didn't like losing. And he was able to fight people that were enemies and he didn't necessarily love those enemies so much. You know, I heard he loved his enemies and I said, wait a minute, is that the same Charlie that I know I'm not sure?

He stood for God when it was costly, but that's what we're called to do. Surprisingly enough, he did pray for his enemies, which is very hard, but he did. He did.

He did.

No one else, I mean, I saw him do it. No, he never did it in front of anyone else, but I can attest to that.

And so you have people comparing, contrasting those clips and takes. Some saying it came off like Donald Trump was kind of calling BS on Charlie Kirk, actually praying for his enemies. But of course, most of that,

it's connected to the arguments and debates being made around Charlie Kirk's legacy, which is a conversation being had in addition to the one being had around, you know, the government cracking down on people saying things. Yeah, with all of this, like with anything that stands out in today's show, I'd really love to know your thoughts,

opinions, and reactions. And then we've got more news to talk about in just a minute, but first helped me. Right there, the ultimate one-on-one remote personal training service that actually keeps you accountable. Forget cookie cutter workout apps,

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or go to go.trainwell.net slash PDS, right? And then take that quiz to find your perfect trainer and get 14 days of free training. Then next up in the news, because Australia is now refusing to let Candace Owens step foot on its land. Right with the highest court in their country rejecting a visa challenge that she filed after the country blocked her from entering last year.

And for some important context here, Candace was set to do a speaking tour in both Australia and New Zealand in November of 2024. But then Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke refused her visa on character grounds, citing the Migration Act.

With that filing claiming, to be allowed to enter Australia, there was a risk she would incite discord in the Australian community or a segment of the Australian community. And you had Minister Burke saying that because she is a political commentator, he examined her views and found they quote, "'amounted to extremist and inflammatory comments towards Muslim, Black, Jewish, and LGBTQIA plus communities."

With Burke adding that Australia was already experiencing heightened community tensions and he believed that Candace's presence would amplify grievances and lead to hostility and violent or radical action. And then actually after Australia made their call, New Zealand followed suit

and blocked her visa over there as well. But a judge later overturned that one and said that she would be allowed citing free speech. But then back in Australia, Candace unsurprisingly did not agree with the decision and she appealed it violated the implied right of freedom of political communication. So sort of a free speech claim,

but also Australia doesn't have a first amendment free speech right the same way the US does. But again, now what we're seeing is that the court rejected her ruling that the implied freedom of political communication is not a personal right and it is also not unlimited or absolute.

And then actually on top of having her visa denied, the court ordered Candace to pay the Australian government's costs related to this case. And so you had Minister Burr calling the court's decision a win for social cohesion and adding, inciting discord might be the way some people make money, but it's not welcome in Australia. Australia's national interest is best served

when Candace Owens is somewhere else. But also a big thing is that this is actually not the first high profile visa denial that Australia has issued on character grounds lately. Right back in July, they canceled Kanye's visa over his song, Hail Hitler, and promotion of other Nazi ideology. That, you know, it's ultimately where we are

with the situation with Candace for now, and we'll have to wait to see if she responds. I imagine she will very soon. But then next up today, we should talk about how today could be the day that the Supreme Court is convinced of Republicans up to 19 more House seats. Right, and at the center of this case is Louisiana's sixth district.

Because after the 2020 census, Louisiana made a new congressional map that was quickly taken to court. And that because it had one district out of six where black voters had a chance to elect a candidate despite making up 33% of the state's population.

So a lower court said that this violated section two with the Voting Rights Act, which led the states at a second black represented district. And as far as, you know, what is section two, to keep it simple, section two bans racial discrimination in voting. And in the case of congressional districts, this means giving minority voters a meaningful chance to elect their preferred candidates.

So it's meant to effectively ban packing and cracking communities to either concentrate their voting power and do just a single district rather than multiple, or diluting them across multiple districts. you had a group of non-African American voters flipping this argument on its head and suing over Louisiana's redrawn map. And they argued that it dilutes their voting power

and that section two violates the 14th and 15th amendments. And after a lot of legal back and forth, the case made its way up to the Supreme Court, which first heard arguments back in March. And at the time, what you saw was Chief Justice John Roberts

not seeming to be is keep districts reasonably compact. But Roberts, he didn't seem convinced of that. And he said,

if you look at CD six, what does reasonably compact mean? It's a snake that runs from one end of the state to the other. That, I mean, how is that compact?

