The Tucker Carlson & Nick Fuentes Problem Is Getting Worse For Trump

Donald Trump has a huge Tucker Carlson problem. And while it's not necessarily new, it's more open and possibly more damning than ever. Right, I mean, Tucker Carlson called Donald Trump a total piece of shit in the aftermath of the 2020 election. You know, that little tidbit was reportedly revealed in new court documents filed in a legal battle between the voting technology company Smartmatic and Fox News.

Or with the documents reportedly containing an exchange where an unidentified individual told Carlson on November 9th of 2020 that Trump should concede the election. And you had Carlson then responding by saying, Oh, I'm fully aware and going on to say that Trump is a total piece of shit before then adding, You can't control him, obviously, gotta do the responsible thing regardless of how he behaves. Now, of course, you know, that alleged conversation is from several years ago at this point. But the timing of those new documents, It's incredibly notable because it comes as Carlson has started more dramatically distancing himself from Trump and the Republican Party.

And the most recent example was when he was speaking on an episode of the Sean Ryan show yesterday where he said,

And on the Republican Party, which is almost to the point where it's just useless, and I'm going to have to oppose it.

Because I, they're just, I hate them too much, but because they're such betrayers. And then also during that interview, you had Carlson refusing to apologize for having Nick Fuentes on his show. Or you had him defending the interview, which is, you know, really been at the center of a lot of the Magus Civil War that we've seen play out. And with that, you had Carlson saying that, you know, he wants to hear what people think, and that he believes that everyone should get a chance to speak for themselves, even if, you know, he disagrees with some of their views. And you had Tucker saying be, you know, an outcry or whatever. Probably understated it a little bit.

Um, but you know, not up to me. But my conscience is clear. One of the only parts that kind of bothered me, but now it amuses me, is there was a point

in the interview where Nick Fuentes said, really out of nowhere, I love Stalin. And you had Carlson going on to describe how that bothered him because Stalin killed so many Christians. But then he added, We armed Stalin. To which people say, well, are you for Hitler?

No, I'm totally opposed to Hitler. But I'm never going to accept arming Stalin. Also, notably, Carlson did eventually say that he does oppose some of Fuentes' belief, while he still fervently defends him in the content of the interview. The last month, I don't think a single person has ever made the case that I'm wrong, that Nick Fuentes is wrong, the Jew hatred stuff is wrong, period.

And I said that, the white hatred, black hatred, Jew hatred, Malaysian hatred, Bedouin hatred, it's all wrong. I believe that as much as I believe anything. Okay, but the rest of it, his analysis, which is actually smart, and in a lot of cases true, no one's even attempted to rebut it.

And then beyond that, you also had Carlson claiming that the only reason that he got backlash is that he himself is not an anti-Semite, while also then applauding Fuentes' view on the GOP. I mean, if David Duke or whatever, pick an anti... I don't know, even though there are many... I'm sure there are famous anti-Semites, I can't think of one, but David Duke is a famous anti-Semite. If David Duke interviewed Nick Fuentes,

he'd be like, you know, he wouldn't say anything. Whatever, who cares? They're talking to each other. But if someone who is openly opposed and sincerely opposed to hating people on the basis of their bloodline, which I definitely am, interviews Nick Fuentes, and it's like, hey, Nick Fuentes, stop with the Jew hatred, but let's talk about your views on the betrayal

of Republican voters by conservative institutions and the undue influence a foreign country has over our government. Those are entirely reasonable conversations. So those comments have largely fueled the flames of the MAGA Civil War that's been raging

since the interview, while also then furthering the wedge between Carlson and the Republican establishment. For some people, they applauded Carlson. For the interview, you had many top Republican leaders slamming him for platforming Fuentes and failing to push back on some of his views. I mean, just last week, you had House Speaker Mike Johnson saying the interview was a mistake

and trying to distance the party from Quintez. But then also, right, the guy that Carlson's been defending, I use that in air quotes because it's only kind of defending, he's now actually calling Carlson

two-faced. He's going around saying, I disagree with his anti-Semitism. What the f***? Sorry, are you Ben Shapiro now? And he's totally, totally playing a game with me right now where he's trying to go around and say, you know, we understand and we pity him. And we just want to know why people like him. Why? So you can reverse engineer it and make some other guy that isn't like me at all. You want to know why people like me?

Why? So you can kill me and then take my audience. Is that why you want to pander to my audience, take me out, and then you're going to give my audience to Rufo and Loméz or JD Vance or something?

