The CNN Trump “Plenary Authority” Situation is Crazy, Israel Gaza Ceasefire Details, & Hank Green

Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news. It is Thursday and there is a lot to talk about. In fact, so much so you're getting a double dose. Because I also just uploaded my brand new podcast with Hank Green.

You feel bad for editors?

You treat them like people? Links is always in the description. Definitely check that out. But that said, there is a lot to talk about today, starting with this. This man right here is believed to have started one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. Right, and his name is Jonathan Rendernesh

and he's a 29 year old Uber driver from Melbourne, Florida. And just this week, he got arrested outside of his home on suspicion of starting the Pacific Palisades fire at the beginning of the year. A fire, just to remind you, that killed a dozen people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes. According to the officials, Jonathan was working on New Year's Eve and he dropped off a passenger in a neighborhood in the Pacific Palisades where he used to live.

And he had a couple of Jonathan's passengers that night, noting that he appeared agitated and angry. And after dropping off his last passenger, Jonathan reportedly walked up to a nearby trail and tried calling a friend who didn't answer. He then took videos of the view from the trail

and listened to a song that officials noted lighting things on fire. And then roughly 12 minutes into the new year, he started what was later called the Lackman fire with an open flame. Right after that fire was set, officials said that Jonathan actually called 911 several times, but he wasn't able to get through because of the spotty service on the trail.

And then by the time he did get through, he was at the bottom of the trail and someone else had also reported the fire. From that point, you had a official saying At first, Jonathan left the scene in his car, but then he turned around to watch the firefighters handle the blaze, even reportedly taking videos while they did. Now, while that fire ended up getting suppressed quickly, LA was also facing a massive windstorm

in the following days, and the embers were still quietly smoldering underground, with them then reigniting and causing the Palisades fire, making it what's known as a holdover fire. And the rest, you know, it's history. It becomes one of the most destructive fires in California history. It kills 12 people, destroyed some 6,000 structures and homes and charred more than 20,000 acres.

Now, as far as Jonathan, weeks after the fire started, it was reported that he was interviewed by police and according to officials, he lied. Jonathan said that he just saw the flames while hiking at the bottom of the trail and that's when he called 911.

But geolocation data from his phone indicated indicated that he was just 30 feet away from the flames as they began to spread. And that is also not the only piece of damning technological evidence that investigators found on Jonathan. Because over the course of the nine month long investigation you had officials determining that the fire was intentionally lit and they looked into Jonathan specifically.

And one of the things they found on his devices were chat GPT generated images of a city on fire and people running away. He also apparently told that he wanted the images to be dystopian and put in the prompt, on the other side of the gate and the entire wall is a conglomerate of the richest people. They are chilling, watching the world burn.

He also allegedly told a relative that he had burned a Bible and told Chachi P.T. it felt amazing. Right, and all of that, as he's also accused of asking the app, are you at fault if a fire is lit because of your cigarettes? And all of that, it brings us to Jonathan's arrest on Tuesday when he was picked up outside of his home in Florida. He then yesterday had his first court hearing,

though he has not entered a plea yet and likely won't do so until he arrives in California. And so with all that, you had the acting US attorney for LA saying, a single person's recklessness caused one of the worst fires Los Angeles has ever seen.

With then other California leaders like Gavin Newsom chiming in writing, important step toward determining how the horrific Palisades fire started and bringing closure to the thousands of survivors whose lives were upended. Saying this tragedy will never be forgotten. Lives were lost, families torn apart, and entire communities forever changed. And there must be accountability.

But also with this, you've got people saying that the blame game regarding the fire, it's actually far from over. Or because you also have some pointing fingers at the fire department for allowing the initial New Year's fire to continue underground. With, for example, an investigator saying that the cleanup after the fire, it fell short and that more could have been done.

And so then with that, you had places like the LA Times noting that the big question for homeowners, insurers, attorneys, and more, it's gonna be who's to blame. Are the alleged arsonist who started the fire or the firefighters who potentially didn't do enough to stop it from reigniting. And with that, you had a former leader of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's arson unit telling the Times, there needs to be a commission

examining why this rekindled fire was allowed to reignite. Saying the arsonist set the first fire, but the fire department proactively has a duty to do certain things. But that also as you had Kenny Cooper, the special agent in charge of the investigation for ATF,

saying that the fire crew did their best with quote, a very difficult fire that burned deep within the ground and roots and in structure and remained active for several days. And adding fire departments cannot proactively prevent holdover fires. The person who started this fire is solely to blame. Saying I will never blame our brave firefighters

when we know how this fire started. And then adding that it can be very hard to detect activity underground that even infrared imaging systems, they can sometimes miss it. But then, you know, as far as what can be learned for the future, you had the LA Times saying

that this should underscore the danger of re-ignition, noting that several modern devastating fires were holdover fires. But ultimately, that is where we are right now. And it's gonna be interesting to see how this plays out, both with, are there any changes

as far as how happens with the alleged arsonist. But then next up in the news, we need to talk about Donald Trump, Antifa, and your rights. And a lot of this, it centers around these insane videos of Trump that have gone viral over the past 24 hours. With both of those clips coming from a round table on Antifa that Trump held at the White House.

