56 Police Videos Leak in LEGO Scandal Exposing Everything & Candace Owens Just Triggered a Meltdown

I didn't think it was possible. But the reckless Ben $200,000 Lego scandal, it just got crazier. After hours of police body cam footage just got leaked. Though, there's also something people are the shocking Candace Owens, Laura Loomer Russia meltdown just went nuclear. As mad as tearing itself apart over Moscow. And why this priest got removed after his UFO demons? We're talking about all of that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show. Your daily dive into the news. So buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it, starting with this is genuinely crazy.

The unredacted police body cam video from the Reckless Bend $200,000 Lego scandal that's been spiraling out of control. It is now out there in the world. Though I will say right now, it's unclear if it actually leaked or if the police accidentally released it themselves. But quick recap that you can watch my previous coverage in the video links down below. Basically, there's a guy from Oregon by the name of Brian Menzel who entered into a consignment agreement with the local Bricks and Minifigs franchise to sell his dad's $200,000 Lego collection for a 65% cut. But after corporate sees that franchise and sold it to new owners, the remaining Legos just disappeared with Brian claiming that the company and or its new owners stole the Legos and refused to honor the consignment deal. And that is where Reckless Ben comes in, right? The YouTuber launching a full-scale investigation that took him to Utah so he could serve papers to the new franchise owners, live. Things have then quickly spiraled out of control. Ben was arrested twice on accusations of stalking. One of the owners' Airbnb was raided for the missing Legos. His car was searched for heroin, and he eventually fled to Mexico. And you've got Ben saying that a lot of this feels like a big conspiracy between the new franchise owners and the American Fork Police Department in Utah, because the owners are Mormon and the cops are also part of the Mormon community. Last week, the AFP posted a video statement, sharing their side and effectively denying any kind of collusion. Ben then had Ben hitting back at their version of events and calling on them to release all unredacted body cam footage from the case. And it now appears that we've gotten that unredacted footage, or at least some of it, though I will say it's also unclear exactly where it came from.

On one side, you have Ben posting a video today where he made these claims about the origins and content. "Someone actually hacked into the American Fork Police Department and released all the footage unredacted of my interactions with them. Sadly, they weren't able to get the first two days where I was accused of having heroin on me. But the final two days we were able to see a lot. Actually." But then you also have a number of people on Reddit who seem to have evidence that the footage may not have actually been leaked in a hack, or when the AFP posted the video last week, they included a link to a Dropbox that contained body cam footage. And while as of recording, that Dropbox appears to be temporarily disabled when you click the link. And so we don't really know exactly what footage was in there and whether or not it was redacted. Multiple people appear to have been able to download the full contents of the folder and re-upload it on other platforms. And a number of people on Reddit who downloaded or viewed the Dropbox before it was disabled say that it did indeed appear to contain at least some unredacted footage. So, of course, you don't. We can't verify that. But looking over what appears to be the most comprehensive re-upload, there are just hours and hours of body cam footage. There are a total of 56 videos that range from a few minutes to more than two hours. And the videos, they span from March 8th to March 11th, meaning that they do actually appear to include the first two days of footage that Ben said were left out. And we were also able to find body cam video from when the police searched his car for drugs. Again, it is unclear how much of this is truly unredacted, especially since large chunks of these videos appear to be muted. You have a lot of people claiming that those blank audio spots are actually the police manually muting their own body cams, which they generally are allowed to do in certain circumstances that involve privacy or highly sensitive matters.

Now, of course, given what we try to do on the show, we're not going to be able to go through all this video because there's just so much footage. But you had Ben flagging specific clips in the update that he posted today. Right in the footage that he selected to show, it hits on kind of the core dispute, of the biggest disputes in Utah. It centers around Ben's efforts to serve legal documents to a man by the name of Josh Johnson, who is one of the new owners of the Bricks and Minifigs franchise in Oregon. Ben says that he can't move forward with his lawsuit until he gets Josh to sign the documents. So he calls him, he goes to his house, he sends others to his house, and he has no success. Instead, he gets arrested for trespassing and stalking. But early on in his attempts, police offered to give Josh the papers. But Josh kept claiming, "Hey, those papers are fake." And the cops didn't end up serving the documents even after they verified that they were legitimate. All that stuff that we already knew. Ben then plays a clip of the bodycam footage that he says shows how easily the cops just gave up when they could have just served Josh.

