--:-- [Upbeat music fades out, and the host, John Bickley, speaks]
--:-- John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it, and they might not be as careful. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it. Guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com slash podcast for 40% off. Terms apply.
--:-- [Music transitions to a more serious tone]
--:-- John Bickley: Some of the nation's biggest brands are being pressured by activist groups, demanding they pull their ads from Twitter over Elon Musk's plans to promote free speech. Who's behind the pressure campaign? And how are the companies responding?
--:-- John Bickley: I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, May 6th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Fences are going up around the Supreme Court, while the political responses to the leaked draft ruling striking down Roe v. Wade have escalated.
--:-- John Bickley: I am angry because we have reached the culmination of what Republicans have been fighting for, angling for, for decades now. And we are going to fight back.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We take a look at the fallout. And Harvard University pledges $100 million to make up for the role the university played in slavery.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. In as little as five minutes with a complete will package starting at $119. And when you use promo code WIRE, you'll save 10%. That's EpicWill.com promo code WIRE.
--:-- [Music transitions to a more conversational tone]
--:-- John Bickley: Last week, a group of activists sent a letter to companies like Disney, Coca-Cola, and Kraft, asking them not to advertise on Twitter if Elon Musk follows through on his promises to make the platform friendlier to free speech.
--:-- Megan Basham: Joining us now to talk about the efforts to pressure big business to oppose Musk's Twitter takeover is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, this campaign seems to be a part of a trend we've discussed before on this show, and that's companies being pressured to get involved in politics.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, this does seem like a perfect example of that. So what you had here was about two dozen activist groups sending a letter to major corporations arguing that Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter is a threat to public safety. Those were their words.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, those groups included GLAAD, NARAL, Media Matters, Black Lives Matter, Friends of the Earth. So really just the gamut of high-profile organizations and causes on the political left.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, this letter said if Musk is able to finalize his purchase of the platform, his plans to ease content moderation rules will, quoting here, toxify our information ecosystem. The letter went on to claim that under the guise of free speech, his vision will silence and endanger marginalized communities.
--:-- Megan Basham: So it then asked the companies to stop advertising on the site if Musk attempts to allow public figures who have been banned back on the platform. So think of someone like former President Trump.
--:-- Megan Basham: And it warned that if these companies don't hold Musk to account, that's their words, their brands risk association with a platform that amplifies hate, extremism, health misinformation, and conspiracy theorists.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now while Musk has said that he's not interested in buying Twitter for economic reasons, you have to assume he does not want to see a mass exodus of big advertisers. Ads account for roughly 90% of the platform's revenues, and those are heavily weighted towards those major brands.
--:-- Megan Basham: So this really does look like an attempt to intimidate him into changing his planned policies.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, it sure does. Have any of these companies responded? Not that I've seen, and I've been looking pretty closely.
--:-- Megan Basham: And it's a bit surprising because this kind of pressure has had a lot of success in the past. Now, the reason we're hearing nothing could be because Musk hasn't completed the purchase yet and hasn't had the chance to implement any policies.
--:-- Megan Basham: But in the past, you might have at least expected some comments from C-suite executives responding to the letter.
--:-- Megan Basham: We're not seeing it here. Now, could be because of something like Disney, which has become a cautionary tale.
--:-- Megan Basham: Or it could also be because Musk is giving no hint of being intimidated himself. He's really living up to his maverick reputation out there.
--:-- Megan Basham: His response to this story was to ask, where else? On Twitter, who is funding this campaign?
--:-- Megan Basham: And he got an answer, correct?
--:-- Megan Basham: He did. He did indeed.
--:-- Megan Basham: And it was a very interesting answer. So The Guardian pretty quickly dug up that most of the nonprofits behind this letter received funding from what the news outlet called dark money groups.
--:-- Megan Basham: So by that, they meant George Soros, charities funded by former Clinton and Obama staffers, well-known Democrat donors, and some big labor unions.
--:-- Megan Basham: And then, this one is pretty interesting. Also, European governments like Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands. All nations that have much stricter speech laws than the United States, you kind of have to note.
--:-- Megan Basham: So what is the latest on when Musk will take over? At that point, we'll get to actually see how serious he is about these changes.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, we don't have a firm date for when the deal will close yet. But what we do know is that Musk has secured another $7 billion from investors that he reportedly handpicked.
--:-- Megan Basham: And we're hearing that he will be the new temporary CEO of the platform once he completes the purchase.
--:-- Megan Basham: So I'm going to guess that will mean the end of current CEO Parag Agrawal's tenure with the company.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, one thing you can say for Musk News, it's never dull.
--:-- Megan Basham: No, it isn't. Thanks, Megan.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime. That was Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- [Music transitions to a more serious tone]
--:-- John Bickley: Coming up, the political response to the Supreme Court leak. The court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, Democrats have announced their intentions of making abortion the law of the land before it's repealed.