In just a few minutes into the event, you had the president talking about conservative journalists and media personalities who he claims have been attacked by Antifa. And there he specifically mentioned Nick Sorter, a conservative influencer who claimed that he was attacked after trying to stop people from burning an American flag at an immigration protest. And there you had Trump going on to say.

We took the freedom of speech away because that's been through the courts and the court said you have freedom of speech. But what has happened is when they burn a flag, it agitates and irritates crowds. They've never seen anything like it on both sides

and you end up with riots. So we're going on that basis. We're looking at it from not from the freedom of speech, which I always felt strongly about, but never passed the courts.

So that can be a little hard for some to parse through exactly what Trump is saying there. But it appears that he's referring to an executive order that he signed back in August that directed the DOJ to investigate and prosecute people for burning the American flag to the fullest extent that the law allows.

And that last part right there is very key because even the order itself explicitly notes that the Supreme Court ruled back in 1989 that flag burning is protected under the First Amendment. But Trump and his team, they argue that there is still room to prosecute flag burning if quote it is likely to incite imminent lawless action or amounts to fighting words with another big thing being that the order also called for the attorney general to pursue litigation that could challenge

the long-standing supreme court precedent but still as many including experts have noted the high court ruling still stands at least for now and the president just doesn't have the Power to suspend a first amendment right because he wants to, and on the note of Trump assuming sweeping powers, we also saw this bizarre clip of Stephen Miller getting a lot of traction online. Right, and in it, you have Miller doing a live interview with CNN, and then he appears to kind of freeze up

right after mentioning plenary authority, which is a legal term that essentially just means limitless power.

You've called the district judge's ruling blocking the deployment of National Guard in Oregon legal insurrection. Does the administration still plan to abide by that ruling?

Well, the administration filed an appeal this morning with the Ninth Circuit. I would note the administration won an identical case in the Ninth Circuit just a few months ago with respect to the federalizing of the California National Guard. Under Title 10 of the U.S. Code, the president has plenary authority.

Steven? Steven? Hey, Steven, can you hear me? Steven, I apologize. It seems like we're having a technical issue. We'll try to fix that and get back to you

after a quick break.

And then after the commercial break, the interview just resumed like normal with the host again, apologizing, saying some wires got crossed. And then you had a spokesperson for CNN later claiming that guests who appear remotely

wear earpieces to hear audio from the anchor, but because of a technical issue, audio from another CNN channel started playing in Miller's ear. With that, if you have looked online, there were plenty of people who didn't buy that explanation. You had many speculating that Miller cut himself off

and pretended it was a technical glitch because he wasn't supposed to talk about Trump having absolute power. There was other saying that his audio was cut on purpose or that someone in his ear told him to stop. And you also had some accusing CNN to cover something up, reclaiming that they're lying about the audio issue and noting that when the outlet uploaded the clip online, it cut the entire incident out.

But also on the note of Trump potentially exceeding his power as president, we saw this clip from the Antifa round table going viral as well.

Have you given any more thought to possibly suspending Habeas Corpus to not only deal with these insurrectionists across the nation, but also to continue rapidly deporting illegal aliens. Yeah, it's suspending who? Habeas Corpus.

So I don't know, I'd rather leave that to Christie.

What do you think?

And so with that, you had some speculating that Trump doesn't actually know what Habeas Corpus is. You also had others arguing that he does know what it is, right, the legal right that allows a detained person to challenge their imprisonment, but he was just having hearing troubles. With people pointing to him asking reporters to repeat themselves at other recent events.

So even with that, you had people saying, well, that just highlights the growing health concerns around having a nearly 80 year old president. Which actually on that note, these clips, they came the same day that you had the White House press secretary saying

that President Trump will be getting a routine yearly checkup when he visits the Walter Reed Military Hospital for a meeting with troops on Friday. it normally wouldn't be any kind of cause for concern about the president's health or really be a standout thing. This would actually be the second yearly checkup that Trump has gotten in the last six months. His last known medical screening had happened just this past April.