"I to the Kaiser Police Department. There's no there's nothing. File, so. No, I'm not accepting service, so absolutely not. Check. It's not real. That's clearly fine. That's. You have that right? Yeah. Literally all this police officer has to do is be like, 'You are served,' and then he doesn't even have to accept them. He can drop them. But as long as you say you are served, that counts as a legal serving. So why doesn't this cop just do that? Like, this whole thing would have could be solved in literally three seconds. Like I hear all the time. It, 'You've been served.' There was also this moment that Ben claims just further illustrates how the cops were working to help Josh."

"What do you want done today? But sides obviously talked as much as you should have when they possibly can. I can screen charges. I'm. I'm open to screening charges for our attorney. Yeah. Instead of serving these court papers like the police officer promised me he would, this officer would rather screen all possible charges for me to see what random stuff they can make up about me."

There were also at least two moments where Josh told the police that Ben sent another person to threaten him with murder. "Hired this YouTuber. His name is Ben Snyder. He's Reckless Ben. They say people aren't saying they're going to murder our manager. They sent a lady in the letter. He's like, 'Oh, I'm going to murder you,' to the demand of the manager. And now Josh has just committed a felony lying to the police officers about a false threat I made to get me arrested is super duper illegal."

And that murder claim was actually also echoed by the CEO of Bricks and Minifigs, among McNab, who was on the speakerphone with Josh during one of the times police went to his. "What's happened is we had a super franchisee. Mr. Tiger is just a huge number that got ahold of the story and then went to this guy and said, 'Hey, if I can harass these guys and if I can do some stuff and get some money out of them, will you pay me some of that money?' And that's what they're trying to do. Is the individual who actually owes the money left to the United States. And now Eyman has just committed obstruction by lying to the police officers. He created a fake contract with which to match your signature up there. Threatened to kill her."

Actually, I want to play some more of that call for you that Ben didn't include, because the accusations McNabb makes are pretty wild. During the lengthy phone call, he says that the original franchise owner who made the consignment deal with Brian Menzel sold the entire $200K Lego collection and then fled to Europe without compensating. So, McNabb appears to be claiming that he's been trying to help Brian, but this whole thing's just a scheme that Ben cooked up with Brian so they can both extort money from Bricks and Minifigs. And he also accuses Ben of harassing staff at their private homes, creating fraudulent documents, and forging signatures. And very notably here, I've also told AFP that his lawyers were working with law enforcement and said that there is already another open case against Ben in Utah that lays out all those allegations. "We had a former franchisee sent me to a, invalid consignment agreement with a completely separate person. That person sold their Lego sets and didn't pay the person. They got fled to Europe somewhere. And so we've been trying to deal with this situation. We've been trying to help the person up and working. Started flying down here, coming to our corporate offices. And now they're heading to to our staff and other individuals for some residences to just harassing, continue to try and extort money out of them. And so there's already a case in Provo because they've been passing fraudulent documents up in Oregon. So yeah. And like again, they're there's additional fraud there. Conduct. I don't know if like obviously we're working with the, the police up here, say the Oregon set up, they're actually forged, somebody's signature on a fake, a contract just to trial like that. And it's all just for for clicks. And and for views and everything else online. They don't actually care about any of the things that they're going after. They just want you to. But other than the extortion."

And well, Ben did include those clips in his most recent video. He did kind of touch on the broader allegations. So right away, Josh is lying to the police, which we can easily verify with all the metadata. Timestamped pictures that show that the Lego sets were in the store when Josh took it over. So this is basically a spoiler for episode three. But basically, this Bricks and Minifigs company is nonstop and making fake bomb threats, fake fire threats, fake murder threats in my name. I'm going to murder them. The only problem is, obviously, these are all fake threats. I would never do something like that. But the police think that these are real threats. So now the police from Los Angeles, from Utah, they're all working together now to catch me." With them going on to play a clip of a phone call between Utah and California police, where they discussed the cases and wonder about Ben's whereabouts. And you've got Ben arguing that the clips show that the police are scheming together to get him arrested for fake there. You've had some countering, saying, "It just kind of seems like they're doing more normal cop right. Asking about shared details of the various cases and asking each other if they know where Ben." But regardless, there you've been ending the video saying that he's in a place right now where the American police do not have jurisdiction so they can't catch him. That is generally where we are right now. Though again, I do want to. There are hours and hours of police footage to sort through. So we may see other things pop. And that's all while as we're getting these constant updates on this just increasingly insane story, you've got Ben promising a part three. See, I, who knew a story about Legos could get to this place? And well, we wait to see what happens next. I'd really love to know your thoughts, opinions, and reactions in those comments down then. Also, while you've not been waiting for whatever is coming next from the cops or Bricks and Minifigs or whatever. We should then also talk about how one of the most loyal bootlickers for Donald Trump, but personally advisor to the president, who has been called the MAGA whisperer, just admitted that the Democrats, they were right all along. With Laura Loomer declaring, "The more I observe, the more I realize the left wasn't so wrong about their claims that many personalities on the fringe of the so-called right are foreign agents, broken clocks and all." And then adding, "This week it hit me hard just how much Russian propaganda we have been subjected to on the right for the last five years." And adding, "It's a shame so many false accusations of Russian collusion were spread over the last ten years as a way to smear Donald Trump and his allies with lies, because now that actual Russian interference is here in our media and on social media, nobody believes it's real. No one."