And so, you know, what we're looking at is a clear and major divide within the Republican Party and broader American conservatism. Though then with that, the real question is, you know, will it continue to get deeper and will it actually stick in a way that impacts electoral politics? And then what the hell is the Republican Party going to look like post-Trump presidency. Which leader or voice is kind of the loudest and the tip of the spear of the Republican Party? Is it the Fuentes wing, the Candace Owens wing, the Tucker Carlson wing,

the Mike Johnson and J.D. Vance wing? But for now, we'll continue to watch to see how this plays out. And in the meantime, I'd love to know your thoughts, opinions, and reactions on those comments. Today, we've got to talk about how the military is investigating Senator Mark Kelly less than a week after Trump suggested he and five other Democratic lawmakers should be put to death. Right, and Kelly's a former Navy fighter pilot and astronaut who retired as a captain after

more than two decades of service. Right, and last week he appeared in a video with those five other Democrats, all of who actually previously served in the military or intelligence community. Right, and in that video you had them urging those currently serving to refuse illegal

orders. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.

You can refuse illegal orders.

You must refuse illegal orders.

No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution.

And while the lawmaker is not referring to any specific order that they viewed as illegal, what they were saying is absolutely true. Retroops are actually told as part of their training that they shouldn't follow orders that are illegal or immoral, including the intentional targeting of unarmed civilians. And you know, Kelly, he's among those who have raised concerns about potential consequences for American troops involved in lethal strikes on boats in the Caribbean.

So what does this mean for their future? If they find out later that they did this without legal justification, it puts them

in legal jeopardy at some point. But you know, Trump, he didn't just deny that troops have gotten or might get unlawful orders. Instead, you had him accusing Kelly and the other lawmakers of seditious behavior at the highest level, saying, Each one of these traitors to our country should be arrested and put on trial. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. And then adding in another post,

Seditious behavior punishable by death. With him then also reposting other attacks directed against Kelly and the other lawmakers, including one that said, Hang them. George Washington would. And you know, since then, even though experts have denied that their actions have even come close to meeting the definition of sedition, all six of these lawmakers said that they even subjected to death threats. You know, while you had Trump later denying that he himself had threatened death to the

lawmakers, he still as the seditious six that it was despicable, reckless, and false, and adding, five of the six individuals in that video do not fall under Department of War jurisdiction. However, Mark Kelly is still subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and he knows that. And so with that, you had Hegst sharing a statement from the Department of Defense saying that it had received serious allegations of misconduct against Kelly and announcing a thorough review of these allegations has been initiated to determine further actions

Which may include recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures and actually with that as a retired naval officer Kelly technically can be recalled to active duty and discipline But also notably retired officers are typically recalled only for crimes alleged to have been committed while they were on active duty And then also as far as his crimes, like what they might be, there you have people saying the likeliest charges might be under articles related to officer conduct or undermining order and discipline.

And if Kelly were found to be guilty there, he could be knocked down to a rank lower than captain, his discharge could be changed to dishonorable, he could lose his benefits, and he could serve jail time. But I will say there, you have many experts saying that it is very unlikely that any of these charges would stick with one saying, for example, I have no idea what they'd court-martial him for, it's preposterous.

And then also adding that it would be even harder to prosecute Kelly because he is a senator. Right, and as a senator, his statements are probably protected by the speech and debate clause that protects members of Congress from prosecution. University explaining, having a United States Senator subject to discipline at the behest of the Secretary of Defense and the President, that violates a core principle of legislative independence.

Anyway you cut it, the Constitution is fundamentally structurally designed to prevent this kind of abuse from happening. But then also, in addition to that, as far as Kelly's response, you had him saying that he won't be intimidated or silenced by bullies. Right, you also had his fellow Senator from Arizona who also served in the Marines putting it even more bluntly saying Captain Mark Kelly has dedicated his life to serving this country with honor And now Trump is coming after him with the same baseless garbage

He throws at anyone who refuses to bend the knee and adding fuck you and your investigation But for now, we're gonna have to wait to see where this leads Although I will say notably this fallout it might be only about to get bigger because today we also saw reports that the FBI is now trying to schedule interviews with Kelly and the other lawmakers in the video. Right, and that could potentially lead to more investigations against all of them on the civilian side. But hey, with that said, in the meantime, I'd really love to know your thoughts, opinions, and reactions in those comments. And then, there's more we're gonna that takes less than a minute to prepare. One scoop, shake, done.

