The Daily Signal - Trump Sentenced in Hush Money Case, SCOTUS Weighs TikTok’s Future, Meta Slashes DEI | Jan. 10

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

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We'd love to talk, business. President-elect Donald Trump received the sentence in his hush money trial. I'm Elizabeth Mitchell. This is the Daily Signal's top news in 10 for Friday, January 10th. Just 10 days before his second inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump's designation as a convicted felon became official in a New York court. New York Justice Juan Mershon sentenced Trump to an unconditional discharge, meaning no jail time, fine, or other penalty. Such a sentence means it will not likely interfere with Trump's duties as president. nonetheless, Trump has denied the allegations and indicated he will appeal, a process that could be lengthy.

Trump posted on Truth Social after the sentencing, the radical Democrats have lost another pathetic, un-American witch hunt. Though Trump has been assailed by Democrats and the media as a convicted felon after the jury verdict last spring, a criminal defendant isn't a formally convicted felon until a judge enters judgment of guilt at the sentencing. This book ends a remarkable week for Trump of formalizing, long-expected, yet historically, significant events. On Monday, a joint session of Congress formally certified Trump's 2024 election victory. On Friday, the judge finalized a jury's guilty verdict. The unconditional discharge sentencing effectively amounts to a recognition of the Manhattan

jury's guilty verdict from last spring in Trump's hush money case regarding his alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels. The New York jury convicted Trump on 34 counts of fraud in the case led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Late Thursday, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Annie Comey Barrett, both Republican appointees, joined the three Democratic appointees, Justice's Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Katanji Brown Jackson in a 5-4 ruling. But the ruling largely locked Mershon into what was previously seen as a suggestion. First, the alleged evidentiary violations at President Trump's state court trial

can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal. The order from the High Court said, Second, the burden that sentencing will impose on the President-elect's responsibility is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court's stated intent to impose a sentence of unconditional discharge after a brief virtual hearing. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in the case determining if a U.S. law banning Chinese-owned social media app TikTok is constitutional. The court will decide whether to uphold the federal law requiring the Chinese company

bite dance to either divest from TikTok or stop operating the platform in the United States. The law will take effect on January 19th unless the Supreme Court, Court blocks it temporarily. Heritage Senior Legal Fellows, Sarah, Partial Perry, is following this case. Sarah, what were arguments made in court today? Yeah, there was a series of different arguments from different parties. There were two primary plaintiffs here, not just TikTok represented by Noel Francisco. But in addition, it was actually an attorney called Jeff Fisher, who runs the Stanford Supreme Court litigation clinic. He was representing one of the creators on a TikTok platform. So ultimately, we heard arguments that were very similar from both of them.

They were a little different in that Jeff Fischer arguing for one of the content creators said, listen, this is a restriction on their ability to create a product by restricting this platform. Noel Francisco arguing for TikTok said, ultimately we're representing the free speech rights of the 170 million users that we have on this platform. But what we heard from the government, that is Solicitor General Elizabeth Preetlogger, who was really very excellent in her argument said, we can avoid these tricky free speech concerns, all of these thorny First Amendment issues,

because we can just view this as a data security issue, which is a concern of national security. In fact, even Justice Brett Kavanaugh himself said that this is a huge concern for the future of the country because this type of data mining and data breach could be used by the CCP, to essentially platform espionage. That is, after all, part of their geopolitical aims

are to be an adversary to the United States and to Western European democracies, United States, our democracy, Canada. It has been a hostile nation for a long time. That came up repeatedly. I think what we were hearing from the justices today was that there was a lot of skepticism about whether or not TikTok was really losing

its free speech First Amendment rights, because in the end, TikTok is owned by the bite dance. And bite dance is a Chinese corporation. Now, there was nothing, as Justice Amy Coney-Barritt pointed out, preventing TikTok from doing business in the future under American ownership. So they actually opened up a platform for a well-to-do American buyer or corporation to essentially assume TikTok ownership and thereby prevent some of those security. concerns. But in the end, what I heard more than anything was skepticism on TikTok's arguments. Was it clear what the justices are leaning toward today? You know, it's always sort of a little

specious to make bets one way or the other. But what I heard was generalized skepticism. It seems like at least six of the justices had some real issues with TikTok's arguments and the fact that Justice Jackson in particular and Justice Barrett pointed out, well, listen, between the two plaintiffs, one being TikTok and one being a TikTok creator. Their arguments didn't necessarily line up. One wants to use the platform. One wants the platform operational altogether. Those are two very different things.

