February 21, 2025 • 36 mins
The fascinating Bud Light backstory from a guy on the inside. Trump calls out Maine's governor for defying his EO protecting women's sports. Caller: There are a lot of closet Trump supporters in Maine. Mayor Bass blame game, fires fire department chief.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show podcast. Welcome back in.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all of you hanging
out with us. Final hour of the week. Encourage you
to go subscribe to the Clay and Buck podcast network.
It has been blowing up in a very good way.
You can search out my name Clay Travis, you can
search out Buck Sexton. Buck on his way to Colorado
for a speaking engagement. I'll close up shop here. We'll
(00:26):
both be back together on Monday. Want to tell you
right now we are joined by Anson Freeric's former president
at Anaheuser Busch, co founder Strive Asset Management, his new book,
Last Call for bud Light, The Fall and Future of
America's Favorite Beer.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And Anson. I appreciate you joining us here.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I would submit that the failed Dylan Mulvany bud Light deal,
the fact that they send her the bud Light cans him.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Whatever you want to say.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Right around the March Madness Tournament, I believe two years
ago bud Light sales you can update me on them.
I believe are still down forty percent. Is this the
most destructive ad endorsement product? Relationship that has ever existed
in modern American capitalism. Can you think of a worst
(01:22):
one or is this the worst?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I mean, Clay, I think this is the worst one.
I mean, maybe you could say that when there was
New Coke, and New Coke came out in the nineteen
eighties and then Matt plummeted. Everybody hated New Coke. The
good thing about the Coke executive they should learned their lesson.
They say, hey, we screwed up, we apologize, and they
went back to the old formula. And you know, Coke's
doing fine. But that's one of the big problems here
is that this company lost thirty percent of its sales
(01:45):
two years ago. It lost another ten percent of its
sales last year with bud Life. It's still declining this year.
And one of the reasons is that still no one's
taking accountability for this. I mean, the CEO is still there.
There's been no apology, and that's why customers really haven't
returned here, which is crazy.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
What would you do.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Let's pretend that they came to you and they said, okay,
bud Light is your business. You have to in some
way make it relevant again for the audience that has
abandoned it.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Is there anything they.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Could do that would as you point out, they're continuing
to decline down forty percent? Is the brand dead no
matter what? Or is there a way to bring it
back to life?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
No? I mean actually think there's a way to bring
this back to life. And I get into this in
my book Last Call for Blood Light what you mentioned about.
But I just think one of the fundamental problems is
is that this company, anhezerd Busch, it's no longer American owned.
It was actually purchased by a European company called InBev
about fifteen years ago, and then lots of mistakes were
made over that time period. The InBev company moved the
(02:41):
corporate headquarters from kind of Saint Louis to New York City,
brought in a lot of foreign executives that really didn't
understand the US consumer. They adopted a lot of device
apology of policies of ESG and DEI. So a lot
of those problems happen. I think a lot of those
go away if they actually sell Annhezer Bush here in
the US back to US citizens. I mean, Warren Buffett
and Berkshire Hathaway sell it to a consortium of firms
(03:03):
like a Blackstone and Steve Schwartzman's group. Sell it to
one of those. I think the first thing they can do,
which I think would be good for this this European
business that hasn't been able to really understand the US,
and it'd be good for the business here, so they
could focus more here in the US. They could bring
in American executives, they could bring back I don't know,
a lot of the commercials that we all love. I
think even most importantly is that they could tell their
(03:24):
customers that we were sorry, we screwed up, and that
was this old regime. We got rid of it, and
now we're moving forward with you know, kind of American regime,
American values, focused on our customer. We're not going to
get involved in any political silliness. So we got involved
with over the last couple of years. I think that's
the first step.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Why do you think so many brands have ad buyers
and marketing people who have no idea who actually consumes
their product. Isn't that really kind of the essence of
how you make a mistake like this? As you mentioned,
you moved from Saint Louis to New York City. I
knew that bud Light was in real trouble, and I
said this, and it's the case you go around to tailgates. Now, basically,
(04:03):
no guy who throws a tailgate at a football game
is buying bud Light anymore because their buddies are gonna
make fun of them in the wake of the destruction
of the brand. But isn't this emblematic of larger issues.
Whether it's with Target, whether it's with Disney, whether it's
with ESPN, the NBA. There are just a lot of
brands out there that have no idea who their actual
(04:25):
consumer is and as a result, they're completely alienating them.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, Clai, I mean you're one hundred percent right about that.
This is not just an Anheuser Busch problem. Anheuser Busch
was the one that was holding the pin when this
whole ESG DEI bubble pop two years ago, and they
were the first time that you saw that millions of
consumers ditched a brand that led to billions of dollars
of loss of shareholder value. And it's for the first
time I think actually was a wake up call to
(04:51):
a lot of the broader corporations. I mean, you don't
get the big rollback in ESG and Dei that you're
seeing right now without the whole Budline example, where you
all of a sudden is the least stame thing that
a company could do was to pander to a group
that wasn't it wasn't necessarily their customer base, and that
they got a brand involved in them that wasn't authentically
bud Light. You know, bud like used to be about
sports and music and bringing folks together, never got involved
(05:13):
in controversial political issues. They lost sight of that because
they had marketing people based in New York and they
used marketing based New York firms based in New York City.
And then that was like one of the bigger issues
that we saw really across corporate America. A lot of
these firms that were based in Saint Louis or in
Arkansas or Texas, all of a sudden, they were moving
a lot of their headquarters in New York, hiring New
(05:34):
York firms, taking in advice from a lot of New
York based asset management companies. Black Rocks a good example,
who was foicing an ESG and DEI agenda on them,
and so this led to a lot of problems, and
you saw a lot of companies that lost their way
over the last couple of years. I'm actually pleased to
say that there's companies like Disney they're at least making
the right steps back in the right direction. They fired
their CEO, Bob Chapik, they brought back Bob Yger. Bob
(05:57):
Iger said, we're getting out of politics. We're not doing
it anymore. They've rolled back a lot of their DEI
policies in recent weeks. Are they perfect, No, but at
least that they've acknowledged that there was a problem. I
hope we're seeing that more across corporate America. I think
Annezard Bushes just a little bit behind the eight ball
on getting there.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
A lot of people said, we're talking to Anson fre
Erics from bud Light, former president there. He's got a
book out last call for bud Light. Usually people say, oh,
this is not going to last. Two years later, basically
we're still dealing with the continued fallout for bud Light.
