In today’s digital age, assertions made by public figures can quickly spark widespread debate and discontent. Recently, a segment from Tucker Carlson featuring former Anheuser-Busch executive Anson Frericks has drawn significant attention for its bold claims regarding Bud Light’s marketing strategies and their alleged ties to wokeness. Frericks argues that the brand’s initiatives have led to its decline, framing it as a cautionary tale of corporate missteps. But how accurate are these assertions? In this post, we will delve into the key points raised during the discussion, fact-checking the claims made about Bud Light’s decisions, the implications of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) agendas in business, and the broader narrative surrounding corporate behaviors in today’s culture. Join us as we sift through the facts to uncover the truth behind these provocative statements and what they mean for the future of big business.

Find a fact check of this transcript on CheckForFacts

Transcript:

[00:00:00,000]: So what happened to Anheuser Busch

[00:00:03,700]: Like what is the

[00:00:05,079]: If you don’t mind since you’ve thought about this probably more than any living person how exactly did a company an American company like that that you felt like had a sense of the country that it served

[00:00:18,520]: Yeah

[00:00:19,639]: go off in a direction that was like so obviously crazy and self destructive

[00:00:24,620]: Like how could that happen

[00:00:26,200]: ♪ Yeah you know Tucker there’s a short story to it and there’s a long story

[00:00:49,479]: I mean I’ll give you the short version and we can get into the longer version of what happened

[00:00:52,119]: But you know I mean the short version is this used to be a great American you know company

[00:00:55,720]: This was owned by the Bush family

[00:00:57,259]: The Bush family had started this thing in the 1850s

[00:00:59,580]: You know this is the same time you had the Carnegies the Vanderbilts the Rockefellers

[00:01:02,319]: You didn’t have any of those folks still in the I don’t know 20 years ago but the Bush family was actually still running Anheuser Busch 20 years ago which is crazy

[00:01:08,699]: I think they actually have houses right around here as a matter of fact

[00:01:11,220]: I know them

[00:01:11,639]: Yeah you probably know them well

[00:01:13,400]: And so the short story is

[00:01:14,379]: Very nice people

[00:01:14,900]: Very nice people

[00:01:15,199]: Not everyone in the family but some of the people

[00:01:17,440]: It’s a big family

[00:01:18,699]: One of the former presidents great man

[00:01:20,739]: Yeah it’s a big family

[00:01:23,000]: So long story short I mean the company got so big and at some point it’s owned SeaWorld it owned Bush Gardens it owned eight helicopters 10 private jets and it got a little bit bloated

[00:01:30,819]: So it got taken over by this Belgian company European company called InBev

[00:01:35,760]: InBev came in and bought it in 2008

[00:01:37,940]: And the culture’s really changed whereas Anheuser Busch was all about growing the brands understood the U S consumer Budweiser Bud Light all these things InBev had a different mentality

[00:01:45,400]: They were much more of a

[00:01:46,500]: They called it the world’s largest private equity firm that happened to sell beer

[00:01:48,540]: A lot of cost cutting that went on brought a lot of European people into the United States changed the headquarters from St Louis Missouri which is almost the geographical center of the country

[00:01:57,819]: And a wonderful town

[00:01:58,519]: Wonderful town

[00:01:58,879]: And they moved it to New York City

[00:02:00,819]: And then when they moved it to New York City

[00:02:02,000]: Not a wonderful town

[00:02:03,019]: Very different town different mentality

[00:02:04,839]: And then all of a sudden they had bought a bunch of different beer companies

[00:02:07,639]: After buying Anheuser Busch they bought Group Modelo SCB Miller took on too much debt

[00:02:11,600]: All of a sudden the company in 2017 2018

[00:02:13,460]: Wait you’re saying a private equity firm took on too much debt

[00:02:16,039]: No yeah it wouldn’t be the first time

[00:02:17,979]: So you know never happened before right

[00:02:19,360]: Never happened before

[00:02:20,339]: And I think the bigger problem was is that in 2018 19 for a bunch of different reasons the company to try and grow they adopted a lot of the ESG DEI philosophies that we’ve heard a lot about

[00:02:31,119]: Stakeholder capitalism which is this European concept that businesses are supposed to serve all types of purposes

[00:02:35,779]: That pops up

[00:02:36,800]: And then two or three years later all of a sudden the company had really changed

[00:02:39,699]: It changed from sort of a great American company based in the Midwest based off meritocracy values

[00:02:45,220]: And then all of a sudden in the you know kind of post COVID post George Floyd era Anheuser Busch they start moving away from being a meritocracy moving more towards diversity equity inclusion moving more towards getting more involved in political issues

[00:02:58,339]: And you know unfortunately with what happened with Dilma Rousseff and Bud Light that was the product of maybe 10 years of mistakes the company had made

[00:03:04,419]: And now all of a sudden you have a company that’s lost 50 of its sales with the biggest beer in America Bud Light and they still haven’t turned it around

[00:03:10,860]: So that’s the short story

[00:03:11,800]: Now we can get into the longer story about maybe more broadly what happened

[00:03:14,559]: Okay so I mean you’re describing so many American companies by the way

[00:03:18,660]: Yeah yeah

[00:03:20,300]: That trajectory downward

[00:03:21,639]: But at the end of the story there was this revealing moment where Anheuser Busch executives or one of them basically just admitted I hate our consumers

[00:03:33,839]: And you wonder like where does that mind

[00:03:35,899]: I mean people have all kinds of dumb ideas about business and dumb ideas about everything else

[00:03:39,059]: But if you’re in the retail business if you’re selling products to consumers and you find yourself in a place where you’re like let’s piss them off and humiliate them

[00:03:49,240]: Like that’s so obviously insane

[00:03:50,899]: Like how could that

[00:03:51,919]: How could anybody say something like that

[00:03:53,520]: No totally insane

[00:03:54,220]: And I think like let’s back up because I mean really I think this story starts almost 40 years beforehand where you really are starting to talk about what is the purpose of a corporation

[00:04:02,339]: Like what are businesses in the business of doing

[00:04:04,899]: And in the United States since the 1970s you had sort of this view of Milton Friedman

[00:04:08,660]: Milton Friedman famous economist said the purpose of a corporation was to serve its shareholders the people who actually own the business

[00:04:14,220]: How do you do that

[00:04:15,240]: Well you focus on your customers focus on creating great products and services

[00:04:18,239]: When you do that you create and generate more revenue you can hire more people and businesses continue to grow and do all the great things businesses do

[00:04:24,459]: There was this other philosophy that was more this European view of the world that says the purpose of a corporation is to serve all stakeholders

[00:04:31,000]: That was started by Klaus Schwab this is the World Economic Forum Davos type of elite that over in Europe

[00:04:36,420]: What’s a stakeholder

[00:04:37,559]: So that’s the problem

[00:04:38,700]: There are thousands of stakeholders

[00:04:40,380]: You know it’s almost the idea of like when you have this shareholder capitalism model that Milton Friedman says you must have like one god

[00:04:45,339]: The god is the shareholder

[00:04:46,380]: That’s who you have to take a look at

[00:04:47,679]: But this stakeholder capitalism model you have thousands of gods

[00:04:51,299]: Those can be activists government employees they can be suppliers they can be employees they can be social activists I mean you name it

[00:05:00,000]: There’s thousands of them

[00:05:01,380]: People have nothing to do with your company

[00:05:02,899]: It has nothing to do with the company

[00:05:04,220]: But you’re supposed to be in the business of maximizing value for all so called stakeholders for the greater good of society

[00:05:10,399]: Sounds very European socialism

[00:05:12,220]: And that’s effectively what it was

[00:05:13,799]: And both of these systems they purported to do the same thing 40 years ago

[00:05:17,480]: They said we’re going to make people more money and lead to better societal outcomes

[00:05:22,600]: Problem is over the last 40 years I mean if you just take a look at sort of the U S economic model versus Europe since the 1970s U S has trounced Europe on both of those premises

[00:05:31,540]: If you take a look at our stock market returns in the U S take an S P 500 over the last 40 years we’ve generated 10 a year on average

[00:05:38,779]: Europe broad based industries are like 6 to 7

[00:05:41,100]: Put that into perspective if you had 100 000 invested in the U S in 1970 and 100 000 in Europe in the U S it’d be worth 4 5 million today

[00:05:48,220]: It’d be worth 1 5

[00:05:49,200]: million in Europe

[00:05:50,200]: So that’s a huge difference based on the compounding interest of money

[00:05:54,820]: And then separately if you take a look at the U S you know Europe might say okay well we didn’t make as much money but do we lead to better societal outcomes

[00:06:01,760]: And I would say no

[00:06:02,519]: I mean if you take a look at the U S almost every broad based prosperity metric GDP growth per capita income interest rates unemployment rates the U S trounces Europe on all of those

[00:06:10,779]: I mean like our poorest countries in the United States are generally wealthier than most of the European countries on a per capita basis

[00:06:16,739]: And so over the last sort of 40 years you kind of had these two systems that were developing

[00:06:20,859]: And the U S model to me is just the superior model

[00:06:23,600]: I mean I believe in American exceptionalism and I think our American model works

[00:06:26,899]: The problem is with the American model is every once in a while there are kind of bumps in the system bumps in the road

[00:06:31,700]: And the last time we had kind of a real economic bump in the road let’s call it was 2008 2009

[00:06:36,619]: You had sort of the great financial crisis that happens

[00:06:39,079]: And after the great financial crisis there’s sort of a lot of people that were upset that banks got bailed out

[00:06:44,000]: It seemed like Main Street was the one that sort of that lost out people lost houses

[00:06:48,760]: And so all of a sudden business and capitalism kind of has to repair itself and repair its image

[00:06:54,100]: And the way that it did that is especially if you remember the Occupy Wall Street movement you know Occupy Wall Street and everyone else says okay well banks and financiers and companies they need to be a bigger part of the system in making sure that everybody can succeed

[00:07:07,299]: At the same time then you had Obama was the president and he came up with diversity equity inclusion mandates that were happening within sort of the broader based government

[00:07:14,899]: And for the next three or four or five years you see a lot of companies that are trying to repair the image of so called business and capitalism in the United States

[00:07:23,920]: McKinsey came out with a famous study that says diversity wins where they said we’re going to have let’s force sort of diversity initiatives on a lot of companies and those ones will do better

[00:07:32,320]: This study has been thoroughly debunked

[00:07:34,059]: You had a lot of asset management companies the BlackRock State Streets Vanguards of the world

[00:07:39,179]: They started really talking more about environmental social governance issues which is a term that was coined in 2005 really never went anywhere

[00:07:48,059]: The United Nations originally coined it

[00:07:49,399]: You know if the United Nations coined something usually you know they’d be skeptical of it

[00:07:53,000]: Didn’t go anywhere for the first five or ten years

[00:07:55,100]: But after the Occupy Wall Street movement a lot of big asset managers kind of picked up this term started talking about environmental social governance issues

[00:08:02,500]: And really a lot of these issues picked up tons of steam when Trump was first elected

[00:08:06,859]: And when Trump was first elected and he pulled out of these super national organizations the Paris Climate Accords pulled out of the human rights sort of campaign coalitions all of a sudden a lot of these more progressive institutions that said wait a minute like we thought government was going to solve these existential crises of you know climate change and banking systems and systemic racism and you kind of name it now all of a sudden they’re not

[00:08:29,079]: And we need business to do this

[00:08:30,540]: And by the way a lot of progressive pension funds state of California state of New York European sovereign wealth funds like Norway and others they have I mean collectively trillions of dollars of assets

[00:08:41,119]: And they said okay now if these a lot of these banks that had all of a sudden started talking more about environmental social governance issues we’re going to manage money on our behalf

[00:08:49,419]: We wanted them to solve a lot of the existential crises in this country that Trump was not going to do in 2016

[00:08:56,260]: And at that time period you had a really interesting thing that happened

[00:09:00,099]: We’ve been with BlackRock

[00:09:01,880]: Yeah the largest asset management company in the world

[00:09:04,320]: Managed about over ten trillion dollars worth of capital

[00:09:07,080]: And what was interesting is BlackRock was really one of the leaders of this movement along with State Street Vanguard those three largest asset managers in this entire country managed about 20 trillion dollars worth of assets

[00:09:17,020]: They’re the single largest shareholder in 95 of the S P 500

[00:09:20,739]: And they wield a lot of influence in terms of telling companies kind of what to do

[00:09:24,780]: And the problem with a lot of these big asset managers is that it’s not their own money that they’re managing

[00:09:31,400]: You know if this was like George Soros type money or you know Bill Gates like it’s their own money and they ask companies to do all types of crazy things

[00:09:37,280]: But the problem was with BlackRock State Street and Vanguard is they were managing I mean a lot of times like your money my money through 401Ks or pension funds or others

[00:09:44,780]: And because of their largest sort of clients which again are more the progressive pension funds than others are telling them that they want business to get more involved in politics and social issues then all of a sudden they’re starting to force a new agenda on corporations

[00:09:57,520]: Telling companies that we want you guys to get more involved in environmental social and governance issues

[00:10:02,080]: And they even changed the purpose of a corporation in the 2018 2019 time period

[00:10:07,099]: There was a famous letter that Larry Fink the CEO of BlackRock wrote in 2018 essentially telling companies that we want them to now earn their social license

[00:10:17,320]: And you’re going to do that because we have evolved the purpose of a corporation with a group known as the Business Roundtable in the United States to be more focused on your stakeholders

[00:10:27,140]: So you’re no longer focused on shareholders we want you to focus on stakeholders

[00:10:30,359]: And that is now who you are now going to focus on for maximizing value without defining again who those stakeholders are

[00:10:36,559]: And so this becomes very very problematic in this sort of 2018 2019 time frame because companies are frankly confused

[00:10:43,340]: And it set up really a lot of a I’ll call it kindling for an event that happened in 2020 which was COVID

[00:10:50,799]: And all of a sudden companies are being told they need to earn their social license

[00:10:54,460]: They’re being told that now no longer you’re shareholders you’re kind of primary person that you’re serving but you’re now serving all stakeholders without defining what that is

[00:11:02,179]: And in the 2020 time period now all of a sudden you have this event of COVID

[00:11:07,479]: And when COVID happens we used to call this a crazy time period we don’t need to go through all of it but companies frankly lost their sense of direction about who were they serving what their mission is

[00:11:16,539]: And you remember we all had to flatten the curve and the so called flatten the curve in early 2020

[00:11:20,820]: And companies were essentially

[00:11:22,260]: Except for the George Floyd rioters who were under no such obligation I noticed

[00:11:26,500]: Correct but that’s obviously after this

[00:11:29,179]: But in March of 2020 I mean almost every company lost what its mission was

[00:11:34,840]: And what do I mean by that

[00:11:36,260]: Well let’s go back to what at Anheuser Busch we were making hand sanitizer in 2020 all of a sudden because we needed to flatten this curve and we were all in this existential crisis of COVID

[00:11:46,159]: You had Delta Airlines no longer flying passengers but is now flying medical supplies all around