This is funny to me because they're there's always been talk about how you can kind of puppet Laura Loomer to say what you want if you throw some bucks at her. But also to. You might be confused. Is she talking about Tucker Carlson, Tim Pool, Benny Johnson? We could list so many different people. Is it Dave Rubin who just got absolutely crushed? Andrew Bailey? No. Well, actually, it turns out this time it's Candace Owens. "I was in Moscow, and Moscow was positively stunning. It defied. I didn't really have any expectations, but if I hadn't, they would have been defied by just how clean, how safe, how beautiful, how historic the city is. I wish I had spent more time to be honest with. I was asking myself why? Like, why can't we be told that this is a lovely, beautiful, safe city? Especially as a Christian, I think that that frustration was magnified because there's so much wonderful Christian heritage in Moscow, and it's beautiful." Yeah. That's right. Candace appears to be in Russia with her husband, George Farmer, and their four kids, taking in the sights, touring the Kremlin grounds, doing her best to awaken the Christian world to what Satanists did to the Romanoff family. And hey, you know, it could be argued there's nothing wrong with admiring the aesthetic beauty and cultural history of a place like Russia, its brutal regime notwithstanding. Granted, it is a little ironic that Owens, who's a Catholic, is supposedly there to see the Christian heritage when Russia severely restricts the church there and has outright banned the Ukrainian Catholic Church in occupied Ukraine, persecuted its faithful, imposed its brand of Orthodox Christianity. But even putting that aside, Owens isn't just there to see the cathedrals, despite how she's depicting the trip. Right. She's speaking at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum, a speech which is a fun thing to say. And also a Kremlin-backed conference that's been dubbed Russia's Davos. With Davos being the, the better-known summit of the Swiss Alps, we have global elites gathering every year. Except this one is pro-Russian, anti-woke, apparently. And it's been held since 1997. And so in attendance, you have Vladimir Putin himself, his state philosopher Alexander Dugin, some sanctioned oligarchs, and oddly enough, Trump's architectural advisor Rodney Mims, Coke Jr., among others. You may have also seen some pointing out that the, the brothers appear to be in Russia this week, though I will say it's unclear right now whether they're attending the event as well. But as far as Candace Owens, she ended up sitting on a panel titled "Big Family, Big Reach: New Demographics and Narratives for Media Managers" that focused on promoting having lots of kids. "It really has been a blessing to hear about, I guess, to hear more intimately about what's going on in Russia in terms of those policies that are being put into place to encourage big families." Right. Of course, having lots of kids in Russia, very important because, you know, you never know when Putin's going to want to throw them into the woodchipper for another war of choice. Ribbit. Also, as far as, the other people on the panel that included a Russian politician sanctioned by the United States for running a program which kidnapped Ukrainian kids and trafficked them to Russia for reeducation, as well as a TV presenter sanctioned by the EU for spreading propaganda.

