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Speaker 1: Welcome to today's edition of the Klay, Travis and Buck

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Speaker 1: Sexton Show podcast. Buck, let's talk a little bit about

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Speaker 1: this Ukraine United States rupture to the extent we call

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Speaker 1: it a rupture in a pursuit of a ceasefire. And

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Speaker 1: there's a bunch of interesting dynamics on this and what

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Speaker 1: has been happening and where we are exactly as it

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Speaker 1: pertains to this decision making. And that's a lot of

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Speaker 1: words to say this. Trump has ratcheted up the pressure

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Speaker 1: on Zelensky on a level that never existed during the

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Speaker 1: Biden administration, saying We're not going to give you an

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Speaker 1: unlimited check. We need now to find a way to peace.

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Speaker 1: And Elon Musk was asked about this. I'm going to

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Speaker 1: play a really good description, I believe of Marco Rubio,

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Speaker 1: who we had on last week Secretary of State, laying

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Speaker 1: out exactly why the United States is upset with what

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Speaker 1: Zolensky has been doing in public and where this all

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Speaker 1: comes from. Uh, but in particular, Elon yesterday was speaking

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Speaker 1: and said, people say I'm a bought asset of Putin.

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Speaker 1: He couldn't afford me, which is quite the flex.

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Speaker 2: Uh.

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Speaker 1: Listen to cut six.

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Speaker 3: If people like to end this say like, yeah, you

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Speaker 3: know I'm a I'm a bought.

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Speaker 1: Asset of Putin. Yeah, I'm like he can't afford me. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think you're worth.

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Speaker 3: More than Russia. Think about it. True, by the way,

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Speaker 3: and that's why it's funny, because it is true.

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Speaker 1: That is an incredible flex to be able to put

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Speaker 1: that out there. And so in a minute here Buck

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Speaker 1: Marco Rubio sat down and laid out what's going on,

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Speaker 1: and in essence, it is that Zoleni has been saying

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Speaker 1: publicly different things than what he's been saying privately. Yes,

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Speaker 1: And if you are involved in a negotiation on any

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Speaker 1: subject out there and someone says something different face to

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Speaker 1: face with you, then they say, then publicly you can

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Speaker 1: understand where the anger would come from from Trump. And

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Speaker 1: initially Zelensky has been dishonest with American negotiators, either face

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Speaker 1: to face or publicly. His story is not adding up.

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Speaker 1: And so the United States is finally saying publicly, hey,

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Speaker 1: you don't have a blank check forever. And also, hey,

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Speaker 1: honesty actually matters when it comes to trying to negotiate

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Speaker 1: a settlement of some form.

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Speaker 3: What do the people who oppose Trump on this want

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Speaker 3: for Ukraine for the next two years. What is the

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Speaker 3: end goal that they are putting forward. I mean, that's

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Speaker 3: where I think the conversation becomes much more clear. There's

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Speaker 3: a lot of rhetoric about oh, but democracy and standing

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Speaker 3: with Ukraine and Rush is the aggressor and all this stuff.

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Speaker 3: All of that is and maybe or maybe and is true.

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Speaker 3: Whatever the point is, do you want the war to end?

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Speaker 3: If you don't want the war to end, why and

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Speaker 3: what do you think is better than that? And what

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Speaker 3: you really have to have is somebody come forward to say,

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Speaker 3: I think if we just keep if we give the

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Speaker 3: Ukrainians another two hundred billion dollars of US taxpayer funding

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Speaker 3: and money or you know, weapons and money and all

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Speaker 3: the rest of it, then I think that they'll be

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Speaker 3: able to defeat the Russian Federation and kick them out

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Speaker 3: of Ukraine entirely and have all of their sovereignty back.

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Speaker 3: That's the only really Otherwise what they're saying is nonsense

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Speaker 3: and really pretty immoral, which is that they don't want

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Speaker 3: the conflict and the problem play with coming out and

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Speaker 3: saying that is anybody who understands the the order of

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Speaker 3: battle of these two sides, what they can bring to

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Speaker 3: bear men materiel, munitions. Understands that that's just fantasy land stuff.

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Speaker 3: It's just not going to happen. It would have been

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Speaker 3: a lot closer to happening over the last two years

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Speaker 3: if it could happen. And we're getting to the point

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Speaker 3: now where the war of attrition component of this as

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Speaker 3: in military age males and beyond, because in Ukraine they're

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Speaker 3: taking guys who are far older than what we usually

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Speaker 3: think of as a military age male.

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Speaker 1: They've been losing.

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Speaker 3: So many people and so many taking so many dead

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Speaker 3: and casualties and wounded and everything that if someone's going

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Speaker 3: to run out, it's going to be Ukraine first. The

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Speaker 3: even scarier thought that maybe some have but won't say

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Speaker 3: out loud in this country is well, if we just

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Speaker 3: keep backing them, eventually we're going to have to just

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Speaker 3: step in and help them hold the line ourselves. And

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Speaker 3: that's where people really lose their minds, I think rightly

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Speaker 3: so on our side, because hold on a second, we've

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Speaker 3: been promised the whole time that would never ever ever happen,

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Speaker 3: but we've been worried about it happening nonetheless because of

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Speaker 3: Mission Cree. So Trump is trying to bring this to

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Speaker 3: an end. Zelenski seems to be talking out of both

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Speaker 3: sides of his mouth on the issue. You know, I

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Speaker 3: saw that Ukrainian soldier tear the American flag off his helmet,

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Speaker 3: and I just pointed this out. I think it's true.

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Speaker 3: Without American taxpayers, he probably wouldn't have that helmet or

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Speaker 3: that kevlar to tear anything off of in the first place.

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Speaker 3: So there's not I understand, they're.

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Speaker 1: Fighting a war.

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Speaker 3: It's a very you know, it's a very horrific thing,

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Speaker 3: but America has been more than generous to help a

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Speaker 3: country that I still think, if you're looking at what

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Speaker 3: is in our strategic interest, who's in control of the

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Speaker 3: Donbas region of Ukraine really doesn't matter to us very much.

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Speaker 3: And that is just the cold hard reality of it.

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Speaker 1: And what Trump is trying to do now is there

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Speaker 1: is an expectation that Ukraine has substantial mineral rights and

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Speaker 1: you're gonna hear this from Marco Rubio in a moment,

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Speaker 1: and given the fact that we have given Ukraine hundreds

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Speaker 1: of billions of dollars in American aid, our taxpayer dollars,

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Speaker 1: Trump is saying, if you want us to help in

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Speaker 1: this conflict, we should get some of these mineral rights,

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Speaker 1: and then the United States is incentivized in some way

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Speaker 1: to help protect Ukraine going forward because we're partners on

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Speaker 1: a business relationship, and that would theoretically dissuade Russia from

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Speaker 1: deciding to invade again. Because the real concern Buck is,

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Speaker 1: let's say you solve this now and then Putin decides, Hey,

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Speaker 1: you know what I need more territory. You're trying to

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Speaker 1: resolve this so that it doesn't continue forever. And remember

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Speaker 1: this all started with crimea, with the way that Barack

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Speaker 1: Obama responded when Russia decided they wanted to take some

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Speaker 1: of Ukraine's territory. So I think Marco Rubio, Secretary of State,

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Speaker 1: does a really good job of laying out exactly what

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Speaker 1: is going on right now. This was an interview he

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Speaker 1: did today. Listen.

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Speaker 4: Frankly, I was personally very upset because we had a

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Speaker 4: conversation with President Zelenski, the vice president, and I the

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Speaker 4: two three of us, and we discussed this issue about

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Speaker 4: the mineral rights, and we explain to them, look, we

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Speaker 4: want to be a joint venture with you, not because

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Speaker 4: we're trying to steal from your country. But because we

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Speaker 4: think that's actually a security guarantee. If we're your partner

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Speaker 4: in an important economic endeavor, we get to get paid

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Speaker 4: back some of the money the taxpayers have given close

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Speaker 4: to two hundred billion dollars. And it also now we

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Speaker 4: have a vested interest in the security of Ukraine. And

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Speaker 4: he said, sure, we want to do this deal. It

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Speaker 4: makes all the sense in the world. The only thing

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Speaker 4: is I need to run it through my legislative process.

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Speaker 4: They have to approve it. I read two days later

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Speaker 4: that Zelenski's out there saying I rejected the deal. I

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Speaker 4: told them no way, that we're not doing that. Well,

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Speaker 4: that's not what happened in that meeting. So you start

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Speaker 4: to get upset by somebody. We're trying to help these guys.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So I think that's a pretty good explanation of

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Speaker 1: what's going on. And when you have people saying things

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Speaker 1: to you privately that are different than what they're saying publicly,

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Speaker 1: you can understand why would be hard to work with them.

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Speaker 1: And that's really kind of where Trump is. And look,

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Speaker 1: Marco Rubio took you into the room. It's e jdvain

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Speaker 1: Zolensky sitting down trying to figure out how to hammer

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Speaker 1: out this deal. Zolensky agrees to it in private, rips

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Speaker 1: it in public, and then Trump decides, Hey, I can't

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Speaker 1: work with this guy. I'm going to tee off.

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Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting as well that the expectation somehow

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Speaker 3: on all of this is that America is supposed to

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Speaker 3: back Ukraine because it's the right thing to do. Well,

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Speaker 3: you know, you know, I've got a number of friends

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Speaker 3: were lawyers. You're a friend, you're a lawyer. I've got

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Speaker 3: a lawyer in my family. And I've heard from lawyers

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Speaker 3: before Clay that the most some of their favorite words

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Speaker 3: to hear as litigators is when someone says, it's the principle.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a great gig. It's the principle of the thing.

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Speaker 3: When you're suing somebody and you're going through legal process,

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Speaker 3: gets very expensive, very quickly, and because you're not actually

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Speaker 3: looking at the cold hard reality of what you're supposed

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Speaker 3: to what you're supposed to get from this situation, you're

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Speaker 3: just I want this thing because of the way I

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Speaker 3: feel about it, And we're not supposed to run foreign

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Speaker 3: policy that way. Actually, And this is where Trump differs

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Speaker 3: from a lot of the foreign policy can sens us

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Speaker 3: out of DC in recent decades, particularly with Democrats. Democrats

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Speaker 3: only seem to like US military intervention when there's no

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Speaker 3: interest of the United States at stake. You know, it's

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Speaker 3: you know, we're gonna oh bad things are happening in Libya.

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Speaker 3: So Hillary is like, yeah, we came, we saw he died.

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Speaker 1: Remember that.

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Speaker 3: Like they like to do things where there's some humanitarian

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Speaker 3: impulse or there's some defensive democracy impulse or whatever. That's

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Speaker 3: actually not the way we should run our foreign policy.