[00:11:50,320]: You had General Motors which is now making ventilators for the country

[00:11:54,719]: Walmart setting up COVID testing facilities

[00:11:56,559]: So all of these companies all of a sudden were told to focus on a lot of different initiatives besides just their typical products and services

[00:12:02,700]: And frankly like a lot of these efforts like you think about it the curve was flattened very quickly you know there was no real existential crisis like we thought there was

[00:12:09,799]: But the problem was that since all these companies had kind of been pushed off their mission then we had this next issue which was the George Floyd issue that pops up in May of 2020

[00:12:19,299]: And you know George Floyd um you know George Floyd dies

[00:12:22,340]: And now all of a sudden the next existential crisis that every single company in the United States is looking to solve is systemic racism

[00:12:29,020]: Because their largest so called shareholders in the BlackRock State Streets vanguards of the world who had told them that now we want you focused on solving more of these stakeholder and societal issues

[00:12:40,020]: We need you to now solve these issues

[00:12:41,900]: I mean you went down the list I mean it was crazy

[00:12:43,539]: After George Floyd was murdered you had 70 different companies in the United States here donate over 200 billion to Black Lives Matter in the United States

[00:12:52,340]: That’s like more than the GDP of Portugal which is crazy in terms of the amount of money that was donated to these causes

[00:12:57,380]: And banking donations just wasn’t enough

[00:12:59,640]: I mean even you know Zuckerberg and Facebook at the time donated some eight figure sum to it

[00:13:03,979]: But then when that summer Trump had the famous tweet about when the looting starts the shooting starts then everybody wanted him to now all of a sudden take Trump off of Facebook

[00:13:13,419]: Because it just wasn’t enough just to donate you actually had to silence folks as well

[00:13:18,239]: On top of that in 2020 2021 you had the BlackRock and State Streets vanguards of the world as well

[00:13:26,520]: Not only are they this is where the big problem comes in is because they are controlled the largest percentage of companies in the United States they have disproportionate power to advocate for policies at companies and then most importantly to vote for shareholder proposals at companies where if you own 25 000 of stock in any company in the United States you can put up what’s known as a shareholder proposal that the so called shareholders of the company they can vote on

[00:13:56,219]: And what was crazy is that in 2020 2021 you had a lot of these activists that because the purpose of this corporation had changed in the United States away from shareholder value to this European stakeholder model said okay now businesses again they have to maximize value for me

[00:14:10,799]: So you saw there’s a group called Color of Change and it’s a nonprofit group and their mission is to stamp out systemic racism in the country

[00:14:19,900]: You know okay fine you can do that whatever

[00:14:22,140]: But they went to Apple they bought 25 000 worth of shares at Apple and they put up this shareholder proposal that said hey you Apple we want you guys to do a racial equity audit to figure out how you’ve contributed to systemic racism and white supremacy in the country

[00:14:36,159]: And Apple which is you know pretty liberal leftist company Tim Cook is the CEO and very liberal board they said guys like thanks but no thanks because Apple’s mission is to make magical devices at unbelievable prices

[00:14:47,859]: Like that’s what we just do

[00:14:49,260]: You know that’s our thing

[00:14:49,979]: Like these are important issues but we’re going to recommend against this proposal because we don’t want to spend tens of millions of dollars hiring you know Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch to go and do a racial equity audit

[00:14:59,940]: But this passed by 52 to 48 percent because you had firms like BlackRock which is the second largest shareholder of the company voted for it

[00:15:08,799]: You know Vanguard State Street everyone else are voting for these issues and forcing corporate America to now get involved in social and political issues

[00:15:15,320]: And this went the same thing for election integrity law issues that people were asking companies to get involved in defund the police initiatives help PETA People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

[00:15:23,739]: They put up a proposal telling Starbucks we don’t use cow milk anymore because we don’t think you should use cow milk at Starbucks

[00:15:28,760]: I mean it’s crazy

[00:15:29,719]: All these proposals that popped up in this post sort of COVID George Floyd era and companies were essentially forced by these large asset managers to get involved in a lot of political and social issues

[00:15:40,419]: So that was sort of the backdrop

[00:15:41,900]: So can I just give you my theory on this

[00:15:43,880]: Yeah

[00:15:45,340]: There’s a backdrop to all of this which is the movement of you know the economic center of gravity upward in the United States

[00:15:54,460]: So Obama becomes president in 2008 middle class is the majority in the United States

[00:16:00,080]: He leaves in 2016 the middle class is no longer the majority for the first time maybe ever

[00:16:06,020]: And at the same time we’ve got free money

[00:16:08,559]: We’re down to zero interest rates

[00:16:10,299]: And that money is being pumped way disproportionately into a certain sector of the economy the banking sector

[00:16:16,820]: And so basically most people are getting poorer but a small number of people are getting way richer

[00:16:21,659]: I mean it’s measurable

[00:16:22,659]: I live among them

[00:16:23,460]: Everyone’s got a plane now

[00:16:24,380]: That was not true in 2008

[00:16:26,479]: There’s just created a lot of wealth

[00:16:29,260]: The Fed created a lot of wealth

[00:16:31,380]: And so in a certain sense that’s like immoral or it’s certainly hard to defend

[00:16:36,380]: And so rather than defend it it wasn’t the companies that wanted this stuff it was the debt holders

[00:16:41,559]: It was the finance people who wanted it because it was a cover for what they were doing which is getting really rich

[00:16:45,859]: Lady Fink got super super rich

[00:16:48,000]: A lot of like manufacturing concerns family businesses went under or did not get rich at the same scale

[00:16:53,820]: And so you just like throw out like race war you know hate people because of their you know whatever immutable characteristics

[00:17:02,219]: Hey let’s throw the trans stuff in there too

[00:17:03,960]: By the way we’re all going to die from global warming

[00:17:05,719]: You basically just freak everybody out throw the entire society off balance so they don’t notice the looting

[00:17:11,439]: Yeah I mean that’s essentially

[00:17:13,040]: I mean that’s my view

[00:17:14,199]: But it is

[00:17:15,199]: It’s all about

[00:17:15,560]: It’s control and money

[00:17:16,300]: I mean it’s control and it’s money

[00:17:17,760]: I mean you think about

[00:17:18,540]: But all these social issues were always a cover for what was actually going on which is like Larry Fink getting richer

[00:17:23,760]: Oh 100 percent

[00:17:24,640]: And it’s so funny

[00:17:25,880]: So when he started talking a lot about ESG environmental social governance in 2018 2019 all of a sudden they started a scoring system

[00:17:32,359]: You know it’s almost like a social credit system that you’d have in China or somewhere else

[00:17:35,540]: Scoring companies on how little carbon that they use or scoring companies on how do they do gender affirmation care for their employees

[00:17:43,420]: And these scores were used to essentially you know pick and choose companies that could be included in indices that Larry Fink and BlackRock and others they could charge investors three to four times the amount of money for these ESG funds versus the regular funds

[00:17:58,000]: And the funny thing was these ESG funds underperformed their broad based counterparts

[00:18:02,060]: So you ended up with less money but you were charged more for doing it which is crazy

[00:18:07,699]: And you know it’s really funny that

[00:18:09,400]: So do you think it would since you’ve studied this much more than I have do you think it would be a mistake to think that there was any sincerity behind this

[00:18:15,979]: Like do you think there was ever a moment where like Larry Fink or for that matter Tim Cook or anybody at State Street or Vanguard thought you know we’re going to solve systemic racism by attacking the white working class

[00:18:26,420]: Like we’re actually going to solve this problem

[00:18:27,819]: Do you think they really thought that

[00:18:29,680]: I mean there might have been one or two people there

[00:18:31,300]: They’re just you know totally

[00:18:32,260]: But no I mean I don’t really think

[00:18:34,339]: I think this was all just sort of a money grab and a feel good and being able to go to the right parties in New York City

[00:18:38,880]: That’s the way it seems to me but you know

[00:18:40,400]: I mean it really is because it just doesn’t pass any of the first principle test whatsoever

[00:18:45,900]: And you know it’s funny that the companies that were the worst in this tended to be more of a New York City you know kind of ideology

[00:18:53,420]: Also a European ideology as well

[00:18:55,079]: I mean there is some sincerity to it

[00:18:56,339]: I mean this is funny

[00:18:57,300]: You’ll appreciate this

[00:18:57,839]: Because I think where we’re going with all of this because you’ve seen obviously Retreat where a lot of companies have backed away from DEI over the last couple of months

[00:19:06,380]: There’s other companies that are holding on to some vestige of it

[00:19:08,780]: But there’s others that are really all in on diversity and inclusion

[00:19:12,180]: I’ll give you a break

[00:19:13,099]: You’re going to love this

[00:19:13,859]: And the worst are the Europeans because they really I think believe in this sort of European stakeholder capitalism model

[00:19:21,000]: So you have

[00:19:22,079]: I’ll give you a plug for Alp right now

[00:19:23,880]: So if you talk about one of the worst companies that’s out there

[00:19:27,839]: America’s greatest nicotine pouch

[00:19:29,640]: America’s lip pillow

[00:19:31,020]: But who is your biggest competitor

[00:19:33,959]: That would be the Zinn Corporation

[00:19:35,760]: Zinn

[00:19:35,959]: Do you know who owns Zinn

[00:19:37,000]: I do

[00:19:38,099]: So it’s Philip Morris International

[00:19:39,699]: Yeah

[00:19:40,099]: They are operationally headquartered in Switzerland

[00:19:43,160]: On their website to this day I mean you go on their website today they have a massive diversity equity inclusion piece that is on their website

[00:19:50,140]: They have the

[00:19:50,859]: And I would say it’s the

[00:19:52,060]: I’ll call it the worst aspects of D I which can be quota systems race based systems

[00:19:57,160]: And on their website today they say we’re going to hire 20 of our people we want to be Asian

[00:20:02,140]: Put it on their website just 20

[00:20:03,560]: They want 40 women

[00:20:05,479]: I mean literally quota systems they have on their website today

[00:20:08,819]: It should be 100 African by the way if they’re really going to make a dent

[00:20:12,020]: But they’re racist so they wouldn’t do that

[00:20:13,660]: Yeah so I mean but the other piece is that on their website and this is a company that makes Marlboro cigarettes and Zin and other things is so they’re like one of their big partners for Pride Month that’s coming up is the Stonewall Org

[00:20:26,760]: And Stonewall Org is one of these LGBTQ plus organizations and you know fine you can do that but like they are advocating for biological men to compete against women in sports

[00:20:37,239]: Wait Zin is all in on the gay thing

[00:20:39,300]: I mean but like this is what’s crazy is that like and I think this is the problem about where we’re going is

[00:20:44,800]: What does that have to keep that out of my mouth

[00:20:46,380]: I mean this is like come on

[00:20:48,339]: So but like this is the problem of I think like where you’re seeing trying to serve local masses

[00:20:52,339]: I’m not making this up

[00:20:53,239]: You can literally go on their website literally today and see all of this

[00:20:55,680]: And I think this is the problem we’re seeing is that you have these more like European based companies that I think might sincerely probably believe a lot of this or the European mindset which is very distinct from sort of the American capitalist model

[00:21:07,119]: Crippled by war guilt bent on suicide yes

[00:21:09,300]: Yeah and I mean at least here in the United States and others we have a democracy

[00:21:13,040]: We can throw people out if we don’t like them

[00:21:15,000]: But corporations I mean they’re transnational organizations

[00:21:17,880]: They operate against

[00:21:18,599]: With an emphasis on the trans

[00:21:19,800]: Yeah yeah

[00:21:20,839]: With an emphasis on that

[00:21:22,079]: But they go across borders

[00:21:23,939]: And if you are sort of operation philosophically sort of a European based company but you have operations in another country and you’re imposing those values in another country I think that’s problematic

[00:21:35,380]: You probably have no idea where your meat comes from

[00:21:38,000]: You probably should know

[00:21:39,439]: The likelihood is that the meat you’re eating passed through a massive industrial processing plant probably owned by a foreign corporation

[00:21:47,339]: Foreign meat

[00:21:48,060]: Did you sign up for that

[00:21:49,119]: We don’t think you did

[00:21:50,660]: So you probably have no idea of knowing where the animal grew up what that animal ate or what chemicals big food pumped into the animal to increase profits

[00:22:00,280]: That’s all kept secret meaning you can never really know what you’re putting in your mouth and in your body

[00:22:06,560]: That’s disgusting if you think about it

[00:22:08,380]: And it’s easy to fix

[00:22:09,579]: Meriwether Farms a farm owned by friends of ours is a great option

[00:22:14,300]: We use their meat we eat their meat for every meal

[00:22:17,939]: Unlike corporate farmers Meriwether Farms controls the entire thing from the pasture the cattle graze on to the facility where the beef is packaged

[00:22:26,459]: In Wyoming and across the Mountain West the cattle are raised without hormones without antibiotics or any other additive

[00:22:33,020]: Clean American beef you can trust every single time and they will ship it straight to your door

[00:22:37,699]: Go to MeriwetherFarms com slash Tucker use the code Tucker2025 for 10 off your first order

[00:22:44,219]: You can also save it a monthly subscription if you sign up today

[00:22:47,939]: That’s MeriwetherFarms com slash Tucker

[00:22:50,719]: We eat it and vouch for it

[00:22:52,819]: It does feel like one of these like in 10 years we’re going to look back and be like you know they were major consumer products companies that felt empowered to talk about your sex life and the sex lives of your children

[00:23:03,300]: I agree

[00:23:04,099]: Back off with the gay stuff by the way just stop

[00:23:06,000]: No one hates gays like stop that stop that

[00:23:09,040]: Get out of my face with that stuff

[00:23:10,300]: Yeah like I don’t care how people dress

[00:23:11,619]: I don’t care

[00:23:12,380]: I’m totally sick of it actually

[00:23:13,199]: But like it’s just insane that like a nicotine pouch company would be lecturing me about people’s sex lives

[00:23:20,219]: Like stop

[00:23:20,900]: I agree

[00:23:21,479]: And this is the other thing about like authentically what is a you know whatever nicotine pouch cigarette company Marlboro like what are they doing working with organizations

[00:23:30,479]: I mean another thing is Stonewall is like hey we want to do youth sex education for LGBT

[00:23:35,300]: How about I get my gun when you do that

[00:23:37,500]: Like stay away from my kids

[00:23:38,500]: How’s that

[00:23:38,959]: Again just stay out of it

[00:23:39,719]: I don’t understand that

[00:23:40,859]: Like why any society would put up with it why Zinn would pay for it

[00:23:44,079]: And of course it’s not just Philip Morse International

[00:23:46,160]: It’s like so many of these companies

[00:23:47,420]: No it is

[00:23:47,760]: And like here’s the other thing

[00:23:48,380]: It’s like I don’t want Philip Morse to do the other stuff

[00:23:49,739]: I don’t want them advocating for the Second Amendment either

[00:23:51,540]: It’s like you’re a cigarette company just do that

[00:23:53,319]: Yeah

[00:23:53,579]: Just do that

[00:23:54,280]: They don’t even sell cigarettes well

[00:23:55,699]: They don’t even believe in what they do

[00:23:57,359]: Yeah

[00:23:58,140]: So I think what’s interesting about where we’re going You’re going to have sort of these companies you’re seeing the same thing with China

