--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Georgia Howe: The NFL is back, and FanDuel's got everything you need to play your game. From same-game parlays to live betting. Right now, new customers bet $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. 21-plus in president select states. 18-plus in Kentucky and Wyoming. Must be first online real money waging. $5 deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See full terms at FanDuel.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Mass layoffs across several industries continue into 2024. This is not contained to Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Which sectors have been hit the hardest and what's driving the downsizing? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's February 3rd, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Visitors to history museums across the country are now barred from viewing Native American artifacts thanks to a Biden administration crackdown. Almost every Native American item in any American museum could now be targeted. So in the last years, it's become more and more impossible for museums to hold on to artifacts. What are the new rules and will curators comply? And could a no-labels third-party candidate upend the presidential election? We speak to the group's national director about who will top their unity ticket.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: As the American economy continues to bear the brunt of persistent inflation and rising costs, a number of companies started off 2024 with mass layoffs, leaving tens of thousands of Americans out of work. Here are the latest on which industries have been hardest hit and what it means for the economy more broadly.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, 2023 was in many ways the year of the mass layoff. And while there are scattered signs of optimism for the economy in 2024, the year has kicked off already with another spate of mass layoffs. This week, for example, UPS announced that they were cutting 12,000 jobs as part of an effort to lower costs amid falling package volume. The layoffs come just months after the union representing UPS employees secured an enormous pay raise for workers. As part of that deal, many UPS drivers begin making $170,000 a year in pay and benefits. However, according to the company's chief executive, those higher salaries, along with a 9% dip in revenue last year, contributed to UPS profits falling by more than a third in 2023.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, the media industry has also been hit hard in recent weeks. What are we seeing on that front?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, a number of major newsrooms are really clearing out this month. The iconic Sports Illustrated, for example, announced that they were laying off most of their remaining staff and could go out of business altogether amid dwindling readership and sinking profits. The LA Times also went forward with one of the largest workforce reductions in the paper's 142-year history. They fired 115 employees, or about 20% of their newsroom. The Wall Street Journal has also announced what they called restructuring, and will reportedly move forward with layoffs of their own in the coming weeks. Likewise, Time Magazine cut dozens of workers, Business Insider laid off 8% of its staff, and newspaper giant Gannett cut hundreds of employees from local outlets that they own around the country.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: We've also seen the tech industry hit especially hard recently, correct?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, that is putting it lightly. In 2023 alone, over 1 tech companies laid off more than a quarter million workers as companies were forced to downsize and cut costs after a record boom during COVID lockdowns. We haven't seen that many cuts in the tech industry since the dot-com crash of the early 2000s. And so far this year, it's been much of the same, with more than 25,000 tech employees laid off and nearly 100 companies, including Microsoft to Amazon, Meta, Salesforce, and Google.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But it is important to note that while mass layoffs are still taking place in the tech world, unlike in other industries, earnings from many tech companies are still at an all-time high, and stock prices are booming. Take Meta, the parent company of Facebook, for example. Last year, Mark Zuckerberg laid off a third of all employees, but their profits climbed higher and their share price exploded, climbing from $136 at the start of 2023 to $400 a share today. Google's parent company, Alphabet, also hit a record high last week, following mass layoffs of their own.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So obviously there are a litany of factors at play, including anticipated rate cuts and the growth of AI. But these layoffs have not only reduced operating expenses for big tech companies, they've also seemingly encouraged investors who like to see executives trimming the fat and cutting down on costs. So we'll have to wait and see if the market rally continues as earning reports come out this week. But despite layoffs, the tech industry has been a real bright spot on Wall Street.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: New York's American Museum of Natural History suddenly closed off 10,000 square feet of Native American displays last week as a result of new directives from the Biden administration. Museums in Boston, Chicago, and Cleveland also followed suit. Here with the details is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, several high-profile museums have either blocked off or covered up their Native American exhibits. Why are they doing that?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, this started with two very large galleries at New York's American Museum of Natural History. And these particular exhibits centered on the eastern woodlands and the Great Plains tribes. The exhibits contained things like canoes, weavings, pottery, weapons of war, jewelry, headdresses, all things that you would expect to see in a display like that. Well, almost 10,000 square feet of the museum is now shuttered, which means the 4.5 million visitors it sees every year won't be able to learn from them anymore. And the reason stems from new federal regulations that require museums to obtain consent from tribes before they can display or perform research on these cultural items.
--:-- Megan Basham: So technically, it relates to a law that's been on the book since 1990 that's known as the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. But that law was initially intended only to return human remains that had been excavated from graves without tribal permission. Biden officials are now applying it much more broadly. Essentially, they're interpreting it to cover any Native American artifact.