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Speaker 3: It should be what is good for America and for

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Speaker 3: the American people. And that's there's a big fight. And

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Speaker 3: it's still even among Republicans. Some of them are a

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Speaker 3: little more quiet about it, but they have the more

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Speaker 3: neo contendency to get more, to do more intervention, to

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Speaker 3: get more involved. You know, I mean, how many people

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Speaker 3: who even know you see, there were seventy Christians were beheaded.

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Speaker 3: I saw this in a church this week in the Congo.

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Speaker 3: Should we should we land the eight second airbord and

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Speaker 3: just start, you know, getting it getting down to business

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Speaker 3: and protecting people and everything else. You can make a

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Speaker 3: humanitarian argument that oh my gosh, seventy two people are

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Speaker 3: beheaded in a church, like, we have to go. It's

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Speaker 3: a horrible thing, we have to go right away. Well,

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Speaker 3: the question you have to ask is before we put

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Speaker 3: Americans in harm way or we start writing huge checks

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Speaker 3: from the American people, what does this do for America?

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Speaker 3: And in Ukraine, when I start to hear people talk

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Speaker 3: about what that what that response would be, I go,

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Speaker 3: that's not you know, defensive democracy is very vague. Defensive

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Speaker 3: democracy was Vietnam everybody. I mean, defensive democracy is a

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Speaker 3: little bit like the principle of the thing when you're

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Speaker 3: suing somebody, which is you're losing sight of the actual

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Speaker 3: interests of the individual and deciding that how you feel

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Speaker 3: about it is more important than the realities on the ground.

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Speaker 3: And I think that's led to a lot of big

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Speaker 3: foreign policy mishaps. And in Ukraine it's why the war

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Speaker 3: has grinded on for two years instead of it should

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Speaker 3: have gone to within six months. They should have been

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Speaker 3: trying to negotiate this thing, no ifens or buts in

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Speaker 3: the Biden administration and bring it to a conclusion. No,

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Speaker 3: they thought that if we just gave them more stuff,

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Speaker 3: eventually they would start to they would win. That was

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Speaker 3: what that was.

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Speaker 1: The New York Times is was writing whole pieces.

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Speaker 3: Clay every time the fighting season, which is when it's

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Speaker 3: not as cold there and there's not as much snow

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Speaker 3: and ice on the ground fighting season WU was started

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Speaker 3: was all, you know, Ukraine, this time around, they're going

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Speaker 3: to really kick the Russians butts. And then within a

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Speaker 3: few weeks it was hmm, actually no, that didn't happen.

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Speaker 1: And the question now is how do you end it?

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Speaker 1: How do you end it? Do we want for American

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Speaker 1: taxpayers to continue to spend hundreds of billions of dollars

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Speaker 1: as Russia slowly but inevitably inches forward on Ukraine. I

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Speaker 1: think the hard reality is Ukraine cannot win this war,

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Speaker 1: and it is self evident to anyone who has looked

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Speaker 1: at the way this war has gone over the last

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Speaker 1: really two years. And so there has to be a

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Speaker 1: negotiated piece in some way. What Trump is offering seems

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Speaker 1: imminently rational. Hey, we will help you develop mineral rights

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Speaker 1: so that the United States taxpayer is getting some benefit

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Speaker 1: for all of the money that we have spent. And

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Speaker 1: as a result of that, based on that alliance as

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Speaker 1: opposed to allowing you into NATO, which Russia would see

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Speaker 1: as a direct provocation. We are then going to have

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Speaker 1: a security relationship predicated on this business relationship, and the

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Speaker 1: Ukrainians will have a successful extraction of mineral rights, and

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Speaker 1: the United States taxpayer will get back some of the

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Speaker 1: money that we invested here. That seems eminently rational to

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Speaker 1: me at this point.

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Speaker 3: And you look at the casualty figures, I would note

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Speaker 3: the official Ukrainian casualty figures are thirty one thousand killed

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Speaker 3: in this conflict. We lost how many Vietnam fifty thousand,

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Speaker 3: I thousand, Yeah, so, and that went on a lot

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Speaker 3: longer than this has gone on. But the Wall Street

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Speaker 3: journals reporting on an internal assessment from Ukraine that they

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Speaker 3: didn't that's not the official, but that's actually closer to

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Speaker 3: what they we think is the reality is eighty thousand

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Speaker 3: killed and four hundred thousand wounded. Eighty thousand killed, four

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Speaker 3: hundred thousand wounded in three years of this fight or

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Speaker 3: two to three years.

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Speaker 1: Right, they invaded in twenty two years?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so so it's been three years.

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Speaker 1: So this is.

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Speaker 3: I just feel like it's so clear that the sooner

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Speaker 3: you can stop the carnage the better. Uh, because this

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Speaker 3: is really about terror. You know, this is about a

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Speaker 3: territorial dispute. Russia is not going the people that say

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Speaker 3: Russia is going to run over the rest of Europe.

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Speaker 3: That's I know Zelenski says it, but that's just insane.

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Speaker 3: So why not end this thing?

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Speaker 5: Uh?

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Speaker 3: And ended as soon as possible. And and I'm not somebody.

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Speaker 3: Some people get to the place where they say, you know,

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Speaker 3: Zelenski's a crook and he's lied, he's taking billions of dollars,

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Speaker 3: and I just want the war to stop.

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Speaker 1: I agree. I'll also point out those numbers that you

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Speaker 1: just shared, four hundred thousand wounded. A lot of people

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Speaker 1: survive now that would have otherwise died because of our

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Speaker 1: advances in medical.

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Speaker 3: Technology, lost in armor lost, but it is both legs

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Speaker 3: and they didn't bleed. It is devastating the rest of

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Speaker 3: the life that they're going to have. It's fortunate that

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Speaker 3: their lives were saved, but we're not talking about guys

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Speaker 3: who took a piece of shrapnel and you'd never know

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Speaker 3: they were wounded. A lot of these individuals are disabilitated

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Speaker 3: on a level that you would never have survived in

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Speaker 3: past years, and so it's going to be very hard

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Speaker 3: for them to recover.

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Speaker 1: We'll take some of your calls. By the way, it's Friday,

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Speaker 1: eight hundred and two two two eight a two. But

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Speaker 1: I want to tell you we're talking about how the

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Speaker 1: war in Ukraine ends. But if you're interested in how

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Speaker 1: World War one happened, or World War two, or maybe

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Speaker 1: you're out there and you're like, hey, you know what,

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Speaker 1: I never really read Shakespeare like I wish I had,

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Speaker 1: or man Mark Twain, I kind of maybe I got

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Speaker 1: the cliff Notes out back in the day, and I

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Speaker 1: didn't really read Huckleberry Finn and some of the other

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Speaker 1: incredible works out there. Hey, we're talking about the Constitution

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Speaker 1: the Founding Fathers as you wish you were. Maybe you

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Speaker 1: didn't spend that much time in history class or literature

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Speaker 1: Clayanbuckfour Hillsdale dot com. One more time, clayanbuckfour Hillsdale dot com.

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Speaker 1: We are joined now by our friend Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson,

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Speaker 1: and we're going to dive into the latest on the

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Speaker 1: budget and the priorities of twenty twenty five in the

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Speaker 1: Senate with him in a moment. But I actually want

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Speaker 1: to start with you because I know the conversation about

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Speaker 1: Ukraine has been very detailed of late, and you have

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Speaker 1: met with Zelensky before, and I'm curious what your experience

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Speaker 1: has been like with him and what your thoughts are

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Speaker 1: on the attempt to bring peace to the region after

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Speaker 1: almost three years of war.

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Speaker 5: Now, so yeah, I was the chairman of the European

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Speaker 5: Subcommittee when he became President Ukraine. So I was the

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Speaker 5: only member of Congressant's inauguration in May of twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 5: Then I went back with Senator Chris Murphy in September.

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Speaker 5: At that point in time, Presidentcelinsky told us that he

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Speaker 5: knew he could not dislodge Russia from the Don Boss

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Speaker 5: or from Crimea, and that he had to do a

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Speaker 5: piece deal with him. He knew it wouldn't be popular

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Speaker 5: in Ukraine be so that that's what he had to do. So,

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Speaker 5: you know, obviously things changed and he was I think

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Speaker 5: encouraged bribe by the Biden administration to resist Pudin. And

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Speaker 5: you know, now we've got the three year bloody stalemate,

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Speaker 5: and I'm completely on board with the what President Trump

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Speaker 5: wants to do, which is to end the war. There's

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Speaker 5: no way that Pudin is going to lose that war.

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Speaker 5: You have to face that reality. You know, none of

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Speaker 5: us like that reality, but it's just true. So the

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Speaker 5: do war has to end.

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Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say that Zelenski was invaded

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Speaker 1: by Russia partly because Biden was there and Putin didn't

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Speaker 1: trust Biden's toughness. Do you think also, there would have

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Speaker 1: been peace sooner if Biden and his administration had been

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Speaker 1: open to it, as opposed to what now looks like

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Speaker 1: the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, both Ukrainian

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Speaker 1: and Russian.

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Speaker 6: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I was not in Is Son bull, but you

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Speaker 5: hear stories of the fact that they were very close

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Speaker 5: to a peace deal. Have not had a peace deal

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Speaker 5: then Bidensen born Boris Johnson in there to kind of

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Speaker 5: blow that thing up. So sure, first of all, the

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Speaker 5: war never started. We should have told Russia, no, we're

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Speaker 5: not going to offer Ukraine NATO membership. I think that

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Speaker 5: probably would have prevented her right there. We could have

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Speaker 5: probably done more in terms of arming Ukraine early to deter.

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Speaker 7: Putin.

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Speaker 5: But again, they had a peace agreement, as we're told,

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Speaker 5: and that got blown up by Boris Johnson at the

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Speaker 5: best of a Biden. So no, this thing never never

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Speaker 5: should have started, never should have gone on this long.

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Speaker 3: Do you think Senor Johnson appreciate you being with us?

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Speaker 1: It's buck.

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Speaker 3: Do you think that this is something that President Trump

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Speaker 3: will be able to bring at least to a cease

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Speaker 3: fire relatively quickly. Do you think that we could see

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Speaker 3: it by the summer? I know, I'm asking you to

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Speaker 3: project out a little bit, but just based on your

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Speaker 3: sense of Trump and his team and Secretary of Rubio's

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Speaker 3: capabilities and the realities on the ground here, and you know,

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Speaker 3: the strategic realities on top of all of that, what

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Speaker 3: kind of a timeline are you hopeful Trump can achieve.

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Speaker 5: Well as soon as possible. Again, I'm not gonna like

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Speaker 5: the deal. I don't think anybody's gonna like the deal.