The counterpoint, it might just be that scientists want another crack at understanding how he is just so smart and tall and handsome and really charismatic, right? And definitely not about any kind of concerns around physical or mental fitness. And you know, definitely not connected to any speculation that's grown around, you know, his bruises that appeared on his hands,

swollen ankles, and various mental lapses. But again, that said, I'm sure he's fine and we can definitely 100% without ever questioning it, trust whatever report comes out about a president. And then there's more we've got to dive into in just a minute, but first let me take a minute to say, imagine if your dinner was advertised as mystery meat flavored crunch nuggets.

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and actually smell like food, not disappointment. So treat your dog like family because you wouldn't want to hand your kid a bowl labeled meatish filler blend. Scan that QR code or go to SundaysForDogs.com slash fill for 50% off your first order. That's half off to finally upgrade your dog's bowl to something worthy. But then next up in the news,

we've got to talk about Hamas and Israel now agreeing to the first phase of a peace plan for Gaza. Or because this is huge news, but also there's a lot of questions remaining about what this means, what comes next, and what might come after.

Though to start, we should talk about how we got here. decades of history that have led us here, but rather today's news, it's notably coming almost exactly two years after Hamas led an attack on Israel, killing about 1200 people and taking about 250 hostages, 28 of whom died in captivity, more than a hundred of whom have been released and about 20 who are believed to still be in Gaza. Right, and that is the Israeli military

has directly killed roughly 70,000 Palestinians, obliterated Gaza's homes, schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure, as well as created the conditions for famine and starvation. Right, and as we've covered on the show, activists, experts, and rights groups all having collected evidence to say that what's taken place is genocide.

Right, but with all that said, peace talks between Israel and Hamas began taking place in Egypt this week, based on a 20-point plan negotiation between Israel and the US without Palestinian involvement. released envoy Steve Whitkoff, along with son-in-law Jared Kushner, arriving to represent the United States. And in fact, you had those talks continuing

as Trump was holding a round table event with top officials and conservative influencers about Antifa. And that led to more than an hour into the event, you had Secretary of State Marco Rubio handing Trump a note and then getting up

and whispering something in his ear. And a photographer from the Associated Press of the piece of paper, which said, very close, we need you to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce a deal first. Right, and then you had Trump immediately sharing the news.

I was just given a note by the Secretary of State saying that we're very close to a deal in the Middle East and they're gonna need me pretty quickly. So I will take a couple of more questions.

With Trump then ending the event 10 minutes later by saying, we're gonna get peace Thank you very much. Right, and from there, it wasn't long until you had him posting on Trude Social, I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first phase of our peace plan. This means that all of the hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their troops

to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a strong, durable, and everlasting peace. All parties will be treated fairly, saying, this is a great day for the Arab and Muslim world, Israel, all surrounding nations, and the United States of America. And we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this historic and unprecedented event happen.

Blessed are the peacemakers. Right, and then you've also since had Trump saying he'll likely address Israel's parliament in the coming days on the invitation of Israeli Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu convening his cabinet to officially approve the deal. Although as of recording, this hasn't happened yet. But if the deal is approved as expected,

you had an Israeli spokesperson saying that a full ceasefire in Gaza won't go into effect until 24 hours after the government endorses the deal. And it's from that point, according to the spokesperson, that Hamas would have 72 hours to return all of the hostages.

Because a big thing here is that even after Trump announced the deal, you had Israeli military operations continuing in Gaza this morning. Now with all that said, I will say at least as of recording, we still haven't seen the full text of whatever's been agreed upon or what's been changed from the original 20 point plan. Though that plan stated that once all hostages are released,

Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners, plus 1700 Gazans who were detained after October 7th, 2023, on the 23rd, including all women and children detained in that context. And adding that for every Israeli hostages whose remains are released, Israel will release the remains of 15 deceased Gazans. But also what we've heard from Trump

is that the hostages would be released Monday or Tuesday, which would be potentially after that 72 hour mark. And you also had him acknowledging that Hamas may not be able to produce all the bodies of the deceased hostages. Also a big thing, again, as I'm recording this, is the list of Palestinians to be released that reportedly hasn't been finalized yet. And you actually had one Hamas official

already claiming that disagreement over the list was already endangering the deal. Writing on X, it appears that Netanyahu is striving to blow up the ceasefire agreement before its implementation

