Morning Wire - Release Of The Twitter Files | 12.5.22

Episode Date: December 5, 2022

Twitter releases proof of the platform’s past efforts to censor the infamous Hunter Biden laptop story, The Department of Labor releases more showing an economy of questionable health, and arguments in a case challenging Colorado’s ant-discrimination law are set to begin before The Supreme Court. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.  Text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit. Get 20% off your first order with promo code MORNING WIRE: https://thepearlsource.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elon Musk releases a cache of documents relating to Twitter's decision to censor one of the most politically explosive stories of 2020. There was no evidence ever at any time that the laptop story wasn't legitimate. What exactly did the documents reveal? And what has the response been on both sides of the aisle? I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, December 5th, and this is Morning Wire. The Department of Labor has released more data showing the fluctuating health of the economy. economy. We break down the good news and the bad. And the Supreme Court hears opening arguments

today from a Colorado graphic designer who says she's defending free speech. They can force individuals, artists to create custom artwork that celebrates messages that go against their deeply held beliefs. We speak to the woman behind the suit and the attorney arguing the case. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Well, the lack of a red wave during the midterms lead to more reckless spending by a more emboldened administration. Fortunately, Birch Gold can help you convert your IRA or 401k into an IRA in precious metals so you can own gold and silver in a tax shelter to count. Text Wire to 98989898 to claim your free info kit on gold and talk to one of their precious

metal specialists. Protect your savings with gold and Birch Gold. Text Wire to 9898998 today. Elon Musk has released internal Twitter documents that revealed a platform knew it had little basis for censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story just before the 2020 election. The documents also show that the Biden campaign asked Twitter to censor specific posts and the company complied. Here to give us more detail on what's being called the Twitter files is Daily Wire Culture Reporter Megan Basham. So Megan, let's just dive into the big question here. How explosive exactly

is the content of these files? Well, you know, that is a matter of some debate and you have to say there's still a good deal that remains to be seen. So Musk gave the files to independent journalist Matt Taiibi. And if you're not familiar with Taibi, he actually tends to be more liberal, but he's known for his investigative work into corporate cronyism, so probably a good choice for this. Well, in a series of tweets Friday, he highlighted that Twitter knew within a matter of a couple of hours that it had no real justification for censoring the New York Post's reporting on Hunter Biden's laptop. Twitter had previously said they'd been warned by the FBI about Russian disinformation, but these internal communications make it clear they didn't actually believe that that's what

the post story was. In other words, the company went to some extraordinary lengths to suppress the story. So along with suspending the post, it even prevented links to the report from being shared via private direct messages. These files also revealed that when the Biden campaign sent them requests to take down embarrassing photos of Hunter Biden from the laptop, Twitter employees responded with a single, pretty eye-popping word. They just said, handled. And it's especially noteworthy that Twitter's General Counsel, as all of this was taking place,

was former FBI General Counsel James Baker. Now, if that name sounds a little familiar to you, it's probably because Baker was deeply involved in furthering those unsubstantiated allegations that Donald Trump had colluded with Russia. Twitter hired him after he resigned over that. Another connection raising some eyebrows is that the Twitter executive

who made the call to censor the post story was Vigiegade. Now, the Biden administration later appointed her to advise the Department of Homeland Security on combating disinformation on social media. And again, she was still an employee at Twitter when she scored that government post. And how has this name?

news been received? Is the media willing to engage with the story at this point, or are they still downplaying it? Well, I'm going to guess it's not going to come as a surprise to anyone to hear that Democrats and left-leaning media are downplaying it. They say that since it was the Democratic National Committee and the Biden campaign asking Twitter to take down the tweet, not the Biden administration, what that means is that this was just a private matter between private groups. No government entities were involved. So they would argue, no First Amendment implications there. Conservatives, of course, mostly disagree.

They say that the DNC contains members of government. For example, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth are both vice chairs of the DNC. And Duckworth additionally sits on the Commerce Committee, in particular its communications and media subcommittee. So clearly her work in that government capacity would touch on big tech oversight.

So Jonathan Turley, professor of public interest law at George Washington University, he had an opinion piece out in the Hill on Saturday, and he argued this, I'm just going to quote, censoring communication on Twitter is more akin to the telephone company agreeing to cut the connection of any caller using disfavored terms. It's pretty clear that Republicans see it Turley's way. Kentucky Congressman James Comer, who will be taking over the House Oversight Committee in January, is already promising investigations. Here he was on Fox News this weekend. Every employee at Twitter

who was involved in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story will have an opportunity to come before Congress and explain their actions to the American people. Now we know from Elon Musk that there was correspondence between the Biden campaign

and the Democrat National Committee to suppress this story. But meanwhile, Musk has made it clear that there is a lot more information yet to come So really a lot of reason to expect that this story is only going to get bigger. Right, and of course we're going to be watching for that. Megan, thanks so much for reporting. That was Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham.

Coming up, we break down the latest numbers on the economy. One of the best gifts you can give your loved one this holiday season is beautiful classic pearl jewelry from the Pearl Source. The Pearl Source cuts out the middleman by selling directly to you and eliminating crazy jewelry store markups. They even offer free two-day shipping on every order and a 60-day money-back guarantee, so it's risk-free. For limited time, Morning Wire listeners can take 20% off your order with promo code MorningWire.

If you want fine pearl jewelry at the best prices online, then go straight to the source, the Pearl Source. Go to PearlSource.com and use promo code MorningWire. New data from the Labor Department shows the U.S. economy continuing to struggle under the weight of stubbornly high inflation and sluggish growth, worrying investors, and fueling fears of prolonged recession. Here with more is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips. Cabot, we've seen some good news and some bad news in the past few days on the economy. What are we looking at with these new numbers?