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Speaker 5: You know, maybe Putin will like the deal. You know, again,

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Speaker 5: this is awful. But every day that goes by, the

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Speaker 5: deal gets worse because more Ukrainians, more Russian conscripts die,

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Speaker 5: more Ukraine gets destroyed. So again, I've just been focusing

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Speaker 5: got in this war. I've been saying that for a

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Speaker 5: couple of years.

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Speaker 6: Now.

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Speaker 1: Let's go into the budget situation, long night in the Senate.

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Speaker 1: A lot of things that are going to be occurring.

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Speaker 1: What should the our listeners know about where we are

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Speaker 1: headed with the budget process here in twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 5: You have to know the numbers. You know, in Washingt

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Speaker 5: d C. They don't really like talking numbers much, but

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Speaker 5: the facts are in twenty nineteen, we spent four point

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Speaker 5: four trillion dollars. Then we had COVID, went on a

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Speaker 5: massive by Parson spending spree, spent almost six point six trillion.

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Speaker 5: And I've said this in the past, no family, if

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Speaker 5: they had an illness, had to borrow fifty thousand dollars

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Speaker 5: pay medical bills. If that family never got well, you

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Speaker 5: wouldn't keep borrowing fifty thousand dollars and spend at that level.

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Speaker 5: That would be insane. But that's exactly what the federal

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Speaker 5: government done is done the last five years, we've averaged

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Speaker 5: six point five billion dollars. Last year, we spent six

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Speaker 5: point nine This year, we're on a path to spend

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Speaker 5: seven point three trillion dollars. So four point four to

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Speaker 5: seven point three trillion dollars, that's the sixty three percent increase,

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Speaker 5: while our populations go on two point six percent. So

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Speaker 5: what we need to do is we need to return,

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Speaker 5: like a family would, to some kind of pre pandemic

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Speaker 5: spending levels. I've laid out four options. What happened is

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Speaker 5: the Chairman Graham of the budget me took my option

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Speaker 5: where I said, use President Trump's own budget for twenty

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Speaker 5: twenty five. Back before he left office, he projected out

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Speaker 5: his budget for twenty twenty five. If you'd use his

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Speaker 5: numbers plus day, social Security, Medicare, and interest, he'd be

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Speaker 5: spending about six trillion, sixty one billion dollars. That is

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Speaker 5: what we use in the budget we passed last night

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Speaker 5: in the US Senate. I've laid on other options too.

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Speaker 5: If you use Clinton's spending from nineteen ninety eight and

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Speaker 5: you increase it by population growth and inflation plus this

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Speaker 5: year's social Security, medicare, and interest said be five point

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Speaker 5: five billion dollars, and we'd virtually have a balanced budget.

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Speaker 5: But other words, using Clinton's spending priorities inflate it did

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Speaker 5: have a balanced budget. If you use Obama's spending priorities

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Speaker 5: from twenty fourteen, it'd be six point two trillion dollars.

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Speaker 5: So I've laid up. I tell my colleagues you all

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Speaker 5: campaign on zero based budgeting, right, We'll never do it,

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Speaker 5: but this is the next best thing. How about a

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Speaker 5: five point five for a six point one trillion dollar

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Speaker 5: based budget. Let's do that. What the House is doing

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Speaker 5: is they're basically starting at seven point three trillion dollars

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Speaker 5: and they're suffering death by one thousand cuts because everybody looks,

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Speaker 5: we can't cut that, can't cut that, can't cut that,

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Speaker 5: and so the House budget. You know, listen, I appreciate

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Speaker 5: the difficult nature of this, appreciate what they're trying to do,

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Speaker 5: but they're basically going from seven point three trillion dollars

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Speaker 5: and at most they've cut two hundred billion from that

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Speaker 5: and let end up at seven point one trillion. It's

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Speaker 5: totally inadequate. It sounds like a big number. We're gonna demand.

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Speaker 5: We're gonna cut one point five trillion dollars over ten years,

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Speaker 5: and we So what I messaged to President Trump, I

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Speaker 5: told this Vice President Vance when he's in lunch this week.

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Speaker 5: I said, you know, I don't think anybody did voters

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Speaker 5: for you either or President Trump expect you to be

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Speaker 5: spending at President Biden's levels. But that, in fact is

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Speaker 5: what we're doing here. That's what the House Budget does.

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00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:21,679
Speaker 3: Speaking to Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and a senator,

435
00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:26,960
Speaker 3: there's been a lot of noise from Democrats, Senator, senate

436
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:32,160
Speaker 3: colleagues of yours, various Democrat appointee judges, from the federal

437
00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:37,040
Speaker 3: bench trying to prevent access to these kinds of numbers

438
00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:40,240
Speaker 3: about spending, whether it's at the Treasury Department. I know

439
00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:43,399
Speaker 3: the IRS has gotten a visit from DOGE. Do you

440
00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:47,359
Speaker 3: think that that's all being worked out and that Trump's

441
00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:52,159
Speaker 3: you know, stamp of approval on Elon and the DOGE

442
00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:54,639
Speaker 3: team to go in and do this is going to

443
00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:57,280
Speaker 3: be respected or because to a lot of people, it

444
00:23:57,320 --> 00:24:00,720
Speaker 3: just seems like Democrats are obstructing something that should be

445
00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:03,520
Speaker 3: a truly bipartisan which is, let's see if they can

446
00:24:03,520 --> 00:24:05,919
Speaker 3: find fraud, waste and abuse, and where they find it,

447
00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:07,920
Speaker 3: they should be able to you know, the government should

448
00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:08,360
Speaker 3: deal with it.

449
00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:14,360
Speaker 5: Well, Democrats use government to fund their radical left ideology

450
00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:17,280
Speaker 5: and they don't want the public to see it, and

451
00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:20,000
Speaker 5: so they are resisting it. You know, the good news

452
00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:22,800
Speaker 5: is the court so are actually supporting President Trump. I

453
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:26,040
Speaker 5: completely support what Elon Musk is doing. And the narrative

454
00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:30,760
Speaker 5: is always unelected. All the bureaucrats that refused to turn

455
00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:35,080
Speaker 5: over information to members of Congress and American public, they

456
00:24:35,119 --> 00:24:37,879
Speaker 5: are unelected. I have a far greater faith in a

457
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:42,320
Speaker 5: representative from a duly elected president elected to do just

458
00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:45,959
Speaker 5: this going in there and uncovering this. Now the trick's

459
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:49,399
Speaker 5: going to be just because Elon Musk and no uncovers

460
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:52,080
Speaker 5: the waste for an abuse doesn't make it go away.

461
00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:55,159
Speaker 5: You know, we have to do that through the legislate

462
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:58,000
Speaker 5: of the process. And again that's why I've been supporting

463
00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:01,000
Speaker 5: a keep it simple process. You know what the Senate

464
00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:04,320
Speaker 5: is doing. Okay, let's first start by giving Trump the

465
00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:07,520
Speaker 5: resources he needs to secure the border, defend this nation.

466
00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:10,200
Speaker 5: I would actually do a three step process. Next, I'd

467
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:12,800
Speaker 5: come back using that same budget. By the way, in

468
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:16,200
Speaker 5: tasking that we use current policy on taxes, which means

469
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:19,840
Speaker 5: all we have to do is come back a second reconciliation.

470
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 5: Say we're going to extend the current tax code, as

471
00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 5: complex as awful as it is. By doing that, we

472
00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:30,040
Speaker 5: would prevent a massive automatic tax increase that occurrent twenty

473
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:33,240
Speaker 5: twenty six. Then we come back in the third round

474
00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:36,600
Speaker 5: with a fiscal twenty twenty six budget, and that's where

475
00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:38,440
Speaker 5: we do all the other stuff. I mean, that's where

476
00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:41,160
Speaker 5: you skip fire rational as the tax code. That's where

477
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:44,600
Speaker 5: we take a look at Trump's tax proposals. That's when

478
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:48,719
Speaker 5: we do the pre pandemic spending level it's not going

479
00:25:48,760 --> 00:25:52,760
Speaker 5: to be easy. But as you're seeing the House, the

480
00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:56,320
Speaker 5: one big beautiful bill is one really complex bill, which

481
00:25:56,359 --> 00:25:59,120
Speaker 5: I think is probably one really impossible to pass bill

482
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:02,879
Speaker 5: right off the bat. And President Trump needs the border funding.

483
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:07,400
Speaker 1: Now we're talking to Senator Ron Johnson. You made the analogy,

484
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:10,080
Speaker 1: and I think it's a good one. In twenty nineteen,

485
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:13,800
Speaker 1: we had a four point four trillion dollar budget. Democrats

486
00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:17,000
Speaker 1: but also Republicans signed on to blow up that bill.

487
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:22,200
Speaker 1: That budget. During COVID money just flew out. We ratcheted

488
00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:25,320
Speaker 1: up the national debt by a massive degree. Isn't there

489
00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:29,119
Speaker 1: also a pretty good historical analogy here, Look, we responded,

490
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:30,880
Speaker 1: you know, and you've been on the show a lot.

491
00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:33,919
Speaker 1: Much of the government and much of society failed in

492
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:37,600
Speaker 1: responding to COVID. But if you go back historically during

493
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:41,399
Speaker 1: World War II, we ratcheted up spending massively for the

494
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:44,439
Speaker 1: federal government. But as soon as World War two was over,

495
00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:47,040
Speaker 1: we dialed that back down and came back to some

496
00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:49,800
Speaker 1: form of sanity because we weren't fighting the war anymore.

497
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:53,800
Speaker 1: Isn't it kind of crazy that there's almost no debate

498
00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:57,480
Speaker 1: about the budgetary policies that were put in place during

499
00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:01,280
Speaker 1: COVID being retracted at all. I don't think most people

500
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:03,440
Speaker 1: even contemplate or discuss this.

501
00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:07,439
Speaker 5: Well, one of the best things the Unit Party has

502
00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:11,640
Speaker 5: done is they've transferred to discretionary spending into the mandatory accounts.

503
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:15,440
Speaker 5: So we've increased other mandatory not Social Security, Medicare, or

504
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:18,360
Speaker 5: even Medicaid. We've increased from six hundred and forty two

505
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:23,439
Speaker 5: billion to one point three trillion to twenty nineteen one

506
00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:26,720
Speaker 5: thing that this is three omnibuses ago. I asked my

507
00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:31,240
Speaker 5: senate colleagues Republican College to say, anybody know how much

508
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:34,600
Speaker 5: in total the federal government spent last year. I asked

509
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:37,960
Speaker 5: the Wash Washington press Corps that nobody knew because we

510
00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:40,440
Speaker 5: never talked about it. One of the press guys said, well,

511
00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:43,280
Speaker 5: if it was over a trillion dollars, now that's discrashanin spending.

512
00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:46,240
Speaker 5: That's less than thirty percent of our budget. So we've

513
00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:49,520
Speaker 5: put so much of a federal budget on automatic pilots.

