Morning Wire XX
[0] Twitter has agreed to Elon Musk's $44 billion offer to buy the platform and take it private.
[1] My strong, intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization.
[2] But you've described yourself.
[3] I don't care about the economics at all.
[4] How will the purchase affect the future of free speech and big tech censorship?
[5] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor -in -Chief John Bickley.
[6] It's Tuesday, April 26th, and this is Morning Wire.
[7] Nearly eight years after a high school football coach was fired for leading his players in prayer, his case was heard by the Supreme Court.
[8] We'll tell you the arguments on both sides of this free speech and religious freedom case.
[9] And Emmanuel Macron was re -elected as president of France, but his opponent gained significant support in the country.
[10] What does France's election tell us about the state of politics in Europe today?
[11] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[12] Stay tuned.
[13] We have the news you need to know.
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[24] After nearly two weeks of wrangling, the Twitter versus Elon Musk saga has come to an end.
[25] The board announced Monday that it agreed to sell the company to the SpaceX and Tesla CEO for $44 billion, a bit more than the $43 billion he initially offered.
[26] In its press release announcing the deal, Twitter said it will become a private company, and Musk will pay shareholders just over $54 a share.
[27] Here to tell us how Musk was able to finally close the deal, and what this will mean for Twitter going forward is Daily Wire Culture Reporter Megan Basham.
[28] So, Megan, there was a lot of skepticism out there as to whether Musk was actually serious about this.
[29] A lot of analysts characterized it as kind of trolling on his part, and in the meantime, the Twitter board was initially very reserved.
[30] resistant to the prospect of selling to him.
[31] So what changed?
[32] Well, I think the biggest shift came when Musk revealed late last week that he had actually secured funding for the purchase.
[33] So according to SEC documents, Musk filed last Thursday, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and a number of other banks promised to lend him the $25 .5 billion to buy Twitter backed in part by some of his Tesla holdings.
[34] He'll provide the rest of the money himself, likely by selling some Tesla stock.
[35] Well, at that point, as a publicly held company, Twitter had no choice but to take Musk seriously.
[36] And he made that very clear.
[37] He tweeted out, if the current Twitter board takes actions contrary to shareholder interests, they would be breaching their fiduciary duty.
[38] The liability they would thereby assume would be Titanic and scale.
[39] So reports say that the day after his SEC filing, several large shareholders rallied behind him and began pressuring the board to negotiate with him.
[40] One of them, for example, openly told the Wall Street Journal that Musk's track record at Tesla proves he is, quote, the catalyst to deliver strong operating performance at Twitter.
[41] Insiders say the board of directors were negotiating with Musk until the very early hours of Monday morning.
[42] And they said that their discussion primarily focused on making sure that Musk had his financing nailed down.
[43] They revealed that very little of that time was devoted to discussing just what he plans to do with the social network going forward.
[44] So now that the big announcement has been made and Musk is making plans to take the company private, what kind of changes are we expecting to see at Twitter?
[45] Well, you know, a lot of the changes Musk has been talking about will likely be pretty popular across the political spectrum.
[46] I'm talking about things that users have been clamoring for, like adding an edit button and making the verification process easier, and also making those algorithms open and more transparent.
[47] But the most significant change is probably also going to be the most controversial, and that's loosening those moderation policies.
[48] So Musk has been clear throughout this entire story that that has been his primary goal.
[49] He re -emphasized it while announcing the deal on Monday.
[50] He said, and I'm quoting from the press release here, free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.
[51] Already, though, there are indications that he could face some pressure from the federal government.
[52] This was White House Press Secretary Jen Saki talking about Musk's purchase of Twitter Monday afternoon.
[53] No matter who owns or runs Twitter, the president has long been concerned about the power of large social media platforms, that power they have over our everyday lives has long argued that tech platforms must be held accountable for the harms they cause.
[54] So Musk's goal of loosening moderation standards seems like it's also likely to put him at direct odds with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal from the outset.
[55] Agrawal has said in interviews that he feels social media needs to, quote, focus less on thinking about free speech.
[56] And on his first day on the job last year, Agrawal's very first move was to add tighter restrictions on photo and video sharing.
[57] So there may not be a very comfortable partnership with Twitter's new owner and, its current CEO.
[58] Naturally, Twitter users are taking that as an opportunity to make predictions about just who the company's next CEO might be.
[59] All right, well, we'll definitely keep an eye on this.
[60] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[61] Of course, my pleasure.
[62] That's Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham.
[63] Coming up, the football coach fired for praying with players after games takes his case to the Supreme Court.
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[69] The Supreme Court on Monday heard a case of a former high school football coach in Washington State who was fired for praying on the field after games.
[70] The majority conservative court seemed sympathetic to the coach's arguments.
[71] The coach, Joseph Kennedy, was fired in 2015 after someone on an opposing team complained about his prayers, which were voluntary for players.
[72] Since then, he has been embroiled in a lawsuit regarding his firing that could have significant implications for free speech and religious freedom.
[73] Here to discuss the situation as Daily Wire Senior Editor Ash Short.
[74] Ash first, walk us through the basics of this case here.
[75] Sure.
[76] So Kennedy is a Marine veteran who was an assistant football coach at Bremerton High School in Washington.
[77] He was hired in 2008 and began kneeling and praying after games, on his own.
[78] He never forced anyone to join him, but some students did decide to join him in prayer after the games and eventually even opposing team players joined in.
[79] Kennedy eventually began including religious content in his post -game motivational speeches, which again were not required attendance.
[80] After doing this without issue for seven years, a school administrator brought it up to him after someone with an opposing team complained.
[81] Kennedy later posted on Facebook that he thought he might have been fired for praying.
[82] How does the school explain what happened?