--:-- Megan Basham: So museum president Sean Decatur told staffers in a letter that the exhibits represented, and I'm quoting, "An era when museums such as ours did not respect the values, perspectives, and indeed shared humanity of indigenous peoples." This was what he told NPR on Wednesday. I think it's also important to recognize that natural history museums also came from a particular point in history where the narratives being presented, the work and scholarship being done in museums like this paradigm that reinforced racial hierarchies.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, I have to imagine that this is controversial among museum curators.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, it definitely is. I talked to Jeff Flynn Paul for example who is a professor of global history and economics at Leiden University in the Netherlands. And he told me that not only is this robbing scientists and the public of essential research material, it also being used to suppress debate on what exactly the historical record shows. There's also a redesign to sort of DEI wash the museum halls so that they're being reopened, but only using things that have been approved by the most radical groups who are interested in these things. So the actual historical record is being suppressed in favor of very often superstitions or legends or just oral history. And it's being presented as fact.
--:-- Megan Basham: So this represents a real attack on the truth and the possibility of reconstructing history itself.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: No Labels, a 501c3 that bills itself as a common sense alternative to hyper-partisan politics, has come under fire from both the left and the right amid its efforts to get what it's calling a unity party presidential ticket on the ballot in all 50 states. But so far, it is not announced for sure if it will run a candidate or who that might be. Joining us now is the National Director of No Labels, former Democrat Congressman Joe Cunningham.
--:-- Joe Cunningham: Thanks for having me on.
--:-- Georgia Howe: First off, your polling says that 64 percent of Americans are unhappy with a Trump-Biden rematch. Is that what's driving the No Labels third-party campaign?
--:-- Joe Cunningham: Yeah, essentially. The numbers speak themselves. Americans want another choice in this election. They're not excited about a rematch. And so if the presumptive nominees give Americans an appetite for other options, then we're prepared to offer our ballot line for it.
--:-- Joe Cunningham: Now, you say you're waiting until after Super Tuesday to announce if you're going to run someone on this unity party ticket and who. And you've also published a pretty optimistic electoral map, but you've got to get on the ballot first, of course. Where are you actually on the ballot thus far?
--:-- Joe Cunningham: So we're on the ballot in 14 states right now, but we have a plan to get on the ballot in all 50 states plus D. No Labels itself is allowed to secure ballot access in just over 30 states. And the candidates themselves if a ticket is offered will be responsible for securing ballot access for the remaining states.
--:-- Joe Cunningham: Now, there's been some reports that suggest some inner turmoil within No Labels. Plans for a convention in Dallas were scrapped, and former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan resigned from the group last month, claiming leadership is hoarding power and information and that you lacked a coherent plan. What would be your response to that?
--:-- Joe Cunningham: I respectfully disagree with that narrative. But despite the partisan pushback that we've seen from both the left and the right, we're still on course. And week by week, we're securing ballot access in various states, pushing back against partisan-driven complaints or litigation, and we're winning.
--:-- Joe Cunningham: You know, it's not just no labels that's winning, it's the American people that are winning. Because we've never seen the type of numbers that we're seeing right now with the appetite for another option besides this Biden-Trump rematch.
--:-- Joe Cunningham: And so we're continuing to do our work and securing ballot access and we'll be prepared to offer that ballot line should that time arise and should the conditions warrant it to a unity ticket.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, Joe Manchin has stated that he sees himself as an option for a fiscally conservative, socially compassionate alternative to Trump or Biden. Do you see no labels backing Manchin?
--:-- Joe Cunningham: Like I've got a lot of respect for Senator Manchin and we applaud all these bipartisan leaders, Senator Manchin and others. The truth is no one has an inside lane yet for this unity ticket.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What about RFK? Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Has no labels been in contact with him or his campaign about being on your ticket?
--:-- Joe Cunningham: Now, we're you know, we've been solely focused on gang bound access. Our North Star on what we're looking for and folks to be on the ticket are the types of candidates that would give us the greatest chance of success and would carve out the greatest pathway.
--:-- Joe Cunningham: So again, we're looking at all types of leaders, senators, current and former elected officials. And at the end of the day, we'll be making that decision sometime after Super Tuesday.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What about who would benefit from a third party run? For example, many believe Manchin might pull from Democrats who still blame Jill Stein for taking just enough votes from Hillary Clinton to lose in 2016. No third party candidate has ever won a presidential election or even come close. Is no labels ultimately just a spoiler if you run somebody?
--:-- Joe Cunningham: I don't believe so. And I think it's premature to start predicting which side this will pull from, if either. You know, the data we've collected under a bipartisan ticket shows that it would draw evenly from both sides.
--:-- Joe Cunningham: But I think for all being intellectually honest with each other, what side, if either, it draws more from will depend upon who the actual names are. It seems to me if you put a Republican at the top of the ticket, it may draw more from the right. If you put a Democrat at the top, it may draw more from the left. But at the end of the day, I think what's important is Americans are begging for another choice. And both parties seem hell-bent on putting forward these presumptive nominees that, quite frankly, don't garner a large desire from the common-sense majority.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Super Tuesday is coming up quick, so a lot of interest in what your group chooses to do. Joe, thank you so much for talking with us.
--:-- Joe Cunningham: Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me.
--:-- [Theme music starts playing]
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was No Labels National Director and former Democrat Congressman Joe Cunningham. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire.