514
00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:52,960
Speaker 5: We're supposedly the five hundred and thirty five member boarder

515
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,959
Speaker 5: directors of the largest financial area of the world, and

516
00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:58,280
Speaker 5: we don't even know in total what we spent now

517
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:00,960
Speaker 5: because our raise that issue three years to go. People

518
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:04,600
Speaker 5: are aware, but they're looking at again. If you start

519
00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:07,520
Speaker 5: it seven point three trillion dollars and try and cut

520
00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:10,480
Speaker 5: your way through pre pandemic level, you'll never get there.

521
00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:15,120
Speaker 5: You have to start at some pre pandemic level baseline. Again,

522
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,840
Speaker 5: I've laid out Clinton nineteen ninety eight, Obama twenty fourteen.

523
00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:21,960
Speaker 5: I mean even Trump's twenty nineteen. If you inflate that,

524
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:24,640
Speaker 5: you'd only be at six point five trillion. I still

525
00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:27,720
Speaker 5: think that's too high, but it's eight hundred billion dollars

526
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:30,840
Speaker 5: below where we are right now, and it's over half

527
00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:34,040
Speaker 5: a trillion below where the House is trying to struggle

528
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:35,480
Speaker 5: passing a budget.

529
00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:38,320
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for being with us, Centater Ron Johnson.

530
00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:40,200
Speaker 5: I'm not saying I'm not saying the sat is going

531
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:42,680
Speaker 5: to have a good time or easy time getting down

532
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:45,920
Speaker 5: that level. But at least our budget says six trillion

533
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 5: sixty one billion.

534
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 3: Okay, Senator Ron Johnson, Wisconsin, Thanks for being with us, sir,

535
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:57,040
Speaker 3: have a great day. Three buses exploded on the southern

536
00:28:57,120 --> 00:28:58,920
Speaker 3: edge of Tel Aviv last night, and what is really

537
00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 3: police say is to suspect terror attack. Thankfully they were

538
00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:03,680
Speaker 3: empty and no one was killed, but it's a reminder

539
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:06,200
Speaker 3: of the constant threat of terror that Israeli citizens are

540
00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:09,040
Speaker 3: living under. Understandably, it's left a mark on the psyche

541
00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:11,360
Speaker 3: of so many in that country. Case in point, the

542
00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:14,400
Speaker 3: Israeli Health Ministry put out a report identifying three million

543
00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 3: Israelis who have experienced anxiety, depression and symptoms of post

544
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:21,240
Speaker 3: traumatic stress disorder since the Humos attacks and October of

545
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:24,080
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three. That's no surprise to and following the

546
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:27,760
Speaker 3: events overseas, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has

547
00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:30,479
Speaker 3: continued to support those in the Holy Land still facing

548
00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:32,600
Speaker 3: the lingering horrors of war and those who are in

549
00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:35,640
Speaker 3: desperate need right now. Your ongoing monthly gift of forty

550
00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:38,200
Speaker 3: five dollars will provide critically needed aid to communities in

551
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:40,880
Speaker 3: the North and South parts of Israel devastated by the

552
00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:44,240
Speaker 3: ongoing war. Your generous donation each month will help deliver

553
00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:47,200
Speaker 3: to those in need. Help deliver aid rather to those

554
00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:49,680
Speaker 3: in need. You can provide hope during a time of

555
00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 3: great uncertainty with your gift. Bless Israel and her people

556
00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:58,800
Speaker 3: by visiting SUPPORTIFCJ dot org. That's one word, SUPPORTIFCJ dot

557
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:03,280
Speaker 3: Org or call eighty to eight or eight IFCJ.

558
00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:15,000
Speaker 1: News coming fast and furious, as it sometimes does on Friday,

559
00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:17,880
Speaker 1: Buck'll be back with me. He's on his way to Colorado.

560
00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:21,800
Speaker 1: Speak to many of you out there. I just played

561
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:24,440
Speaker 1: for you Trump going head to head with the Democrat

562
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:27,840
Speaker 1: governor of Maine over whether men should be allowed to

563
00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:30,480
Speaker 1: play in women's sports. I can't believe that that is

564
00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:33,640
Speaker 1: the policy that has been adopted by the Democrat Party.

565
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:39,280
Speaker 1: But as we were in break more breaking news Los

566
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:43,000
Speaker 1: Angeles mayor Karen Bass. We talked about her earlier this

567
00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:47,960
Speaker 1: week for being virtually absent with the wildfires. In fact,

568
00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:50,920
Speaker 1: we played a clip for you where she said they

569
00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:56,600
Speaker 1: were doing an investigation into why she decided to be

570
00:30:56,880 --> 00:31:01,040
Speaker 1: in Ghana as opposed to in Lost Angelus when there

571
00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:05,160
Speaker 1: was deadly wildfires potentially on the horizon. Well, now she

572
00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:08,120
Speaker 1: is trying to shift the blame. This just happened in

573
00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:13,000
Speaker 1: the last few minutes. Karen Bass announced she has fired

574
00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:18,640
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Fire Department chief, Kristin Crowley, effective immediately,

575
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:24,719
Speaker 1: and she's going to hold a press conference soon. Rick Caruso,

576
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:29,520
Speaker 1: who ran against Karen Bass for mayor of Los Angeles,

577
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 1: has weighed in already. This is what he said on

578
00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:38,400
Speaker 1: Twitter slash x. It's very disappointing Mayor Bass has decided

579
00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:43,920
Speaker 1: to fire Chief Kristin Crowley. Chief Crowley served Los Angeles

580
00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:49,600
Speaker 1: well and spoke honestly about the severe and profoundly ill

581
00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:54,080
Speaker 1: conceived budget cuts the Bass administration made to the LA

582
00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:57,760
Speaker 1: Fire Department. That courage to speak the truth was brave,

583
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:02,040
Speaker 1: and I admire her. Honesty in a high city official

584
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:06,440
Speaker 1: should not be a firing offense. The Mayor's decision to

585
00:32:06,560 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 1: ignore the warnings and leave the city was hers alone.

586
00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:13,880
Speaker 1: This is a time for city leaders to take responsibility

587
00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:18,600
Speaker 1: for their actions and their decisions. We need real leadership,

588
00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:22,960
Speaker 1: not more blame passing. That is Rick Caruso, who was

589
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:26,000
Speaker 1: in the runoff with Karen Bass, and you'll remember Elon

590
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:29,520
Speaker 1: Musk came out and said, I think thousands more people

591
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:32,840
Speaker 1: would still have their homes if Rick Caruso had been

592
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:35,920
Speaker 1: in charge instead of Karen Bass. And the evidence for

593
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:39,280
Speaker 1: that is that Rick Caruso was able to keep his

594
00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 1: shopping centers in the Pacific Palisades area from burning down

595
00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:48,360
Speaker 1: because he had private support to try to ensure that

596
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:52,960
Speaker 1: the flames didn't spread. To his buildings, and the expectation

597
00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:55,560
Speaker 1: is that he wouldn't have been in Ghana, and he

598
00:32:55,680 --> 00:32:58,960
Speaker 1: might have had the entire LA Fire Department mobilized in

599
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:01,520
Speaker 1: a way to allow them to fight these fires. He

600
00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:03,960
Speaker 1: may not have made the cuts, and this is important

601
00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:07,560
Speaker 1: and maybe our team can go back and find the audio,

602
00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:12,440
Speaker 1: because there was a viral story suggesting that Karen Bass

603
00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:16,960
Speaker 1: had fired this fire department chief beforehand, because the fire

604
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:20,880
Speaker 1: department chief said publicly, we didn't have the resources to

605
00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:25,040
Speaker 1: be able to to fight this. And so this is

606
00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:28,440
Speaker 1: again major breaking news. As the fallout from the LA

607
00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:32,800
Speaker 1: wildfires continues, Karen Bass, mayor of Los Angeles, trying to

608
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:36,080
Speaker 1: find someone to blame for the failure of the city

609
00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:39,200
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles to respond and protect its citizens' homes,

610
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:43,160
Speaker 1: and so she is now saying the fire chief is fired.

611
00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:47,280
Speaker 1: We'll pull that clip because I think this is ultimately

612
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:51,200
Speaker 1: going to come down to an argument over who's to blame.

613
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:54,240
Speaker 1: Was it the fire chief or was it the mayor

614
00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:57,480
Speaker 1: who was more culpable in what I think almost everyone

615
00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:00,800
Speaker 1: out there, Democrat, Republican, Independent in the LA area and

616
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:06,479
Speaker 1: beyond acknowledges was a completely failed response to those awful

617
00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:09,719
Speaker 1: wildfires that came through recently. A bunch of you want

618
00:34:09,719 --> 00:34:11,560
Speaker 1: to weigh in, we'll take some of your calls. To

619
00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:16,720
Speaker 1: close up the Friday edition of the show. Chris and Sandford, Maine.

620
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:20,160
Speaker 1: I just played the clip of the Democrat governor of

621
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:24,160
Speaker 1: Maine arguing with Donald Trump about whether men should be

622
00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:28,200
Speaker 1: able to play women's sports. What do you think? What's

623
00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:30,319
Speaker 1: your read on the ground there in Maine for how

624
00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:32,600
Speaker 1: this is going to play Trump versus the governor over

625
00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:33,320
Speaker 1: this issue.

626
00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:36,200
Speaker 7: First of all, I'd like to thank you guys for

627
00:34:36,640 --> 00:34:39,799
Speaker 7: living the dream that Rush knew you guys could.

628
00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:43,160
Speaker 1: Well. Thank you so much. We're honored every single day

629
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:45,520
Speaker 1: to sit in front of these microphones and it's a

630
00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:47,600
Speaker 1: tremendous privilege to talk with all of you. So thank

631
00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:48,279
Speaker 1: you for saying that.

632
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:51,040
Speaker 7: So one thing I just wanted to touch base on

633
00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:55,239
Speaker 7: is this this whole thing about the girls and you know,

634
00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:59,360
Speaker 7: being totally overrun by these these guys. Right, it's girls

635
00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:02,319
Speaker 7: and guys only two in the world, and the two

636
00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:04,239
Speaker 7: in science only.

637
00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:07,080
Speaker 1: Shows as only two genders. We agree, by the way,

638
00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:09,280
Speaker 1: and most of the audience out there, I would imagine

639
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:12,720
Speaker 1: does as well. There's boys and girls yes, continue.