[83] The school told Kennedy they would be investigating him for breaking its policy on religious related activities and practices, which said that students may, quote, engage in private, non -disruptive prayer at any time not in conflict with learning activities.
[84] The policy also said, quote, school staff shall neither encourage nor discourage a student from engaging in non -disruptive oral or silent prayer or any other form of devotional activity.
[85] After the school's investigation, Kennedy was placed on administrative leave, barring him from participating in any capacity in the BHS football program.
[86] Okay, so he's placed on administrative leave.
[87] What led to him actually being fired?
[88] So he cooperated with the school's investigation, during which he was told his prayers after the game were problematic and he needed to stop including religious content and his motivational speeches.
[89] He was told he could be religious, but not when anyone could see him.
[90] So he stopped praying in public, but asked for a religious accommodation under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, saying his official coaching duty ceased once the game ended.
[91] The school disagreed and fired him.
[92] So not even after his job was officially over after the games.
[93] Right.
[94] And then he sued.
[95] Yes.
[96] The conservative First Liberty Institute took up Kennedy's case in 2016, but both the district court and then the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to accept his arguments.
[97] In 2019, the Supreme Court also declined to hear the case, sending it back to the district court who again sided with the school district.
[98] All right, so the Supreme Court declined to hear the case in 2019.
[99] What's changed?
[100] Why are they taking it up now?
[101] So when the Supreme Court initially declined to take the case, four justices, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh, issued a statement expressing their concerns about the First Amendment rights of public school teachers.
[102] They also took a shot at the Ninth Circuit Court saying it's, quote, understanding of the free speech rights of public school teachers is troubling and may justify review in the future.
[103] At that time, the Supreme Court said that it shouldn't take up the case until the lower courts definitively decided why Kennedy was terminated.
[104] When the lower courts in the school district agreed that it was Kennedy's religious expression that resulted in his firing, it opened up the case to be refiled with the Supreme Court.
[105] That makes sense.
[106] So that's where we are now.
[107] What's next?
[108] That's unclear.
[109] Since the Supreme Court initially declined to take the case, Justice Amy Coney -Barritt has been confirmed, making the court a little more conservative, which could be good news for Kennedy.
[110] But we can never truly predict how the court will rule on any given case.
[111] No, we certainly can't.
[112] Ash, thanks for the update.
[113] Anytime.
[114] That's Daily Wire Senior Editor, Ash Short.
[115] On Sunday, France went to the ballot box to decide whether or not to keep incumbent President Emmanuel Macron in office.
[116] Here to give us a breakdown of what turned out to be a divisive and potentially impactful election is Daily Wire's Ian Howarth.
[117] So, Ian, what can you tell us?
[118] Well, Macron held on to win another term in office on Sunday, managing to fend off what's being described as a historic challenge from controversial far -right candidate Marine Le Pen.
[119] McCron is the first French president to be re -elected in 20 years and took 58 .5 % of the vote, with Le Pen taking the remaining 41 .5 % in what was a rematch of the 2017 race.
[120] In his victory speech, in a nod to the division caused by this election, Macron vowed to be a president for all French citizens.
[121] I'm not a candidate anymore.
[122] I'm now the president of everyone.
[123] And meanwhile, Le Pen celebrated the share of the vote that her party was able to gain.
[124] The historic score of this evening shows that our party is in an excellent position.
[125] Now, this was a runoff vote between Macron and Le Pen.
[126] They came in first and second place of an earlier round of voting with 12 candidates competing earlier in April.
[127] Now, this election has received pretty intense media coverage, especially in these final days.
[128] What's behind all that attention?
[129] Yeah, there isn't so many people.
[130] were focused on this election was that it represented a potential and deep -seeded change in terms of France's role in Europe.
[131] Right now, France is positioned alongside Germany as one of the leading figures in the European Union, particularly after the United Kingdom officially left the bloc.
[132] Le Pen would have altered this position massively, with a far more inward approach to foreign policy.
[133] But we should also note that she did gain a significant portion of the vote with a distinct support base outside of France's urban hubs.
[134] It is also part of a bigger feeling of a rejection of mainstream political groups in France, with 57 % of the votes in the earlier, round of the election going to far left or far right candidates.
[135] And this rejection did also appear in the final round, with 28 % not voting, the highest for more than 50 years.
[136] So will this be a relief for Macron, or are there more hurdles for him to worry about?
[137] Well, Macron is facing a ton of challenges now that he's won re -election, and a lot of these issues hinge on the fact that people vote for him to stop Le Pen, not to elect Macron.
[138] There are new elections coming up for the country's National Assembly, and the fact is that a large portion of the electorate doesn't support him.
[139] The far left, for example, would have voted for Macron to stop Le Pen, but there's not much chance this will happen when it comes to their assembly.
[140] And Macron seems to be aware of this problem.
[141] In his victory speech, he said, quote, an answer must be found to the anger and disagreements that led many of our compatriots to vote for the extreme right.
[142] He added that solving this will be, quote, my responsibility and that of those around me. Well, Ian, thanks so much for reporting.
[143] Of course, thanks, Georgia.
[144] That's Daily Wires, Ian Howarth.
[145] Other stories we're tracking this week.
[146] A federal judge has blocked the Biden administration from ending Title 42 after a lawsuit from the states of Missouri, Louisiana, and Arizona.
[147] Title 42 fast tracks the deportation of migrants due to the risk of COVID -19.
[148] Wildfires have spread across Nebraska, Arizona, and New Mexico.
[149] Over 150 ,000 acres have been burned and at least 4 ,000 homes evacuated.
[150] The Nebraska wildfires have injured at least 15 firefighters and resulted in the death of a retired Fire Chief helping to fight the fire.
[151] Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
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