With all this, I should note, especially if you're not like super familiar with Candace Owens, this is not out of character. She's been a huge Russia for at least 20, 24 with her saying back then, "The amount of media brainwash in the world could ever make me hope that Zelensky triumphs over an orthodox Russia. Spiritually, I just know that's wrong. You simply do not support a homosexual actor that is locking up churches and bishops." Candace Owens is also not the first right-wing American podcaster to visit the motherland, right? You had Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson being two other examples. "There's no graffiti. There's no filth. There are no foul smells. There are no bums or drug addicts or rapists or people waiting to push you onto the train tracks and kill you. No, it's perfectly clean." And actually speaking to Tucker Carlson, when Owens was asked this week whether she would run for president, this was her answer. "I really don't have an interest in running for office because there is just too much inauthenticity. Also the great letdown of Trump. I would be interested in strongly getting behind someone like Carlson." But whether it's Tucker or Candace, for their enemy is in this MAGA civil war that we've been seeing playing out, it's kind of all the same. They are both just paid foreign agents. Probably the loudest voices making that claim right now is Laura Loomer, who wrote on Twitter, "Candace Owens is 100% in communication with sanctioned individuals. State Department, DOJ and U.S. Treasury really need to investigate Candace Owens." Within Owens firing back, "She is mentally unwell and unfortunately exceptionally dense as well. Genuinely have to laugh at someone who tags the State Department on X to inform them that one of their citizens is headed to Russia. This means she doesn't even grasp the function of a passport. She thinks the State Department looks to her X feed to learn who is flying in and out of their country." Within Loomer, kind of while in out, writing, "Candace Owens looks pregnant in her pics from Russia. I can see it now. She's investigated for possible FARA violations. The Trump admin is prosecuting a black pregnant woman. I need asylum. Russia, as you wish." Like I said, Candace Owens is auditioning to be the female Edward Snowden so she can avoid all accountability and live somewhere where she can spew her propaganda all day without fear of being sued or held accountable in the courts. With that, appearing to be referring to the ongoing defamation lawsuit that Owens has over her baseless claims that Emmanuel Macron's wife is secretly transgender. Which on that note, we're also seeing that Owens has begun referring to Laura as Larry, though it's unclear whether she's kind of poking fun or actually believes that rumor is trans. Whatever the case may be, she ended up shooting back, writing, "You and your fake husband, Andrew Simpson, who is actually just your handler, look unhappy on this Alaskan cruise last week. Is it because he only travels with you alongside an entourage of the six young dudes that accompanied him? You paying for trips for him and his friends so you can pretend you are in a relationship? Also, why did you lie and claim to people you two were married when you were not? Alaskan cruise with his homies is about as close as you'll get to Russian vacation with family, which is what you are inherently jealous of, Larry." And then adding, "Calling it now, Andrew Simpson is likely getting paid to keep tabs on the mentally unstable Larry. He's simply on a job. But Larry is way too stupid to figure that out. Trump is out of office, the job will be done." Which Loomer responded, "Who squeezed the turkey baster for baby number five? Is Putin going to announce what looks like another pregnancy? Don't let the baby drive with George in the car. You know, drunk driving kills." Right. And also, is just that fantastic dumpster fire mass plays out. You have Owens also being dismissive of more mainstream outlets covering her trip as well. "It clearly is a pro-Kremlin propaganda tour. For whatever reason, I think this has been the most triggering trip for the mainstream media. Every single article that is written about me is I almost. It's fiction. I don't even respond. It would have sufficed to just say Candace is going to Russia on a family vacation, and while she's there, she's going to be speaking on a topic of family at SPIEF. They just can't do it. They fall short every single time."

Then there's even more that we've got to dive into in just a minute. But first, let me thank a sponsor and say, you know, I think a lot of people watching this have something that they've been almost ready to launch for a while. Not almost ready because the idea needs work, but almost ready because everything around the idea, it just feels like a job in. But then at some point, almost ready just becomes never. So Squarespace, it closes that no website, no problem. Today that changes because Squarespace makes it easy to start selling content, courses, physical or digital products, whatever you've been dreaming. Their Beacon tools will literally draft your site, copy, suggest your layout, and design your pages. You just describe what you want. It builds around. No coding, no guesswork, just if you want to just showcase stuff or you want one-time payment subscriptions, you can do all of Beacon can help you design and build the business. And then Acuity, it handles the so by the time that your first client finds you, everything's already ready. When's your live? They're built-in analytics and marketing tools. They keep everything running. Like you can focus on what you actually care. Stop with the procrastination. Your free trial is waiting for you at squarespace.com. Or just scan that QR code. Today is launch. When it's ready to go live, just use code FILL to get 10% off and let them know we sent you.