Do you think they've been stunned by how toxic their
brand has become? Do you think they ever expected it
(06:34):
to go on this long? Is that why they didn't apologize.
They just kept hoping, Oh, this is going to go away,
Oh this is going to go away, and in the
process their brand just vanished.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yeah, I mean one hundred percent, that's what they thought,
because they're really hadn't been a very successful i'll call
it consumer boycott previous to this. You know, of course,
people were upset when in the NFL. People were kneeling
in the NFL. But what are you going to do?
There's no other alternative on Sundays in the NFL. Yeah,
people were upset Disney when Disney got involved in front
of rights issues in Florida. But you know, if your
kids want to go to Disney World and not a
(07:04):
lot of alternatives, bud Light was uniquely susceptible to this
massive boycott really for two reasons. As one is that
they have a commoditized brand, where everywhere there's bud Light,
there's also Miller Lite and cores Light at the exact
same price. And then secondarily, people could actually see the
impact of this boycott. Every single week, there's sales data
from retailers like Walmart and Kroger in seven to eleven
(07:26):
that gets reported, So every week you were seeing in
real time the bud Light sales were down ten percent,
twenty percent, thirty percent, forty percent. And then with the
effect of social media, you had everybody that was posting
photos and videos online of like the bud Light line
at a baseball game empty and a cores lightline thirty deep.
And so that has just had this big impact on
the business that they didn't realize how susceptible they were
(07:47):
because for ninety five percent of the American population, they
can't tell the difference between bud Light, Miller Lite cores Light.
The only thing that differentiates them is their brand. And
bud Light used to be that fun sports music back
barbecuing kind of like Americana brand that you're talking about.
All the guys used to drink at tailgates as the
most acceptable brand of the biggest beer brand, and then
when they lost that identity and all of a sudden,
(08:09):
it became this almost like brand like Ben and Jerry's.
Where are they advocating for certain social issues and more
progressive causes by getting involved with Dylan Mulvanium and not
even being able to articulate to the customer what the
brand stands for moving forward. I mean, you remember that
right after this happened. Their CEO had multiple botched attempts
of trying to talk about bud Light, never apologize their
(08:30):
loyal customer base that was called stratteny out of touch,
nor talked the more progressive customer base and said, you know, hey,
we're going to be more like Ben and Jerry's. And
I don't know, when you walk in the middle of
a cultural battlefield, they ended up getting shot at from
both sides.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
No, and I think that's a really important part here
about the commoditized brand nature. Chick fil A got ripped
to the high heavens and even people out there that
are super left wing or like, you know, I might
not agree with Chick fil A on whatever LGBTQI issue
there is, but they got a great chicken sandwich and
so I'm gonna keep showing up.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I love their waffle fries.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I'm not trying to give a free advertisement for Chick
fil A, but I love the brand and it's hard
for me to think of something they could do that
would make me change my decision. But to your point,
for a lot of people who go into a grocery
store or go into a gas station and are gonna
grab a twelve or a twenty four pack of a beer.
There isn't a lot of difference between Miller, Lite, Bud Light,
(09:26):
course Light. I know I'm gonna get blown up by
guys out there, like I can tell a tremendous difference.
I disagree like Guinness, right, you know when you're drinking
a Guinness. You know when you're drinking a certain type
of beer that has a different flavor and taste. I
think for most people, light beer is relatively easily replaceable.
Let me ask you this question, and I think that's
(09:47):
an important part about why the boycott works so well.
It was an easy change for people to make. Target
smart guy. I really like him. James auth Meyer now
the attorney general in the state of Florida. One of
the first things he's done is file a lawsuit against Target,
going after them for burning up a great deal of
shareholder value, he says, by basically going all in with
(10:09):
the tuck, bathing suits, everything else. What you do now
I think is important. But in some way is that
the effective method to get businesses back to just saying, hey,
can you just serve everybody? Democrat, Republican, Independent, You don't
need to go after this woke agenda. Is there a
lawsuit mechanism in your mind that could be pursued and
(10:33):
should be pursued.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
I mean, there is a lawsuit mechanism. And if you
go back, really the lawsuits that are coming out right
now goes back to really the Civil Rights Act of
nineteen sixty four, which essentially says that you cannot discriminate
based off of a race, sex, gender, national origin, etc.
And a lot of retailers, I mean, Target was one
of these, and in the post George Floyd era that
they came out with a lot of essentially racist policies
(10:57):
against certain people. They said that you are going to
hire a certain quota of people that look this way.
Target was allocating shelf space at their stores based off
of race, sex, color. That just doesn't make any sense
in the society we're living in. I mean, we live
in a meritocracy. You should be able to put the
products in the shelf that sell. That's the right thing
for the customer, that's the right thing for your shareholder
(11:18):
value as well. I think that's the bigger issue that
targets facings like why are you pushing forward with a
certain really social type agenda as opposed to putting what sells,
And I think that the bigger issue with Target was
you know, when you walk into a Target store, their
most valuable real estate is that first big display area
right when you walk in. And when they're putting tuck
friendly bathing suits across every single Target across America, well,
(11:39):
that's not what the majority of their customer base wants,
and that's not good for shareholders, not good for shareholder value. Yes,
I think the lawsuits will make sure that they're abiding
by sort of the Civil Rights Act and making sure
that they're not discriminating against people. I think even more importantly,
I think that the American consumer has gone to Walmart's,
has gone to other areas, and Target stock price has
been in the tank over the last year or two
(12:00):
this controversy. I think what's going to turn around is
again Target recmmitting this fundamental principles of serving their customers,
bringing customers back by giving more of the products of
what they want. I think that's the more effective way
to get this thing turned around. And consumers again just
vote with your wallets. That's the more effective way to
get back to serving all customers.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
The book is the last call for bud Light Anson
Freeric's former president, an Heuser Busch speaking with us. Last
question for you on a positive side, is every major
brand in America now having meetings on a regular basis
where they say, whatever we do, let's make sure we're
not the next bud Light have. Does the American consumer
sent a huge and important message to corporate America by
(12:40):
not buying bud Light.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
I think they have the most. Importantly, I think most
brands right now are having a conversation about just how
do you build trust with the consumer, and you do
it by being authentic and men. You mentioned Chick fil
A earlier, like I know on Sunday's Chick fil A
is going to be closed. That's like, you know, I
can trust that it's going to be closed. And I
also know it's because the family who owns it. I mean,
they're like you know, Seventh day Adventists. That's their right.