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And the first order, it comes with a free t-shirt and shaker because you know, nothing says I'm extremely serious about not cooking like branded protein gear. about Trump doing favors for pedophiles and predators. Wait, I'm not talking about the Epstein files. I'm talking about the data we now have suggesting that the administration's focus on immigration enforcement may actually be leading

to fewer arrests for some of the most serious crimes handled by Homeland Security investigations. Right, at least that's according to a new investigation from the New York Times, which is largely based on an internal report by HSI. You know, with that, I do want wanna know, this report compares fiscal years, so not calendar years, meaning that the 2025 data includes four months when Biden was still in office.

But then notably, it's only since Trump got into office that special agents responsible for investigating child exploitation and other crimes, including drug trafficking, arm smuggling and terrorism financing, have been asked to spend more time

deporting undocumented immigrants. And so with that, just looking at February through April, all time that Trump was in office? Another Times analysis found that HSI investigators work 33% fewer hours on child exploitation cases compared to their average in previous years. Or with that being based on data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

And notably, even though many agents are reportedly continuing to work those cases in their personal time, it seemingly hasn't been enough to make up the difference. I mean, you've got an internal report showing that the number of indictments child exploitation crimes, they fell 28%. And on top of that, agents have reportedly identified or rescued roughly 300 fewer child victims, which is a 17% drop.

Also, drug arrests have dropped by around 11%, or with agents also opening 15% fewer investigations into narcotics crimes. And then the number of weapon seized fell 73%, from more than 40,000 to just over 11,000. And those numbers are even more notable

because you have the White House claiming that cracking down on drug smuggling is a major priority. Something that they've argued, you know, they're proving their commitment by killing dozens of people in the Caribbean without publicly providing evidence that they're actually smuggling drugs. So again, even if they had that evidence, it wouldn't necessarily make it legal. And of course, again, that's without even mentioning that you have experts saying this strategy won't actually stop the flow of drugs from coming into the US anyways. And as a further reason to doubt its claims, other federal agencies outside of Homeland Security investigations have also reportedly diverted resources to the immigration crackdown.

Right, agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration as well as the FBI and ATF. And so with that, this internal report does show that the number of people arrested by Homeland Security Special Agents for civil immigration offenses has absolutely skyrocketed. They went from roughly 5,000 to almost 95,000. Also notably, overall criminal arrests went up 41%, with the Times reporting that this increase is at least partly driven by investigations often related to immigration.

But also a big thing is that roughly 12,000 of the arrests, a whole quarter of them, were not categorized by crime type, so it's not entirely clear what's actually behind them. And then with that, you had a White House spokesperson reportedly declining to explain what kinds of arrests were behind most of the overall increase. And that's especially interesting because even though we're seeing more arrests, the number of people indicted has stayed roughly the same. Agents also aren't opening as many cases considered significant, like ones into international criminal groups.

And despite the jump in human trafficking arrests, agents reported assisting 20% fewer victims. Now with all that, you had a DHS spokesperson claiming, Child exploitation, human trafficking, terrorism, financial scams, and smuggling all have a nexus to illegal immigration. And then repeating what's often been said by this administration, we are prioritizing the worst of the worst and aliens with final removal orders. But again, the data tells a different story because many immigrants being arrested don't

have criminal records in the US. In fact, according to the Times, less than 40% of people detained by ICE have a criminal conviction. And only around 8% of those arrested have been convicted of a violent crime with a slightly bigger percentage only having a traffic violation. And so you know, once again, it just appears we have another situation where the administration is saying one thing, the data though shows a completely different thing. But also even saying that, it is important to remember, it's not just data, we're talking

about people. But then next up today, we've got to talk about how, I have concepts of a plan. Donald Trump was finally ready to unveil an actual healthcare plan yesterday, and then everything just blew up. Right, because for some context here, on New Year's Day, the Enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies will expire.

And that is gonna cause 22 million Americans' health insurance premiums to just shoot through the roof, unless Republicans do something. And so apparently, the White House, to avert this crisis because yesterday, Trump was expected to unveil it. But then, get ready, because you're just not gonna believe it, the plan was reportedly to extend

the ACA subsidies for two years. Which when people heard that, they were shocked. I mean, Trump, he's spent months ranting in all caps and through social about how these subsidies would give a trillion dollars to illegal aliens and create transgender for everybody.

But it's also crucial to note, And no, he's not just conceding to Democrats here. Because reportedly his plan would cut off anyone making 700% of the federal poverty level from being eligible, as well as eliminate zero premium plans, making everyone pay at least something. Also, people who choose a lower premium plan could redirect some federal aid into a health savings account. And then finally, there would be new and broader restrictions on care for transgender folks and undocumented immigrants. Reportedly, the plan, but then, just as quickly as it arrived, it ran out the door with its hat and coat. In fact, it was just such a beautiful thing to watch. CNN's Jessica Dean, I mean, from the time between her announcing the two events, it was exactly 38 seconds.