[00:24:04,512]: I mean why is TikTok being asked to be sold in the United States

[00:24:07,892]: Well because it’s technically owned by a Chinese company and the Chinese values they’re collecting data and information

[00:24:13,312]: That’s not going to work for the United States

[00:24:15,232]: So they might need to sell it

[00:24:16,732]: That’s not why

[00:24:19,632]: So they got involved in some you know they were considered a vector for unapproved foreign policy positions

[00:24:27,532]: And that’s why the Congress did that

[00:24:29,332]: And they pretended it was about collecting data

[00:24:32,172]: These are you know people who are all in on you know warrantless searches of Americans and spying on Americans and they have no problem with violating your civil liberties at all

[00:24:42,972]: They don’t think you have civil liberties but they were under pressure to ban TikTok because it was considered radicalizing in ways that their donors wouldn’t accept

[00:24:51,292]: So that’s the truth

[00:24:52,392]: Sorry

[00:24:52,872]: Got it

[00:24:53,252]: Well you know it’s so

[00:24:54,792]: It’s never what they say it is

[00:24:56,312]: It’s never what they say but I think the broader piece is though is that whether it’s TikTok whether it’s you know Zin in the United States or Anheuser Busch which used to be American owned I think you’re going to have a lot of these companies need to have choices about what they’re going to make moving forward

[00:25:08,852]: I think it’s going to be very difficult to operate in the U S if the U S is leaning more in towards you know these radical ideas of free speech and religion and open dialogue and those things whereas we’ve always kind of been a city on the hill in the United States

[00:25:22,012]: We’ve always been this big sectional difference

[00:25:23,432]: Now more than ever really

[00:25:24,272]: Probably now more than ever

[00:25:24,932]: I mean we’re almost more isolated than probably we’ve ever been

[00:25:27,332]: Yes I think that’s right

[00:25:27,692]: The last four or five years yes we were going more towards this quasi European socialism you know government intervention and free speech and everything else

[00:25:35,752]: And we have now rejected that as a country

[00:25:37,972]: But I think what’s difficult is that yes we’ve rejected it politically

[00:25:41,392]: But again corporately there’s all these tethers from around the world because of effects of globalization over the last 20 years that you have a lot of these companies that frankly might not hold sort of those same American values

[00:25:52,512]: Yes

[00:25:53,312]: Talk Philip Morris you know Anheuser Busch InBev based in Europe

[00:25:56,912]: In Europe they have quota systems for how many board members have to look this way or be that way over in Europe

[00:26:01,732]: And one of the reasons that I think again going back to the original question like how did this happen in the United States where Bud Light the biggest beer brand in the United States how do they have a partnership with Dylan Mulvaney

[00:26:11,732]: Well they I think have a lot of these European type values now diversity equity inclusion

[00:26:16,252]: I’m so grateful for that scandal for the effects on the company of that scandal and for your writing this book because and for what you just told me because I think most Americans I’ll put I’ll say of myself I have no idea like you know you just use Crest Toothpaste you have no idea what they’re sending money to

[00:26:33,172]: I use Zinn for years

[00:26:34,412]: I finally realized it was a left wing company I didn’t get that at first

[00:26:37,512]: But most Americans just don’t know what’s happening to their money

[00:26:41,252]: No they don’t

[00:26:42,412]: And then really I think the eye opening moment even for me where how companies have been co opped is I don’t know if you meant to have the Black Rifle Coffee Company cup on your Yeah yeah

[00:26:51,392]: I love Evan

[00:26:53,032]: Yeah

[00:26:53,532]: So I mean you’ll appreciate this story

[00:26:55,252]: And I write about this in my book Last Call for Bud Light but one of the opening chapters I have is so I was president of Anheuser Busch in the US and I tried to do a distribution agreement with Black Rifle Coffee Company because a lot of times the same people that were drinking a six pack of Bud Light you know Budweiser at night were drinking six Black Rifle coffees in the morning

[00:27:13,392]: And so we were going to put the Black Rifle Coffee their kind of 16 ounce drinks on the same trucks that carry Bud and Bud Light to Walmart and Kroger and 7 Eleven

[00:27:21,332]: And so I had this whole deal and we’re going to make a bunch of money on this great partnership

[00:27:25,092]: And our legal team which was now based in New York City and our external affairs team based in New York City this is in 2021 killed the deal said you can’t do it

[00:27:34,372]: I was like what do you mean

[00:27:35,312]: Like here’s all the financials

[00:27:36,412]: This makes tons of sense

[00:27:37,212]: Like this is a great company

[00:27:38,452]: They’re growing like gangbusters

[00:27:39,872]: I said you can’t do it

[00:27:41,052]: Company’s too controversial

[00:27:42,532]: I was like what do you mean

[00:27:43,552]: Controversial

[00:27:43,952]: I was like you know the company like their mission is to serve coffee and culture to firefighters police officers law enforcement people who love them

[00:27:49,252]: And the coffee just in point of fact is excellent

[00:27:52,832]: Yeah great coffee

[00:27:53,572]: I drink it every day

[00:27:53,872]: It’s great

[00:27:54,312]: This is my thing

[00:27:55,192]: I mean you know this is that’s their mission

[00:27:57,152]: That’s what they do

[00:27:57,832]: Yeah

[00:27:58,192]: And you know Budweiser we had partnerships with Folds of Honor and other military

[00:28:01,532]: But in 2021 because of the whole DEI movement which said like ooh you know they fund the police and like you know defund the police was a big thing you know kind of going on at the time

[00:28:11,552]: And ooh military

[00:28:12,752]: You know I don’t know about that

[00:28:13,932]: That seems a little bit too controversial

[00:28:15,552]: I’m like guys like we sell like King Cobra 40 ounce bottles you know like America’s favorite malt liquor

[00:28:22,892]: You know like what are we talking about

[00:28:24,652]: Did you guys make Old English 800

[00:28:25,972]: No we didn’t make Old English 800

[00:28:27,532]: No

[00:28:27,672]: That was a brand

[00:28:28,572]: I drank that as a kid

[00:28:29,552]: Yeah

[00:28:29,792]: That’s one of the reasons I no longer drink

[00:28:31,152]: Yeah

[00:28:31,392]: Did you ever do like the Edward Fortyhands with that one

[00:28:33,692]: No no that was

[00:28:35,312]: Did you miss the Edward Fortyhands

[00:28:36,112]: I did

[00:28:36,812]: And it just you know everyone beats up on kids for being dumb but actually the newer generations are way more brilliant than we ever were

[00:28:43,492]: Edward Fortyhands is like the funniest thing that ever happened

[00:28:45,432]: Yeah

[00:28:45,632]: Edward Fortyhands was amazing

[00:28:48,972]: I’m against drinking

[00:28:49,992]: I don’t know why I’m laughing

[00:28:51,052]: I don’t drink

[00:28:51,992]: I hate alcohol but that is hilarious

[00:28:55,112]: Duct tape 240 ounce malt liquor to kids hands

[00:28:58,272]: That’s it

[00:28:58,832]: You know you couldn’t you couldn’t untape them until you until you finished both of them

[00:29:02,692]: So I feel guilty for laughing

[00:29:04,412]: Yeah

[00:29:04,732]: There were too many bad stories

[00:29:05,572]: Like you know someone get through one or half of them

[00:29:07,112]: Like you know you’re rumbling around and you fall and it’s like you know you get glass everywhere

[00:29:10,772]: But anyway so no not not OE

[00:29:13,532]: There were there were other ones

[00:29:14,612]: Oh sorry

[00:29:15,332]: Sorry for the digression

[00:29:17,232]: But uh I can’t remember where we’re going with that

[00:29:19,272]: Sorry

[00:29:19,592]: Sorry

[00:29:19,932]: Sorry

[00:29:20,392]: Sorry

[00:29:20,692]: Sorry

[00:29:20,812]: No we were talking black rifle and yeah so the the the deal gets killed and that exact same because it was too controversial of a of a brand yet a year later that exact same department based in New York city now that killed the black rifle coffee deal

[00:29:34,332]: They greenlit the Dylan Mulvaney partnership and the Dylan Mulvaney partnership like it was incredibly puzzling if you’re a Bud Light drinker and you know again like man I don’t care how people identify or what they want to do with their lives but like one of the reasons that Bud Light became the biggest most popular beer brand in the United States is because it was remarkably apolitical

[00:29:52,552]: Like it was a brand that was enjoyed by Democrats and Republicans alike because it was about like fun and it was humor

[00:29:57,252]: It was sort of this like you know somewhat you know counter cultural you know type of brand

[00:30:00,672]: It was about sports and music and you know backyard barbecues

[00:30:04,492]: And all of a sudden the uh Bud Light had just hired its first you know female uh head of Bud Light in the history of the of the brand you know no problem with that

[00:30:11,892]: I’ve you know I’m sure there’ll be there are a lot of there are a lot of people that a lot of girls I know that’d be great VP of marketers at Bud Light

[00:30:17,052]: The problem with it was the person they hired was a lady who had grown up in New York city uh went to Harvard for undergrad Wharton for grad school had only lived in basically the Northeastern her entire life

[00:30:26,752]: Um I don’t know if she’d ever drank a Bud Light in her life and you know I don’t know if she ever knew anybody who had as well

[00:30:31,072]: And she was very Why would she make her the head of the brand

[00:30:34,212]: Well because like the DEI movement basically said that you need to essentially you know put different people in different roles

[00:30:39,772]: You need a woman

[00:30:39,992]: Yeah

[00:30:40,392]: Based off immutable characteristics

[00:30:42,392]: And even the 21 22 time What was her name

[00:30:45,292]: Uh Alyssa Heinerschneid

[00:30:46,272]: And I I know Alyssa

[00:30:47,172]: I mean Alyssa she’s you know nice girl and and I worked with her when I was at the company for a while

[00:30:51,472]: Um but she probably wasn’t the right person for for Bud Light

[00:30:55,032]: But in Yeah probably not

[00:30:56,272]: Well she obviously wasn’t the right person for Bud Light

[00:30:58,172]: I mean literally like tank the brand

[00:30:59,632]: I mean it sounds like Yeah probably not

[00:31:00,272]: Almost 50

[00:31:01,072]: So obviously it wasn’t the uh wasn’t the right person for the for the the the company

[00:31:04,572]: Um but in this broader kind of narrative in 21 2021 2022 um this is when I was deciding to kind of like leave Anheuser Busch

[00:31:13,432]: I’d mentioned the the black rifle thing was kind of the the final sort of last straw for me

[00:31:18,512]: But even before that the principles of the company changed

[00:31:20,952]: My joint was a meritocracy

[00:31:21,952]: It was like we want to hire the best and brightest and we want to reward them based off their results and and you know pay them accordingly

[00:31:26,672]: Great

[00:31:27,372]: But in 21 22 all of a sudden that principle there were 10 principles of the company

[00:31:31,252]: That went around really you know hiring the best price change towards we now reward people based off the quality and diversity which was bolted by the company and diversity of your teams

[00:31:41,072]: And then all of a sudden the company starts um putting in these you know diversity dashboards

[00:31:45,532]: We can see what the diversity makeup of your of your team is

[00:31:48,192]: White men did a pretty good job making beer

[00:31:49,812]: I think whatever you say about white men like they created the company and they made the beer

[00:31:53,132]: Like what why we hate them all of a sudden

[00:31:55,552]: Yeah

[00:31:55,952]: They created Budweiser

[00:31:56,792]: Well I think it was just more so that the head scratching piece of like you know it doesn’t matter if you’re again like white or black or gay you’re like don’t care

[00:32:03,452]: I just want the best people

[00:32:04,412]: Right

[00:32:04,652]: But the you know he is in the only people discriminated against in D or white men obviously straight white men

[00:32:10,452]: So like I don’t know there are probably some Asians in there too

[00:32:13,712]: So well they definitely have well they have been a lot of Indians and a lot of folks as well

[00:32:18,052]: So 100 Asian South Asians

[00:32:20,172]: But the point of it was to reduce the percentage of white men in positions of leadership or with paying jobs

[00:32:26,512]: And I just I felt like nobody had the balls to say that out loud

[00:32:30,232]: Like that was considered controversial

[00:32:31,932]: You would get fired if you said that out loud

[00:32:33,672]: This was in the 21 20 22 timeframe but that’s the problem is where we were

[00:32:37,312]: I mean you remember this is a censorship regime

[00:32:39,132]: I mean heck you had the Biden administration

[00:32:41,152]: Well I got fired

[00:32:43,952]: In the end thank God

[00:32:46,452]: But no yes I did get fired

[00:32:47,652]: So actually it’s kind of

[00:32:49,232]: So you remember this

[00:32:50,352]: I do

[00:32:50,772]: Yeah I guess I do

[00:32:52,012]: More so than anybody

[00:32:53,592]: But yeah I mean you couldn’t speak up there in this timeframe

[00:32:56,152]: And that was the problem

[00:32:56,932]: And then at the same time you had all these companies that made all these pledges

[00:33:00,212]: I mean the chief diversity officers like this really wasn’t even a position before 2020

[00:33:06,672]: What do you make

[00:33:07,652]: I make diversity

[00:33:08,512]: Well I mean but this is crazy

[00:33:09,512]: Like you know and then all of a sudden there was like a 400 increase and chief diversity officer position

[00:33:13,532]: And these were all high six figure salary positions

[00:33:16,232]: All the executive level

[00:33:17,452]: What do you do if you’re a diversity officer

[00:33:18,772]: This is the problem

[00:33:19,472]: You find things to do

[00:33:20,852]: And this was the problem

[00:33:22,012]: So the first thing was the whole pronoun police comes in

[00:33:24,712]: Well let’s be more inclusive all the pronoun piece

[00:33:26,752]: And then hey let’s put in quota systems that we’re going to put in place

[00:33:29,372]: So we hire a certain number of people with this immutable characteristic or that a character

[00:33:32,732]: Did everyone buy into the pronoun thing

[00:33:34,392]: Did anyone say I’m not doing that

[00:33:35,972]: Yeah

[00:33:36,292]: A lot of people did but this is the problem as well

[00:33:38,592]: A lot of people just went along with it because they felt if you didn’t then you could be called out by your HR team cowards

[00:33:44,632]: And I think that’s what’s part of the problem

[00:33:46,172]: Now what’s nice is that I think people have the ability to say I’m not going to do that

[00:33:48,952]: But three years ago you couldn’t three years ago was the whole thing is designed to degrade you

[00:33:54,232]: Yeah

[00:33:54,552]: And what are you really saying

[00:33:55,692]: By the way if when you announce your pronouns what you’re saying is it’s not evident to people watching what your sex is like your pat or something from Saturday Night Live

