Morning Wire - SCOTUS Social Media Cases & Biden’s Michigan Challenges | 2.27.24

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

The Supreme Court hears two cases challenging big tech’s alleged censorship of conservatives, legacy media faces backlash over their coverage of a Georgia nursing student’s murder, and will Biden face a democratic protest vote in Michigan? Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Birch Gold: Text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit. Balance of Nature: Get 35% off your first order as a preferred customer + free Fiber and Spice supplements. Use promo code WIRE at checkout: https://www.balanceofnature.com/ Black Rifle Coffee: Get 20% off your order with code WIRE: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Supreme Court heard two cases on Monday that challenge Big Tech's online censorship of conservatives. Just because we're upset or frustrated by a couple of content moderation decisions, doesn't mean we should hand over control of the internet to the government. How could the court's decision change the social media landscape? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, February 27th, and this is Morning Wire. Following the murder of a Georgia nursing student last week, Legacy media is facing a barrage of backlash for burying a key fact in their coverage.

And today is Michigan's presidential primary. Will the state's Democrats pull the lever for President Biden, or will we see a significant protest vote? If you want us to be louder, then come here and vote uncommitted. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. How do you protect your family in the midst of all the chaos in the world? Well, a great place to start is by protecting.

your savings. Invest in gold with Birchgold Group today. Burge Gold will help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax-sheltered IRA in gold, and it doesn't cost you a penny out of pocket. While diversification does not eliminate risk entirely, Birchgold's experts can help you build a more resilient foundation for your financial well-being. Just text Wire to 9898989898, and Birch Gold will send you a free info kit on gold. That's wire to 989898 today. The Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday in two cases that could have major implications for online speech. The court will decide whether states like Texas and Florida have the right to prevent social media platforms

from suppressing conservative views. Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham, listened to all four hours of the oral arguments. So, Megan, first off, can you give us some background on these cases? So the Florida law in question, which was passed back in 2021, makes it illegal for platforms like X, Facebook, TikTok, really all the biggies to ban or censor political candidates or to throttle posts about candidates. And it also prevents the apps from taking, and I'm quoting,

any action to censor, de-platform, or shadow ban a journalistic enterprise based on the content of its publication or broadcast. So think of the New York Post's accurate reporting on Hunter Biden's laptop, for example. That was broadly censored in the run-up to the 2016 election. And then finally, the law requires any content moderated. standards to be applied in a consistent manner. Now, the Texas law is similar, but it's somewhat more broad in preventing the platforms from censoring based on political viewpoints. So Net Choice, which is a trade group that represents Big Tech, is suing the two states saying

that this violates the First Amendment rights of these social media companies and that they shouldn't have to host hate speech or views that they find offensive. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, however, told Morningwire that her state's law makes it clear that it does not protect that kind of speech. So it really is a battle of the companies that argue they have the three speech rights to censor de-platform shadow ban and Florida, who says we have to write to pass legislation that protects those that are going on to these platforms. You have to apply these things in a fair and consistent way.

So really the question at issue here is whether the social media platforms are like phone companies and other utilities and have to accommodate everyone, that's the position that more than a dozen red states are taking, or if they're more like newspapers and other publishers and they're allowed to curate editorial content as they see fit, that's the position that the tech companies are taking. Now, how did the justices seem to respond to both sides? Well, you know, it can always be a little bit dangerous to try to read the tea leaves based just on the justice's questions, but I do have to say that after hearing their responses, it seemed to me like a majority were sympathetic to the position of the platforms. So Justice Kavanaugh said that when he

thinks of Orwellian, he thinks of the state, not the private sector. Justice Sotomayor said that under these laws, Etsy might not be able to decide which items it allows to be sold in its platform. Now, on the other hand, Justice Alito asked if under the reasoning of these platforms, Google might be allowed to cut off the email accounts of, say, Rachel Maddow or Tucker Carlson. And Justice Thomas has long seemed to align with the view that these companies should be treated as public utilities, because that's why they received Section 230 protections that prevent them from being sued for the speech they host. Justice Barrett did acknowledge that any ruling here could create, quote-unquote, landmines for 230. But Carl Zabo, who is the VP and General Counsel for

Net Choice, told Morning Wire that Section 230 protections should remain even if the court decides the platforms are more like editors than utilities. Zabo describes himself as conservative, and he presents why this is such a challenging issue. So at the end of the day, the Section 230 argument actually argues in favor of the First Amendment applying to the Internet, and thus the states of Florida and Texas are forbidden from compelled speech, forcing those same platforms to host lawful but awful content that they just don't want. One thing that did not really come up, however, is that we now know that federal agencies have flagged posts and users

for the tech platforms to censor. And some have argued that this has made them a de facto arm of the government. Well, hopefully that's an issue they could take up in another case then. Yeah. Megan, thanks for reporting. Anytime. Hey, guys. Producer Brandon here.