Yeah, it's definitely a mixed bag, but we'll start positive on this Monday morning. And that is the continued strength of the job market. The latest report from the Labor Department showed to the U.S. adding 263,000 jobs in November, while the jobless rate hovered around 3.7%. average hourly earnings were also up 5.1% in November compared to a year earlier, which is in large part driven by the fact that many employers are just desperate right now to keep their workers, which is harder to do during a labor shortage when competition is higher. All right. So that's the good, and that certainly is good. What's the bad news here?

I'm assuming the word inflation will play into this. Yes, it will. Because inflation is still so high, even the good news is less good when you look at the broader context. For example, yes, wages are up 5% in the last year, but when inflation is up around 8 to 10%, people are actually making less than they were last year just because their dollar doesn't go as far. And it's also important to remember that inflation actually gets worse when wages rise across the board as they have in the past year or so. And that's what we're seeing in the economy. The low unemployment rate is also a bit deceptive when you take into account the fact that the labor participation rate, which tracks the number of adults working or looking for a job, fell again last month and is now well below what we

saw before the pandemic. Now let's get to another area of the economy, the housing market. What's the latest on the housing front? Well, remember, it's harder to get an up-to-date assessment of the housing market because the sale of a home is a long process. And last week, we found out that home prices fell in the month of September for the third straight month. That is the longest skid in nearly five years. We also saw a ninth straight month of declining home sales, which isn't all that surprising given the rapidly increasing mortgage rates. and by nearly every metric, things are expected to get worse in 2023, and that's reflected by consumer sentiment, which is very important in an area like the housing market, where obviously you want people

confident that their home will retain value moving forward. So a shrinking labor market and steep home sales decline, where's this going? What are economists predicting here? Well, in the short term, the Fed is expected to once again raise interest rates at their next meeting two weeks from now. Remember, their goal is to intentionally slow the economy down and actually, bring unemployment up with the hope of gradually reducing inflation to induce what they call a soft landing. But the problem here again, as we've talked about in the past, is that the Fed's projections have really been off every step of the way over the last few years when it comes to fighting inflation. To that point, here's Larry Summers. He's the former U.S. Treasury Secretary this week on Bloomberg.

We've all been at the airport and they say it's leaving at 7.30 and then they say it's leaving at 830 and then they say it's leaving at 930. And when I see that happen, I think it's leaving at 11. And it's something like that with these economic forecasts. So I hope I'm wrong, but my sense is that inflation is going to be a little more sustained than what people are looking for. And my sense also is that it's much harder than many people think to achieve a soft landing. Really went all in on the airplane soft landing analogy there. I think we can all relate.

Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime. That's Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips. Opening arguments in a case challenging Colorado's anti-discrimination law would be heard today by the U.S. Supreme Court. A Denver-based graphic designer is requesting the right to refuse custom wedding website services for same-sex couples due to her religious values. Joining us to talk about the case first is graphic designer Lori Smith,

owner of graphic design firm 303 creative. So, Lori, you make custom wedding websites, and I understand you are fighting to have the artistic freedom over what you choose to make or not make as an artist. How did this case come about? Well, it is a preemptive reinforcement request, and that's because the state of Colorado is censoring and compelling my speech. And so for me, as I looked at the landscape

of the way that the state was treating people of others of faith, similar to me, I didn't want to be punished. And so I have decided that rather than be punished, I want to take a stand to protect our First Amendment rights. When I chose a career in creating custom artwork, I did not surrender my right to speak freely. The government does not have a place to force someone to create custom messages that go against their deeply held beliefs.

So what I'm standing for protects not only my right to live consistently with my faith, but the LGBT web designer who should not be forced to create custom artwork that criticizes same-sex marriage. And if the government can compel and coerce and chill my speech, it can do the same to all. Now also with us today is Kristen Wagoner, the Alliance Defending Freedom President and CEO, as well as the council presenting Lori's argument to the Supreme Court today. So, Kristen, is there any specific wording in this Colorado law currently that would compel Lori to make a design that violates her conscience?

That's a great question because public accommodations laws have been in place for many, many years. And it hasn't been an issue until about the last decade where we've seen some government officials try to misuse those laws to censor and compel speech that the government either dislikes or wants to favor. And so the way Colorado is an example interprets their public accommodation law is that if you dare to speak a message that celebrates a particular view of marriage, then you must also celebrate a different view of marriage. And that's compelled speech. In terms of the public accommodation law itself, many states have public accommodation laws, many local jurisdictions have them. And they have what are called protected classifications.

And the way they're being read is that if you speak on a particular topic, then that topic, the state can compel your speech or even silence you. Now, outside of Colorado, what are the broader implications of this case? The implications are very significant in terms of, of national precedent and their called public accommodation laws. And they basically say that the way Colorado is interpreting it is to suggest that if you're a speaker and you receive some sort of commission or you sell the art or the messages that you're creating, that the government has the power to tell you what you must say. So let's talk about some practical examples. Religion is

often a protected class in these cases. And that would mean, for example, that a black cross sculptor who would design a cross, for example, for the Lutheran Church, would have to do so for the Aryan Church under this law. And many laws actually have political ideology or political beliefs also protected in them, which means that you may be a Democrat publicist and you could be force to write a press release that advances a Republican message or to create a Republican slogan. So there are a variety of ways we could think of musicians, soloists, website designers, artists, painters. All of the speakers would be compelled under these laws, and some jurisdictions have more than 20 different classifications. Well, we're going to be watching this closely.

Lori and Kristen, thanks so much for coming on today. That was Colorado graphic designer Lori Smith and her attorney, Kristen Wagoner. Well, that's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.