Then diving right back into the news, the House of Representatives has now voted against Trump's war against Iran. And there's a new US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, though it's not clear either conflict is actually anywhere close to over. So let's start with the vote in the House. Right. Because as we've talked about, Trump has repeatedly rejected the idea that he needs permission from Congress for this. The Republican Party, or at least most of their members, they've repeatedly failed to give him any reason to think otherwise. But the tide has ever so slightly been turning. The Senate advanced a measure demanding that Trump end the war without authorization from Congress for the first time in mid-May, with the help of four Republicans and all but one Democrat. And the House would have likely done the same if not for Republican leadership abruptly canceling the vote after it became clear that they lacked the numbers to defeat it. They seem to be hoping that Trump was going to be able to end the war on his own before they had no choice but to let the vote take place. But instead, despite Trump continuing to claim that an agreement is near, and even announced at one point that he was headed to the Situation Room to make a final determination on Iran, there is no end in sight. In fact, just this week, we've seen some of the most intense fighting yet since the ceasefire took hold. With, for example, Iran firing missiles and drones on bases in the region and Kuwait's international airport, injuring dozens and leaving at least one person dead. Then also, as that's been going on, we've seen Trump facing some limited pushback from his party on issues unrelated to the war. With, for example, some Senate Republicans forcing him to abandon his request for $1 billion in security funding for his wall, as well as speaking out on his decision to appoint Bill Pulte to serve as the acting Director of National Intelligence. Meanwhile, bipartisan pressure on the Justice Department also led to the scrapping of the $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund, which of course looked like it was just being created to award payouts to Trump's allies and supporters, including January 6th rioters. So the war powers vote in the House yesterday. It's been one aspect of what's been described by some as kind of a Republican rebellion. And to be very clear, the dissenters are still few and far between. It is still widely Trump's party, though the House did vote 215 to 208, in favor of ending the war without congressional authorization. Right. Only four Republicans joined Democrats. That included Thomas Massie of Kentucky, whose criticism of the war, of course, is just one of the reasons that Trump primaried him. But as far as this resolution that just got passed in the House, it's now going to move to the Senate, which has to take it up within roughly two and a half weeks, according to the bill. But then also, even if it passes, you have the Trump administration arguing that any effort by Congress to limit the president's war powers is unconstitutional. Any real chance of making the resolution legally enforceable, it's likely going to require a two-thirds supermajority in both houses. And so the reality here is that this war, the disaster, all the impacts, it's still all in Trump's hands. While he just continues to give incredibly conflicting statements about where negotiations stand. He claimed last week, for example, that Iran had agreed to let the US come in and remove its enriched uranium. But then a couple of days later, he told Reuters that he didn't really care because it's so far underground. Then with that, he's aggressively taken to downplaying the situation even as the stakes continue to grow. With him saying earlier this week that the talks to reach a preliminary agreement, they were starting to get "very boring," his words, and adding, "I don't care if they're over. I really don't care. I couldn't care less if they're over there. Over." And you then had Trump saying yesterday that the war, which just a reminder, has killed at least 13 American service members, increased the cost of living for millions of working-class people in the country, and depleted military weapons stockpiles for our country to what some believe are dangerously low levels, was, quote, "not a big thing for the United States." And he then went on to boast about the stock market and falsely claimed that costs were coming down and everybody is making a lot of money. Then also once again casually threatening Iran. "We could go another two or three weeks and just wipe everybody out. I'd rather not do that. Very easy to do. They're ready to do. They want to do it? They want to do it. But if we can get something done and writing which will accomplish the same thing without killing everybody, I'd like to do."

Now, with all that, Trump has reportedly told aides that he'd only really consider returning to all-out war if Iran kills more Americans, with the implication being that he might be willing to accept smaller flare-ups in the fighting for weeks or even months to avoid that. Which would actually track with something else that he said yesterday, downplaying the recent fighting. "You know, I'd say in that part of the world, a ceasefire is when you're shooting in a more moderate manner. It takes two to tango, understand that. We hit them very hard on something else unrelated. And so they were responding." The with everything here. Well, Trump's trying to look unbothered in public. It might just be for show. And I say that for a number of reasons, including on Monday, you had Axios reporting that Trump lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu over Israel's escalation in the region, reportedly saying, "What the fuck are you doing? And you're fucking crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of you." And then Trump actually later confirmed the conversation in an interview with the New York Times. Then some reporting that that actually put a stop to Israel's plan to launch massive strikes on Beirut. And now you have Israel and Lebanon saying that they've agreed to implement a full ceasefire. With that agreement reportedly reached after two days of negotiations mediated by Trump. This is something that is very, very important to Trump, because a full ceasefire in Lebanon, it is one of the key demands that Iranian officials have made for ending the war. But also a key thing is that Israel and Lebanon already agreed to a ceasefire weeks ago, and that one obviously hasn't worked. Or you've got the Lebanese Health Ministry saying the conflict has killed more than 3,300 people since early March, and several hundred of those deaths were after the ceasefire took hold. And then this new ceasefire. Well, it demands that Hezbollah halt attacks and pull its fighters from certain areas. It doesn't explicitly require immediate concessions from Israel. And actually, since this was announced, Israel's already carried out deadly airstrikes. You had Israel's defense minister saying that his country had, quote, "freedom of action backed by the United States to strike Beirut in response to attacks on Israeli communities and territory." And then Hezbollah, for their part, they've also reportedly fired rockets at Israeli targets in the region, with the group's leader rejecting the ceasefire and calling it a, quote, "roadmap to annihilate part of the Lebanese people." That said, there were some signs that the new ceasefire was having some effect. Right. As part of the deal, both sides have agreed to create so-called pilot zones, over which the Lebanese Armed Forces would take exclusive control to the exclusion of all non-state actors. Seeming to refer to the Lebanese military saying today that Israeli forces had withdrawn from one area in the south to allow Lebanese army units to begin deploying. It's ultimately, we're gonna have to wait and see what happens. And you have people worried that this whole thing could just fall apart at any moment. And whatever does happen, it can also affect the US negotiations with Iran.

