Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news. It is Thursday. What a week it's been. I can't even be bothered to lean in today. I'm going to sit back. I recommend you do as well, because we have a lot to talk about today, starting with this. The FBI just rated Virginia State Senator L. Louise Lucas's Portsmouth Office and her cannabis dispensary for reasons we still don't know yet.

But she hasn't been charged with anything so far, but you do have some reports saying that this is tied to an ongoing investigation of bribery that actually started during the Biden administration. But it's believed this might be related to her cannabis business, but the specifics they're kind of shaky right now. As far as the response to all this, everyone from Governor Abigail Spanberger to Virginia's Attorney General to Senator Lucas, they appear to be just as clueless as we are.

Because again, no charges, no details, and as far as we know, no evidence of points to any crime. So everyone kind of seems to be in the dark here, but some people, including lawmakers, they're starting to say that none of that even matters because this is more about the power play than the investigation itself. In fact, you had Lucas responding to the raid on social media saying, today's actions by federal agents are about far more than one state senator. They are about power and who is allowed to use it. What we saw, if it's a clear pattern from this administration, when we challenged, then they tried to intimidate. You also had Representative Robert C. Scott saying it must be acknowledged that this FBI raid occurs in the broader context of President Trump's repeated abuse of the Department of Justice to target his perceived political opponents. And with that, you have a lot of people nodding along because, as we've seen, it really doesn't take any real evidence for Trump to bring out the FBI. Just yesterday, you had a judge shooting down a request to return the balance that the FBI took from Fulton County in connection with his six-year obsession with his loss in 2020. And again, I want to stress, we do not know if Lucas was actually engaged in corruption. We're not saying anything there. But right now, you've got a lot of people saying that anyone who is not kissing the ring could get an FBI visit at this point. And a lot of people pointing to those who have or they've bent the knee all of a sudden getting a pardon. All of a sudden, that problem disappears.

And then you've got people pointing to the fact that Lucas is one of Virginia's top lawmakers with 30 years in the game and she's not afraid to let the Trump administration happen. Rache has been a very vocal proponent of Virginia's redistricting referendum. So you've got Lucas saying this raid was basically Trump making an example out of her. The lesson here, talk shit, get raided. However, in her statement, she also said she was proud to lead that effort and that she's never been afraid to stand up to Donald Trump or anyone else that has tried to undermine our democracy.

But then also on the notary districting, we then have to talk about how Tennessee voters were raised in hell yesterday.

Right? And they were at the legislative hearing about the new maps they just passed that split up the state's only Democratic district, which just so happens to sit on a majority black city, Memphis.

No!

Anything I do is it gets your leave.

Is there anything that can do or say to get you to leave?

Can't help our vote?

Can't go.

Time to go.

Right in this coming after the Supreme Court got to the Voting Rights Act and started this domino effect as states trying to redraw their maps that critics say water down Democratic votes.

Though their state House Speaker says that this was a move to make redistricting more colorblind.

But there, you had Tennessee Democrats, you know, not buying it.

We know the intention here is to be racist.

It is to take the only majority black district out of the United States Congress, and it is to allow for white representation and white majority districts to exist, period.

And regardless of your opinion there, Tennessee Republicans, they have made their end game clear.

We want Republicans to maintain control of the House of Representatives.

So no surprises there. They are saying that Tennessee is a conservative state, and their congressional delegation should reflect that.

But Democrats in the state, they're saying something very different.

Our needs are nowhere near the same as a rural community and nowhere near the same as other parts of Tennessee.

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