[00:34:04,232]: You may not know this but I’m a man like you can’t tell by looking at me but I’m actually a man

[00:34:08,792]: It’s like the most degrading thing I can imagine

[00:34:12,532]: I completely agree

[00:34:14,152]: And I don’t know

[00:34:15,232]: And if you’re unsure just ask how are you doing

[00:34:17,612]: That’s it

[00:34:18,152]: You don’t have to use a pronoun if you’re unsure

[00:34:19,972]: But I think for 99 of the time you’re pretty sure

[00:34:21,852]: And that’s the problem

[00:34:22,672]: It’s forcing these sort of agenda on 99 of the population is wait a minute what is this

[00:34:27,052]: I don’t know

[00:34:27,352]: People work there

[00:34:28,172]: I mean now I’m being mean but I I I’ve lived it

[00:34:31,452]: So I feel it like there were so few noble honest brave people in American corporate culture that I was shocked shocked by what sheep they were

[00:34:43,072]: You’d think at least 20 would be like buzz off

[00:34:46,032]: I’m not giving you my disgusting

[00:34:47,572]: This is insane

[00:34:48,492]: And by the way you’re discriminating against white men which is illegal and immoral

[00:34:52,092]: And we’ve got this monument on the mall from King telling us you can’t do that but you’re doing it anyway

[00:34:56,392]: And his name you know why don’t you go screw yourself

[00:34:58,832]: Actually

[00:34:59,052]: Yeah

[00:34:59,392]: I don’t think anybody said that

[00:35:00,812]: There were a couple of brave people

[00:35:02,012]: This is disappointing

[00:35:03,092]: But the but the but the brave people who stuck their neck out I mean they were eviscerated in the media

[00:35:06,552]: The first guy actually was um was Brian Armstrong

[00:35:09,172]: He was the CEO of Coinbase

[00:35:10,352]: I don’t know if you remember this

[00:35:11,432]: I remember very well

[00:35:11,752]: And this is at the end of 2020 I mean right after all of the BLM and everything

[00:35:15,212]: And Brian Armstrong said listen like I’m not going to tie it to the BLM movement

[00:35:18,232]: I’m not going to make a statement that we’re in support of BLM

[00:35:22,392]: I’m not going to do that either

[00:35:23,552]: He said because the mission of our company Coinbase is to bring crypto to the masses

[00:35:27,512]: That’s what we’re doing

[00:35:28,252]: And if there’s something related to crypto regulation or policy sure we’ll have a view on that

[00:35:32,032]: But am I going to have a view on climate change or or BLM issues or transgender policy

[00:35:38,252]: No I’m not

[00:35:39,592]: And by the way if you as an employee don’t don’t want to be here then go go work somewhere else

[00:35:45,252]: And I think they had I don’t know 50 employees or something locked out but then he had 5 000 people that applied to work there

[00:35:51,412]: Oh yeah

[00:35:51,972]: But in the media though he was called bigoted and he was called racist and he was called you name it all in the media because of him just having a view that says I’m just not going to do this because that’s not important to the company

[00:36:01,932]: And if I want people to come here and work for our mission not necessarily for all these orthogonal things that have nothing to do with bringing crypto to the masses

[00:36:09,532]: It’s funny how much just telling the story would I mean of course I remember when it happened

[00:36:13,052]: I defended him when it happened but it seems like you’re talking about a different country

[00:36:17,132]: Like things have changed so much

[00:36:19,012]: So much

[00:36:19,912]: Is that that’s my perception

[00:36:21,372]: Is it yours

[00:36:22,092]: It is

[00:36:22,792]: Things things have definitely swung back

[00:36:24,572]: But as I mentioned earlier it’s almost as if we’re going into I would say it’s almost three camps with the purpose of business in this country and and business getting involved in social political ESGDI topics

[00:36:35,932]: You have the people that have backed off because they’ve said you know what

[00:36:38,472]: Getting involved in all these political and social it wasn’t good for my company from the stock standpoint

[00:36:44,572]: It wasn’t because I’d lost money or divided my customer base and it wasn’t really good for the country either

[00:36:48,312]: You’ve seen Meta and and uh McDonald’s and Walmart and uh Apple or not Apple sorry uh Google

[00:36:55,572]: A lot of people have rolled back a lot of those policies

[00:36:57,272]: You have a second group of companies that are trying to kind of rebrand the whole sort of DEI narrative

[00:37:02,892]: They haven’t realized it’s become a pejorative term to the majority of Americans

[00:37:05,872]: They’re calling it inclusivity inclusivity and belonging or I don’t know all these other words they’re trying to mash together

[00:37:12,152]: Um I would put probably more of the JP Morgans and I don’t know those folks in that boat but then you have the real adherence and these are the people the Philip Morris internationals

[00:37:20,952]: Um even today I mean Anheuser Busch InBev on their website for the UK the big DEI diversity equity inclusion piece because I think you do have these real adherence

[00:37:29,552]: And then even certain companies in the United States I mean Costco is doubling down big time I think partly because they’re based in Seattle

[00:37:34,592]: And because I think Costco Costco has doubled down big time

[00:37:38,412]: That’s like a warehouse store where you buy stuff by the pallet kind of that’s it

[00:37:41,372]: That place has doubled down massively talking about that

[00:37:43,812]: We’re going to continue to have quota systems about who we actually give preferential treatment to to who gets their products in store based off race or sex or gender

[00:37:51,252]: Seriously

[00:37:51,632]: Yeah

[00:37:51,992]: They’ve been doubling down on this

[00:37:53,152]: So they’re one of the companies that has kind of dug their heels

[00:37:54,792]: I hope they go out of business soon

[00:37:56,552]: So but it’s really interesting

[00:37:58,092]: So I and the way that I think about I think the companies that have just moved on I think we need to get the more to a I’ll go back to a corporate pluralism of whatever your mission is as a company just do that

[00:38:08,492]: And however you need to recruit people you know the best and brightest to your industry figure out how to do that

[00:38:13,792]: I would say probably move on from the DEI

[00:38:16,852]: Yeah

[00:38:17,032]: And I and I don’t think we can say that the United States has civil rights law at that point

[00:38:20,992]: If you’re openly discriminating against people on the basis of their race then all the civil rights act it’s all bullshit

[00:38:25,912]: None of that means anything

[00:38:27,332]: And so like let’s just stop pretending

[00:38:30,092]: Okay

[00:38:30,452]: So if Costco wants to continue with racist policies then I guess everyone gets to have racist policies if they want on whatever basis of any race they want

[00:38:38,272]: Like you know what I mean

[00:38:39,212]: It’s it’s a principle

[00:38:40,552]: So either you’re against and in fact banning through federal law discrimination on the basis of race or you’re not

[00:38:47,092]: Yeah

[00:38:47,232]: That’s it

[00:38:47,632]: And the civil rights act 1964 it literally says like you cannot discriminate based off race sex gender national origin et cetera

[00:38:53,792]: And there are a thousand subsequent laws and regulations

[00:38:56,692]: Yeah

[00:38:57,092]: Underscore that point

[00:38:58,352]: So

[00:38:58,472]: And you know this is funny

[00:38:59,132]: So the the actually the Senate um the floor manager at the time was Hubert Humphreys who became Lyndon Johnson’s VP

[00:39:05,232]: He was one who was ushering through the civil rights act 1964

[00:39:08,532]: He said this is his quote says if this leads to quota systems I will eat my hat

[00:39:12,752]: This is what’s his quote

[00:39:13,952]: And that’s exactly what we got

[00:39:15,452]: He’s been dead too long to do it but yeah no it kind of wrecked the country

[00:39:18,792]: Permanent Washington is terrified and distraught by the Trump revolution now in progress

[00:39:23,812]: And it is a revolution and it’s unfolding along very familiar lines

[00:39:27,852]: The white house is now giving voters what they actually want and what they’ve wanted for a long time

[00:39:33,332]: And that’s the one thing that permanent Washington doesn’t want to give them

[00:39:37,452]: They are working to stop it

[00:39:39,732]: Fortunately our friends at heritage the heritage foundation in DC are fighting back

[00:39:43,212]: They’ve spent years thinking this through

[00:39:45,032]: How do you dismantle permanent DC

[00:39:47,152]: The deep structures underneath everything

[00:39:48,592]: How do you train replacements for the bureaucrats getting canned

[00:39:51,592]: How do you enact policies that voters actually voted for

[00:39:54,552]: Well now that Biden is gone heritage’s vision is finally becoming reality

[00:39:58,552]: And you can help push it forward by going to heritage org

[00:40:01,732]: slash Tucker and making a tax deductible donation

[00:40:04,252]: Your gift fuels their American rescue plan and help stop permanent Washington from crushing it from strangling in the cradle

[00:40:12,352]: Heritage has been doing this a long time

[00:40:13,892]: They’ve been successful and they’re more aggressive now than ever

[00:40:17,012]: Their work is worth supporting

[00:40:18,332]: Go to heritage org

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[00:40:21,792]: We hope you will

[00:40:22,712]: So just back to Anheuser Busch this disaster happens

[00:40:29,352]: And it seems to be I mean according to the video that everybody saw it really a product of this one decision

[00:40:36,232]: Well it’s the end of a chain of a lot of decisions as you so ably described

[00:40:40,612]: But the key decision in the fall of Bud Light was by this Alyssa Schneinhauser whatever her name was who went to Harvard

[00:40:49,712]: And there’s this famous video where she’s saying you know basically I think the old white guys who drink our beer could use to be shaken up a little bit

[00:40:59,252]: The fratty and out of touch

[00:41:00,212]: That Bud Light’s been fratty and out of touch

[00:41:02,072]: Sorry

[00:41:02,492]: Fratty and out of touch

[00:41:02,932]: Fratty and out of touch

[00:41:04,052]: Yep

[00:41:04,672]: And I just have to say I mean she didn’t run the company

[00:41:07,132]: She’s head of the brand

[00:41:08,192]: She has supervisors

[00:41:09,092]: If someone who worked for me well we sell Alp

[00:41:11,452]: And if someone’s like in a meeting with me like the problem with Alp is its users suck

[00:41:16,772]: And they’ve got like antique retrograde attitudes

[00:41:19,692]: And we just need to give them the finger

[00:41:21,572]: I would say you’re fired because you don’t love our people

[00:41:25,872]: That’s it

[00:41:26,552]: Exactly

[00:41:27,172]: So why did no one say that

[00:41:28,352]: But that’s what’s crazy is that she literally called the customer base you know the fratty out of touch

[00:41:33,912]: And like you know immediately lost trust with the whole entire customer base

[00:41:37,272]: And what are you guys talking about

[00:41:38,632]: And do people like to be lectured

[00:41:42,112]: Yelled at by Alyssa Schneinhauser from Harvard

[00:41:45,712]: And what’s crazy about this

[00:41:48,492]: So the timeline of events was so because we’re coming up on actually two years when this happened

[00:41:52,532]: So this partnership with that Bud Light did with Dylan Mulvaney and controversial transgender actors happened on April Fool’s Day of 2023

[00:42:00,852]: So and a lot of people originally thought this was a joke of like oh this is like Bud Light must be joking about this because there’s no way that they would ever do a partnership with somebody who was literally just the Joe Biden’s White House advocating for gender affirmation care and biological men to compete against women in sports

[00:42:13,432]: But this is all a sudden Bud Light’s a partnership with this

[00:42:16,492]: Like I don’t understand this

[00:42:17,752]: Then two or three days later that video comes out of Alyssa essentially being like Bud Light is fratting out of touch

[00:42:23,232]: We’re going to be ready and out of that

[00:42:24,872]: And we’re going to be more inclusive

[00:42:26,412]: What

[00:42:26,772]: That’s the problem

[00:42:27,932]: Alyssa was out of touch

[00:42:28,972]: I mean this is who’s out of touch

[00:42:31,772]: I mean it’s crazy with what’s going on

[00:42:34,932]: I mean this is what this is how out of touch

[00:42:36,392]: I think a lot of the people in New York became where all of a sudden they’re saying you know no no no

[00:42:41,152]: Our customers we need new customers and the new customers are going to be whoever follows Dylan Mulvaney on Instagram which I think was actually like mostly like underage girls

[00:42:51,052]: Because there were literally all of these now investigations going on saying wait a minute you guys sponsored Mulvaney who just has a bunch of underage followers

[00:42:59,132]: Like what are you guys doing

[00:42:59,972]: This makes no sense

[00:43:00,952]: Dressed like a child

[00:43:02,232]: I mean some dude dressed like a little girl

[00:43:04,912]: First of all who’s looking into that guy’s personal life

[00:43:07,792]: You know like that’s dark

[00:43:09,212]: Yeah

[00:43:09,692]: But yeah so the partnership itself was it was obviously incredibly flawed

[00:43:14,152]: Is it true that Dylan Mulvaney is like a huge Zinn user

[00:43:17,532]: Someone told me that he loves Zinn

[00:43:18,792]: I don’t know

[00:43:19,352]: I’ve never met Dylan

[00:43:20,212]: I don’t know if that’s true or not

[00:43:21,492]: Do you think you should have Dylan on the show so you can figure it out

[00:43:24,052]: Know what

[00:43:25,032]: You should

[00:43:25,612]: I keep hearing and I have no idea if it’s true

[00:43:27,552]: I’m not endorsing this but that Philip Morris and Zinn are hiring Dylan Mulvaney

[00:43:31,772]: I don’t know if that’s true

[00:43:32,932]: I don’t know

[00:43:33,312]: I mean based off what I saw their website they make perfect sense

[00:43:36,172]: I mean they’re almost becoming the Ben and Jerry’s of a hundred percent

[00:43:39,332]: I mean that’s what it is

[00:43:40,432]: And actually you know what

[00:43:40,992]: That’s fine

[00:43:41,312]: I don’t want that in my mouth

[00:43:42,512]: OK I just don’t

[00:43:43,492]: You know what

[00:43:43,872]: I actually respect Ben and Jerry’s as a brand because they at least stand

[00:43:47,472]: They’re very clear about what they stand for

[00:43:48,792]: I completely agree

[00:43:49,152]: They say we’re going to use ice cream to advance a socially progressive mission

[00:43:52,752]: Great

[00:43:52,912]: Hey in this country you can do that

[00:43:54,132]: If there’s a customer base for that go do that

[00:43:56,072]: I couldn’t agree more

[00:43:56,892]: I find their ideas repugnant but I respect their bravery and their principle

[00:44:00,872]: Their ice cream’s like unbelievable

[00:44:02,712]: I’m going to get diabetes if I eat it again but it’s really good

[00:44:06,592]: And they’re consistent in their views

[00:44:08,132]: Yeah they’re consistent in their views

[00:44:10,092]: But a company like Zinn or AB you had no idea that they were

[00:44:14,808]: you know spending money on causes that like you know in direct conflict with your own family these people hate your family and you’re buying their product

[00:44:23,848]: And this was the whole deal

[00:44:24,828]: So obviously the partnership itself made no sense but the response to it was just as harmful