Then to switch gears up a bit, we should also talk today about this man who put his life on the line for nearly two decades just to lose it because his insurance carrier denied his cancer treatment. Writer. This is Ken Jones. He was a firefighter with the San Francisco Fire Department for 17 years. Met his wife there. His daughter was born while he worked there. So much of his life was spent protecting that city. Even after he stopped fighting the fires himself, he worked in the department's stress unit, helping connect his colleagues to mental health support. Except it turns out that that time on the front lines, it left him with more than just a few good stories. 14 months ago, Ken was diagnosed with an advanced stage lung cancer known as adenocarcinoma. He developed painful tumors in his bones, lymph nodes, and brain. And his doctor said that it was likely connected to his time fighting fires. Which, yeah, makes sense. I mean, even back in 2022, you had the World Health Organization starting to classify firefighting as a carcinogen because of the prolonged exposure to smoke and chemicals. But as far as Ken, after his diagnosis, he got started on chemo and immunotherapy, but his doctors had him stop that ahead of schedule in order to try some new medical trials. Those weren't able to slow Ken's progression as much as they hoped. And so his medical team, including Doctor Matthew Gubbins, then turned back to immunotherapy with chemo at the beginning of this year. Except what happened is at Blue Shield, Ken's insurance provider through the city, denied coverage. That's despite the fact that they even acknowledged the immunotherapy prescribed is both FDA approved and within the Medicare guidelines. They said that both a Blue Shield oncologist and a Medicare-funded independent reviewer determined that Ken was ineligible because he had already gone through other treatments and immunotherapy is meant to be a first-line therapy. But Doctor Gubbins was very quick to push back against that. "There are gray areas and edge cases in among our patients where those guidelines just don't apply, where the data aren't as robust, and we have to make clinical decisions in the clinic on the ground." He's just saying that to say that Doctor Gubbins is the head of UC San Francisco's thoracic medical oncology clinic, and he reportedly helped craft the guidelines for how to best treat cancer patients. He's not a nobody. He's not just some doctor. He knows his shit. And so we decided to call Blue Shield and appeal the decision. But even after hours on the phone, he says that he couldn't get ahold of anyone who could actually do anything. "I reached people who apologize, but they weren't the right place to send the appeal to, and often referred me back to the first person I talked to." "How long were you on the phone that day?" "I spent about three hours calling different phone numbers for this insurance company." He submitted his appeal in writing, only for it to then get shot down again. Obviously, as all of this is happening, Ken and his family, they're pissed and terrified. "You just automatically depend on that insurance being there and then when it's not, it's quite it was quite a blow. You didn't expect any of this." "No one expects to be taken care of." You know, his daughter, Rachel, adding, "Who says no to somebody with stage four lung cancer? You thought it was a mistake?" "Yeah, I really did. To me, saying no is saying I'm okay with you dying." And she's kind of right. Without the insurance coverage, there wasn't much that Ken could do. Because the out-of-pocket expense for the treatment he needed was roughly $50,000. And that's just for one round. In order to have a fighting chance, he'd have to repeat the treatment every three weeks for up to two years. I mean, we're talking about potentially more than $1 million. But also, they're not just going to give up and take that lying down. And so Ken's family and friends and former colleagues, they take the issue to San Francisco's Health Oversight Board. Well, the board, they can't overturn a denial, they're responsible for approving all city employee health plan contracts and could pressure the insurance company to reconsider. You had Rachel stand up in front of that board at a public meeting earlier this year, accusing BlueShield of putting money above her father's life. "And forced to stand here in thick because an insurance company decided that profits matter more than the life of a man who spent his career protecting the city." The oversight officials there were apparently unmoved, with the executive director for the San Francisco Health Service System siding with Blue Shield and saying, "At the heart of the matter is the fact that such services that were denied are not allowed by Medicare." Which is also the hill that Blue Shield is dying on as well, despite the fact that Ken and his family quickly disproved that. And decided to leave Blue Shield and get on the standard Medicare run by the federal government. His wife saying that after he switched Medicare, "agreed to pay for cancer immunotherapy with no issue." And adding, "Ken's full treatment is now being fully covered by straight Medicare. San Francisco Health Service System shouldn't allow Blue Shield to get away with it. For Ken or other retirees. This fight with Blue Shield, it led to a serious delay in critical care." And so you had Doctor Gibbons saying, "Any of our cancer treatments are harder to give and less effective. The weaker a patient is when we're seeing them." Horribly, it all proved too much. And Ken Jones recently passed away. With a former colleague and a close friend saying, "I believe wholeheartedly that they expedited his death. Chemotherapy really is tough. It's tough on your body because it's killing all the good cells as well as the bad. And so, you know, he had to suffer a lot through that. And then being denied further treatment. Just it's so cruel. It is so cruel."