(13:04):
They can be closed, they can do what they want
to do, they can advocate for policies they want. That's
chick fil A. Let Chick fil A beat Chick fil A.
That's what makes it unique, interesting and different. And the
same thing with bud Light. Like one of the things
that was just authentic and true about bud Light is
that it was this funny, spratty, you know, kind of
kind of a inside humor type of brand. Let bud
Light be bud Light, it didn't need to be Ben
(13:24):
and Jerry's by getting involved in every single social issue,
and I think that's more the conversation that's being had.
That's what my book talks a lot about, is about
that authenticity, getting back to trust with brands, building that
back in corporate America. And I think that we're starting
to see the pendulum swing back. I'm optimistic that it
will continue to happen. That'd be good for I think
American businesses, American shareholder capitalism, and I think it'll be
better for democracy as well if we're keeping businesses out
(13:47):
out of politics.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Check it out.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Last call for bud Light, Anson Freerics, appreciate the time,
have a good weekend.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Thanks CUI, have a good one for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
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(15:14):
he's got the governor's all visiting with him at the
White House, and I want to play this cut for you.
We'll take some calls as we roll through the final
hour here. But the governor of Maine is refusing to
follow the regulation Trump signed saying men can't compete in
women's sports. That doesn't seem like a really complicated regulation
(15:38):
to follow, But Trump, just to the governor of Maine's face,
called her out.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Listen to this. It just happened.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
D NCAA has complied immediately, by the way, that's good.
But I understand Maine is the Maine here, the governor
of Man. Are you not going to comply with it?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I will stay federal law.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Well, we are the federal law. Well you better do it.
You better do it because you're not going to get
any federal funding at all if you don't. And by
the way, your population, even though it's somewhat liberal orlo,
I did very well there. Your population doesn't want men
playing in women's sports. So you better comply because otherwise
you're not getting any federal funding. See call every state good.
(16:23):
I'll see you and could I look forward to that.
That should be a really easy one. And enjoy your
life after governor, because I don't think you'll be an
elected politics.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Ooh, man, that is incredible. That just happened.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
The governor of Maine is saying she will see Trump
in court over whether men should be able to play
women's sports. This is emblematic I think of the Trump
derangement syndrome that has taken over in the Democrat Party.
They are taking constantly positions that twenty percent of the
(16:58):
population agrees with and fighting with Trump over them.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Of all the things.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You could disagree with Trump on in Maine, can you
imagine saying I'm gonna fight to the death over whether
men can compete in women's sports. We got a lot
of people listening in Maine, and Trump is right. I
believe he only lost Maine by about six or seven
points if I remember the math, meaning a solid forty
(17:24):
five percent ish or forty six percent of Maine voters
support Trump.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
But even in Maine, this is like a ninety ten issue.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
And for this to be the ground that Democrats have decided,
this is where we're putting our feet in. This is
what we're not gonna give any ground on. I just
I can't believe this is real. That was a masterclass
that we just played. That just happened a few minutes
ago of Trump with the main governor in the White House. Look,
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(19:11):
Trump going head to head with the Democrat governor of
Maine over whether men should be allowed to play in
women's sports. I can't believe that that is the policy
that has been adopted by the Democrat Party. But as
we were in break more breaking news los Angeles Mayor
Karen Bass. We talked about her earlier this week for
(19:33):
being virtually absent with the wildfires. In fact, we played
a clip for you where she said they were doing
an investigation into why she decided to be in Ghana
as opposed to in Los Angeles when there was deadly
wildfires potentially on the horizon. Well, now she is trying
(19:55):
to shift the blame. This just happened in the last
few minutes. Aaron Bass announced she has fired the Los
Angeles Fire Department chief Kristin Crowley, effective immediately, and she's
going to hold a press conference soon. Rick Caruso, who
ran against Karen Bass for mayor of Los Angeles, has
(20:19):
weighed in already. This is what he said on Twitter
slash x. It's very disappointing Mayor Bass has decided to
fire Chief Kristin Crowley. Chief Crowley served Los Angeles well
and spoke honestly about the severe and profoundly ill conceived
(20:40):
budget cuts. The Bass administration made to the LA Fire
Department that courage to speak the truth was brave and
I admire her honesty and a high city official should
not be a firing offense. The mayor's decision to ignore
the warnings and leave the city was hers alone. This
(21:00):
is a time for city leaders to take responsibility for
their actions and their decisions. We need real leadership, not
more blame passing. That is Rick Caruso, who was in
the runoff with Karen Bass, and you'll remember Elon Musk
came out and said, I think thousands more people would
still have their homes if Rick Caruso had been in
(21:22):
charge instead of Karen Bass. And the evidence for that
is that Rick Caruso was able to keep his shopping
centers in the Pacific Palisades area from burning down because
he had private support to try to ensure that the
flames didn't spread to his buildings. And the expectation is
(21:43):
that he wouldn't have been in Ghana and he might
have had the entire LA Fire Department mobilized in a
way to allow them to fight these fires. He may
not have made the cuts. And this is important and
maybe our team can go back and find the audio
because there was a viral store suggesting that Karen Bass
had fired this fire department chief beforehand, because the fire
(22:06):
department chief said publicly, we didn't have the resources to
be able to fight this. And so this is again
major breaking news as the fallout from the LA wildfires continues.