--:-- John Bickley: Here with the latest political fallout and how the White House has responded is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Cabot, tell us first about the legislative effort from Democrats in response to this potential ruling.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, conservatives almost universally celebrated the news of the ruling, calling it a victory for human rights.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: They say that states should have had the power all along to decide their own laws on abortion and that this is simply righting a wrong, reversing a ruling that they felt was unconstitutional to begin with.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But obviously, pro-abortion rights members of the Democrat Party feel differently. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer held a press conference this week calling the decision a despicable attack on women's rights before announcing the Democrat Party intention to make abortion legal nationwide regardless of state law.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It's our intention in the Senate to hold a vote on legislation to codify the right to an abortion in law very soon.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And they won't stop there. This right-wing retrograde court put in by our Republican Senate. Many other rights are at risk.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: President Biden also responded Wednesday offering his support to that idea of codifying abortion access.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But it's unlikely at this point that the vote would pass in the Senate because Democrats Joe Manchin and Bob Casey oppose it.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: In D.C., from the moment the news came out, there were a series of intense protests outside the Supreme Court.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: We saw footage showing pro-life demonstrators shoved and harassed, while other groups in support of Roe called for protesters to demonstrate outside the homes of conservative justices.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And on Wednesday, the Capitol Police actually responded by erecting a massive security fence around the premises of the court.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So no surprise, but things are definitely getting contentious in D.C.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, you touched a bit on President Biden. How has the White House responded this week?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, President Biden first addressed the reported ruling on Tuesday, denouncing it as a radical attack on women's rights and a, quote, fundamental shift in American jurisprudence.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But he went a step further the next day and implied that if states are granted the right to make their own laws on things like abortion, it could, in his words, set a dangerous precedent.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: He also caused quite a stir by calling people who supported the ruling, in his words, the MAGA crowd, the most extreme political organization in American history.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Listen. What happens if you have a state change the law saying that children who are LGBTQ can't be in classrooms with other children? Is that legit under the way the decision is written?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: What are the next things that are going to be attacked? Because this MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organization that's existed in American history.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, more broadly, what's been the general reaction among voters?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, if you ask people the question, do you support overturning Roe v. Wade? The majority of Americans in most polls do say that Roe should stand.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For example, in one Fox News poll this week, 63% of Americans supported keeping it in place.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And Democrats have really pushed that message to say the Supreme Court is reversing the will of the people.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But it's interesting. If you look at public opinion on abortion itself, the majority of Americans actually support more conservative views on abortion in practice and in law.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For example, that same Fox poll found that 54% support an abortion ban after 15 weeks, with just 41% of Americans supporting abortion after that point.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And then when asked about a ban on abortion after six weeks, which is similar to what we've seen in Texas with that pro-life law that garnered quite a bit of reaction, Americans still support a ban there by a measure of 50 to 46.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So there actually appears to be a good bit of public support for the types of abortion laws that most Republican states would likely pass if Roe is in fact overturned.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, one final question. Back to the leak. Do we have any new details on how that could have happened?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, Chief Justice Roberts announced that he'd launched an investigation into how it got out.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And right now, that investigation will fall on the court's marshal, who's basically their chief security officer.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Initially, some had thought the FBI might get involved, but officials with the Justice Department say the leak did not constitute a federal crime.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So they'll be staying out of it for the time being. But obviously, that could change in the future.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But bottom line, they want to get to the bottom of this.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. And definitely a lot of Americans want to find out, too.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime. That was Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- [Music transitions to a more conversational tone]
--:-- John Bickley: Harvard released a report last week about the school's legacy of slavery and racism, as well as a pledge to spend $100 million to fund programs to address past wrongs.
--:-- John Bickley: Here to discuss the findings as well as Harvard plans moving forward is Daily Wire Charlotte Pence Bond.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: So Charlotte, Harvard wants to spend $100 million on addressing historical wrongs. How was that decided?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: This has actually been in the works for a while. Harvard President Larry Bacow originally began this initiative back in 2019.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: And on April 26, he announced the findings as well as some sweeping recommendations.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Veritas is more than our motto. It's our reason for being. The truth is that slavery played a significant part in our institutional history.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: The truth is that the legacy of slavery continues to influence the world in the form of disparities in education, health, wealth, income, social mobility, and almost any other metric we might use to measure equality.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: The report found that between 1636, when the school was founded, to 1783, which is when slavery ended in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, leaders and workers at the school enslaved over 70 people.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Although it added that the number is almost certainly an undercount.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: The report also included the names of some of the slaves, as well as the people who enslaved them.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: It said the university profited from slavery and had financial connections to it in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries through its donors.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: This includes donors who got rich through the slave trade, as well as connections to plantations in the South.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: It also pointed out how the remains of thousands of people are in Harvard's museum collections, and a lot of them are believed to be from indigenous people, with at least 15 of them from Africa that could have been enslaved.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: The report recommended that the school engage with descendant communities and honor enslaved people through memorialization, research, curricula, and knowledge dissemination.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: They also said the school should create partnerships with Black colleges and universities.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Now, a term we've heard before from politicians and activists is reparations. Is Harvard referring to this $100 million as reparations?
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: The committee is calling it reparative, but didn't actually call for direct payments to slave descendants.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: But they did recommend that Harvard should try to find the direct descendants of slaves associated with the school.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: They also said the responses to the report would be voluntary and not done because of a legal requirement.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: As for legally mandated reparations, the idea has circulated for a while, but it's had a hard time getting off the ground.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: A bill to create a commission to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans was introduced in the House last year.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: It was first introduced in the 80s. On various occasions, initiatives geared towards helping the Black community have been referred to as reparations, including programs like affirmative action.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: But direct payments to slave descendants based purely on genealogy has not really been tried on a large scale.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: It's worth pointing out this isn't Harvard's only scandal with racist allegations.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Remember, Harvard is still embroiled in a lawsuit that will soon appear before the Supreme Court where they're being accused of discriminating against Asian Americans in admissions.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: In the 1920s, Harvard College also had an admissions policy limiting the number of Jews.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Right. And Harvard is also hundreds of years old. So inevitably, there's going to be all kinds of history.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Thanks for bringing us this story.
--:-- Charlotte Pence Bond: Anytime. That was Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence Bond.
--:-- [Music transitions to a more upbeat tone]
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks so much for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation.
--:-- John Bickley: If you love our show and you stand with our mission, consider subscribing, leaving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend.
--:-- John Bickley: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