640
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:16,160
Speaker 7: And I moved to Maine out of Massachusetts to get

641
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:19,960
Speaker 7: away from the nanny state. I came to Meane because,

642
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:22,040
Speaker 7: believe it or not, there's a lot more of what

643
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:25,640
Speaker 7: I would consider closet Trump supporters up here than you

644
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:29,359
Speaker 7: would like to realize. I've surrounded myself, but it's been

645
00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,839
Speaker 7: very easy to surround myself that people believe and not

646
00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:36,760
Speaker 7: taking this away from the girls that try so hard. Yes,

647
00:35:37,480 --> 00:35:39,560
Speaker 7: they get up four or five, six, seven in the

648
00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:43,279
Speaker 7: morning to get to these practices, the meats, and they

649
00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:47,960
Speaker 7: turn around and they see this guy with a ball

650
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:49,879
Speaker 7: sack beating them.

651
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:51,200
Speaker 5: They're out of the water first.

652
00:35:51,239 --> 00:35:55,919
Speaker 7: It's not fair. It's just not fair. A friend of mine,

653
00:35:55,960 --> 00:35:57,600
Speaker 7: I kind of like to say so, but I've been

654
00:35:57,640 --> 00:35:59,880
Speaker 7: supporting a guy called Stewart's.

655
00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:01,400
Speaker 5: Shelf what he is now.

656
00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:04,600
Speaker 7: Him and I have had this conversation. We knew it

657
00:36:04,640 --> 00:36:07,120
Speaker 7: was going to come to this right and Janet Mills,

658
00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:10,759
Speaker 7: I hope she does exactly what Trump says and has

659
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:13,560
Speaker 7: a good time trying to find a job when she finishes.

660
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:16,919
Speaker 1: Thank you for the call. We'll open up if other

661
00:36:16,960 --> 00:36:20,040
Speaker 1: people from Maine want to weigh in. What I would

662
00:36:20,120 --> 00:36:24,719
Speaker 1: say in general about this is. It is insane to

663
00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:29,960
Speaker 1: me that it has become Democrat Party orthodoxy to support

664
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:34,960
Speaker 1: men identifying as women being able to win women's championships.

665
00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:38,200
Speaker 1: And I would implore the Senate to take up this

666
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:44,239
Speaker 1: bill that passed the House. Only two Democrat representatives in

667
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:48,080
Speaker 1: the entire country signed on to a bill that said

668
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:51,560
Speaker 1: you should be competing in all sports based on the

669
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:55,760
Speaker 1: gender on your birth certificate. The fact that the governor

670
00:36:55,800 --> 00:37:01,120
Speaker 1: of Maine would be going to war and saying I'll

671
00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:05,120
Speaker 1: see you in court because she's refusing to follow a

672
00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:11,359
Speaker 1: federal directive is political suicide to me. Now, I will

673
00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:15,480
Speaker 1: say this, the reason the Senate needs to act is

674
00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:19,640
Speaker 1: the force of Donald Trump's pen and executive order is

675
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:24,200
Speaker 1: strong and powerful, but you also need to undergird it

676
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:28,680
Speaker 1: with the support of Congress because when you pass a

677
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:33,240
Speaker 1: bill that codifies what Trump is saying, to the credit

678
00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:37,520
Speaker 1: of the NCAA, they have followed this rule, many states have.

679
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:41,799
Speaker 1: But until the federal legislation has passed, there's going to

680
00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:45,320
Speaker 1: be an argument about whether Trump has the executive authority

681
00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:48,799
Speaker 1: to undertake this action. I think he does from a

682
00:37:48,880 --> 00:37:52,280
Speaker 1: legal perspective, but that's what the governor of Maine is saying.

683
00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:55,880
Speaker 1: When she's saying, I'll see you in court. Without Congress

684
00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:58,920
Speaker 1: having stepped in and taken this act, She's going to

685
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:03,120
Speaker 1: argue that Trump, you latterly by executive order, doesn't have

686
00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:06,960
Speaker 1: the authority to mandate what he is And again the

687
00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:11,520
Speaker 1: Senate John Thune, bring this up on the Senate floor,

688
00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:14,880
Speaker 1: and I give credit to Trump. To me, this is

689
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:19,400
Speaker 1: a brilliant rhetorical tactical move. He said, is the governor

690
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:23,000
Speaker 1: of Maine here, and he called her out directly to

691
00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:25,360
Speaker 1: her face. Let me do I think we still have

692
00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:28,600
Speaker 1: that audio, but if you haven't heard it, it's extraordinary

693
00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:33,280
Speaker 1: because it crystallized, can be hard to ignore. It crystallizes

694
00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:38,239
Speaker 1: Trump's perspective and the Democrat perspective in one SoundBite that

695
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:41,359
Speaker 1: is going to be reverberating everywhere. Let me play this

696
00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:43,799
Speaker 1: one more time and then we'll take some calls to

697
00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:47,160
Speaker 1: close up the Friday edition of the program. But this

698
00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:51,440
Speaker 1: just happened in the White House. Trump versus the Democrat

699
00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:56,080
Speaker 1: governor of Maine over the question of can Maine continue

700
00:38:56,120 --> 00:39:00,120
Speaker 1: to allow men who identify as women to compete in

701
00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:03,560
Speaker 1: athletics in their state? The governor says they can. Trump

702
00:39:03,600 --> 00:39:05,000
Speaker 1: says they can't listen.

703
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:08,959
Speaker 2: The NCAA has complied immediately, by the way, that's good.

704
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:12,440
Speaker 2: But I understand Maine is the main here, the governor

705
00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:15,880
Speaker 2: of Maine. Are you not going to comply with it

706
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:17,959
Speaker 2: fer law?

707
00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:20,080
Speaker 3: Well, we are the federal law.

708
00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:22,640
Speaker 2: Well you better do it. You better do it because

709
00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:24,480
Speaker 2: you're not going to get any federal funding at all

710
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:26,719
Speaker 2: if you don't. And by the way, your population, even

711
00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:29,440
Speaker 2: though it's somewhat liberal orlo I did very well there,

712
00:39:29,880 --> 00:39:33,560
Speaker 2: your population doesn't want men playing in women's sports. So

713
00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:36,640
Speaker 2: you better you better comply because otherwise you're not getting

714
00:39:36,680 --> 00:39:38,160
Speaker 2: any any federal funding.

715
00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:39,800
Speaker 3: See every state.

716
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:41,400
Speaker 2: Good, I'll see you, and could I look.

717
00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:41,839
Speaker 1: Forward to that.

718
00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:44,120
Speaker 2: That should be a really easy one. And enjoy your

719
00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:45,920
Speaker 2: life after governor, because I don't think you'll be an

720
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:47,000
Speaker 2: elected politics.

721
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:55,000
Speaker 1: Amazing, This is so incredible. Trump set this up. He

722
00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:58,440
Speaker 1: knew the governor of Maine was there, he knew that

723
00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:03,680
Speaker 1: she was defying him in the White House. That couldn't

724
00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:07,759
Speaker 1: have gone any better for him. He just took an

725
00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:13,680
Speaker 1: eighty moving towards ninety percent issue that all sorts of

726
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:19,800
Speaker 1: rational people guys sixty six percent roughly of Democrats agree

727
00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:23,480
Speaker 1: with Trump on this issue, it's like ninety four ninety

728
00:40:23,520 --> 00:40:27,640
Speaker 1: five to five for Republicans. Two thirds of Democrats agree

729
00:40:27,680 --> 00:40:30,560
Speaker 1: with him. This according to New York Times poll, it's

730
00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:33,960
Speaker 1: not me just like tossing out things eighty percent nationwide,

731
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:38,960
Speaker 1: including roughly two thirds of Democrats. And Maine, to Trump's point,

732
00:40:40,160 --> 00:40:42,120
Speaker 1: is not a state that he lost by twenty some

733
00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:47,359
Speaker 1: odd points. Maine could vote Republican in twenty twenty eight.

734
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:52,920
Speaker 1: It's up there with New Jersey, Virginia, states, New Mexico

735
00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:58,399
Speaker 1: that were not that far away from flipping red five

736
00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:01,719
Speaker 1: to six points, kind of there in the margin. You

737
00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:03,560
Speaker 1: talk to the Trump team, they say, man, if we

738
00:41:03,600 --> 00:41:06,680
Speaker 1: had had the money that Kamala had, if we'd had

739
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:09,960
Speaker 1: the one and a half billion dollars that Kamala raised,

740
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:12,920
Speaker 1: we could have won New Jersey, We could have won Virginia.

741
00:41:13,680 --> 00:41:15,560
Speaker 1: We would have been able to be more aggressive in

742
00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 1: the way that we spent money. Right now, look at

743
00:41:18,239 --> 00:41:20,680
Speaker 1: what's going on. They're trying to flip the New Jersey

744
00:41:20,719 --> 00:41:25,399
Speaker 1: governor's race to red. Scott Presler did all the work

745
00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:28,960
Speaker 1: to try to flip Pennsylvania back red. He did, but

746
00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:33,600
Speaker 1: he's now got a major project underway to register as

747
00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:36,360
Speaker 1: many people in New Jersey as possible to flip this back.

748
00:41:36,680 --> 00:41:39,080
Speaker 1: How do you flip it back? By being on the

749
00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:42,000
Speaker 1: right side of an eighty twenty issue, by being on

750
00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:44,000
Speaker 1: the right side of an issue that two thirds of

751
00:41:44,040 --> 00:41:48,600
Speaker 1: Democrats actually agree with you on that isn't even remotely political.

752
00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:55,239
Speaker 1: Trump has taken advantage of the Democrat Trump derangement syndrome

753
00:41:55,840 --> 00:42:00,319
Speaker 1: that they have decided whatever Trump says they oppose and

754
00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:04,080
Speaker 1: think about the things that they're opposing. Now, men in

755
00:42:04,160 --> 00:42:06,600
Speaker 1: men's sports, women and women's sports, they're opposed to that

756
00:42:07,719 --> 00:42:12,480
Speaker 1: wasting fraud in the federal government, shutting down the southern border,

757
00:42:13,360 --> 00:42:18,799
Speaker 1: supporting violent criminals. Trump is choosing things that substantial majorities

758
00:42:18,840 --> 00:42:21,280
Speaker 1: of the American public agree with him on that aren't

759
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:26,320
Speaker 1: even historically political in nature, being on the right side

760
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:31,000
Speaker 1: of them, and Democrats are crazily lining up to oppose him.

761
00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:35,440
Speaker 1: And we just got it crystallized directly from the White House.

762
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:40,800
Speaker 1: It has now become Democrat Party orthodoxy that men pretending

763
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:45,840
Speaker 1: to be women are able to win women's championships. It's crazy.