[00:44:29,548]: And that was just as problematic really because if you recall that there was so you know listen it goes on the on the on the TV where she’s fratty out of touch Kid Rock then lights up a pack of Bud Light with an AR 15 which was a big deal

[00:44:42,448]: So then all of a sudden you have all of these sort of people saying you know screw Bud Light people posting videos of them not buying it

[00:44:49,688]: And then the company said hey there was a quick press release saying yes we do partnerships with influencers to celebrate milestones

[00:44:57,928]: In this case we did this milestone of three hundred sixty five days of womanhood

[00:45:01,788]: Everyone’s like what are you talking about

[00:45:03,108]: Bud Light

[00:45:04,028]: It’s a dude by the way

[00:45:04,728]: It’s not these are not women

[00:45:05,908]: These are men dressed as women

[00:45:07,168]: Yeah I mean it’s so insulting

[00:45:08,548]: And in the same way you probably wouldn’t at that time have sent a candid Donald Trump to celebrate his coming but it was not a political brand

[00:45:16,128]: And so everyone’s really confused

[00:45:17,868]: And so the sales just tumble

[00:45:19,108]: And what’s really what’s really that obvious right away

[00:45:21,648]: So yes this is what’s really interesting

[00:45:23,288]: It’s like boycotts tend to work for for two reasons

[00:45:26,088]: And they actually had never worked almost in history

[00:45:27,648]: Everyone talks about I hate when the NFL had the whole kneeling thing going on

[00:45:30,748]: But NFL ratings were super high

[00:45:32,668]: Other people have called a boycott comes almost network

[00:45:34,328]: But in this case it worked for two reasons

[00:45:36,088]: One if there’s a easily accessible substitute so if you think about every week by Bud Light you have Coors Light you have Miller Light

[00:45:43,248]: I mean you go to a gas station you have Coors Light six packs Miller Light six packs Bud Light six packs

[00:45:47,308]: Yeah

[00:45:47,468]: And then you also you go to a bar

[00:45:48,588]: You have Miller Light on tap

[00:45:49,348]: You have Bud Light on tap

[00:45:50,168]: And for ninety five percent of Americans I mean Bud Light is indistinguishable from Coors Light and from Miller Light

[00:45:54,808]: So the substitutes are easily there

[00:45:56,428]: Do you know I quit drinking before light beer was a thing

[00:45:58,848]: I never have had a light beer in my life from men just did not drink light beer when I quit drinking

[00:46:04,468]: Is it good but like yeah I’ve never had

[00:46:07,108]: I mean like yeah I mean if you like if you like light beer I mean it’s a great light beer

[00:46:10,148]: It’s very consistent

[00:46:10,988]: They have great brew masters

[00:46:12,208]: They have

[00:46:12,648]: So it’s very good as a product

[00:46:14,488]: But so also as Coors and Miller Light but it’s almost it’s almost like a commodity of a of a of a brand

[00:46:20,308]: Right

[00:46:20,568]: So therefore the only thing you actually did have was your brand itself which Bud Light was funny humorous and apolitical

[00:46:27,108]: The other reason that boycotts work is that if you actually feel like you’re having an impact and having an effect

[00:46:31,428]: And the other thing that happens which is interesting the beer industry every week you get data that’s reported by Walmart and Kroger and 7 Eleven and your big retailers all these big retailers about what sales look like

[00:46:41,848]: And that’s just reported every week

[00:46:44,128]: Usually people don’t care about that at all

[00:46:45,448]: I mean you know no one ever cares what the real sales are

[00:46:47,428]: But in this in this instance all of a sudden the media was reporting every single week that Bud Light sales were down 10 percent 20 percent 30 percent

[00:46:55,368]: So it’s snowballs

[00:46:56,328]: So it starts snowballing

[00:46:57,888]: And they and as Bush they can’t starve the media of information and data

[00:47:02,508]: And so all of a sudden like and as a Bush is watching their sales decline a lot and they go wow we got to we got to do something

[00:47:09,008]: The problem was they always say they’re they’re they’re stuck between this you know the Black Rock and a hard place

[00:47:13,768]: You know it’s Black Rock

[00:47:14,608]: We’re saying hey you guys need more D I and inclusivity

[00:47:17,868]: And that’s the agenda we’re pushing

[00:47:20,248]: There are corporations like the Human Rights Campaign that scores Anheuser Busch every single year on there

[00:47:25,728]: Why would a beer company I mean the human rights company are freaks

[00:47:29,628]: I mean they’re literally freaks and they’re evil completely evil

[00:47:33,028]: In my opinion it’s not about equality

[00:47:34,908]: It’s about crushing families and Christianity obviously

[00:47:38,508]: So why would a beer company care what they think

[00:47:41,248]: Well because the problem was again Black Rock State Street Vanguard who are technically these large shareholders of your business they have adopted ESG and D I

[00:47:49,488]: And they’re saying if you want to get included in our ESG indexes or Mike Bloomberg Bloomberg has a gender equality index

[00:47:55,468]: If you want to get included in these you guys need to have a perfect score on the human rights campaign

[00:47:59,948]: And if I’m the Chinese I’m encouraging this a lot

[00:48:03,088]: Wreck wreck your opponent with this

[00:48:05,168]: I mean it’s insane

[00:48:06,008]: It made no sense

[00:48:07,048]: And when the Human Rights Committee started I know 20 years ago the whole thing was like OK like I don’t know

[00:48:11,308]: Don’t make fun of like I don’t know LGBTQ plus

[00:48:14,208]: OK fine

[00:48:14,448]: I was never against Human Rights Campaign but just to further I worked like a block from them for 15 years in downtown D C on 17th Street

[00:48:22,128]: I was never against them at all

[00:48:23,908]: I was like OK I’m for civil liberties including for gays

[00:48:26,988]: I’m not

[00:48:27,408]: I’m not against that at all

[00:48:28,528]: I’m for it

[00:48:29,448]: But it became incredibly rigid

[00:48:30,928]: It wasn’t about that at all

[00:48:31,768]: Yeah it was about destroying American society which they have done a lot to achieve

[00:48:35,608]: And now to get these perfect scores then you have to have so many commercials that advertise to LGBT plus

[00:48:41,148]: You have to do all the gender affirmation stuff in your health

[00:48:43,308]: You got to sell gay beer

[00:48:44,508]: I mean that was essentially like what it was becoming

[00:48:47,548]: And even the company itself I mean they were trying to win these like con line awards over in And so we so we used to always think our advertisement was did you win the USA Today Super Bowl Admeter Award that showed like you were in touch with the kind of American consumer

[00:49:00,448]: And for I mean from like 2003 to 2013 Anisbush won it every single year

[00:49:05,168]: Then when they brought a new European ownership and new marketers all of a sudden they didn’t win it for 10 plus years

[00:49:10,328]: And but they tried now start winning and showing they won these con line awards over in Europe

[00:49:16,128]: They had these awards in Con France

[00:49:18,228]: And to win the con line advertising awards you have to have your DEI and your ESG policies and you have to do all of the advertisements that are essentially

[00:49:27,048]: Why do you care about it

[00:49:27,908]: That’s it

[00:49:28,348]: You shouldn’t

[00:49:29,228]: You shouldn’t

[00:49:29,688]: But again to get included in the BlackRock Statesheet Vanguard indexes for ESG DEI you can highlight your awards that you won from Con Lion

[00:49:37,468]: You can highlight your perfect score from the human rights campaign

[00:49:40,168]: You can highlight just all control mechanisms run by people like Larry Fink like the worst

[00:49:45,508]: I mean there was a whole I call the stakeholder capitalism industrial complex and everybody was just trying to make money

[00:49:50,288]: McKinsey they were the big consulting firm

[00:49:52,448]: I mean they had this again this diversity matters diversity wins report to sell consulting services for DEI

[00:49:58,628]: BlackRock had a whole DEI component to put people into certain funds to charge investors more money

[00:50:04,288]: You had a lot of activists that they wanted to show that they were could get more money from Soros or whoever else that they’re making progress by putting up actually activist proposals at companies that shareholders would then vote on

[00:50:16,188]: So it was this big almost like industrial complex just kept feeding on itself to destroy the meritocracy and destroy the United States

[00:50:22,008]: I mean essentially like that’s where like where we were

[00:50:23,928]: It destroys the country

[00:50:24,868]: If you don’t have a meritocracy if the best people can’t rise because of the wrong color or the wrong sex then your country collapse and almost mean Bud Light was essentially holding the pin when this whole bubble popped

[00:50:35,588]: They were this is the first time that people saw like wait a minute you know OK I didn’t like when Disney got involved in the parental rights issues down in Florida

[00:50:42,188]: But you know Disney is always kind of a little a little out there and didn’t make any sense that Disney was getting involved in this year

[00:50:47,688]: Oh it’s the same attitude

[00:50:48,968]: Same but kind of same attitude

[00:50:50,568]: But the problem with Disney is that OK you know I don’t like Disney but there’s only one Disney world

[00:50:54,768]: I don’t really have a lot of other places to go

[00:50:56,628]: So I’m still going to go to Disney World

[00:50:57,548]: But with Bud Light people easily went to Coors Light

[00:51:00,048]: Yeah

[00:51:00,588]: And so going back to this whole story about why the response was so damaging

[00:51:04,968]: So all the same

[00:51:05,668]: Can I just ask since you work there and you’ve written a book on it

[00:51:09,068]: Yeah

[00:51:09,268]: And I left by this point

[00:51:10,848]: So right

[00:51:11,208]: Of course

[00:51:11,468]: But I mean you know the business

[00:51:12,768]: Yes yes yes yes

[00:51:13,628]: What’s the right before you explain what they did

[00:51:16,088]: What’s the right answer

[00:51:17,248]: So you’re running Anheuser Busch right now

[00:51:19,688]: This happens

[00:51:20,988]: It’s a huge threat to your core business which is selling beer

[00:51:23,948]: Yeah

[00:51:24,668]: Well how do you what do you do

[00:51:25,928]: I mean like the answer is so simple

[00:51:27,348]: The first thing you do is that you fire the VP of marketing who just called your entire customer base fratting it out of touch

[00:51:33,728]: And then you say we fired her because that was obviously not not empathetic to our customers and not core business

[00:51:39,188]: You hate our customers

[00:51:39,728]: You can’t work here

[00:51:40,168]: You can’t work here

[00:51:40,728]: Like just like done out

[00:51:43,028]: And then separately like the biggest piece is like then you just apologize

[00:51:46,148]: You know I always say it’s like the like the path to apologize you know but it’s like it’s like the path to like I was like redemption

[00:51:53,668]: It goes through forgiveness

[00:51:54,968]: But the only way you’re going to be forgiven is if you admit you made a mistake

[00:51:58,688]: And then what you say is like hey this was obviously a mistake that this person made

[00:52:02,388]: And so we’ve moved on from this person because we made a mistake hiring this person putting them in

[00:52:06,048]: And then separately also we made a mistake as Bud Light

[00:52:09,108]: We made a mistake because Bud Light was never supposed to be involved in controversial political issues

[00:52:14,208]: And Dylan Mulvaney was not the right choice of a person to get involved with because there are things you recall as well

[00:52:21,868]: The week this partnership happened this was during the time when a lot of legislation is in session

[00:52:27,268]: So there were I think twenty five bills across the country to ban biological men from playing its women in sports

[00:52:32,188]: There was a bunch of bills banning gender affirmation care

[00:52:34,548]: And also leading up to this week that was the week that you had the transgender shooter in the in the Christian school in Tennessee

[00:52:40,248]: Yeah

[00:52:40,428]: Whose manifesto we weren’t allowed to see

[00:52:42,048]: Right

[00:52:42,268]: Exactly

[00:52:42,668]: So I mean this was like a very big issue across the entire country right now

[00:52:46,608]: It’s a violent group

[00:52:47,548]: So this is why there was a lot of problems with Dylan Mulvaney who’d become kind of the face of really the very progressive transgender movement why Bud Light never should have the partnership in the first place and say like because Bud Light was always about fun and music and sports is like we should have never had this person as a sponsorship

[00:53:02,608]: I mean they shouldn’t have Donald Trump as a sponsor either

[00:53:05,268]: Of course

[00:53:05,628]: They should

[00:53:06,208]: Just just so that’s what’s a Bud Light

[00:53:07,848]: You sell beer

[00:53:08,608]: Just so you’re going to we’re going to get back to selling beer

[00:53:10,868]: Guys we screwed up

[00:53:11,908]: We apologize

[00:53:12,508]: We want our customers back

[00:53:13,648]: We’re selling beer

[00:53:14,268]: End of story

[00:53:15,028]: The problem is they couldn’t do that because they’ve made all these other commitments to the human rights campaign who they tried it who they highlighted every single year in their annual ESG report that they had a perfect score on it

[00:53:25,948]: They had made the human rights campaign is like they’re not big shareholders of a B

[00:53:30,428]: No but I have no right to run a beer company or a stakeholder of a B

[00:53:34,328]: And that becomes the problem

[00:53:36,348]: You have all you know like moral legitimacy

[00:53:38,948]: Even if you love the human rights campaign which is totally evil just that’s my opinion having known them

[00:53:46,188]: But even if you love them why did they get a veto over the behavior of like a huge publicly traded company

[00:53:53,588]: It’s just like crazy

[00:53:54,548]: It all just feeds on itself

[00:53:56,328]: It’s called a stakeholder capitalism industrial complex

[00:53:58,948]: So the stakeholder really the beer drinkers but that’s the problem

[00:54:01,988]: That became the least we can insult your customer became sort of the lowest priority which is probably it made zero sense

[00:54:09,408]: And then so so again this partnership usually happened on April 1st on April 15th

[00:54:13,608]: That’s when you have the CEO for the first time getting Brendan Whitworth who I know very well

[00:54:18,608]: He made a first public essentially response and it’s almost this comical letter

[00:54:24,448]: I think it was called like our letter to America or something where it never acknowledged the situation they were in

[00:54:30,408]: They never acknowledged the controversy never mentioned Dylan by name

[00:54:33,348]: It was just a hey we’re going to get back to brewing beer

[00:54:35,808]: And here’s a video of Clydesdale riding it riding across America

[00:54:39,008]: And I mean as you can imagine the outrage was was palpable both on the right and their little customers that were like wait a minute we wanted that exact kind of a apology

[00:54:48,388]: And hey we fired the person I just gave

[00:54:49,968]: But then now you have all these people on the left

[00:54:51,808]: They’re saying wait a minute I wanted you guys to you’re going to be become like Ben and Jerry’s

[00:54:55,188]: You know I want you guys to be doing more of the of the of the Dylan campaign

[00:54:58,928]: And so all of a sudden the company actually its sales declined even more

[00:55:03,048]: And funny enough is he still there

[00:55:04,828]: He’s still there which is crazy

[00:55:05,708]: Everyone is still there’s been zero accountability for this despite the fact that you know I don’t know the guy