But despite initial skepticism, the court did take the rare move of rehearing the case against it. Which you know, is something that's usually only done in major cases like Roe v. Wade and Brown v. Board of Education. And this time, conservative justices like Brett Kavanaugh, they signaled that they were interested in hearing more

about the argument that section two violates the 14th amendment. Now, very notably here, there is past Supreme court precedent that has been in place for nearly four decades. And it states that representation should be proportional

to racial groups. But as we've seen precedent really doesn't matter these days. And despite that, Kavanaugh hinted that he wasn't happy with Louisiana's map. Or with Kavanaugh saying that race-based districting puts the US on a most dangerous course. And that is he was also concerned about whether states could use race-based maps indefinitely. Or with him saying and asking today,

this court's cases in a variety of contexts have said that race-based remedies are permissible but they should not be indefinite and should have an end point. What exactly do you think the end point should be? With them lawyers representing black voters in the state saying that the Voting Rights Act addresses this already since state maps have to redraw their maps every 10 years after a census. And then you had Justice Sonia Sotomayor

arguing that race-based maps are always a thing and said, "'Race is a part of redistricting always. "'Race is always a part of these decisions and my colleagues are trying to tease it out in this intellectual way that doesn't deal with the fact that race is used to help people. Well right now we don't know which way the Supreme Court's gonna go. I mean the impacts here, they could be massive and that is just, that's putting it lightly really. Removing section 2, it would heavily limit how powerful the Voting Rights Act is, especially since about 10 years ago conservative justices struck down another another provision of the law. And in the long run, I mean, killing section two, it could mean that as much as 30% of the Congressional Black Caucus

and 11% of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus could lose their districts. And so that, along with what we've been seeing in the news, it doesn't seem like that could be far off. I mean, we've talked about Trump's demands that states redraw their districts

to get more votes in And actually, with that, North Carolina is now the latest pushing to redraw their map. Also, you know, all these efforts are facing their own lawsuit. So even after this Louisiana case is finished, we might be seeing another fight

about congressional districts playing out in the court just before the midterm. You know, while I am personally of the mindset It is feeling like more and more we're headed towards this place of gerrymandering is gonna need to happen to try to combat Gerrymandering happening like it feels like it's all just playing towards an endgame. Trump and Abbott They're doing what they're doing in Texas and then that kicked off Newsom in California And of course, there's that vote coming up and personally I'll say this parts my opinion

I think in regards to that in California, I think you have to vote Yes on prop 50 genuinely sucks that we're in this place, but it feels like the only way to not be fighting with your hands tied behind your back. Really all the high road arguments I've heard against it, they just fall short. There's no honor in letting a bully take your power

and try to take away your rights. Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary actions. And it's a move I hope is temporary towards a path back to something remotely normal. And then there's more we've got to dive into in just a minute, but first let me say, you know, most protein bars, they taste like someone compressed sadness into a rectangle.

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And I'll also add Equip just launched a fresh new look today, new branding and packaging that finally matches how good these bars actually taste. Also, just gotta say, if you're a peanut butter lover, is by scanning the QR code or heading to equipfoods.com slash phil. Right, and use code phil for 20% off your first order or 35% off a subscription. But then next up in the news,

we've got to talk about Donald Trump in Argentina. Because Trump has admitted that Americans will not benefit from his administration's $20 billion bailout for Argentina, AKA your tax dollars. But also he said that the country won't get that money unless his far right ally, his buddy, current president Javier Mele wins the next election.

Right, because Trump, he loves this guy. He's described the man as his favorite president and Mele actually ended up being one of only two world leaders on stage at Trump's inauguration. But back in Argentina, he's not quite as popular these days.

Right, because his policies, they've sparked mass protests. I mean, his administration's been racked by corruption scandals and lawmakers have recently voted to overturn his vetoes. Right, in all this, it's led to his party losing a key provincial election by a landslide last month. And this, you know, it's generally being seen as kind of a bad omen ahead of the national midterm elections coming up on October 26th.

Though also I will say, because I've seen confusion on social media, Malay himself is not actually due to run again until 2027. Also, it's not exactly clear which election Trump is conditioning American assistance. Also unclear are the exact details of this $20 billion lifeline, except that it would come in the form of a currency swap with Argentina's central bank.

But what's really important to note is that this was seen as something that might provide a political boost for Malay. And the Trump administration has made it very clear, like that was one of the aims here. You had Treasury Secretary Scott Besant describing the deal as a bridge to the election. We also had him saying that he had been in touch with numerous US companies who intend

to make substantial foreign direct investments in Argentina's multiple sectors in the event of a positive election outcome. And that it's notable because it's expected that major hedge funds might benefit financially from this bailout.

And those, what, you know, this is crazy. What a small world we live in. They just so happened to include several that are led by friends of Besant. Though of course he's rejected the idea that enriching his buddies has anything to do with this. Right, he earlier said this month.

This trope that we're helping out wealthy Americans with interest down there, they couldn't be more false. What we're doing is maintaining a US strategic interest in the Western hemisphere.