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The killing of nursing student Lake and Riley shocked the University of Georgia campus where it took place and the nation, and that shock only increased when it learned that the suspect Jose Antonio Ibarra is in the country illegally, has a lengthy rap sheet, and had a warrant for his arrest. Here to discuss the media coverage of this story and the White House reaction to it is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus. Hey, Dave. So just how quiet has the media. media been about Abara's immigration status? Morning, John. We haven't seen complete media silence as we do with some issues. There have been network news stories highlighting that Abara is in the country illegally,

but it's probably not time to start bringing out the journalism awards just yet. CNN, for example, didn't mention it until 15 paragraphs into its initial coverage. The Atlanta Journal Constitution referred to Iberra as a, quote, Athens man, referring to the town in Georgia instead of referring to him as an illegal migrant. And the AP ran a story about the dangers of women jogging alone. So there's still reticence. What the news media is slowly accepting, though, is that these are not just isolated incidents. Every week we talk about it, whether it's cops being assaulted in New York or Venezuelan gangs in Miami or tragic murders like that of Lake and Riley all over the country. Polling shows us this is an important issue for the American people and one that is hurting Joe Biden right now. It's also an

issue that just can no longer be ignored. No, I can't. Speaking of Biden, in light of all this recent violence, many are revisiting his 2021 decision to disband the Trump-era victims of immigration crime engagement office known as Voice. What was Voice and why did Biden shut it down in the first place? Voice was an office that would assist victims or the families of victims of crimes committed by migrants. It was also a useful tool in tracking that kind of criminal or violent behavior. It was part of a whole suite of Trump policies on immigration that were systematically dismantled in the first few months of the Biden administration. Biden axed voice in June of 2021. It's interesting to see how CBS News described the decision back then, calling it, and I quote, a move that symbolizes President

Joe Biden's rejection of former President Donald Trump's repeated efforts to link immigrants to crime, end quote. Almost three years later, the reality of that linkage is self-evident and Biden Democrats and the media are being forced to accept that reality, at least to some degree. Right. Finally, how have Trump and Republicans responded to all of this? Look, Trump and most Republicans lay these tragedies right at the feet of Biden for the simple reason that the alleged assailants never should have been in the country. In recent days during speeches and interviews, Trump has introduced the term migrant crime crisis, and that's an indication that he plans to make this a centerpiece of his likely matchup with Joe Biden. And even if

Biden does pivot and reintroduce some of the old Trump policies, the former president will be right there to say, what took you so long? Obviously, the longer that Biden waits to do something, the more of these horrible incidents were likely to see, and the more innocent lives, such as that of Lake and Riley, may be lost. And none of us want to see any more preventable tragedies like this one. No. Dave, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me. It's primary day. in Michigan as voters in both parties will choose their nominee for president. Here with more, including details on growing Democratic disillusionment with President Biden is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, what's the latest on these primaries?

Yeah, so both parties heading to the polls in Michigan today. On the Republican side, former President Trump, is polling around 75 percent and is expected to easily pick up his fifth straight victory. On the other side, despite a primary challenge from Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips, Joe Biden, Biden is also expected to come out on top, but it won't be as smooth of a win as you'd expect to see from an incumbent president. Polling from the state shows him trailing Donald Trump in every single poll since October, and much of that can be attributed to growing frustration among the state's Democrats. Right. So we've seen a lot of pushback from the left specifically in Michigan. What are their main issues? Well, there are a few indicators to go on. First is the response to President Biden's handling of the war in Gaza.

Michigan is home to the country's largest Arab American population, a voting block that has been reliably blue for years. But those voters and the Democratic lawmakers representing them have expressed outrage with his support of Israel, and more specifically his refusal to call for a ceasefire in the conflict. To that point, a number of progressive leaders in the state launched the Listen to Michigan campaign last month, encouraging Democrats to vote uncommitted in the primary today as a form of protest. And that campaign has garnered legitimate support from influential figures. in Michigan, including Congresswoman Rashida Talib, former rep Andy Levin, and more than 30 other elected officials across the state, as well as Detroit's Metro Times newspaper. For her part,

Rep Talib said, quote, Biden is risking another Trump term over his support of Israel. Here's the group's campaign managers speaking with PBS. In order to send that message to Joe Biden that if he doesn't listen to his poor constituency, the 80% of Democrats that support a permanent ceasefire, that he's going to be in trouble come November. And while the protest campaign is unlikely to prevent Biden from winning the state, it has certainly gotten the attention of Democrat leaders supportive of the president, including Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who spoke out against the effort on CNN.

Any vote that's not cast for Joe Biden supports a second Trump term. A second Trump term would be devastating. This is, I think, a very high-stakes moment. So Biden is expected to win by a large margin today, but clearly there's signs of fracture in the base. Right. I'll give you another example of that. So North Star Opinion Research conducted a poll of voters in Michigan who supported Biden back in 2020 and found that nearly 20% say they will vote against him today as a form of protest.

We've also seen indications that younger Biden voters are leaving the president. A recent New York Times poll found not only that Trump is ahead of Biden nationally among 18 to 29-year-olds, but that 21% of those who went for Biden in 2020 have now switched to Trump. with the largest shift coming among those who say Biden is too supportive of Israel. Now, obviously, Donald Trump is a staunch supporter of Israel himself, so it remains to be seen if those discontented young people will vote for Trump or simply stay home. But it is indicative of a legitimate fracture. And while Biden, again, will almost certainly win today.

There's anecdotal and also empirical evidence that he is in for a much tougher time in Michigan and other battleground states come to general election. And is he doing anything to address that trend? Yeah, look, he's trying to walk this political tightrope where he's maintaining support of Israel, something more popular among the moderate wing of the party, while still offering support for the Palestinians to try and win over that progressive base. On that note, Biden has in recent weeks criticized the Israeli government publicly, calling their actions in Gaza, quote, over the top, and issued an executive order imposing sanctions on Israelis in the West Bank, who he accused of committing violence against Palestinians. So now the big question becomes if you can appease both sides

with his handling of the conflict, or if each faction ends up more frustrated come election day. Well, we're going to start to get a little bit of an idea of where things are going with today's primary. Cabot, thanks for reporting. And he's got it. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know. When you shop with Black Rifle Coffee, your money goes toward giving back to veteran and first responder causes.

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