We're learning President Trump is planning to unveil a new healthcare proposal. But and I'm sorry, this has actually been sorry, Zach, we're getting breaking news while I'm talking to you. that the White House has postponed its inspected unveiling of this new healthcare proposal.

So understandably, that left people wondering, what the hell happened, right? Why this abrupt last minute reversal? And the answer actually seems pretty clear so far. Republicans freak the fuck out. I guess I should say Republican politicians

and healthcare lobbyists. Because reportedly, many lawmakers on Capitol Hill had no idea this was coming. Apparently, they learned about this the same way everyone else did, through the press and social media. So according to the Wall Street Journal, Speaker Mike Johnson called the White House and warned that most House Republicans just don't have the appetite for extending the subsidies.

You had sources saying that many objections stem from the absence of more stringent restrictions on abortion coverage in Trump's plan. And that's in addition to the, you know, the whole extending the subsidies bar, crusade against Obamacare as they call it for the last 15 years. Hell, I mean, we just had the longest government shutdown in US history over this. And so with that, you had Thomas Massie saying on X, Oh boy, more 4D chess? A vote to extend Obamacare? That's the Republican solution to healthcare? But with also several unnamed Republican lawmakers telling MS Now, formerly known as MSNBC,

stuff like, to be Obamacare-like. It's definitely not the Doge thing to do. And fix healthcare for working Americans or don't talk to me about subsidies. But now as far as what snacks, there's only a month left to figure something out and lawmakers are gonna spend much of that time on break for the holidays. You know, so basically when they get back from Thanksgiving, they'll be faced with a choice, and it's a tough one. Either extend the enhanced subsidies and for as premiums explode for 22 million people heading into an election year. Which is why you're seeing that the lawmakers open to Trump's plan,

they seem to be more moderate ones in competitive districts. Though I will say you also have conservative Republicans like Tim Burchett saying, we've got to quit pointing fingers, we've got to start doing something with this thing. At least Trump's proposal does something. It keeps people from losing their insurance and it verifies that it's not a bunch of frauds. Now as far as the Democrats response to all this, you had a few of the ones who voted to end the shutdown earlier this month expressing a willingness to compromise with Trump on a deal, but you also had the overwhelming

majority rejecting the plan as it was reported, insisting instead a straightforward extension on the subsidies without any new restrictions. And also with this right, if Trump throws in an anti-abortion bone to try to appease his further right Republicans, it's likely going to kill off much of, if any, Democratic support that he was hoping to court. Now also, of course, with this, Trump could try to bypass Democratic opposition in the Senate by using a process called budget reconciliation to pass the bill, which only requires 50 votes instead of 60.

Or the Republicans could try to attach a healthcare promise Democrats a mid-December vote on extending the subsidies in exchange for ending the shutdown. But then also, two, Mike Johnson never promised a thing, and you know, the last time I checked, the U.S. Congress is made up of two chambers, the Senate and the House. You know, who knows what's gonna happen there. You know, while, until President Trump makes an announcement himself, any reporting about the administration's healthcare positions is mere speculation. But also, they did acknowledge that the initial plan is now being actively reworked.

And you know, personally, I just cannot wait to see whatever the hell it is, because he's been- we've been two weeks away from Trump's healthcare plan since 2016. And then we'll get back to the news in just a minute, but first let me say, you know, you ever put off scheduling a doctor's appointment so long that you start convincing yourself you're fine? Like yeah, WebMD says I'm dying, but denial says I'm built different. Well that is why today's sponsor ZocDoc is a lifesaver for people like me who treat I'll book it later as a full-time in-network doctors and click to instantly book an appointment. We're talking over a hundred thousand doctors across every specialty, mental health, dental, primary care, urgent care. Basically, if it ends in-ologist, they've got it. You can also filter by location, insurance, and verified patient rating,

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to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today. That's zocdoc.com slash phil. Zocdoc.com slash phil. But then next up today, are we going to finally see the end of the war in Ukraine? Because you've got headlines like Ukraine reportedly agrees to US brokered peace proposal and Ukraine agrees to core terms of peace deal, making that seem like it. But there's actually a big asterisk to all of this, and that is Ukraine has agreed to the framework of a potential peace deal, due to a far cry from an actual peace deal. And if this sounds familiar, it's because just over a week ago, the US had gotten Russia to agree to a peace deal, except it was considered a complete concession to Russian demands.