Karen Bass, mayor of Los Angeles, trying to find someone
to blame for the failure of the city of Los
Angeles to respond and protect its citizens' homes, and so
(22:29):
she is now saying the fire chief is fired. We'll
pull that clip because I think this is ultimately going
to come down to an argument over who's to blame.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Was it the fire chief or was it the.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Mayor who was more culpable in what I think almost
everyone out there, Democrat, Republican, Independent in the LA area
and beyond acknowledges was a completely failed response to those
awful wildfires that came through recently.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
A bunch of you went a weigh in. We'll take
some of your calls.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
To close up the Friday edition of the show, Chris
and Sanford, Maine. I just played the clip of the
Democrat governor of Maine arguing with Donald Trump about whether
men should be able to play women's sports.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
What's your read on the ground there in Maine for
how this is going to play Trump versus the governor
over this issue.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
First of all, I'd like to thank you guys for
living the dream that Rush knew you guys could.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Well. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
We're honored every single day to sit in front of
these microphones and it's a tremendous privilege to talk with
all of you.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
So thank you for saying that.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
So one thing I just wanted to touch base on is
this this whole thing about the girls and you know,
being totally overrun by these these guys. Right, it's girls
and guys. There's only two in the world, and the
two and science only.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Shows as only two genders.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
We agree, by the way, and most of the audience
out there, I would imagine does as well.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
There's boys and girls. Yes, continue And I moved.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
To Maine out of Massachusetts to get away from the
nanny state. I came to Maine because, believe it or not,
there's a lot more of what I would consider closet
Trump supporters up here than you would like to realize.
I've surrounded myself but it's been very easy to surround
myself that people believe and not taking this away from
(24:23):
the girls that try so hard. Yes, they get up
four or five sixty seven in the morning to get
to these practices, the meats, and they turn around and
they see this guy with a ball sack beating them.
They're out of the water first. It's not fair. It's
just not fair. A friend of mine, I kind of
(24:46):
like to say so, but I've been supporting a guy
called Stewart's Shella for several years now. Him and I
have had this conversation. We knew it was going to
come to this, right and Janet Mills, I hope she
does exactly what Trump says and has a good time
trying to find a job when she finishes.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Thank you for the call. We'll open up if other
people from Maine want to weigh in. What I would
say in general about this is it is insane to
me that it has become Democrat Party orthodoxy to support
men identifying as women being able to win women's championships.
(25:25):
And I would implore the Senate to take up this
bill that passed the House. Only two Democrat representatives in
the entire country signed on to a bill that said
you should be competing in all sports based on the
gender on your birth certificate. The fact that the governor
(25:45):
of Maine would be going to war and saying bragging,
I'll see you in court because she's refusing to follow
a federal directive is political suicide to me. Now, I
will say this, the reason the Senate needs to act
is the force of Donald Trump's pen and executive order
(26:09):
is strong and powerful, but you also need to undergird
it with the support of Congress because when you pass
a bill that codifies what Trump is saying. To the
credit of the NCAA, they have followed this rule, many
states have, But until the federal legislation has passed, there's
(26:31):
going to be an argument about whether Trump has the
executive authority to undertake this action. I think he does
from a legal perspective, but that's what the governor of
Maine is saying when she's saying I'll see you in court.
Without Congress having stepped in and taken this act, she's
going to argue that Trump, unilaterally by executive order, doesn't
(26:52):
have the authority to mandate what he is And again,
the Senate, John Thune bring this up on the Senate floor,
and I give credit to Trump.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
To me, this is a brilliant rhetorical tactical move.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
He said, is the governor of Maine here, and he
called her out directly to her face. I think we
still have that audio, but if you haven't heard it,
it's extraordinary because it crystallizes can be hard to ignore.
It crystallizes Trump's perspective and the Democrat perspective in one
SoundBite that is going to be reverberating everywhere. Let me
(27:30):
play this one more time and then we'll take some
calls to close up the Friday edition of the program.
But this just happened in the White House. Trump versus
the Democrat governor of Maine over the question of can
Maine continue to allow men who identify as women to
compete in athletics in their state? The governor says they can.
(27:52):
Trump says they can't.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Listen, DANCAAA has complied immediately, by the way. That's good,
But I understand Maine is the main here, the governor
of Maine out here. Are you not going to comply
with it?
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Federal law?
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Well, I'm we are the federal law. Well you better
do it. You better do it, because you're not going
to get any federal funding at all if you don't.
And by the way, your population, even though it's somewhat
liberal orlow, I did very well there. Your population doesn't
want men playing in women's sports. So you better you
better comply because otherwise you're not getting any any federal funding.
See every state, good, I'll see you, and could I
(28:30):
look forward to that. That should be a really easy one.
And enjoy your life after governor, because I don't think
you'll be an elected politics.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Amazing, This is so incredible. Trump set this up.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
He knew the governor of Maine was there, he knew
that she was defying him in the White House. That
couldn't have gone any better for him. He just took
an eighty moving towards nine percent issue that all sorts
of rational people guys. Sixty six percent roughly of Democrats
(29:09):
agree with Trump on this issue. It's like ninety four
or ninety five to five for Republicans. Two thirds of
Democrats agree with him this according to New York Times poll,
it's not me just like tossing out things. Eighty percent nationwide,
including roughly two thirds of Democrats and Maine to Trump's point,
(29:29):
is not a state that he lost by twenty some
odd points. Maine could vote Republican in twenty twenty eight.
It's up there with New Jersey, Virginia, states New Mexico
that were not that far away from flipping red five
to six points, kind of there in the margin.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
You talk to the Trump team, they.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Say, Man, if we had had the money that Kamala had,
if we'd had the one and a half billion dollars
that Kamala raised, we could one New Jersey. We could
have won Virginia. We would have been able to be
more aggressive in the way that we spent money. Right now,
look at what's going on. They're trying to flip the
New Jersey governor's race to red. Scott Presler did all
(30:14):
the work to try to flip Pennsylvania back red. He did,
But he's now got a major project underway to register
as many people in New Jersey as possible to flip
this back. How do you flip it back by being
on the right side of an eighty twenty issue, By
being on the right side of an issue that two
thirds of Democrats actually agree with you on, that isn't
(30:36):
even remotely political Trump has taken advantage of the Democrat
Trump derangement syndrome that they have decided whatever Trump says,
they oppose, and think about the things that they're opposing. Now,
men in men's sports, women and women's sports. They're opposed
to that wasting fraud in the federal government, shutting down
(31:01):
the southern border, deporting violent criminals. Trump is choosing things
that substantial majorities of the American public agree with him
on that aren't even historically political in nature, being on
the right side of them, and Democrats are crazily lining
up to oppose him, and we just got it crystallized
(31:23):
directly from the White House. It has now become Democrat
Party orthodoxy that men pretending to be women are able
to win women's championships.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
And speaking of championships, unfortunately, we lost to Canada yesterday
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We're rolling through the conclusion of the show. H my
takes to Buck by the Way and Carrie's lovely wife
for hosting us down here the past several days. We
back in Nashville on Monday. With the weather, we'll be
(33:07):
nowhere near as nice as it has been down here.