[00:55:11,828]: I’ve met him and talked to him former CIA guy former CIA guy

[00:55:15,268]: Right

[00:55:17,288]: Extremely physically fit

[00:55:19,028]: A big big big CrossFit

[00:55:20,148]: Most CEOs I’ve met and particularly the more disconnected from manufacturing they are the more finance oriented

[00:55:27,648]: They are the better physical condition

[00:55:29,068]: They’re in just cut jawlines

[00:55:31,188]: They all play lacrosse and Middlebury

[00:55:32,868]: They’re always on the guy looks like Joe

[00:55:34,368]: One hundred percent

[00:55:35,108]: I’m not against physical fitness

[00:55:36,428]: I could use a little more myself

[00:55:38,548]: But that doesn’t seem like a relevant criterion if you’re choosing a CEO

[00:55:42,608]: And yet every Larry Fink is kind of pudgy

[00:55:45,608]: So I’m on his side for that

[00:55:47,468]: But it feels like whoever’s doing the hiring here is doing it based on appearance

[00:55:51,168]: And these are white people mostly

[00:55:52,728]: So it’s not it’s not D I

[00:55:55,048]: exactly

[00:55:55,568]: But it is a form of D I

[00:55:56,648]: Like why

[00:55:57,608]: Like that guy seemed like every other CEO I’ve met in the last 10 years vapid afraid completely terrified

[00:56:06,228]: You could smell the fear on the guy obsessed with his physical appearance and totally lacking creativity

[00:56:14,128]: Are those fair descriptions

[00:56:15,268]: That was just my reaction

[00:56:17,048]: Spending an evening with him

[00:56:19,028]: That’s amazing

[00:56:19,428]: I mean you spent one evening with him

[00:56:21,008]: I spent I don’t know I’ve known Brendan for 10 years

[00:56:23,168]: I’m not saying he’s like a terrible person

[00:56:24,528]: I’m yeah you know I don’t know that

[00:56:27,068]: But I but he is definitely and I hate to single him out though

[00:56:29,968]: He’s a former CIA guy

[00:56:31,368]: Yeah

[00:56:31,588]: I should be disqualifying right there

[00:56:33,548]: But oh I’m sorry

[00:56:34,728]: But like he seemed emblematic of an entire class of people who in my pretty extensive experience around them are deeply unimpressive like not like I would not hire any of them to do anything in my I mean I think the bigger talking about it’s the lack of courage

[00:56:50,988]: And I think we saw this a lot with a lot of CEOs

[00:56:53,268]: And I think especially with with Brendan Wareham

[00:56:55,868]: So he reported into a global CEO which is this guy Michelle Dukakis who’s European and kind of sure he’s a good guy

[00:57:03,468]: Yeah

[00:57:04,128]: Yeah

[00:57:04,768]: So and I think this is this is again the sound like French mastermind

[00:57:09,328]: I mean but it’s a little bit of that where we’re Brendan all of a sudden like and he need to take a hard stand and say you know what

[00:57:14,168]: We screwed up

[00:57:15,008]: We’re firing this person

[00:57:15,968]: We apologize

[00:57:16,848]: We’re get back to doing Bud Light commercials that are fun and humorous whatever else

[00:57:20,708]: And he didn’t do it

[00:57:22,008]: And he didn’t do it that first time in April

[00:57:24,008]: There was another really

[00:57:25,188]: So how does he keep his job

[00:57:26,788]: Well I’ll get back to that in a second

[00:57:28,668]: But then this was really telling

[00:57:30,188]: There was going into July 4th weekend of 2023

[00:57:33,468]: This is the biggest beer selling weekend of the year

[00:57:35,888]: Bud Light sales a tank down 30 40 percent

[00:57:37,988]: The stocks lost 40 billion dollars in our market cap

[00:57:40,728]: The the business has gone from making six billion dollars lost

[00:57:43,508]: How much market lost

[00:57:44,508]: Forty billion dollars

[00:57:45,268]: A market cap billion 40 billion of market cap

[00:57:47,168]: I mean the stock was around 70 dollars a share when this happened and went down to

[00:57:50,408]: So how can this Elisa chick and the CIA dude still I mean how could they ever work again in American business

[00:57:55,788]: Forty billion dollars

[00:57:57,068]: You’ll love this

[00:57:57,848]: Elisa was placed on leave at some point along this

[00:58:00,448]: She’s actually now working for live in the live tour

[00:58:02,768]: The Saudi golf tour which is like really I swear to God I feel like you can’t make this up

[00:58:06,968]: Actually I swear to God

[00:58:07,788]: Yeah I swear to God

[00:58:08,948]: So it’s at least that are linked in

[00:58:10,988]: It’s working for the live Saudi golf tour

[00:58:13,188]: So anyway that’s what we get that a second

[00:58:16,768]: So we’ll get that a second

[00:58:18,648]: But the so going to July 4th we get 20 23 for the first time Brendan goes on national TV and he goes on CBS and he has this live interview where he’s going to try and get this back on track because he’s now missed twice with a response and it’s only antagonized people

[00:58:34,288]: Things have gotten worse

[00:58:35,188]: So he goes on CBS and one of the hosts first off says hey thank you for being here because most people in your seat they would run for the hills

[00:58:40,348]: I mean after what we’ve seen with millions of customers losing leaving you billions of dollars being lost

[00:58:45,708]: But they say hey the question everyone knows was this partnership a mistake

[00:58:50,148]: And would you do it again

[00:58:51,788]: And he gives some real wishy washy mealy mouth answer

[00:58:55,828]: Well there’s a lot of things going on in the world and culture and this and that

[00:58:59,008]: And after 30 seconds of kind of wavering around the host comes back and says to be clear like you do realize the answer you just gave is the reason why millions of people have left billions of dollars have been raised

[00:59:08,108]: Let me ask again was this campaign a mistake and would you do it again

[00:59:11,808]: And again he gives a completely evasive 40 billion loss and he can’t say it’s a bad idea

[00:59:17,408]: Can’t say it’s a bad idea

[00:59:18,368]: And what’s crazy is that literally that exact same week Dylan and I can’t I feel bad for Dylan in this whole thing because Dylan essentially comes out and says hey if you can’t stand by like a transgender person then don’t do the campaign

[00:59:32,448]: Don’t do it

[00:59:33,148]: You know that’s worse than not hiring somebody at all

[00:59:34,648]: But like just don’t do it

[00:59:36,348]: And so Dylan essentially said it was a mistake because they couldn’t stand by it

[00:59:39,668]: Larry Fink that week at the Aspen Ideas Festival says I’m not using the term ESG anymore because it’s become too controversial and it’s lost its meaning

[00:59:47,828]: And you have this now CEO of one of the most iconic companies in the United States Anheuser Busch can’t make a direct response about a campaign that has cost this company billions of dollars millions of customers

[00:59:58,568]: They had to fire thousands of employees after the supplier shut down

[01:00:02,768]: Not the CIA guy

[01:00:03,728]: He kept his

[01:00:04,388]: But he’s kept his job still

[01:00:05,588]: And he still can’t stand that

[01:00:07,148]: Like where’s does the company have a board

[01:00:09,368]: Well this is a problem but it’s a European based board

[01:00:11,888]: So it’s based over in Europe

[01:00:13,808]: It’s based in Belgium

[01:00:14,968]: They still abide by a lot of these different philosophy

[01:00:17,748]: And this is where we’re coming into an issue

[01:00:19,928]: So what’s the point of having a head of the company a president of the company if you’re just going to be a puppet

[01:00:24,108]: That’s the problem

[01:00:24,868]: And that’s why I almost think that for a lot of companies I think Anheuser Busch specifically I think their company is actually better off probably selling its U S business unit at this point because I don’t think you can serve this European system

[01:00:36,608]: Well it is

[01:00:37,728]: But I think people love a great American comeback story

[01:00:40,388]: I agree

[01:00:40,728]: They do

[01:00:41,708]: And but to make that story you have to admit again that there was a mistake and that you screwed up and that you’ve taken accountability for it and that we now have a different plan

[01:00:49,108]: It doesn’t matter how much money the company has subsequently spent on

[01:00:53,268]: I mean it’s one hundred million dollars for Dana White and the UFC

[01:00:55,908]: They’ve hired Shane Gillis

[01:00:56,948]: They’ve hired Peyton Manning

[01:00:58,928]: They’ve done all these things to try and get the customer back

[01:01:01,268]: But all the customer wants is like guys I say screw it up

[01:01:03,348]: One of the greatest changes of the past six months is you can finally say loud and proud without the threat of going to jail for it that you’re for babies

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[01:02:23,008]: But all of it is so far from the core mission

[01:02:27,008]: I mean I knew you know former head of that company pretty well

[01:02:30,648]: Wonderful man

[01:02:32,728]: And it’s probably still was true as of last year

[01:02:34,748]: You know he was doesn’t doesn’t run the company anymore

[01:02:37,248]: August Bush August Bush the third

[01:02:39,048]: Yeah

[01:02:39,328]: The third

[01:02:39,948]: What the best meetings I’ve ever been in my entire life is amazing

[01:02:42,548]: Unbelievable

[01:02:43,028]: He’s he’s unbelievable

[01:02:44,148]: Yeah

[01:02:44,448]: Tell stories

[01:02:45,028]: But yeah he’s an unbelievable person

[01:02:46,728]: But he and this may be true today

[01:02:48,968]: You know he’s he’s an older man mid 80s anyway

[01:02:51,628]: But he was still tasting Budweiser beer every single week that they send him every single U S product

[01:02:58,568]: And he tastes it

[01:02:59,708]: He’s one of six or seven

[01:03:00,648]: You know this because you work

[01:03:02,148]: And the people who founded that company that family you could say a lot of things about the family and his big fractious family with all kinds of stories

[01:03:09,588]: But they all love beer

[01:03:11,468]: Oh yeah

[01:03:11,768]: Like they truly love beer

[01:03:13,388]: They drink their beers like they think that Bud Light’s an amazing beer

[01:03:16,508]: And they think you know Bud Heavy’s a great beer

[01:03:18,668]: Like they’re into the product

[01:03:20,448]: Oh totally

[01:03:21,148]: Feels like that’s a correct like

[01:03:23,349]: I use Alp from the second I wake up to the second I go to bed

[01:03:26,489]: That’s why we own the company because I love it

[01:03:29,809]: And I think if you don’t have that spirit if the head of Philip Morris doesn’t even smoke Marlboro Reds get out

[01:03:37,389]: I totally agree

[01:03:38,489]: If you’re embarrassed of what you do don’t do it

[01:03:40,229]: I completely agree

[01:03:41,089]: I mean the Budweiser they said they almost had Budweiser in their veins

[01:03:43,889]: I think there was a whole story that when you’re born they literally give you a thimble of Budweiser

[01:03:47,489]: It’s like the first thing I think you drink

[01:03:48,889]: And if you’ve got a problem with it don’t work there

[01:03:50,689]: That’s it

[01:03:51,809]: Why is that hard

[01:03:53,149]: If you go to church and the priest is like well actually I’m an atheist

[01:03:56,109]: It’s like okay I’m not saying you should go to jail for atheism but I don’t think you should be preaching in a church

[01:04:00,689]: You shouldn’t be here

[01:04:01,769]: Yeah

[01:04:01,849]: So I completely agree

[01:04:03,369]: And I think that’s one of the problems that we have is that even here and there’s a bunch of other brands as well

[01:04:07,469]: I mean Jeep’s another great one

[01:04:09,309]: Jeep’s owned by now Stellantis which is based over in the Netherlands

[01:04:12,009]: And you’re talking about man if you’re going to have an American brand like Jeep should that really be owned by the Europeans

[01:04:16,829]: If they just have a completely different philosophical system and they just have the European mindset this is very different

[01:04:21,869]: Like tiny little electric cars little gay cars

[01:04:24,689]: It’s so weird

[01:04:25,769]: You might be seeing a little mini Jeep

[01:04:27,709]: Yes yes

[01:04:28,429]: I have an eight year old daughter

[01:04:29,589]: She used to have one of those like Barbie Jeeps

[01:04:32,029]: Like a big Jeep little Stonewall Jeep

[01:04:34,629]: No it’s like no it’s fine

[01:04:36,989]: I mean I’m not like go make a Stonewall Jeep if you want but like there should be just like a regular Jeep too

[01:04:41,369]: Yeah and that’s okay

[01:04:42,469]: And give that customer that regular Jeep as well

[01:04:44,829]: And so I don’t know this is where I think also these companies also need to go to I think another company that actually did a pretty good job of navigating a lot of the cultural wars they actually have Netflix a lot of credit

[01:04:56,129]: If you remember there was two or three years ago Netflix was getting a lot of pressure to cancel Dave Chappelle

[01:05:00,969]: Remember when there was this Dave Chappelle special

[01:05:02,649]: Well they wanted to cancel Dave Chappelle

[01:05:04,249]: Well a lot of other people wanted to cancel Dave Chappelle because he had jokes about the LGBTQ and a million other communities by the way

[01:05:10,789]: I mean Dave Chappelle doesn’t leave anybody unscathed

[01:05:12,869]: And there was a lot of pressure

[01:05:14,189]: He was tough on the trans thing though

[01:05:15,469]: He’s like this is not right

[01:05:17,929]: I mean he like

[01:05:19,209]: Yeah he was tough on that

[01:05:20,309]: He wasn’t just mocking

[01:05:21,109]: He was like men cannot become women period sorry

[01:05:23,509]: I’m a Muslim I’m not doing this

[01:05:25,089]: But you know his that’s hey it’s freedom of speech

[01:05:27,449]: I agree

[01:05:27,909]: No I’m 100 on Dave Chappelle’s side

[01:05:29,589]: I’m just saying it was more than just a joke

[01:05:32,329]: Like he was serious about it I think

[01:05:34,829]: But the thing I at least give Netflix credit for is when all of this was going on they were told to cancel Chappelle they came out with this culture of excellence document

[01:05:41,789]: And this culture of excellence document essentially said like we are not going to censor artists at Netflix

[01:05:46,469]: We are going to put out content for liberals conservatives whatever you kind of name it and people will watch whatever they want to watch but we are not going to censor it at Netflix

[01:05:55,149]: And if you have an issue with that then go work somewhere else

[01:05:58,089]: And I actually give Netflix a lot of credit for that because they’re based in California

[01:06:00,909]: Yeah man I agree

[01:06:01,309]: And that’s great

[01:06:02,569]: They employ the Obamas

[01:06:04,009]: Yeah that’s it

[01:06:05,089]: Play that but then also well I guess it was Amazon that picked up the Melania Trump deal but great like put it all out there

[01:06:10,929]: I mean who cares

[01:06:11,429]: Americans watch whatever they want

[01:06:12,509]: And so I give them a lot of credit for that

[01:06:15,209]: I think that that’s also where Anheuser Busch kind of needs to go as well is to say listen we have a whole portfolio of beers