As far as Blue Shield, they released a statement saying it was, quote, "deeply saddened to learn of Ken's passing and extended condolences to his wife, family, friends, and former colleagues." You can take that as heartfelt. Or the company worried that people are going to start Googling who is the CEO and other people in the C-suite. But also, Ken's struggle has also become a catalyst for a major snowball effect in San Francisco, with government officials jumping in to ask questions as the story was gaining traction. Not including a California Assembly member summoning Blue Shield to explain their denial decision back in February. And the San Francisco supervisors even calling the situation so much more into question in April. Right. At the time, asking how widespread denials like this really are among the 40,000 city employees and retirees covered by Blue Shield and two other insurance providers. And it turns out, according to the city's Health Service System, 21% of claims are denied. Which definitely raised the alarm for Supervisor Connie Chan, saying that she wants to find out whether this is a solvable administrative issue or if it's something that needs to be addressed before the city renews its contracts with Blue Shield. And with Ken's death, Blue Shield executives are expected to meet with leaders of the local firefighters union and other advocates to talk about real reform. As far as if there is real, meaningful change. We'll wait and see. I'm a cynic. I see and break down stories like this, and I go, "Oh, everything's run by soulless bloodsuckers." Hey, maybe hell freezes over and I'll get surprised. Or the the heat will actually get too hot for some people. And they might do the right thing. But while we wait to see.

And also to give you a little breath before our final block of today's show, let me self-promote. Right now, at least for me, it is getting hotter and hotter. And it's actually not because I've gotten too close to the dumpster fire of the news that we have to talk about every day, but rather because I go so what I personally found to be fantastic and I'm very biased, our Beautiful Bastard Core 2.0 tees that are now on sale at Beautiful Bastard. Substantial without being heavy. It is stretch without being restrictive. And in addition to looking good, it makes me feel good, especially in this heat. And in fact, I think you'll also like it so much that if you use coupon code BRINGITBACK, FILL, you can get your first tee for just $15. So jump on it now. It is a 36-hour code. And also for those asking, yes, we're bringing back more graphic tees. I'd say in about six weeks. And those are actually going to be on our Core 1.0, which a lot of people have requested that we bring back. Yeah, there's that all that beautiful love you. But then for your final block today, we've got more news you need to know that starts with cancer and HIV patients. They could lose their healthcare under the Trump administration's Medicaid work requirements. Right. For months, federal officials led state Medicaid workers to believe that people who need consistent coverage for their conditions, they'd be exempt from the new requirements. But now, with the interim final rule that was just published, you have experts saying that the condition or the disease needs to be actively interfering with your ability to work. People with early-stage cancer who were in radiation treatment but still have the capacity to work, or people who have HIV but can still technically work, are not exempt from the work requirements. And so as the rule is written now, someone with those types of conditions, they could mess up their paperwork, miss a deadline, or just get caught in a clerical mistake and lose their coverage. And experts are saying that those types of mistakes, they are bound to happen with the timeline because while it usually takes years to make healthcare changes, states were only given a year and a half to make it. Just to give you some context on how bad this could be. About 1.2 million Americans are living with HIV. And as far as cancer, you have researchers estimating that there's going to be over 2 million new cancer diagnoses across the country this year alone. Even that, it doesn't count the millions of patients with any other chronic issues or basically left just crossing their fingers, hoping these quick changes don't leave them in a life-or-death situation. As far as the Trump administration, they're thinking as long as people aren't sitting at home reaping in Medicaid benefits, it's all worth it. They see this as a way to encourage people to work for what they get. With Dr. Oz, if you're sitting at home, which is true for the millions of people who are able-bodied on Medicaid. On average, you're spending 6.1 hours watching television or just hanging out. As a path to prosperity, Congress very wisely said, let's get you back into the workforce. There, there. I should mention that many adults that are on Medicaid, they're already working. Only about 1 in 5 are not. Then also, the specifics there matter because that could be for anything from being laid off to being retired, not just because, you know, they wanted to spend all day binging Netflix. Then even for the people who aren't retired or laid off, you have people saying, you know, this work requirement suggests that somebody could get a job if they wanted. They just need a little shove. Which just kind of reflects a complete lack of understanding of what people are actually going through. So with all this, you've got medical groups and advocates saying they're deeply concerned, saying the rule would dramatically and inappropriately increase the number of people who will lose their health care coverage. The potential consequences here, it's very real. You have the executive director of the HIV and Hepatitis Policy Institute saying, "We are going to lose people to Medicaid, and then they're going to get sick and then they're going to die."