Buck on his way out to Colorado for a speaking engagement.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Several of you want to weigh in.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Jane in Banger, Maine, what do you think about the
conflict you just heard straight up from the White House
between your governor and the President.
Speaker 6 (33:24):
Yeah, I play great talking to you today. I'm a
Native manor I have lived here most of my life,
and the only reason Janet Mills was elected was because
of the southern third of the state, which includes Portland,
our largest city, probably two thirds the northern two thirds
of the state of the main overwhelmingly supports President Trump,
(33:47):
and I dare say that even amongst my Democrat friends,
they don't support what she's trying to do. And she,
I don't know. You probably aren't aware. She is an
attorney and at one point in a previous Democrat administration,
under a Democrat governor, she was actually Maine's attorney general,
(34:09):
and her skills I think are a lot greater in
her mind than they are in reality.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Well, let's be honest. I thank you for calling in.
I mean, how good of skills would you have? To
be to argue in your state of Maine. You say
you've been there your whole life that men who pretend
to say that their women should be able to win
women's championships. Do you think this is something that the
people of Maine believe?
Speaker 6 (34:33):
Absolutely not absolutely not absolutely not, Thank you, tend to
be filled with common sense. In Amen, there's no part
of it that even makes sense.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Thank you for the call.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Uh Again, I think this was brilliant strategically of Trump.
I think he picked Maine's governor. He's talking to all
the governors there, and he knows, again, Maine is close
to a fifty to fifty state. He knows that this
is a wildly unpopular position in general for Democrats, but
(35:11):
he called her out right there and this clip is
now echoing everywhere and most people are saying, how in
the world have Democrats lost their mind to such a degree?
John down in Augusta, Georgia, you used to live in Maine.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
What do you think about what you heard?
Speaker 7 (35:30):
Is this, Claire Buck? This is Clay Clay John from Augusta, Georgia,
never lived in Maine, but works there many times. You
know the state backwards and forward. No, the people no,
you backwards and forward. No coup backwards and forward, elon
backwards and forward. You guys are my heroes. Here's what
Trump is doing. He is beating them.
Speaker 8 (35:51):
At their own game. He was living by mamotto, which
is we will either find a way or make one.
Whose quote is that Hannibal? Who was Hannibal best best
general lever live? Was he the best general level lift?
(36:12):
He won every battle he was every inning? What battle
was he noted as winning that nobody else could win?
Hiding his army over the mountains. You know the mountains
I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah, he got over the Alps. I appreciate the call.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
We've only got twenty seconds left in the show, John
down in Augusta thanks to Jane up in Bangermain. Look,
Trump is winning because he's fighting battles that he can
win that the vast majority of the American public agree
with him on. And Democrats are absolutely insane. Go grab
the podcast. I'll see y'all on Monday. Sleeve Travis and
(36:45):
Buck Sexton on the front lines of the truth
Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show podcast. Welcome back in.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all of you hanging
out with us. Final hour of the week. Encourage you
to go subscribe to the Clay and Buck podcast network.
It has been blowing up in a very good way.
You can search out my name Clay Travis, you can
search out Buck Sexton. Buck on his way to Colorado
for a speaking engagement. I'll close up shop here. We'll
(00:26):
both be back together on Monday. Want to tell you
right now we are joined by Anson Freeric's former president
at Anaheuser Busch, co founder Strive Asset Management, his new book,
Last Call for bud Light, The Fall and Future of
America's Favorite Beer.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And Anson. I appreciate you joining us here.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I would submit that the failed Dylan Mulvany bud Light deal,
the fact that they send her the bud Light cans him.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Whatever you want to say.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Right around the March Madness Tournament, I believe two years
ago bud Light sales you can update me on them.
I believe are still down forty percent. Is this the
most destructive ad endorsement product? Relationship that has ever existed
in modern American capitalism. Can you think of a worst
(01:22):
one or is this the worst?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I mean, Clay, I think this is the worst one.
I mean, maybe you could say that when there was
New Coke, and New Coke came out in the nineteen
eighties and then Matt plummeted. Everybody hated New Coke. The
good thing about the Coke executive they should learned their lesson.
They say, hey, we screwed up, we apologize, and they
went back to the old formula. And you know, Coke's
doing fine. But that's one of the big problems here
is that this company lost thirty percent of its sales
(01:45):
two years ago. It lost another ten percent of its
sales last year with bud Life. It's still declining this year.
And one of the reasons is that still no one's
taking accountability for this. I mean, the CEO is still there.
There's been no apology, and that's why customers really haven't
returned here, which is crazy.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
What would you do.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Let's pretend that they came to you and they said, okay,
bud Light is your business. You have to in some
way make it relevant again for the audience that has
abandoned it.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Is there anything they.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Could do that would as you point out, they're continuing
to decline down forty percent? Is the brand dead no
matter what? Or is there a way to bring it
back to life?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
No? I mean actually think there's a way to bring
this back to life. And I get into this in
my book Last Call for Blood Light what you mentioned about.
But I just think one of the fundamental problems is
is that this company, anhezerd Busch, it's no longer American owned.