Rain with that, he also argued that the currency swap of the government plans to offer Argentina does not amount to a bailout, claiming we are not putting money into Argentina. But experts, they push back on that with, for example, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute

for International Economics saying, they can call it what they want, but it's a bailout. It's a country in crisis. It's running out of dollars and the US is giving the country dollars. That's a bailout by definition. But then also you've had experts pushing back on the idea that this makes any economic sense at all. For example, one economist at the University of California

comparing it to actions taken by the Clinton administration to help out Mexico and South Korea saying, in both cases, there was a significant risk of financial contagion to other countries, which is not the case of Argentina today. And adding in both cases,

the US was significantly exposed to instability in the subject country, either economically or financially. Neither condition applies today in Argentina. Right, and then of course, on top of all that, this is happening as the government is shut down and you have many Americans struggling. So one, I mean, that's just an issue in general

if we care about Americans, and two, it's become an easy target for Democrats. With that, you actually had eight Democratic senators last week introducing legislation to block the bailout. With Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the banking committee and one who helped draft the legislation saying in a statement,

it is inexplicable that President Trump is propping up a foreign government while he shuts down our own. Trump promised America first, but he's putting himself and his billionaire buddies first and sticking Americans with the bill. But then also, you know,

while none of this has seemingly failed to calm the markets or improve Malay's party's polling numbers. So when you had Malay visiting the White House yesterday, you actually had Trump seemingly acknowledging that the US really wasn't getting anything out of this deal.

Very simple. I mean, we don't have to do it. It's not gonna make a big difference for our country.

Trump then trying to draw a parallel between bailing out a foreign country and providing federal funding to American cities. With him basically saying that just like a New York City run by Zoram Mdani wouldn't get his help, neither would an Argentina run by anyone but Millet.

It's a little bit, it's a great question. It's a little like New York. You know, we're reading in Argentina about New York. We have a problem. We have a communist who's 33 years old, doesn't know a damn thing. worked a day in his life. And he sort of caught on.

And I'm not going to send a lot of money to New York. I don't have to. And I'm very generous. And I was always very generous with New York, even when you had opposition there. But I was always very generous. But I wouldn't be generous to a communist, a guy that's going to take the money and throw

it out the window because you're talking about hundreds of billions of dollars and we're not going to let somebody get into office and squander the taxpayer money from this country. We're not going to let it happen. So it's a little bit like that with, if you take a look, Argentina, uh, if the president doesn't win, if he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina.

Which one I'll just say, it feels crazy to me that Donald Trump says that he's anti-socialist when he's seemingly letting Zoran Mondani live rent-free in his head. And two, when he was talking here, I couldn't feel like it's both,

but I couldn't figure out if it was more a quid pro quo bribe or political threat. But hey, that is where we are right now. And so really, as far as what comes next, we'll have to see what happens with Argentina's election in a couple of weeks. And then depending on the result, we'll see what happens from there. But then finally today, I want to end on a different note.

And that is a congratulations and one last thing. Starting with congratulations to Michael P, SeatGeek's latest weekly winner, who just snagged $500 in tickets and is planning to see Adam Ray. for everyone else out there, that's right. SeatGeek is still giving away $500 a week in tickets and you should definitely enter today if you haven't already.

I mean, you could be the next winner and snag $500 towards seeing your favorite artist, sporting event, or play. I mean, there's like over 70,000 events to choose from. And all you gotta do is just add code DeFranco to your SeatGeek app profile share this piece from today's episode of crashing out. I'm in this weird space now where over the last I want to say how long has it been now nine months we're

like almost nine months around nine months into this presidency. Is that a long time or a short time I don't know anymore. It feels like an eternity it feels like a very quick eternity but it feels like every day you know I'd open my phone every week and I would start compiling a list of all the things that are horrifying. And this week, I would open my phone and be like, oh, we don't have a CDC anymore?

Okay, that's what they do, they just close those things. Oh, we got rid of the special education for everybody by the order of the CEO of WWE? Okay, that happens. Fat Texas National Guard has invaded Chicago? Okay, I don't, what?

And like, but the whole time I was just like, okay. And I closed my phone and just went back to what I was doing. And that's, I think that subliminally has been driving me more crazy. It's like a dull roar now underneath in the background.

You know what I mean? Like I'm not just grabbing, ah, bark, bark, bark at my own reflection, but I'm like, something there, I don't know.

There's something, are we getting used to it?

Oh yeah, right? I mean, it has to be. I think it's like the slow grinding down. And I don't know, maybe there'll be, I mean, when this goes up, we'll be three days away from the the no kings protest so maybe there will be kind of like that spark of like oh yeah that's right this

isn't normal but it's very easy to be like this is I just wanna I mean this I just want to get away from the world I mean this weekend for me I just I just threw myself into family and consumerism we went to a theme park like you know there's always that kind of thing of like, a lot of Americans, they live in Disneyland. I like, I went to Universal Studios and I was like, let me just turn off my brain and let,

just get into a machine that's gonna shake my brain around to like maybe get the sads and the crazy out. Now my friends is the end of this video, but there's more to watch from here. You've got my other new video today. It's episode three of crashing out of me and Alex.

It's a special one. And or there's the newest Philip DeFranco show that you might not have seen yet right here. I've even got links to the pods or the show on YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast in the description. Spotify, Apple podcast in the description.

You know, no matter what you do