764
00:42:46,680 --> 00:42:50,680
Speaker 1: And speaking of championships, unfortunately, we lost to Canada yesterday

765
00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:53,320
Speaker 1: three to two in overtime. A lot of you watched

766
00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:56,400
Speaker 1: that match last night. Didn't until nearly midnight on the

767
00:42:56,400 --> 00:42:59,640
Speaker 1: East coast. But whatever sport you like, price picks can

768
00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:01,880
Speaker 1: hook you up. Whether it's Major League Baseball about to

769
00:43:01,880 --> 00:43:06,440
Speaker 1: come back, whether it's NASCAR, whether it is the NBA,

770
00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:10,640
Speaker 1: college basketball, whatever sport you love, Price picks has an

771
00:43:10,640 --> 00:43:12,960
Speaker 1: opportunity for you to play. I'm down here in Florida

772
00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:14,839
Speaker 1: right now. You can play in Florida, you can play

773
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Speaker 1: in California, you can play in Texas, you can play

774
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Speaker 1: in Georgia. Forty states, thirteen million people playing. Download the

775
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776
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Speaker 1: and get hooked up with fifty dollars when you play

777
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Speaker 1: five dollars. All you have to do is go to

778
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Speaker 1: pricepicks dot com. Use my name Clay. That's prizepicks dot com.

779
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Speaker 1: My name Clay. Fifty dollars instantly. When you play your

780
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781
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782
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Speaker 1: all over the station, all over the nation. Forty roughly

783
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Speaker 1: states out there, including California, Texas, Georgia. If you've been

784
00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:56,080
Speaker 1: feeling left behind, pricepicks dot com, my name Clay. That

785
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Speaker 1: is pricepicks dot com, my name Clay for fifty bucks.

786
00:44:07,080 --> 00:44:11,800
Speaker 1: We are joined by Anson Frearic's former president at Anaheuser

787
00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:16,080
Speaker 1: Busch co founder Strive Asset Management, his new book Last

788
00:44:16,160 --> 00:44:20,600
Speaker 1: Call for bud Light, The Fall and Future of America's

789
00:44:20,640 --> 00:44:25,080
Speaker 1: Favorite Beer, and Anson, I appreciate you joining us here.

790
00:44:25,719 --> 00:44:30,840
Speaker 1: I would submit that the failed Dylan mulvany bud Light deal,

791
00:44:31,800 --> 00:44:35,120
Speaker 1: the fact that they send her the bud Light cans him.

792
00:44:35,200 --> 00:44:39,200
Speaker 1: Whatever you want to say. Right around the March Madness tournament,

793
00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:42,920
Speaker 1: I believe two years ago bud Light sales you can

794
00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:46,440
Speaker 1: update me on them. I believe are still down forty percent.

795
00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:53,799
Speaker 1: Is this the most destructive ad endorsement product relationship that

796
00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:57,520
Speaker 1: has ever existed in modern American capitalism? Can you think

797
00:44:57,560 --> 00:44:59,360
Speaker 1: of a worst one? Or is this the worst?

798
00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:01,959
Speaker 6: I mean, Claire, I think this is the worst one.

799
00:45:01,960 --> 00:45:03,560
Speaker 6: I mean, maybe you could say that when there was

800
00:45:03,680 --> 00:45:06,440
Speaker 6: New Coke, and New Coke came out in the nineteen

801
00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:09,160
Speaker 6: eighties and then that plummeted it. Everybody hated New Coke.

802
00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:11,480
Speaker 6: The good thing about the Coke executive they should learn

803
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:13,879
Speaker 6: their lesson. They say, hey, we screwed up, We apologize

804
00:45:14,239 --> 00:45:16,200
Speaker 6: and they went back to the old formula. And you know,

805
00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:18,640
Speaker 6: Coke's doing fine. But that's one of the big problems

806
00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:21,000
Speaker 6: here is that this company lost thirty percent of its

807
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:23,520
Speaker 6: sales two years ago. It lost another ten percent of

808
00:45:23,520 --> 00:45:26,000
Speaker 6: its sales last year with bud Life. It's still declining

809
00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:28,080
Speaker 6: this year. And one of the reasons is that no

810
00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:30,160
Speaker 6: one's taking accountability for this. I mean, the CEO is

811
00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:33,600
Speaker 6: still there. There's been no apology, and that's why customers

812
00:45:33,600 --> 00:45:35,160
Speaker 6: really haven't returned here, which is crazy.

813
00:45:35,520 --> 00:45:37,600
Speaker 1: What would you do. Let's pretend that they came to

814
00:45:37,640 --> 00:45:40,200
Speaker 1: you and they said, okay, bud Light is your business.

815
00:45:40,320 --> 00:45:43,440
Speaker 1: You have to in some way make it relevant again

816
00:45:43,600 --> 00:45:46,440
Speaker 1: for the audience that has abandoned it. Is there anything

817
00:45:46,520 --> 00:45:49,640
Speaker 1: they could do that would as you point out, they're

818
00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:53,040
Speaker 1: continuing to decline down forty percent. Is the brand dead

819
00:45:53,080 --> 00:45:54,960
Speaker 1: no matter what? Or is there a way to bring

820
00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:55,720
Speaker 1: it back to life?

821
00:45:56,560 --> 00:45:56,680
Speaker 7: No?

822
00:45:56,719 --> 00:45:58,160
Speaker 6: I mean actually think there's a way to bring this

823
00:45:58,280 --> 00:45:59,640
Speaker 6: back to life. And I get into this in in

824
00:45:59,640 --> 00:46:01,800
Speaker 6: my book Last Call for Blood Light what you mentioned about.

825
00:46:01,800 --> 00:46:03,960
Speaker 6: But I think one of the fundamental problems is is

826
00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:07,600
Speaker 6: that this company, Annhezzer Busch. It's no longer American owned.

827
00:46:07,719 --> 00:46:10,560
Speaker 6: It was actually purchased by a European company called InBev

828
00:46:10,760 --> 00:46:13,440
Speaker 6: about fifteen years ago, and then lots of mistakes were

829
00:46:13,480 --> 00:46:16,600
Speaker 6: made over that time period. The in Bev company moved

830
00:46:16,800 --> 00:46:19,279
Speaker 6: the corporate headquarters from kind of Saint Louis to New

831
00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:21,600
Speaker 6: York City, brought in a lot of foreign executives that

832
00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:24,920
Speaker 6: really didn't understand the US consumer. They adopted a lot

833
00:46:24,960 --> 00:46:28,520
Speaker 6: of device apology of policies of ESG and DEI. So

834
00:46:28,680 --> 00:46:30,319
Speaker 6: a lot of those problems happen. I think a lot

835
00:46:30,320 --> 00:46:33,200
Speaker 6: of those go away if they actually sell Annheiser Busch

836
00:46:33,239 --> 00:46:35,719
Speaker 6: here in the US back to US citizens. I mean,

837
00:46:35,760 --> 00:46:38,560
Speaker 6: sell it to Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway, sell it

838
00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:42,879
Speaker 6: to a consortium affirms a Blackstone and Steve Schwartzman's group.

839
00:46:43,080 --> 00:46:44,520
Speaker 6: Sell it to one of those. I think the first

840
00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:45,879
Speaker 6: thing they can do, which I think would be good

841
00:46:45,920 --> 00:46:48,160
Speaker 6: for this European business that hasn't been able to really

842
00:46:48,239 --> 00:46:50,480
Speaker 6: understand the US, and it'd be good for the business

843
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:52,160
Speaker 6: here so they could focus more here in the US.

844
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:55,080
Speaker 6: They could bring in American executives, they could bring back

845
00:46:56,239 --> 00:46:57,480
Speaker 6: I don't know a lot of the commercials that we

846
00:46:57,520 --> 00:47:00,040
Speaker 6: all love. I think even most importantly is that we

847
00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:02,920
Speaker 6: could tell their customers that we were sorry, we screwed up,

848
00:47:03,200 --> 00:47:05,640
Speaker 6: and that was this old regime. We got rid of it,

849
00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:07,680
Speaker 6: and now we're moving forward with you know, kind of

850
00:47:07,719 --> 00:47:12,279
Speaker 6: American regime, American values, focused on our customer. We're not

851
00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:14,000
Speaker 6: going to get involved in any political silliness. So we

852
00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:15,640
Speaker 6: got involved with over the last couple of years. I

853
00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:16,680
Speaker 6: think that's the first step.

854
00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:20,360
Speaker 1: Why do you think so many brands have ad buyers

855
00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:24,520
Speaker 1: and marketing people who have no idea who actually consumes

856
00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:27,359
Speaker 1: their product. Isn't that really kind of the essence of

857
00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:29,560
Speaker 1: how you make a mistake like this? As you mentioned,

858
00:47:29,640 --> 00:47:32,239
Speaker 1: you moved from Saint Louis to New York City. I

859
00:47:32,320 --> 00:47:34,880
Speaker 1: knew that bud Light was in real trouble, and I

860
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:37,280
Speaker 1: said this, and it's remained the case. You go around

861
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:40,680
Speaker 1: to tailgates. Now basically no guy who throws a tailgate

862
00:47:40,719 --> 00:47:44,000
Speaker 1: at a football game is buying bud Light anymore because

863
00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:46,480
Speaker 1: their buddies are going to make fun of them in

864
00:47:46,520 --> 00:47:49,680
Speaker 1: the wake of the destruction of the brand. But isn't

865
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:53,160
Speaker 1: this emblematic of larger issues, whether it's with Target, whether

866
00:47:53,200 --> 00:47:57,200
Speaker 1: it's with Disney, whether it's with ESPN, the NBA, there

867
00:47:57,200 --> 00:47:59,360
Speaker 1: are just a lot of brands out there that have

868
00:47:59,480 --> 00:48:03,960
Speaker 1: no idea who their actual consumer is and as a result,

869
00:48:04,160 --> 00:48:05,839
Speaker 1: they're completely alienating them.

870
00:48:06,560 --> 00:48:08,799
Speaker 6: Yeah, Claire, I mean you're one hundred percent right about that.

871
00:48:08,960 --> 00:48:11,239
Speaker 6: This is not just an Anheuser Busch problem. I mean

872
00:48:11,320 --> 00:48:13,160
Speaker 6: Anheuser Busch was the one that was holding the pin

873
00:48:13,239 --> 00:48:17,359
Speaker 6: when this whole ESG DEI bubble pop two years ago,

874
00:48:17,680 --> 00:48:19,400
Speaker 6: and they were the first time that you saw that

875
00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:22,640
Speaker 6: millions of consumers ditched a brand that led to billions

876
00:48:22,640 --> 00:48:25,440
Speaker 6: of dollars of loss of shareholder value. And this for

877
00:48:25,480 --> 00:48:27,040
Speaker 6: the first time, I think actually was a wake up

878
00:48:27,040 --> 00:48:28,879
Speaker 6: call to a lot of the broader corporations. I mean,

879
00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:31,600
Speaker 6: you don't get the big rollback and ESG and DEI

880
00:48:31,640 --> 00:48:34,400
Speaker 6: that you're seeing right now without the whole budline example,

881
00:48:34,400 --> 00:48:35,680
Speaker 6: where you all of a sudden, this is the least

882
00:48:35,680 --> 00:48:38,240
Speaker 6: sustainable thing that a company could do was to pander

883
00:48:38,280 --> 00:48:42,000
Speaker 6: to a group that wasn't it wasn't necessarily their customer base,

884
00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:44,680
Speaker 6: and that they got a brand involved in them that

885
00:48:44,719 --> 00:48:46,560
Speaker 6: wasn't authentically bud Light. You know, bud like used to

886
00:48:46,600 --> 00:48:49,200
Speaker 6: be about sports and music and bringing folks together, never

887
00:48:49,239 --> 00:48:52,440
Speaker 6: got involved in controversial political issues. They lost sight of

888
00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:54,920
Speaker 6: that because they had marketing people based in New York

889
00:48:54,960 --> 00:48:57,959
Speaker 6: and they used marketing based New York form firms based

890
00:48:57,960 --> 00:49:00,200
Speaker 6: in New York City. And then that was like one

891
00:49:00,200 --> 00:49:02,920
Speaker 6: of the bigger issues that we saw really across corporate America.