by backtracking on the lists of prisoners. Now that said, assuming the deal does stay on track, the first phase, it would also reportedly involve Israel pulling back its troops to an agreed upon line in Gaza. And while it's not clear exactly what that line is as of right now, you did have an IDF spokesperson saying today that it will lead to Israeli forces

controlling and holding about 53% of the Gaza Strip. Right, and you had the Israeli military also confirming today that it was preparing to lead the operation big thing that's expected to be a part of this first phase is an increase of aid into Gaza. But again, we've got few details right now. Though, very notably,

you did have the UN humanitarian office calling for immediate access for 170,000 tons of food, medicine, shelter, and other supplies that it says are ready to be delivered into the territory. And this aid, I mean, it could not be needed more. I mean, you've got the World Health Organization reporting earlier this week that 400 Gazans had already died of malnutrition since the start of the year,

including more than a hundred children, most of them under the age of five. And there was a study published this week that estimated that almost 55,000 Gazan children under the age of five are acutely malnourished. It's just the hope that, you know, and to some of that suffering, it's had some Palestinians in Gaza celebrating, and we've even seen some Israelis doing the same as well.

Also, as far as world leaders, this has been received very, very well. But of course, there are still many who remain skeptical right now, and really for good reason. Like two previous deals,

they already failed to bring an end to the bloodshed. And then on top of the question still remaining about the first phase, in Israel and Hamas, they've seemingly been left to a future phase of negotiations. So for example, it's unclear whether and to what degree and how Hamas would lay down its weapons, which has been a longstanding demand of Israel. And while Hamas has long said that it'd be willing

to release all the hostages only in exchange for the complete withdrawal of Israeli military forces from Gaza, a permanent end of the war and the release of Palestinian prisoners, the deal this week, it only guarantees one of those three things, the prisoner release. And so you're seeing analysts out there saying that Hamas is actually taking a big risk

by agreeing to release the remaining hostages in Gaza, giving up their only real leverage. And so with that, you already have the group calling on Trump and others to compel Israel to quote, fully implement the agreement's requirements and not allow it to evade or delay carrying them out.

Right, and so there's definitely people in the Israeli government itself that aren't too happy about this. And possibly chief among them would be finance minister, Betzelel Smotrich. He's an extremist who has openly called for Gaza's destruction. And so unsurprisingly, he's already opposed the deal, threatened to quit the government

and said that Hamas should be destroyed once the hostages are returned. But then also if the issues that we're talking about here, to get worked out and Israel doesn't continue its attacks after the hostages are released, there's still a massive question about, well, who's actually going to govern Gaza? Right, I mean, you have Trump's 20 point plan, which called for him to head up a so-called board of peace

that would oversee what it called a technocratic apolitical Palestinian committee. And there's also a lot of emphasis on creating and attracting investment. Or with some fearing that this is something that he and others might see as kind of more of a real estate opportunity. And there you've got people pointing to his past comments about turning Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East,

as well as leaked plans that were considered by the White House, which would establish a resort named after him in the territory. And then on top of that, this planet used a lot of vague language. Saying things like a full Israel military withdrawal

or Palestinian statehood could only happen if certain conditions are met, though without specifying those conditions. And so all of that is to say that the news that we're seeing that a peace deal is here, that is fantastic. That is, I think, what most everyone wants, to see the suffering, the needless suffering,

and horror end. But it is also very important to talk about and be aware of just the millions of ways that this could fall apart. So really, as always, I'll hope for the best, expect the worst, and we will see what happens over the next few hours, days, months, and weeks. But then from that, finally today,

I wanted to do one more thing. Just this morning, I shot an hour-long podcast with Hank Green, who, he has so many identifiers. He's really someone that, like, when he talks, I just, I listen. So I wanted to end today by playing this bit. Can I say something to Ben? Yes. Ben, I didn't mean to invalidate your lived experience. What I will say is that lived experience is the foundation of almost

every scientific insight. We find things that we experience and then we test them. And so I will, I shouldn't have invalidated your lived experience or anyone else's. We need to like, if you experience something then we test it and figure out whether or not it's true. And many times we discover things are true. And when we don't listen to lived experience, then we miss things that science

should otherwise be discovering. But if we only rely on lived experience, that allows lawyers like RFK Jr. to tell stories that are fake. I don't believe that apology because I see no ukulele in your hands.

So thank you so much. I appreciate you. Well that it brings us to the end of this video. You've got even more just to click away. Or you've got my brand new interview and podcast with Hank Green. It's interesting, it's serious, it's goofy.

It goes off the rails at times. And or you can watch the newest Philip DeFranco show that you haven't seen yet right here. that you haven't seen yet right here. I've even got links for both in the description