And so it might seem that there's some discord between the plaintiffs themselves. And even though Justice Elizabeth Prelogger, who's the Solicitor General for the United States, for the Department of Justice, had a few moments where she was grilled fairly hard by a justice Jackson and Justice Borsuch on whether or not particularly these were content-based restrictions, which we know to be unconstitutional, according to the Supreme Court, under the First Amendment to the Constitution. She said, you can avoid all of these tricky questions and simply go to a national security interest.

We want to prevent a foreign adversary, a hostile nation, from taking, using, and mining the data of 170 million American users who have absolutely no idea that data is being mined. Wow. Thank you so much for joining us. That was really a helpful explanation. Thanks for having me. Meta is cutting its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Mark Zuckerberg's technology companies sent employees a memo obtained by Axios announcing meta was ending DEI efforts for hiring, training, and picking suppliers. The memo cites the changing legal and policy landscape surrounding DEI as a reason for the change. Meta joins the growing list of corporations distancing themselves from once in vogue

DEI efforts. McDonald's made such an announcement earlier this week, joining the ranks of John Deere, Walmart, and many others. This seems to be Zuckerberg's second effort this week to get into President Elect Trump's good graces just a few days ago. He announced his meta sites would be abandoning the censorship of fact checkers in place since 2015. Changes to the company's practices include any.

ending its diverse slating approach to recruitment and sunsetting its supplier diversity efforts, which focused on sourcing from diverse-owned businesses. Additionally, instead of equity and inclusion training programs, META will build programs that focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background. Meta is also eliminating its team of full-time employees dedicated to DEI. Heritage Big Tech campaign lead, Wesley Hodges, joins the show. Wesley, why do you think meta is making this big move?

Well, thank you for having me on. You know, what's interesting about that memo is they don't mention the election once. Like you mentioned, they talk about judicial and policy changes. But what is so surprising in this is that this kind of move, both of those moves you mentioned by meta this week, are the most clear indicator that elections have consequences. So that is to answer your question. They're making the move because the political climate has changed because the election. And you know, if Vice President Harris had won or if this weren't even an election year, you can bet you would not see this kind of change. And while we should commend META for adopting more law-abiding, murderocratic policies, Americans should take a tact from how President Reagan approached the Soviet Union, trust but verify.

True believers in free speech do not need an election to make them change course. Let's judge META by their actions, not just their words. My understanding is meta through Pax gave $1.8 million to the Harris campaign, and I'm not aware of a single donation of any consequence to the Trump campaign. The person in charge of the DEI office has been given a new title, but I don't think that anyone's been held accountable for the old policies, and therefore we should be skeptical about how much is really going to change moving forward with the exact same people. Absolutely. Thanks so much. Thank you. Imagine this. It's 10 o'clock and time to go to bed. Scary, right? It might be, especially if you fear the chance of an accidental leakage and skin irritation. Well, if that's the case, you need to try Tana sensitive care overnight pads. Its skin comfort formula acts as a barrier to help protect your skin and provides triple protection against leaks, odor, and wetness, helping you feel secure throughout the night. With Tena overnight pads, your nights will be smoother and your days brighter. Try them now. And have a smooth. Now let's hit our newsflash for the day. Failed Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Wals endorsed David Hogg to be the Democratic National Committee's next vice chair.

Hogg is a gun control activist who rose to prominence after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting at which he was a student. Wals, the Minnesota governor, said Hogg has a unique ability to connect with the American people. The death toll in Los Angeles fires have risen to 10 as four major wildfires rage across the county. The county sheriff said Friday that more than 153,000 people are under evacuation orders. At least 10,000 properties have been destroyed. Fire departments expect more wind and dry conditions into next week. The Daily Signal is heading to Los Angeles tomorrow. Stay tuned for more updates. 2024's final jobs report shows an increase in hiring, but a slight decrease in unemployment.

According to new non-farm payrolls data, the economy added 200,000. 56,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate, however, has dropped to 4.1%. Stalks took a sharp fall after the release of the labor market data. That's all for this episode of the Daily Signals, Top News in 10. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode of Top News in 10, which comes out every day at 5 p.m. This episode was edited by Kate Trinko and produced by John Pop. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful night, a great weekend, and we'll be back with you on Monday.