The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | SCOTUS Free Speech Case, Hunter Biden’s Twitter Files, DeSantis Says FEMA Denied Funds | Dec. 5

Episode Date: December 5, 2022

On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: Elon Musk’s release of Hunter Biden-related Twitter files SCOTUS hears free speech case about same-sex Florida Gov. DeSantis says FEMA denied funds  Arizona’s election results certified Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak equipment modernization. We're fluent in data digitization and expansion into foreign markets. And we can talk all day about streamlining manufacturing processes. Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do. Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us. And contact Desjardin today.

We'd love to talk, business. I'm Samantha Charest and I'm Virginia Allen. And this is the Daily Signal top news for Monday, December 5th. Here are today's headlines. A really anticipated reveal of internal Twitter documents exposed the confusion at the social media company after it censored the New York Post Hunter Biden laptop story in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. Our colleague Tyler O'Neill reports. In a series of tweets Friday evening, journalist Matt Taibi revealed that Twitter,

Twitter's top executives didn't have a good explanation for censoring the story, but stuck with the decision anyway. It also showed that Republican and Democratic congressional staff weighed in against the move. O'Neill also reports how Taibi recounted that Twitter took extraordinary steps to suppress the post-October 14th 2020 story, reporting on emails from Hunter Biden's laptop, implicating Joe Biden and his son's foreign business dealings. The social media company even went so far as removing links and posting warnings that it may be unsafe. They even blocked its transmission via direct message, a tool hitherto reserved for extreme cases. For example, child pornography. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today for a major free speech case. The case is known as 303 Creative

LLC versus Alainis. Graphic designer Lori Smith is the creator of 303 Creative and says she doesn't want to be forced to endorse same-sex marriage. So she filed a preemptive lawsuit against a Colorado law that could be used to compel her to design websites for same-sex weddings. If this case sounds familiar to that of Colorado Baker and cake artist Jack Phillips, it's because it is. The same Colorado law used against Phillips is the same law that Smith is challenging. Phillips was also at the Supreme Court on Monday to show his support for Smith. The Daily Signal's Mary Margaret O'Lahan Talk to Phillips. Here's what he had to say. We're seeing a lot of attacks on religious freedom lately, including the respect for marriage act, which is about to pass, you know, just past the United States Senate, looking at it going into law now.

What is your advice for Americans on how to stand up for their religious freedoms ahead of time before stuff like this happens? Before we open masterpiece cake shop, my wife and I sat down and we decided what kind of cakes we would create, what the cake shop would look like. So we already had those guidelines drawn for us. and I think anybody that goes into business or every American should be prepared to know how to answer those important questions. We were prepared to serve everybody but knew that there were cakes that would come up

that we wouldn't be able to create because of those messages. And so we were prepared and I think every American should be ready for those seats to make those decisions. As many of our listeners probably remember, Phillips won his case at the Supreme Court in 2018 after refusing to bake a cake

for a same-sex couple's wedding. But Phillips is actually back in court again, refusing to make a gender transition cake. The ruling in Smith's case could impact Phillips as well. The nine justices are expected to announce their decision on Smith's case sometime between April and June of next year. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis claimed today that FEMA, or the Federal Emergency Management Agency, denied funds intended to repair homes following a deadly hurricane, the Daily Call of reports. Let's take a listen to some of DeSantis' remarks per Florida's voice. We're not just going to sit there and take no for an answer,

and so we're going to figure out what we can do. So that's what we're doing today. We want to cut through bureaucracy. We want to bring relief to impacted Floridians, regardless of whether FEMA wants to be a part of that. So today I'm announcing Florida will be providing up to $25 million through state funds to purchase building materials and provide those materials to verify, nonprofit organizations to restore damaged homes to livable conditions so that Floridians can move

back into their own homes. The Daily Caller also reports that Florida has received $2 billion in federal grants, disaster loans, and flood insurance payments, including $710 million to households and $322 million to the state for emergency response from the Biden administration. Election results have been certified in Arizona today, despite pushback from Republicans. Governor-elect Katie Hobbs, who is the current Secretary of State for Arizona, said Arizona had a successful election. But too often, throughout the process, powerful voices proliferated misinformation that threatened to disenfranchise voters. Democracy prevailed, but it's not out of the woods. 2024 will bring a host of challenges from the election denial community that we must prepare for, according to the Hill.

Hobbs faced off against GOP candidate Kerry Lake. Lake joined Steve Bannon's war room earlier to talk about what she labeled an extraordinary lawsuit. Let's take a listen per Lake's Twitter. We're ready to go with what we believe to be an exceptional lawsuit, and we believe we will be victorious in that lawsuit. And we'll take it all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to. We will not stop fighting because the people. of Arizona were disenfranchised. The voters who decided to go to the polls on election day, as stated in our Arizona Constitution, were disenfranchised. In other news, the Georgia Senate runoff is tomorrow where Democrat incumbent Senator Rafael Warnock will face off against Republican Herschel Walker.

We will, of course, keep you updated on those results. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to the Daily Signal's top news. If you haven't had the chance already, be sure to check out our morning show. right here in your podcast feed where we interview lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices. Join us tomorrow morning for the Daily Signal interview edition, as I'm going to be sitting down with the Heritage Foundation tech policy expert Jake Denton to discuss Elon Musk's Twitter files. Also, make sure you subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you get your podcast. And help us reach even more listeners by leaving a five-star rating and review.

We read and appreciate all of your feedback. Thanks again for listening. wonderful night and we'll be right back here with you tomorrow morning. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Blewey and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen, Samantha Acheris, and Jillian Richards. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.