It was actually purchased by a European company called InBev
about fifteen years ago, and then lots of mistakes were
made over that time period. The InBev company moved the
(02:41):
corporate headquarters from kind of Saint Louis to New York City,
brought in a lot of foreign executives that really didn't
understand the US consumer. They adopted a lot of device
apology of policies of ESG and DEI. So a lot
of those problems happen. I think a lot of those
go away if they actually sell Annhezer Bush here in
the US back to US citizens. I mean, Warren Buffett
and Berkshire Hathaway sell it to a consortium of firms
(03:03):
like a Blackstone and Steve Schwartzman's group. Sell it to
one of those. I think the first thing they can do,
which I think would be good for this this European
business that hasn't been able to really understand the US,
and it'd be good for the business here, so they
could focus more here in the US. They could bring
in American executives, they could bring back I don't know,
a lot of the commercials that we all love. I
think even most importantly is that they could tell their
(03:24):
customers that we were sorry, we screwed up, and that
was this old regime. We got rid of it, and
now we're moving forward with you know, kind of American regime,
American values, focused on our customer. We're not going to
get involved in any political silliness. So we got involved
with over the last couple of years. I think that's
the first step.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Why do you think so many brands have ad buyers
and marketing people who have no idea who actually consumes
their product. Isn't that really kind of the essence of
how you make a mistake like this? As you mentioned,
you moved from Saint Louis to New York City. I
knew that bud Light was in real trouble, and I
said this, and it's the case you go around to tailgates. Now, basically,
(04:03):
no guy who throws a tailgate at a football game
is buying bud Light anymore because their buddies are gonna
make fun of them in the wake of the destruction
of the brand. But isn't this emblematic of larger issues.
Whether it's with Target, whether it's with Disney, whether it's
with ESPN, the NBA. There are just a lot of
brands out there that have no idea who their actual
(04:25):
consumer is and as a result, they're completely alienating them.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, Clai, I mean you're one hundred percent right about that.
This is not just an Anheuser Busch problem. Anheuser Busch
was the one that was holding the pin when this
whole ESG DEI bubble pop two years ago, and they
were the first time that you saw that millions of
consumers ditched a brand that led to billions of dollars
of loss of shareholder value. And it's for the first
time I think actually was a wake up call to
(04:51):
a lot of the broader corporations. I mean, you don't
get the big rollback in ESG and Dei that you're
seeing right now without the whole Budline example, where you
all of a sudden is the least stame thing that
a company could do was to pander to a group
that wasn't it wasn't necessarily their customer base, and that
they got a brand involved in them that wasn't authentically
bud Light. You know, bud like used to be about
sports and music and bringing folks together, never got involved
(05:13):
in controversial political issues. They lost sight of that because
they had marketing people based in New York and they
used marketing based New York firms based in New York City.
And then that was like one of the bigger issues
that we saw really across corporate America. A lot of
these firms that were based in Saint Louis or in
Arkansas or Texas, all of a sudden, they were moving
a lot of their headquarters in New York, hiring New
(05:34):
York firms, taking in advice from a lot of New
York based asset management companies. Black Rocks a good example,
who was foicing an ESG and DEI agenda on them,
and so this led to a lot of problems, and
you saw a lot of companies that lost their way
over the last couple of years. I'm actually pleased to
say that there's companies like Disney they're at least making
the right steps back in the right direction. They fired
their CEO, Bob Chapik, they brought back Bob Yger. Bob
(05:57):
Iger said, we're getting out of politics. We're not doing
it anymore. They've rolled back a lot of their DEI
policies in recent weeks. Are they perfect, No, but at
least that they've acknowledged that there was a problem. I
hope we're seeing that more across corporate America. I think
Annezard Bushes just a little bit behind the eight ball
on getting there.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
A lot of people said, we're talking to Anson fre
Erics from bud Light, former president there. He's got a
book out last call for bud Light. Usually people say, oh,
this is not going to last. Two years later, basically
we're still dealing with the continued fallout for bud Light.
Do you think they've been stunned by how toxic their
brand has become? Do you think they ever expected it
(06:34):
to go on this long? Is that why they didn't apologize.
They just kept hoping, Oh, this is going to go away,
Oh this is going to go away, and in the
process their brand just vanished.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yeah, I mean one hundred percent, that's what they thought,
because they're really hadn't been a very successful i'll call
it consumer boycott previous to this. You know, of course,
people were upset when in the NFL. People were kneeling
in the NFL. But what are you going to do?
There's no other alternative on Sundays in the NFL. Yeah,
people were upset Disney when Disney got involved in front
of rights issues in Florida. But you know, if your
kids want to go to Disney World and not a
(07:04):
lot of alternatives, bud Light was uniquely susceptible to this
massive boycott really for two reasons. As one is that
they have a commoditized brand, where everywhere there's bud Light,
there's also Miller Lite and cores Light at the exact
same price. And then secondarily, people could actually see the
impact of this boycott. Every single week, there's sales data
from retailers like Walmart and Kroger in seven to eleven
(07:26):
that gets reported, So every week you were seeing in
real time the bud Light sales were down ten percent,
twenty percent, thirty percent, forty percent. And then with the
effect of social media, you had everybody that was posting
photos and videos online of like the bud Light line
at a baseball game empty and a cores lightline thirty deep.
And so that has just had this big impact on
the business that they didn't realize how susceptible they were
(07:47):
because for ninety five percent of the American population, they
can't tell the difference between bud Light, Miller Lite cores Light.
The only thing that differentiates them is their brand. And
bud Light used to be that fun sports music back
barbecuing kind of like Americana brand that you're talking about.
All the guys used to drink at tailgates as the
most acceptable brand of the biggest beer brand, and then
when they lost that identity and all of a sudden,
(08:09):
it became this almost like brand like Ben and Jerry's.
Where are they advocating for certain social issues and more
progressive causes by getting involved with Dylan Mulvanium and not
even being able to articulate to the customer what the
brand stands for moving forward. I mean, you remember that
right after this happened. Their CEO had multiple botched attempts
of trying to talk about bud Light, never apologize their
(08:30):
loyal customer base that was called stratteny out of touch,
nor talked the more progressive customer base and said, you know, hey,
we're going to be more like Ben and Jerry's. And
I don't know, when you walk in the middle of
a cultural battlefield, they ended up getting shot at from
both sides.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
No, and I think that's a really important part here
about the commoditized brand nature. Chick fil A got ripped
to the high heavens and even people out there that
are super left wing or like, you know, I might
not agree with Chick fil A on whatever LGBTQI issue
there is, but they got a great chicken sandwich and
so I'm gonna keep showing up.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I love their waffle fries.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I'm not trying to give a free advertisement for Chick
fil A, but I love the brand and it's hard
for me to think of something they could do that
would make me change my decision. But to your point,
for a lot of people who go into a grocery
store or go into a gas station and are gonna
grab a twelve or a twenty four pack of a beer.