And you know, at the time, Ukraine made it clear that it wasn't going to agree to that and would even go forward alone if it had to. And also, since then, the country's been rocked by a major corruption scandal which possibly force Zelensky to reconsider a peace deal. In his recent round of talks, it seems to have started early this week, with American negotiators speaking to Russian ones. Then yesterday, they talked with the Ukrainians, who apparently agreed to the core of this reported new peace plan.

An unnamed official also saying that the small details will still need to be worked out. And you had White House spokesperson Caroline Leavitt essentially confirming all of this on X. Writing, progress towards a peace deal by bringing both Ukraine and Russia to the table. And saying there are a few delicate but not insurmountable details that must be sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. And then you had Zelensky himself writing,

Today our delegation returned from Geneva after negotiations with the American side and European partners. Now the list of necessary steps to end the war can become doable. There is still work for all of us to do together to finalize a document and we must do everything with dignity. We appreciate that most of the world is ready to help us and that the American side is approaching this constructively. But also one big question is why Trump decided to even negotiate another deal with Ukraine. Because last week he was extremely hard-lined about his 28-point plan with Russia and gave Zelensky an ultimatum to respond by Thursday.

And while it looks like partially it could be because a lot of the Republican Party flipped out. I mean, for example, you had people like Representative Non-Bacon writing, the initial peace proposal pushed by Whitkoff was a surrender document for Ukraine that would have left it at the mercy of Russia for decades to come. With Rubio back and with Ukrainian and European input, we are seeing a better plan.

We must stand on the side of freedom and rule of law. And that is, you of Republican lawmakers have reportedly been vocally against it. But now, as far as next steps, from here, the US will likely take the plan to Russia, which has only kind of commented on this development. Where you had Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterating that Russia hoped that any plan would include the basic things that Trump and Putin agreed to in Alaska.

All of which were reportedly reflected in the extremely pro-Russian 28-point plan. So if that means that this new deal doesn't come with a major capitulation from Ukraine, you have people wondering, will Russia actually move forward? With that, we may get an update tomorrow because American and Russian negotiators are talking to each other right now in Abu Dhabi. Then, as we wind things down today, I want to end with a congratulations and one more thing. Starting with a congratulations, congrats to Karen A, SeatGeek's latest weekly winner who just snagged $500 in tickets to see Demi Lovato at MSG. And for the rest of y'all, that's right, SeatGeek is still gonna wave $500 in tickets and you should definitely enter today if you haven't

already. I mean, imagine being the next winner and snagging $500 towards seeing your favorite artist, sporting event, or play. I mean, there's like over 70,000 events to choose from. And all no purchase necessary. Then as far as the final thing is today, I actually shot a full podcast in good faith with YouTuber Mr. Beat. You loved him so much the first time I had to bring him back on. Well, I highly recommend you watch the full thing.

It's about an hour. I got a link in the description and I got a thing for you at the end. One of the things that we talked about and I really wanted to share was, you know, fathers were conspiracy theorists. How true is it that Sam Adams was like spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation intentionally?

It wasn't just him. Paul Revere did as well. Yeah. Ben Franklin is the king of misinformation. He like he was spreading fake news all the time. Yeah. Like that's what I always tell people the era we're living in now is that's not new. Like I think the difference now is more and more people are just believing it, whereas I think, yeah, we've got to think critically about the information we consume. But yeah, they were very persuasive with their...I mean, most of the time they just exaggerated.

Like Boston Massacre is a great example of that, how you probably have in your head the the famous image of it. It was Paul Revere was a big reason why that image spread across the colonies because he was a he owned a printing press and Ben Franklin as well like he was just a somebody who was able to communicate well and then yeah, often exaggerated.

Yeah, it just it kind of makes me think of like, does that mean like, if times were different, like they'd have Twitter accounts that are like, George is a clown, like at George is a clown, and it's like defeat the monarchy. And then it makes it makes me wonder about our the future from here. Are we going to have history books that are like, it all started because this account was started on Twitter that spread misinformation and it was the spark that was needed to do some new crazy thing.

And that my friends is where this video is going to end. But again, there is much more just to click away. You can watch that full podcast with Mr. Beat. It's a great watch and listen. And or if you missed yesterday's Philip DeFranco show, I got you covered right here. There was a lot we really dove into there, and of course I also got links in the description for you.

But hey, no matter what you do, let me just say, thank you for watching, I love yo faces, But hey, no matter what you do, let me just say, thank you for watching, I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.