892
00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:05,040
Speaker 6: A lot of these firms that were based in Saint

893
00:49:05,120 --> 00:49:07,800
Speaker 6: Louis or in Arkansas or Texas, all of a sudden,

894
00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:10,359
Speaker 6: they were moving a lot of their headquarters in New York,

895
00:49:10,440 --> 00:49:13,359
Speaker 6: hiring New York firms, taking in advice from a lot

896
00:49:13,400 --> 00:49:16,239
Speaker 6: of New York based asset management companies. Black Rocks a

897
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:19,360
Speaker 6: good example, who is foicing an ESG and DEI agenda

898
00:49:19,400 --> 00:49:21,560
Speaker 6: on them? And so this led to a lot of problems,

899
00:49:21,560 --> 00:49:23,279
Speaker 6: and you saw a lot of companies that lost their

900
00:49:23,280 --> 00:49:25,880
Speaker 6: way over the last couple of years. I'm actually pleased

901
00:49:25,880 --> 00:49:28,040
Speaker 6: to say that there's companies like Disney, they're at least

902
00:49:28,080 --> 00:49:30,480
Speaker 6: making the right steps back in the right direction. They

903
00:49:30,520 --> 00:49:32,960
Speaker 6: fired their CEO, Bob Chapik, they brought back Bob Biger.

904
00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:35,360
Speaker 6: Bob Iger said, we're getting out of politics. We're not

905
00:49:35,400 --> 00:49:37,440
Speaker 6: doing it anymore. They've rolled back a lot of their

906
00:49:37,480 --> 00:49:40,160
Speaker 6: DEI policies in recent weeks. Are they perfect? No, but

907
00:49:40,200 --> 00:49:42,320
Speaker 6: at least that they acknowledged that there was a problem.

908
00:49:42,520 --> 00:49:44,880
Speaker 6: I hope we're seeing that more across corporate America. I

909
00:49:44,880 --> 00:49:46,719
Speaker 6: think annezer Bushes just a little bit behind the eight

910
00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:47,799
Speaker 6: ball on getting there.

911
00:49:48,360 --> 00:49:50,239
Speaker 1: A lot of people said, we're talking to Anson fer

912
00:49:50,360 --> 00:49:53,400
Speaker 1: Erics from bud Light, former president there. He's got a

913
00:49:53,400 --> 00:49:57,359
Speaker 1: book out last Call for bud Light. Usually people say, oh,

914
00:49:57,400 --> 00:50:01,040
Speaker 1: this is not going to last. Two years later, basically

915
00:50:01,280 --> 00:50:04,439
Speaker 1: we're still dealing with the continued fallout for bud Light.

916
00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:07,359
Speaker 1: Do you think they've been stunned by how toxic their

917
00:50:07,400 --> 00:50:10,600
Speaker 1: brand has become? Do you think they ever expected it

918
00:50:10,640 --> 00:50:13,520
Speaker 1: to go on this long? Is that why they didn't apologize.

919
00:50:13,520 --> 00:50:15,759
Speaker 1: They just kept hoping, Oh, this is going to go away,

920
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:17,520
Speaker 1: Oh this is going to go away, and in the

921
00:50:17,560 --> 00:50:19,240
Speaker 1: process their brand just vanished.

922
00:50:20,200 --> 00:50:22,160
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean one hundred percent that's what they thought.

923
00:50:22,200 --> 00:50:25,239
Speaker 6: Because there really hadn't been a very successful i'll call

924
00:50:25,280 --> 00:50:28,399
Speaker 6: it consumer boycott previous to this. You know, of course

925
00:50:28,400 --> 00:50:30,800
Speaker 6: people were upset when in the NFL. People were kneeling

926
00:50:30,800 --> 00:50:32,360
Speaker 6: in the NFL, But what are you going to do?

927
00:50:32,440 --> 00:50:35,080
Speaker 6: There's no other alternative on Sundays in the NFL. Yeah,

928
00:50:35,080 --> 00:50:37,040
Speaker 6: people were upset at Disney when Disney got involved in

929
00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:39,000
Speaker 6: front of rights issues in Florida, but you know, if

930
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:40,319
Speaker 6: your kids want to go to Disney World and not

931
00:50:40,360 --> 00:50:43,480
Speaker 6: a lot of alternatives. Bud Light was uniquely susceptible to

932
00:50:43,560 --> 00:50:46,520
Speaker 6: this massive boycott really for two reasons. As one is

933
00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:49,279
Speaker 6: that they have a commoditized brand, where everywhere there's bud Light,

934
00:50:49,520 --> 00:50:51,720
Speaker 6: there's also Miller Lite and cores Light at the exact

935
00:50:51,760 --> 00:50:55,080
Speaker 6: same price. And then secondarily, people could actually see the

936
00:50:55,160 --> 00:50:59,000
Speaker 6: impact of this boycott. Every single week there's sales data

937
00:50:59,040 --> 00:51:02,400
Speaker 6: from retailers like in Kroger in seven to eleven that

938
00:51:02,480 --> 00:51:05,279
Speaker 6: gets reported, So every week you were seeing in real

939
00:51:05,320 --> 00:51:08,080
Speaker 6: time that bud Light sales were down ten percent, twenty percent,

940
00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:10,480
Speaker 6: thirty percent, forty percent. And then with the effect of

941
00:51:10,520 --> 00:51:13,239
Speaker 6: social media, you had everybody that was posting photos and

942
00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:15,400
Speaker 6: videos online of like the bud Light line at a

943
00:51:15,400 --> 00:51:18,799
Speaker 6: baseball game empty and a corese lightline thirty deep, and

944
00:51:18,880 --> 00:51:20,960
Speaker 6: so that has just had this big impact on the

945
00:51:20,960 --> 00:51:23,960
Speaker 6: business that they didn't realize how susceptible they were because

946
00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:26,640
Speaker 6: for ninety five percent of the American population, they can't

947
00:51:26,640 --> 00:51:29,160
Speaker 6: tell the difference between bud Light, Miller Lite Course Light.

948
00:51:29,400 --> 00:51:31,600
Speaker 6: The only thing that differentiates them is their brand. And

949
00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:36,120
Speaker 6: bud Light used to be that fun sports music, backyard

950
00:51:36,160 --> 00:51:39,120
Speaker 6: barbecuing kind of like Americana brand that you're talking about

951
00:51:39,120 --> 00:51:40,960
Speaker 6: all the guys used to drink at tailgates. Is the

952
00:51:40,960 --> 00:51:43,440
Speaker 6: most acceptable brand of the biggest beer brand. And then

953
00:51:43,440 --> 00:51:45,240
Speaker 6: when they lost that identity and all of a sudden,

954
00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:47,600
Speaker 6: it became this almost like brand like Ben and Jerry's.

955
00:51:47,800 --> 00:51:50,680
Speaker 6: Where are they advocating for certain social issues and more

956
00:51:50,719 --> 00:51:53,920
Speaker 6: progressive causes by getting involved with Dylan Mulvanium and not

957
00:51:54,040 --> 00:51:57,040
Speaker 6: even being able to articulate to the customer what the

958
00:51:57,080 --> 00:51:59,320
Speaker 6: brand stands for moving forward. I mean you you remember

959
00:51:59,360 --> 00:52:02,640
Speaker 6: that right after this happened, their CEO had multiple botched

960
00:52:02,640 --> 00:52:06,200
Speaker 6: attempts of trying to talk about bud Light, never apologize

961
00:52:06,280 --> 00:52:08,000
Speaker 6: or a loyal customer base that was called Friday out

962
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:11,359
Speaker 6: of touch, nor talk the more progressive customer base and said,

963
00:52:11,560 --> 00:52:12,879
Speaker 6: you know, hey, we're going to be more like Ben

964
00:52:12,880 --> 00:52:14,560
Speaker 6: and Jerry's. And I don't know, when you walk in

965
00:52:14,600 --> 00:52:16,919
Speaker 6: the middle of a cultural battlefield, they ended up getting

966
00:52:16,960 --> 00:52:17,880
Speaker 6: shot at from both sides.

967
00:52:18,560 --> 00:52:20,799
Speaker 1: No, and I think that's a really important part here

968
00:52:20,800 --> 00:52:23,960
Speaker 1: about the commoditized brand nature. Chick fil A got ripped

969
00:52:23,960 --> 00:52:26,799
Speaker 1: to the high heavens and even people out there that

970
00:52:26,840 --> 00:52:29,520
Speaker 1: are super left wing or like you know, I might

971
00:52:29,520 --> 00:52:33,400
Speaker 1: not agree with Chick fil A on whatever LGBTQI issue

972
00:52:33,440 --> 00:52:36,120
Speaker 1: there is, but they got a great chicken sandwich, and

973
00:52:36,160 --> 00:52:38,040
Speaker 1: so I'm going to keep showing up. I love their

974
00:52:38,080 --> 00:52:41,640
Speaker 1: waffle fries. I'm not trying to give a free advertisement

975
00:52:41,680 --> 00:52:43,400
Speaker 1: for Chick fil A, but I love the brand and

976
00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:45,600
Speaker 1: it's hard for me to think of something they could

977
00:52:45,640 --> 00:52:49,040
Speaker 1: do that would make me change my decision. But to

978
00:52:49,120 --> 00:52:51,600
Speaker 1: your point, for a lot of people who go into

979
00:52:51,719 --> 00:52:54,640
Speaker 1: a grocery store or go into a gas station and

980
00:52:54,680 --> 00:52:57,560
Speaker 1: are going to grab a twelve or twenty four pack

981
00:52:57,680 --> 00:53:00,239
Speaker 1: of a beer, there isn't a lot of different It's

982
00:53:00,239 --> 00:53:03,480
Speaker 1: between Miller, Lite, Bud Light, Course Light. I know I'm

983
00:53:03,480 --> 00:53:05,640
Speaker 1: gonna get blown up by guys out there, like I

984
00:53:05,640 --> 00:53:08,919
Speaker 1: can tell a tremendous difference. I disagree like Guinness, right,

985
00:53:09,000 --> 00:53:11,359
Speaker 1: you know when you're drinking a Guinness, you know when

986
00:53:11,400 --> 00:53:14,319
Speaker 1: you're drinking a certain type of beer that has a

987
00:53:14,360 --> 00:53:17,920
Speaker 1: different flavor and taste. I think for most people, Light

988
00:53:18,080 --> 00:53:21,880
Speaker 1: beer is relatively easily replaceable. Let me ask you this question,

989
00:53:22,400 --> 00:53:24,120
Speaker 1: and I think that's an important part about why the

990
00:53:24,120 --> 00:53:27,759
Speaker 1: boycott works so well. It was an easy change for

991
00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:32,000
Speaker 1: people to make. Target smart guy. I really like him.