There isn't a lot of difference between Miller, Lite, Bud Light,
(09:26):
course Light. I know I'm gonna get blown up by
guys out there, like I can tell a tremendous difference.
I disagree like Guinness, right, you know when you're drinking
a Guinness. You know when you're drinking a certain type
of beer that has a different flavor and taste. I
think for most people, light beer is relatively easily replaceable.
Let me ask you this question, and I think that's
(09:47):
an important part about why the boycott works so well.
It was an easy change for people to make. Target
smart guy. I really like him. James auth Meyer now
the attorney general in the state of Florida. One of
the first things he's done is file a lawsuit against Target,
going after them for burning up a great deal of
shareholder value, he says, by basically going all in with
(10:09):
the tuck, bathing suits, everything else. What you do now
I think is important. But in some way is that
the effective method to get businesses back to just saying, hey,
can you just serve everybody? Democrat, Republican, Independent, You don't
need to go after this woke agenda. Is there a
lawsuit mechanism in your mind that could be pursued and
(10:33):
should be pursued.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
I mean, there is a lawsuit mechanism. And if you
go back, really the lawsuits that are coming out right
now goes back to really the Civil Rights Act of
nineteen sixty four, which essentially says that you cannot discriminate
based off of a race, sex, gender, national origin, etc.
And a lot of retailers, I mean, Target was one
of these, and in the post George Floyd era that
they came out with a lot of essentially racist policies
(10:57):
against certain people. They said that you are going to
hire a certain quota of people that look this way.
Target was allocating shelf space at their stores based off
of race, sex, color. That just doesn't make any sense
in the society we're living in. I mean, we live
in a meritocracy. You should be able to put the
products in the shelf that sell. That's the right thing
for the customer, that's the right thing for your shareholder
(11:18):
value as well. I think that's the bigger issue that
targets facings like why are you pushing forward with a
certain really social type agenda as opposed to putting what sells,
And I think that the bigger issue with Target was
you know, when you walk into a Target store, their
most valuable real estate is that first big display area
right when you walk in. And when they're putting tuck
friendly bathing suits across every single Target across America, well,
(11:39):
that's not what the majority of their customer base wants,
and that's not good for shareholders, not good for shareholder value. Yes,
I think the lawsuits will make sure that they're abiding
by sort of the Civil Rights Act and making sure
that they're not discriminating against people. I think even more importantly,
I think that the American consumer has gone to Walmart's,
has gone to other areas, and Target stock price has
been in the tank over the last year or two
(12:00):
this controversy. I think what's going to turn around is
again Target recmmitting this fundamental principles of serving their customers,
bringing customers back by giving more of the products of
what they want. I think that's the more effective way
to get this thing turned around. And consumers again just
vote with your wallets. That's the more effective way to
get back to serving all customers.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
The book is the last call for bud Light Anson
Freeric's former president, an Heuser Busch speaking with us. Last
question for you on a positive side, is every major
brand in America now having meetings on a regular basis
where they say, whatever we do, let's make sure we're
not the next bud Light have. Does the American consumer
sent a huge and important message to corporate America by
(12:40):
not buying bud Light.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
I think they have the most. Importantly, I think most
brands right now are having a conversation about just how
do you build trust with the consumer, and you do
it by being authentic and men. You mentioned Chick fil
A earlier, like I know on Sunday's Chick fil A
is going to be closed. That's like, you know, I
can trust that it's going to be closed. And I
also know it's because the family who owns it. I mean,
they're like you know, Seventh day Adventists. That's their right.
(13:04):
They can be closed, they can do what they want
to do, they can advocate for policies they want. That's
chick fil A. Let Chick fil A beat Chick fil A.
That's what makes it unique, interesting and different. And the
same thing with bud Light. Like one of the things
that was just authentic and true about bud Light is
that it was this funny, spratty, you know, kind of
kind of a inside humor type of brand. Let bud
Light be bud Light, it didn't need to be Ben
(13:24):
and Jerry's by getting involved in every single social issue,
and I think that's more the conversation that's being had.
That's what my book talks a lot about, is about
that authenticity, getting back to trust with brands, building that
back in corporate America. And I think that we're starting
to see the pendulum swing back. I'm optimistic that it
will continue to happen. That'd be good for I think
American businesses, American shareholder capitalism, and I think it'll be
better for democracy as well if we're keeping businesses out
(13:47):
out of politics.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Check it out.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Last call for bud Light, Anson Freerics, appreciate the time,
have a good weekend.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Thanks CUI, have a good one for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
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(15:14):
he's got the governor's all visiting with him at the
White House, and I want to play this cut for you.
We'll take some calls as we roll through the final
hour here. But the governor of Maine is refusing to
follow the regulation Trump signed saying men can't compete in
women's sports. That doesn't seem like a really complicated regulation
(15:38):
to follow, But Trump, just to the governor of Maine's face,
called her out.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Listen to this. It just happened.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
D NCAA has complied immediately, by the way, that's good.
But I understand Maine is the Maine here, the governor
of Man. Are you not going to comply with it?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I will stay federal law.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Well, we are the federal law. Well you better do it.
You better do it because you're not going to get
any federal funding at all if you don't. And by
the way, your population, even though it's somewhat liberal orlo,
I did very well there. Your population doesn't want men
playing in women's sports. So you better comply because otherwise
you're not getting any federal funding. See call every state good.
(16:23):
I'll see you and could I look forward to that.
That should be a really easy one. And enjoy your
life after governor, because I don't think you'll be an
elected politics.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Ooh, man, that is incredible. That just happened.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
The governor of Maine is saying she will see Trump
in court over whether men should be able to play
women's sports. This is emblematic I think of the Trump
derangement syndrome that has taken over in the Democrat Party.