[01:06:20,049]: Hell we have King Cobra 40 ounce bottles

[01:06:22,889]: King Cobra

[01:06:23,809]: But then we also have craft breweries like Goose Island

[01:06:26,869]: So they make King Cobra 40s

[01:06:29,089]: And again I don’t drink

[01:06:30,729]: I’m opposed to alcohol but I love that I live in a country that still makes King Cobra 40s

[01:06:34,669]: I do I do

[01:06:35,309]: I can’t help it

[01:06:36,129]: And I assume that is I assume they weren’t pushing Dylan Mulvaney on King Cobra drinkers

[01:06:41,809]: No they were not putting on King Cobra

[01:06:44,749]: That would be hilarious

[01:06:46,309]: That would be awesome

[01:06:47,829]: That would be amazing

[01:06:48,849]: Bring that back

[01:06:49,769]: That would be can you imagine

[01:06:51,169]: A pinup of Dylan Mulvaney on a King Cobra 40 ounce

[01:06:53,829]: Totally

[01:06:53,869]: If Alyssa Schopenhauer or whatever her name is like I think King Cobra drinkers are out of touch

[01:06:59,789]: That would take some balls

[01:07:01,009]: Yeah that would

[01:07:01,549]: That’d be amazing

[01:07:02,249]: That would take some balls

[01:07:04,229]: So yeah but they also have Goose Island

[01:07:06,109]: Goose Island in Chicago they have a Sounds Queer I’m In IPA

[01:07:09,509]: And fine you’re in Chicago and that’s what people want

[01:07:12,609]: Great

[01:07:12,869]: Give them to those folks for your craft beers as well

[01:07:14,809]: I’ve never had it

[01:07:15,489]: I don’t know

[01:07:15,989]: There’s a beer advocate thing that’s just one of these websites that rates beers

[01:07:19,749]: They say it’s great

[01:07:20,809]: So great

[01:07:21,389]: They can do that as well

[01:07:22,089]: By the way I haven’t had a beer in almost 25 years but someone the head of the Athletic Brewing Company which is not a sponsor of the show by the way he just sent me a couple of cases of it

[01:07:31,389]: Have you ever had that

[01:07:32,289]: Oh yeah I have it in my I actually traded emails

[01:07:35,949]: That’s like the best thing I’ve ever had

[01:07:36,969]: It’s great

[01:07:37,629]: That’s why I like it a lot

[01:07:38,249]: I actually traded emails with Bill Shufelt who’s the CEO

[01:07:40,689]: That’s exactly who I what a good guy

[01:07:42,149]: Yeah great guy

[01:07:42,929]: So it’s funny because I he’s done an amazing job and I respect the company

[01:07:46,189]: The product is just so good

[01:07:47,929]: The product is very good

[01:07:48,369]: I mean great product

[01:07:50,069]: I wrote a post

[01:07:51,349]: He got almost a billion dollar valuation for this company in his latest round

[01:07:54,929]: And I just disagreed with the valuation

[01:07:57,309]: I do some consumer investing

[01:07:58,869]: So I wrote a post about like hey great job

[01:08:01,109]: Kudos congratulations

[01:08:01,909]: Here’s why I don’t think it’s going to be a 3 billion company

[01:08:04,469]: He had some issues with my post but I said hey I respect what you’ve done

[01:08:09,229]: And I just you know don’t think you’re gonna be a 3 billion company

[01:08:11,429]: You did great

[01:08:12,309]: Prove me wrong

[01:08:12,789]: I don’t know anything about it

[01:08:13,649]: I like him

[01:08:14,429]: Nice guy

[01:08:14,909]: Again they are not sponsors of this show but he’s totally focused on the product

[01:08:20,429]: Yeah that’s it

[01:08:21,149]: Like he just thinks it’s the best product ever

[01:08:22,609]: He just thinks it’s amazing

[01:08:23,509]: And he’s right

[01:08:24,329]: It is

[01:08:24,929]: Yeah it’s great product

[01:08:25,889]: It tastes just like regular beer

[01:08:27,269]: I think it’s better than I haven’t had a beer in a while but it’s really good

[01:08:31,309]: I had four at dinner the other night

[01:08:33,229]: Yeah they’re great

[01:08:34,029]: Which ones do you have

[01:08:35,449]: I don’t know

[01:08:36,569]: He sent me I don’t know

[01:08:37,349]: He sent me all kinds of different one was called Tucker actually

[01:08:40,909]: Oh really

[01:08:41,309]: Yeah I think it was a wheat beer

[01:08:42,549]: It was the least good but they were all yeah they were amazing

[01:08:45,969]: Yeah and it’s opened up what his non alcoholic beer used to I mean it was terrible

[01:08:49,989]: I never had one

[01:08:51,349]: It was so bad

[01:08:52,149]: It felt so degrading

[01:08:52,529]: It was kind of a joke

[01:08:53,749]: Now that feels like a Dylan Mulvaney segment

[01:08:56,049]: You know what I mean

[01:08:56,589]: You’re like oh I had Dylan

[01:08:58,089]: That’s what it was

[01:08:58,929]: That was essentially what non alcoholic beer was

[01:09:01,109]: And he totally just reframed what it can be where it can be good you have it after a run you feel better

[01:09:07,049]: Like actually delicious

[01:09:08,589]: Actually delicious

[01:09:09,029]: And there’s this whole movement now

[01:09:10,229]: I mean it’s crazy

[01:09:12,329]: Even though I’m categorized as a millennial I like to identify as the greatest generation here Tucker but I think I’m categorized as a millennial

[01:09:20,289]: But my cohort I think 80 of us used to drink alcohol when we were in our 20s

[01:09:23,929]: And now that Gen Z is in their 20s only 60 of them is drinking alcohol at this point

[01:09:29,369]: Yes I mean there’s been a massive drop off in the number of people drinking alcohol

[01:09:32,109]: And then across all cohorts Gen Z millennial Gen X boomers everyone’s generally drinking less also because people are just becoming more health conscious

[01:09:39,109]: So he’s doing a great job of picking up a lot of those people that still like the taste of beer or the occasion of beer but they just don’t want to drink a six pack of beer and feel like trash

[01:09:47,169]: Do you get how good hops are

[01:09:48,569]: Yeah they’re great

[01:09:49,649]: Hops are amazing

[01:09:50,669]: And hops exist for a lot of reasons but one is to counterbalance the taste of alcohol because alcohol does not taste good

[01:09:56,089]: Right

[01:09:56,489]: You take the alcohol out the hops just pardon the pun flower

[01:10:00,349]: Yeah

[01:10:01,369]: Into this amazing now I’m getting very out of control but like this bouquet of flavor

[01:10:07,329]: Yeah I mean I’m getting very telemobainy now but like yeah

[01:10:10,049]: And actually beer complements food a lot better than wine does because it’s so diverse

[01:10:14,049]: Because you have lagers and porters and stouts and IPAs

[01:10:17,189]: Usually with wines you kind of red and white and that’s about it

[01:10:19,689]: But there it actually does a much better job with food

[01:10:21,829]: Have you ever seen Alyssa Schopenhauer or whatever her name is Alyssa German name from Harvard and then CIA guy CEO have you ever seen them drink beer at lunch

[01:10:31,949]: probably not at lunch

[01:10:33,429]: I don’t know

[01:10:33,849]: I feel uh but it was more of like a you know he would drink Budweiser like here and there maybe one or so

[01:10:39,349]: But I think he was much more into the you know muscle milk

[01:10:41,709]: And that was kind of his you know his thing

[01:10:44,029]: So come on now

[01:10:45,049]: But I I don’t know man

[01:10:46,369]: And again it’s Britain should have been more courageous

[01:10:50,429]: Um I don’t know

[01:10:51,309]: Like the guy he took a company was doing 6 billion of profits and now doing 4 billion of profits

[01:10:55,489]: I mean he’s just there

[01:10:56,549]: He’s lost 2 billion

[01:10:58,049]: We’re still here

[01:10:58,689]: That’s a problem

[01:10:59,549]: I what is what is that

[01:11:02,149]: Yeah

[01:11:02,389]: It’s you say like okay he’s a puppet

[01:11:04,309]: He’s clearly a puppet and he’s terrified

[01:11:05,969]: And I again I don’t mean to attack him personally though

[01:11:08,269]: Of course I am but sure

[01:11:09,829]: He’s not a bad guy

[01:11:10,609]: I’m sure his wife and kids like him but um it does seem like the people pulling his puppet strings

[01:11:17,889]: That’s obviously true

[01:11:18,929]: Yeah

[01:11:19,369]: They have an interest in making money

[01:11:20,849]: Like I don’t understand the total lack of accountability in corporate America

[01:11:25,309]: No one’s ever fired

[01:11:26,209]: It’s like the US military

[01:11:27,209]: Well but I think this is part of it

[01:11:28,389]: Again when you’re controlling this European corporation I think they’re doing a good thing by trying to get involved and pushing more of the political issues

[01:11:34,549]: Also I think there’s something to be said is that when you I don’t know reach a certain level of wealth and money and you’re you know billionaire type class

[01:11:39,749]: that’s it

[01:11:40,189]: You want to be part of the right social circles the right scene

[01:11:43,489]: That’s it

[01:11:44,069]: And I think that’s part of it because the whole company is more controlled by these Belgian families and a couple of Brazilian families as well

[01:11:49,509]: And now their kids are on the board and I think it’s just being in the right social circles

[01:11:52,749]: I bet their kids are pretty great right

[01:11:53,909]: You know I never met them Billionaire kids

[01:11:57,249]: Let’s put some billionaire kids on the board

[01:11:59,249]: Yeah

[01:11:59,789]: Let’s get James Murdoch on the board

[01:12:01,109]: That’s it

[01:12:01,529]: He’s a genius

[01:12:03,229]: You know so this is the bigger issue

[01:12:04,749]: And then what’s even funny about Brendan you almost feel I feel bad for Dilma you almost feel bad for Brendan because Kid Rock actually went on a Rogan show and essentially he said he had a big conversation with Brendan as well and he was talking about how he’s you know Kid Rock was making fun of him for the whole CBS interview he did and he’s like I don’t get it man

[01:12:21,069]: Like why did you just get up there and you were like a puppet

[01:12:23,189]: And essentially this Kid Rock’s words and telling the story was like Brendan said he was coached

[01:12:27,149]: He was like yeah I was coached

[01:12:27,869]: I have to say what I have to say

[01:12:28,889]: Like that’s what’s problematic

[01:12:30,489]: And again this is where you come back to this fundamental disconnect between the American sort of way and American business and the European way

[01:12:37,289]: He was essentially coached by the board

[01:12:38,609]: No one is served

[01:12:39,289]: So you have to ask like what actually is this

[01:12:41,809]: So the company’s not served its employees are not served its consumers are not served

[01:12:46,289]: Poor Brendan who’s just like a hapless bystander to his own life guzzling muzzle milk and hitting the elliptical

[01:12:52,009]: He’s not he’s humiliated and then the shareholders lose 2 billion a year

[01:12:56,429]: So like who is winning here

[01:12:59,649]: And you’ve got to think that maybe this is part of a bigger play to destroy the West

[01:13:03,849]: I mean I’ve drawn that out there

[01:13:05,169]: I mean who’s winning

[01:13:06,389]: It’s again I think a lot of the board members

[01:13:08,609]: China’s winning

[01:13:09,509]: China’s probably winning in this thing

[01:13:11,229]: I don’t know if this is like as much of a China is winning

[01:13:13,909]: I don’t know if they have much to do with this

[01:13:15,329]: I think it’s more of this again out of touch European

[01:13:17,189]: But all this stuff the Black Lives Matter helped zero black people except the ones who stole the money from Apple

[01:13:21,449]: Except the big lavish mansions that were there

[01:13:23,569]: no but it didn’t help black people

[01:13:24,689]: I’m all for helping I’m all for helping everybody

[01:13:26,609]: Okay but it didn’t help black people

[01:13:28,229]: It didn’t help you know Kenosha Wisconsin which is destroyed and never will be rebuilt

[01:13:32,909]: Didn’t help all the Hispanic families who live in Kenosha

[01:13:35,269]: It didn’t help anybody actually

[01:13:38,809]: It didn’t help anybody trans

[01:13:41,349]: How many happy trans people are there

[01:13:43,169]: Zero

[01:13:43,569]: That does not help actually

[01:13:45,489]: It just denies people grandchildren

[01:13:48,349]: It’s I don’t know

[01:13:49,989]: It’s hard to see who the winners are

[01:13:51,529]: Like in an armed robbery there’s the victim

[01:13:54,589]: There’s a liquor store owner

[01:13:55,949]: Okay he gets shot but then the guy who takes his money gets the money

[01:13:59,449]: Yeah

[01:13:59,889]: So he wins

[01:14:01,129]: So like I’m not endorsing that of course but there’s a logic to it

[01:14:05,029]: But some of the biggest social trends in the United States don’t seem to have any winners

[01:14:09,569]: No

[01:14:10,109]: And that freaks me out

[01:14:11,229]: Well but again but I think the winners are more of the Chinas

[01:14:14,929]: yeah

[01:14:15,349]: The big picture because if you almost think about it I mentioned this earlier but the US was always exceptional

[01:14:21,469]: It’s always been the city upon a hill that people are good at

[01:14:23,469]: It’s always been unique and distinct and different

[01:14:25,369]: And there have been you know it’s always been radical ideas in the United States to have free speech and American capitalism and freedom of religion

[01:14:32,089]: These have all been radical ideas for a long time

[01:14:34,529]: And that’s allowed us to become the most successful you name a country

[01:14:37,389]: And I think that there’s been ways that sort of the Europeans the Chinese others they’ve been able to infiltrate that and try and rebalance

[01:14:44,009]: I mean if you’re going into a you know the so called like oppressor versus oppressed framework like for the rest of the world this US was always this you know oppressor type country were always oppressed

[01:14:53,049]: How do you rebalance

[01:14:54,509]: Well you try and social engineer and you try and

[01:14:56,849]: You get the country to kill itself

[01:14:58,089]: Yeah

[01:14:58,329]: I mean that’s the way that that’s essentially the way that you do it

[01:15:00,309]: It does seem that way if you’re thinking long term

[01:15:02,269]: And by the way I don’t mean to blame China

[01:15:04,809]: I don’t hate China

[01:15:05,869]: I respect China

[01:15:07,429]: And they’re acting in what they think is their own interest which I think is what countries ought to do

[01:15:11,389]: But um I’m not blaming them for you know Melissa Schopenhauer or whatever her name is

[01:15:20,029]: sorry

[01:15:20,189]: I’m just going to let you just keep going

[01:15:21,609]: Sorry

[01:15:21,649]: Because I love everyone

[01:15:23,029]: Everyone’s great

[01:15:23,769]: Sorry

[01:15:25,049]: I’m not going to correct it all

[01:15:26,269]: The German lady from Harvard and the CIA guy who drinks muscle milk

[01:15:29,049]: I’m not blaming China for their personal inadequacies their mediocrity whatever