992
00:53:32,080 --> 00:53:36,000
Speaker 1: Jamesduth Meyer now the attorney general in the state of Florida.

993
00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:38,080
Speaker 1: One of the first things he's done is file a

994
00:53:38,160 --> 00:53:41,520
Speaker 1: lawsuit against Target, going after them for burning up a

995
00:53:41,560 --> 00:53:44,920
Speaker 1: great deal of shareholder value, he says, by basically going

996
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:47,719
Speaker 1: all in with the tuck bathing suits, everything else. What

997
00:53:47,800 --> 00:53:52,840
Speaker 1: you do now I think is important. But in some way,

998
00:53:53,080 --> 00:53:57,160
Speaker 1: is that the effective method to get businesses back to

999
00:53:57,280 --> 00:54:01,239
Speaker 1: just saying, hey, can you just serve everybody? Democrat, Republican, Independent,

1000
00:54:01,360 --> 00:54:04,840
Speaker 1: You don't need to go after this woke agenda. Is

1001
00:54:04,880 --> 00:54:08,360
Speaker 1: there a lawsuit mechanism in your mind that could be

1002
00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:09,920
Speaker 1: pursued and should be pursued.

1003
00:54:11,080 --> 00:54:14,000
Speaker 6: I mean, there is a lawsuit mechanism, And if you

1004
00:54:14,040 --> 00:54:16,120
Speaker 6: go back, really the lawsuits that are coming out right

1005
00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:18,440
Speaker 6: now goes back to really the Civil Rights Act of

1006
00:54:18,520 --> 00:54:21,520
Speaker 6: nineteen sixty four, which essentially says that you cannot discriminate

1007
00:54:21,560 --> 00:54:25,040
Speaker 6: based off of a race, sex, gender, national origin, etc.

1008
00:54:25,640 --> 00:54:27,600
Speaker 6: And a lot of retailers I mean, Target was one

1009
00:54:27,640 --> 00:54:29,600
Speaker 6: of these, and in the post George Floyd era that

1010
00:54:29,640 --> 00:54:33,080
Speaker 6: they came out with a lot of essentially racist policies

1011
00:54:33,120 --> 00:54:35,520
Speaker 6: against certain people. They said that we are going to

1012
00:54:35,600 --> 00:54:38,320
Speaker 6: hire a certain quota of people that look this way.

1013
00:54:38,719 --> 00:54:42,600
Speaker 6: Target was allocating shelf space at their stores based off

1014
00:54:42,600 --> 00:54:45,799
Speaker 6: of race, sex color. That just doesn't make any sense

1015
00:54:45,840 --> 00:54:47,080
Speaker 6: in the society we're living in. I mean, we live

1016
00:54:47,120 --> 00:54:49,040
Speaker 6: in a meritocracy. You should be able to put the

1017
00:54:49,320 --> 00:54:51,759
Speaker 6: products in the shelf that sell. That's the right thing

1018
00:54:51,800 --> 00:54:54,280
Speaker 6: for the customer, that's the right thing for your shareholder

1019
00:54:54,360 --> 00:54:56,480
Speaker 6: value as well. I think that's the bigger issue that

1020
00:54:56,560 --> 00:54:59,239
Speaker 6: Targets facings like why are you pushing forward with a

1021
00:54:59,280 --> 00:55:02,920
Speaker 6: certain really social type agenda as opposed as putting what sells.

1022
00:55:02,960 --> 00:55:04,960
Speaker 6: And I think that the bigger issue with Target was,

1023
00:55:05,080 --> 00:55:06,759
Speaker 6: you know, when you walk into a Target store, their

1024
00:55:06,800 --> 00:55:10,080
Speaker 6: most valuable real estate is that first big display area

1025
00:55:10,160 --> 00:55:12,160
Speaker 6: right when you walk in, and when they're putting tuck

1026
00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:15,600
Speaker 6: friendly bathing suits across every single Target across America, Well,

1027
00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:17,480
Speaker 6: that's not what the majority of their customer base wants.

1028
00:55:17,680 --> 00:55:20,799
Speaker 6: And that's not good for shareholders, not good for shareholder value. Yes,

1029
00:55:20,840 --> 00:55:22,840
Speaker 6: I think the lawsuits, will make sure that they're abiding

1030
00:55:22,880 --> 00:55:25,040
Speaker 6: by sort of the Civil Rights Act and making sure

1031
00:55:25,040 --> 00:55:28,040
Speaker 6: that they're not discriminating against people. I think even more importantly,

1032
00:55:28,080 --> 00:55:31,040
Speaker 6: I think that the American consumer has gone to Walmart's,

1033
00:55:31,040 --> 00:55:34,080
Speaker 6: has gone to other areas, and Target stock price has

1034
00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:35,759
Speaker 6: been in the tank over the last year or two

1035
00:55:35,840 --> 00:55:38,280
Speaker 6: since this controversy. I think what's going to turn around

1036
00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:42,120
Speaker 6: is again Target recommitting the fundamental principles of serving their customers,

1037
00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:44,560
Speaker 6: bringing customers back by giving more of the products of

1038
00:55:44,600 --> 00:55:45,080
Speaker 6: what they want.

1039
00:55:45,239 --> 00:55:46,920
Speaker 5: I think that's the more effective way to get this.

1040
00:55:46,880 --> 00:55:49,520
Speaker 6: Thing turned around, and consumers again just.

1041
00:55:49,600 --> 00:55:50,400
Speaker 5: Vote with your wallets.

1042
00:55:50,440 --> 00:55:52,200
Speaker 6: That's the more effective way to get back to serving

1043
00:55:52,239 --> 00:55:52,960
Speaker 6: all customers.

1044
00:55:53,640 --> 00:55:56,160
Speaker 1: The book is the last call for bud Light Anson

1045
00:55:56,239 --> 00:55:59,279
Speaker 1: for Eric's former president Anhuser Busch speaking with us, last

1046
00:55:59,320 --> 00:56:03,800
Speaker 1: question for you on a positive side, is every major

1047
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:07,040
Speaker 1: brand in America now having meetings on a regular basis

1048
00:56:07,080 --> 00:56:09,680
Speaker 1: where they say, whatever we do, let's make sure we're

1049
00:56:09,719 --> 00:56:12,920
Speaker 1: not the next bud Light have. Does the American consumer

1050
00:56:13,040 --> 00:56:16,399
Speaker 1: sent a huge and important message to corporate America by

1051
00:56:16,520 --> 00:56:17,600
Speaker 1: not buying bud Light.

1052
00:56:19,040 --> 00:56:21,160
Speaker 6: I think they have, and most importantly, I think most

1053
00:56:21,200 --> 00:56:24,640
Speaker 6: brands right now are having a conversation about just how

1054
00:56:24,640 --> 00:56:26,560
Speaker 6: do you build trust with the consumer, and you do

1055
00:56:26,640 --> 00:56:28,680
Speaker 6: it by being authentic. I mean you mentioned Chick fil

1056
00:56:28,680 --> 00:56:31,719
Speaker 6: A earlier, like I know on Sunday's Chick fil A

1057
00:56:31,800 --> 00:56:33,680
Speaker 6: is going to be closed. That's like, you know, I

1058
00:56:33,680 --> 00:56:35,560
Speaker 6: can trust that it's going to be closed. And I

1059
00:56:35,560 --> 00:56:37,640
Speaker 6: also know this because the family who owns it. I

1060
00:56:37,640 --> 00:56:40,200
Speaker 6: mean they're like, you know, seven Day Adventists. That's their right.

1061
00:56:40,280 --> 00:56:42,080
Speaker 6: They can be closed. They can do what they want

1062
00:56:42,080 --> 00:56:44,359
Speaker 6: to do. They can advocate for policies they want. That's

1063
00:56:44,440 --> 00:56:46,400
Speaker 6: chick fil A. Let chick fil A be Chick fil A.

1064
00:56:46,480 --> 00:56:49,360
Speaker 6: That's what makes it unique, interesting and different. And the

1065
00:56:49,360 --> 00:56:50,839
Speaker 6: same thing with bud Light. Like one of the things

1066
00:56:50,840 --> 00:56:52,960
Speaker 6: that was just authentic and true about bud Light is

1067
00:56:52,960 --> 00:56:56,399
Speaker 6: that it was this funny, spratty uh you know, kind

1068
00:56:56,400 --> 00:56:58,680
Speaker 6: of kind of a inside humor type of brand. Let

1069
00:56:58,760 --> 00:57:00,680
Speaker 6: bud Light You bud Light, It need to be Ben

1070
00:57:00,680 --> 00:57:03,160
Speaker 6: and Jerry's by getting involved in every single social issue.

1071
00:57:03,239 --> 00:57:05,439
Speaker 6: And I think that's more the conversation that's being had.

1072
00:57:05,600 --> 00:57:07,359
Speaker 6: That's what my book talks a lot about, is about

1073
00:57:07,360 --> 00:57:10,440
Speaker 6: that authenticity, getting back to trust with brands, building that

1074
00:57:10,520 --> 00:57:12,560
Speaker 6: back in corporate America, and I think that we're starting

1075
00:57:12,560 --> 00:57:15,080
Speaker 6: to see the pendulum swing back. I'm optimistic that it

1076
00:57:15,120 --> 00:57:17,440
Speaker 6: will continue to happen. That'd be good for I think

1077
00:57:17,480 --> 00:57:20,760
Speaker 6: American businesses, American shareholder capitalism. I think it'll be better

1078
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1079
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Speaker 6: of politics.

1080
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Speaker 1: Check it out last call for bud Light Anson Freeriks.

1081
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Speaker 1: Appreciate the time, have a good weekend.

1082
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Speaker 6: Thanks Clai.

1083
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