But then going to concerning and sad. We get a very sad story. And that's because the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., just removed an exorcist from his position for saying that UFO sightings are the work of demons. It's Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a priest and psychologist who's been working with the church for decades. He's treated clergy with mental health issues, served as a chaplain. He's also a professor at Catholic University. And up until recently, led the Saint Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal, which is a nonprofit organization that hosts spiritual education workshops and trains exorcists. So not some, you know, run-of-the-mill priest. But he also then recently went on the Faith, Hope, and Love Ministry YouTube show and landed himself in some hot water. "Demons like to hide. They don't want us to know they're there. They don't want us to know what they're doing, because they're more effective when we don't realize. Demons indeed can break into the physical world, and at times that can be seen. There's no question in my mind, personally, again, this is not official, but it's my personal belief that probably many, if not most, of these UFO sightings are in fact demons, and they can do things that we can't do." Thus the speed. Now, to add some color to this, it is not uncommon for some Catholics or other religions to challenge the idea of things like aliens. "I don't think they're aliens. I think they're demons anyway. But that's a longer discussion." Reports have noted in some cases, the idea is that these things diminish with some see is a unique place of human beings and God's creation. "When I hear about sort of extra-natural phenomena, that's where I go to is the Christian understanding. I think that one of the devil's great tricks is to convince people we never existed." But despite how surprisingly common the alien-demon pipeline may be, after that YouTube episode aired, you had Cardinal Robert McElroy announcing that Rosetti would be removed as an exorcist, saying his statements, quote, "gravely undermine the church's very precise teaching on the devil, demons, and exorcism." And then with that, you had Rosetti, "I get a I am saddened by the decision of the Archdiocese of Washington. Ask for goodness for any ways that I have not been faithful to the teachings of the church's Magisterium, particularly in the cited video on aliens and the demonic." Them saying you'll continue being obedient to the church, encourage people to do the same, and said that the center would continue its work elsewhere.

And then actually, the final bit of news you should know about today is that Trump's former national security advisor, John Bolton, is reportedly eyeing a guilty plea for retaining classified information in a deal with the DOJ that he's hoping is going to help him avoid prison. Because last year, Bolton was accused of sharing more than a thousand pages of diary-like stories of his work from 2018 to 2019 with two relatives who were helping him with his book. They came out in 2020. This was reportedly top-secret information. We're talking foreign enemy missile launch plans, plans for US covert action, serious stuff. They said that he was sharing all this through his personal email, which was later hacked by someone officials believe was linked to Russia. So with that, back in October, Bolton was indicted on 18 counts of mishandling classified information, which, I mean, could have gotten him a decade behind bars if he got convicted. While he originally pleaded not guilty, there's now a change of plea hearing set for June. And reportedly, he's planning to plead guilty to the count of retention of national defense information and has agreed to pay a fine of $2.25 million. With this deal, he could avoid jail time altogether. If he doesn't, he could be serving up to five years. Ultimately, it's going to be up to the judge. It's ultimately this ends up being one of the first big hits that Trump's landed against his enemies in the legal system. Because apparently this case against Bolton, it's standing up a lot better than the ones that we've seen against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. But that, my friend, Beautiful Bastard, is the end of your Thursday Philip DeFranco show. Dive into the What a Day, and also what a week we've had. Also remember, if you're not 100% filled in, I got you covered right here or in the link down below for another video you should watch, which is our new "Crashing the System" series. We even had a very special guest, Bernie Sanders, join us. Whatever you do, let me just say thank you for watching. Like and subscribe. And I love your faces. And I'll see you right back here next time. What should I ask Bernie Sanders later today? Senator Sanders, thank you so much for meeting with me here today. So what the hell is going on? We got all this new technology with the richest country in the history of the world, and our younger generation is going to have a lower standard of living than their parents. That's pretty crazy. There's no expectations of any decency or professionalism. We can have our reach turned on and off by somebody sitting in a server room somewhere. AI and robotics will be the most transformational technologies in the history of humanity.