[01:15:34,289]: That’s their fault

[01:15:35,529]: But big picture like it’s just like what is going on here

[01:15:39,209]: Yeah

[01:15:39,429]: I mean so I think that is what’s what’s going on is that you have obviously you know governments that are that are antagonists towards the United States are trying to China et cetera trying to kind of pull us back tear us down

[01:15:51,249]: But even a lot of these other um you know companies as well um unfortunately have a different view of what business should be

[01:15:57,929]: And I don’t think it’s going to be good for the business units in the U S

[01:16:01,889]: It’s bad for everybody

[01:16:03,029]: It’s bad for everybody

[01:16:03,849]: the other day who knows Larry Fink really well and I said boy I think Larry Fink has really been damaging to the country to the world

[01:16:11,489]: And this person said you know I feel sorry for Larry Fink

[01:16:14,229]: Why

[01:16:14,629]: Why would you feel sorry for Larry Fink

[01:16:15,449]: Because he’s the single unhappiest person I’ve ever met

[01:16:18,409]: I’m not surprised by that

[01:16:19,789]: It’s so weird

[01:16:20,549]: Like what’s the point of making billions of dollars if you’re miserable

[01:16:23,809]: But here’s the thing it’s all about the ESG and stakeholder capitalism

[01:16:32,789]: We’re going to hold that flag and we’re going to carry it

[01:16:34,629]: But then as soon as people just with principles think about saying guys you’re violating your fiduciary obligation because I just asked you to make money for me and not do social engineering policies that are losing money for me

[01:16:44,069]: And so when all of a sudden people started pulling their money from them they got pulled in front of Congress by a bunch of politicians

[01:16:50,089]: Now all of a sudden Larry Fink is backing away

[01:16:51,849]: He says I don’t say ESG anymore

[01:16:53,389]: He pulled DEI off their website

[01:16:55,509]: But why do all these people hate the United States

[01:16:56,849]: Like the hostility you feel from someone like Larry Fink toward the US is like unmistakable

[01:17:02,609]: It’s like you’re mad at the United States but you’re American and you can only have done what you did in this country with all of our legal protections and all the freedoms that you have

[01:17:11,689]: Like why declare war on your own country

[01:17:13,709]: And they all have

[01:17:15,149]: I don’t know

[01:17:15,609]: It’s just because he’s lines his own pockets along the way

[01:17:18,309]: I guess but there are lots of rich and patriotic too

[01:17:20,749]: You could even I don’t know be unscrupulous in business and be patriotic

[01:17:24,409]: You know you used to work at Fox in New York

[01:17:27,529]: There are a lot of people that literally say like I wouldn’t say I worked in Fox

[01:17:31,169]: Who’s Kat Timpf

[01:17:32,589]: She’s been she used to tell people she worked in the porn industry instead of saying Fox News in New York City

[01:17:38,389]: I’m not going to comment on that

[01:17:40,969]: I mean but I think especially when you’re in New York if you want to go to the right schools and go to the right parties and get your kids into this and that like you can’t be patriotic in a lot of cases

[01:17:49,069]: I know

[01:17:49,329]: And you can’t stand up

[01:17:50,309]: And that’s problematic

[01:17:50,949]: I don’t need to single out Larry Fink

[01:17:52,829]: It sounds like he needs our prayers not our scorn

[01:17:55,889]: But it’s that whole leadership class which is so angry going back to you know Melissa Hindenburg or whatever her name is

[01:18:05,249]: I heard Hindenburg won

[01:18:07,009]: Sorry whatever

[01:18:08,329]: The German girl from Harvard

[01:18:09,609]: I can’t believe that hasn’t been picked up

[01:18:11,669]: the Hindenburg one

[01:18:12,689]: So I haven’t heard that one

[01:18:13,429]: No I was thinking of Paul von Hindenburg not the Blimp

[01:18:16,009]: No I think you’re thinking of the Blimp

[01:18:17,689]: The last president of Germany

[01:18:19,649]: The one who handed it to the Nazis

[01:18:22,449]: No people like that

[01:18:25,409]: And it’s not just her

[01:18:26,389]: Of course it’s an entire class of people who I’ve lived around my whole life

[01:18:29,149]: I know them and I know their attitudes and they’re all like they just hate the country

[01:18:33,389]: There’s like a gut level contempt for the United States

[01:18:36,129]: And it’s like what did America ever do to you

[01:18:38,689]: Actually give a ton of opportunity you made way more than you deserved

[01:18:42,989]: Your life is a lot easier than it would have been in any other place

[01:18:45,729]: What are you mad about

[01:18:46,909]: But they all feel that way

[01:18:49,009]: No I agree

[01:18:49,489]: It’s almost you have to be apologetic about being here and enjoying the freedom

[01:18:54,049]: But they work to undermine it

[01:18:55,069]: They work to wreck it

[01:18:56,249]: Like what’s America

[01:18:57,449]: It’s a meritocracy

[01:18:58,409]: It’s like that’s the whole promise of immigration by the way

[01:19:00,629]: Immigration only works in a meritocracy

[01:19:02,709]: It’s like the smartest most ambitious fairest most decent people around the world get to move here and just kick ass

[01:19:09,409]: Okay everyone’s for that

[01:19:10,789]: We’re not going to like move hundreds of thousands of Haitians into your neighborhood just to wreck it

[01:19:15,889]: Like you can’t do that

[01:19:17,169]: Yeah you know I mean the greatest sort of asset that we have in this country it is the American dream

[01:19:21,709]: I mean that is the greatest asset why people want to move here why people want to invest here why people want to be here

[01:19:27,529]: And there’s a lot of other people that want to tear down that American dream

[01:19:29,969]: They want to make you feel like it’s not real it’s a myth

[01:19:31,989]: who want to

[01:19:32,349]: I just find it so strange if they took that destructive energy and focused it on our actual enemies whoever those might be you know we could get a lot done

[01:19:42,169]: That stuff is more dangerous than nuclear weapons

[01:19:44,189]: Yeah

[01:19:44,529]: Well I think that the pendulum is swinging back

[01:19:46,289]: So we got a lot of people that are finally that’s right

[01:19:48,029]: You know I think a lot of brave people it’s been amazing to see what’s happened in Silicon Valley over the last year or two

[01:19:52,369]: I agree

[01:19:52,669]: These are a lot of smart bright people that were afraid to stick their neck out there

[01:19:56,429]: I mean thank God for Elon that all of a sudden came around and he gave people the ability to put their neck out there also

[01:20:03,609]: And the fact that he represents or owns or runs or whatever his relationship is companies that make things physical things

[01:20:09,889]: Yeah

[01:20:10,249]: That’s why it’s so sad to see it happen to AB because it’s like they actually make a product

[01:20:13,709]: Make a product

[01:20:14,129]: You can hold in your hand

[01:20:15,469]: And it’s a great product

[01:20:16,969]: And whether you like alcohol or not like alcohol I mean Budweiser to some degree was the American dream in a bottle

[01:20:21,189]: This is the famous Budweiser beer

[01:20:22,969]: We know of no other beer that costs so much to ruin age or exclusive Beechwood aging produces a taste a drinkability you will find it in no other beer at any price

[01:20:29,849]: You got to be the only person who hasn’t drank a beer in 25 years that can recite that up from the bottle

[01:20:33,269]: That’s how much beer I drink

[01:20:34,909]: Is that what it was

[01:20:36,009]: For me it was always a breakfast beverage

[01:20:37,789]: Yeah

[01:20:38,429]: I was never you know I probably should have worked there because I was never embarrassed

[01:20:42,349]: I mean I think Kevin I quit drinking but I was never embarrassed to drink in the morning ever

[01:20:46,549]: It never even occurred to me

[01:20:47,709]: I just grew up in a different world

[01:20:49,469]: And I always have felt my whole life

[01:20:51,609]: Breakfast of champions back in the day

[01:20:52,729]: If you’re embarrassed to do something don’t do it

[01:20:54,489]: Yeah

[01:20:54,809]: And so I was never embarrassed

[01:20:55,769]: Like I’d like a beer please

[01:20:57,089]: I’d like a Bud tall boy like a Bud tall boy for breakfast with French toast

[01:21:00,069]: You know what I mean

[01:21:00,569]: Just kind of get you an even keel

[01:21:02,609]: And I I’ve never had a Bud light in my life but I did think that Budweiser was like a pretty serviceable beer

[01:21:08,749]: It was

[01:21:09,229]: It was a great beer very serviceable beer great sort of Americana beer

[01:21:12,869]: And again like the history of the company is amazing

[01:21:15,309]: It’s almost intertwined with the history of the United States

[01:21:17,169]: It really started before the civil war which is crazy

[01:21:19,249]: Oh I know

[01:21:19,729]: And there was a huge supporter in World War I World War II have folds of honor foundation

[01:21:24,069]: I mean hires thousands of veterans

[01:21:26,649]: And so like more long term I want the company to get back

[01:21:29,209]: And it was intertwined with American political and labor history

[01:21:32,209]: I mean August Bush the third who is still alive knew Jimmy Hoffa

[01:21:38,009]: Yeah

[01:21:38,709]: Not like post prison get murdered Jimmy Hoffa but like labor leader Jimmy Hoffa

[01:21:43,449]: Oh yeah

[01:21:43,969]: Definitely

[01:21:44,529]: I mean this was at the center

[01:21:45,809]: It was a huge employer

[01:21:47,489]: It was a builder of the middle class in this country

[01:21:49,889]: They built this distribution network of 500 independent family owned wholesalers across the country which are amazing

[01:21:55,109]: And they all those families got rich like everyone did incredibly well

[01:21:58,369]: And so he was like I mean more broadly and I know a lot of the wholesalers and that they’re all upset about what happened the last couple of years because they lost tons of their business

[01:22:05,589]: They had to fire employees

[01:22:06,529]: But CIA guy still has his job

[01:22:07,569]: Yes which is crazy

[01:22:08,709]: And it’s I mean it’s even funny as well

[01:22:10,309]: So this year he tried to you know how beer on menus usually says domestic or import

[01:22:14,849]: Yeah

[01:22:15,189]: And so he tried to reframe domestic beer as American beer which sounds like a great idea but if you’re not an American owned company where do you put in as a Bush

[01:22:23,689]: Do you put them on the American beer or on the import beer

[01:22:26,349]: I don’t know

[01:22:26,709]: A lot of times the import I think that’s one of the reasons they should actually either sell it back to the Bush family or sell it back to Warren Buffett

[01:22:32,389]: You know I think it was I don’t have any special knowledge beyond what’s obvious but I think the problem with these family held companies like a family summer house there’s too many stakeholders

[01:22:42,469]: As you say too many family members who want the money and it’s hard to keep them going for that reason

[01:22:48,369]: No I mean it is now I mean even in the Bush family it’s their credit

[01:22:51,729]: I mean they got through four generations

[01:22:53,309]: No I’m not criticizing them at all

[01:22:54,729]: I’m just saying at a certain point the family gets really big

[01:22:56,949]: Yeah they didn’t own it anymore

[01:22:57,809]: And there are certain members who want to run it and own it because it’s their family legacy

[01:23:00,969]: It’s their history

[01:23:01,909]: And there are certain members who are just like I live in Aspen send me the money

[01:23:04,769]: Yeah no you’re right

[01:23:05,649]: So I mean you got to find that right person

[01:23:06,949]: At some point just nepotism just doesn’t work and there’s going to be somebody outside better

[01:23:10,289]: But I think that you can have actually US ownership again of the business

[01:23:14,369]: And whereas excuse me Anheuser Busch InBev it’s a global company

[01:23:17,389]: They have operations in China and Africa and South America and everywhere

[01:23:20,149]: The US at this point is only about 20 of their revenue and maybe a quarter of their profits

[01:23:25,249]: So it actually to me it makes tons of sense

[01:23:28,089]: And the company this year will do I don’t know four and a half billion of called profits

[01:23:32,629]: So I think there’s somebody like Warren Buffett could come and maybe he buys the thing for 30 to 40 billion when he’s sitting on 300 billion of cash

[01:23:40,049]: And maybe all of a sudden you put actually you give actual real authority to US leadership

[01:23:44,669]: And move it back to St

[01:23:45,729]: Louis

[01:23:46,069]: Move it back to St

[01:23:46,589]: Louis

[01:23:46,849]: Move it back to where it was

[01:23:47,909]: Great town

[01:23:48,549]: Yeah

[01:23:48,909]: I mean put its whole corporate headquarters back there put it back in the Midwest somewhere

[01:23:51,969]: I think that’s gonna that would make a lot of sense

[01:23:55,469]: Cause otherwise you’re gonna continue to have a lot of competitors coming in and taking jobs and who knows

[01:24:00,109]: Or give opportunities to folks like yourself

[01:24:01,709]: I mean you’re already going after the Zen folks with Alp

[01:24:04,409]: So yeah

[01:24:05,709]: The Stonewall brand

[01:24:06,809]: This is the non Stonewall brand

[01:24:08,029]: It’s just Alp

[01:24:09,109]: American lip pillow

[01:24:10,069]: You can put it in your mouth

[01:24:10,769]: You don’t have to worry about where it’s been

[01:24:12,569]: It’s good

[01:24:13,769]: Thank you

[01:24:14,349]: That was absolutely fascinating

[01:24:16,469]: Thank you very much

[01:24:17,329]: And then if you don’t mind just plug it at the end

[01:24:19,349]: But talk about all this in Last Call for Bud Light which is the book that we just released on this this past month

[01:24:24,529]: I love people to go check it out

[01:24:26,129]: I know your editor Paul Schwab one of my favorite people

[01:24:28,509]: Oh he’s great

[01:24:29,249]: Love Paul

[01:24:29,829]: He’s the best

[01:24:30,069]: You probably know Keith at Javelin as well

[01:24:31,869]: I certainly do

[01:24:32,949]: Yeah

[01:24:33,269]: Great to see you

[01:24:33,729]: Yeah

[01:24:34,029]: Thanks Tucker

[01:24:34,489]: Thank you

[01:24:38,729]: So it turns out that YouTube is suppressing this show

[01:24:42,329]: On one level it’s not surprising that’s what they do

[01:24:44,649]: But on another level it’s shocking

[01:24:46,389]: With everything that’s going on in the world right now all the change taking place in our economy and our politics with the wars we’re on the cusp of fighting right now Google has decided you should have less information rather than more

[01:24:58,929]: And that is totally wrong

[01:25:01,189]: It’s immoral

[01:25:01,889]: What can you do about it

[01:25:04,229]: Well we could whine about it

[01:25:05,629]: That’s a waste of time

[01:25:06,809]: We’re not in charge of Google

[01:25:07,769]: Or we could find a way around it a way that you could actually get information that is true not intentionally deceptive

[01:25:13,929]: The way to do that on YouTube we think it’s to subscribe to our channel

[01:25:17,809]: Subscribe

[01:25:18,409]: Hit the little bell icon to be notified when we upload and share this video

[01:25:22,969]: That way you’ll have a much higher chance of hearing actual news and information

[01:25:27,929]: So we hope that you’ll do that

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