They are taking constantly positions that twenty percent of the
(16:58):
population agrees with and fighting with Trump over them.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Of all the things.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You could disagree with Trump on in Maine, can you
imagine saying I'm gonna fight to the death over whether
men can compete in women's sports. We got a lot
of people listening in Maine, and Trump is right. I
believe he only lost Maine by about six or seven
points if I remember the math, meaning a solid forty
(17:24):
five percent ish or forty six percent of Maine voters
support Trump.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
But even in Maine, this is like a ninety ten issue.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
And for this to be the ground that Democrats have decided,
this is where we're putting our feet in. This is
what we're not gonna give any ground on. I just
I can't believe this is real. That was a masterclass
that we just played. That just happened a few minutes
ago of Trump with the main governor in the White House. Look,
(17:55):
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(19:11):
Trump going head to head with the Democrat governor of
Maine over whether men should be allowed to play in
women's sports. I can't believe that that is the policy
that has been adopted by the Democrat Party. But as
we were in break more breaking news los Angeles Mayor
Karen Bass. We talked about her earlier this week for
(19:33):
being virtually absent with the wildfires. In fact, we played
a clip for you where she said they were doing
an investigation into why she decided to be in Ghana
as opposed to in Los Angeles when there was deadly
wildfires potentially on the horizon. Well, now she is trying
(19:55):
to shift the blame. This just happened in the last
few minutes. Aaron Bass announced she has fired the Los
Angeles Fire Department chief Kristin Crowley, effective immediately, and she's
going to hold a press conference soon. Rick Caruso, who
ran against Karen Bass for mayor of Los Angeles, has
(20:19):
weighed in already. This is what he said on Twitter
slash x. It's very disappointing Mayor Bass has decided to
fire Chief Kristin Crowley. Chief Crowley served Los Angeles well
and spoke honestly about the severe and profoundly ill conceived
(20:40):
budget cuts. The Bass administration made to the LA Fire
Department that courage to speak the truth was brave and
I admire her honesty and a high city official should
not be a firing offense. The mayor's decision to ignore
the warnings and leave the city was hers alone. This
(21:00):
is a time for city leaders to take responsibility for
their actions and their decisions. We need real leadership, not
more blame passing. That is Rick Caruso, who was in
the runoff with Karen Bass, and you'll remember Elon Musk
came out and said, I think thousands more people would
still have their homes if Rick Caruso had been in
(21:22):
charge instead of Karen Bass. And the evidence for that
is that Rick Caruso was able to keep his shopping
centers in the Pacific Palisades area from burning down because
he had private support to try to ensure that the
flames didn't spread to his buildings. And the expectation is
(21:43):
that he wouldn't have been in Ghana and he might
have had the entire LA Fire Department mobilized in a
way to allow them to fight these fires. He may
not have made the cuts. And this is important and
maybe our team can go back and find the audio
because there was a viral store suggesting that Karen Bass
had fired this fire department chief beforehand, because the fire
(22:06):
department chief said publicly, we didn't have the resources to
be able to fight this. And so this is again
major breaking news as the fallout from the LA wildfires continues.
Karen Bass, mayor of Los Angeles, trying to find someone
to blame for the failure of the city of Los
Angeles to respond and protect its citizens' homes, and so
(22:29):
she is now saying the fire chief is fired. We'll
pull that clip because I think this is ultimately going
to come down to an argument over who's to blame.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Was it the fire chief or was it the.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Mayor who was more culpable in what I think almost
everyone out there, Democrat, Republican, Independent in the LA area
and beyond acknowledges was a completely failed response to those
awful wildfires that came through recently.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
A bunch of you went a weigh in. We'll take
some of your calls.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
To close up the Friday edition of the show, Chris
and Sanford, Maine. I just played the clip of the
Democrat governor of Maine arguing with Donald Trump about whether
men should be able to play women's sports.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
What's your read on the ground there in Maine for
how this is going to play Trump versus the governor
over this issue.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
First of all, I'd like to thank you guys for
living the dream that Rush knew you guys could.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Well. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
We're honored every single day to sit in front of
these microphones and it's a tremendous privilege to talk with
all of you.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
So thank you for saying that.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
So one thing I just wanted to touch base on is
this this whole thing about the girls and you know,
being totally overrun by these these guys. Right, it's girls
and guys. There's only two in the world, and the
two and science only.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Shows as only two genders.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
We agree, by the way, and most of the audience
out there, I would imagine does as well.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
There's boys and girls. Yes, continue And I moved.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
To Maine out of Massachusetts to get away from the
nanny state. I came to Maine because, believe it or not,
there's a lot more of what I would consider closet
Trump supporters up here than you would like to realize.
I've surrounded myself but it's been very easy to surround
myself that people believe and not taking this away from
(24:23):
the girls that try so hard. Yes, they get up
four or five sixty seven in the morning to get
to these practices, the meats, and they turn around and
they see this guy with a ball sack beating them.
They're out of the water first. It's not fair. It's
just not fair. A friend of mine, I kind of
(24:46):
like to say so, but I've been supporting a guy
called Stewart's Shella for several years now. Him and I
have had this conversation. We knew it was going to
come to this, right and Janet Mills, I hope she
does exactly what Trump says and has a good time
trying to find a job when she finishes.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Thank you for the call. We'll open up if other
people from Maine want to weigh in. What I would
say in general about this is it is insane to
me that it has become Democrat Party orthodoxy to support
men identifying as women being able to win women's championships.
(25:25):
And I would implore the Senate to take up this
bill that passed the House. Only two Democrat representatives in
the entire country signed on to a bill that said
you should be competing in all sports based on the
gender on your birth certificate. The fact that the governor
(25:45):
of Maine would be going to war and saying bragging,
I'll see you in court because she's refusing to follow
a federal directive is political suicide to me. Now, I
will say this, the reason the Senate needs to act
is the force of Donald Trump's pen and executive order
(26:09):
is strong and powerful, but you also need to undergird
it with the support of Congress because when you pass
a bill that codifies what Trump is saying. To the
credit of the NCAA, they have followed this rule, many
states have, But until the federal legislation has passed, there's
(26:31):
going to be an argument about whether Trump has the
executive authority to undertake this action. I think he does
from a legal perspective, but that's what the governor of
Maine is saying when she's saying I'll see you in court.
Without Congress having stepped in and taken this act, she's
going to argue that Trump, unilaterally by executive order, doesn't
(26:52):
have the authority to mandate what he is And again,
the Senate, John Thune bring this up on the Senate floor,
and I give credit to Trump.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
To me, this is a brilliant rhetorical tactical move.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
He said, is the governor of Maine here, and he
called her out directly to her face. I think we
still have that audio, but if you haven't heard it,
it's extraordinary because it crystallizes can be hard to ignore.
It crystallizes Trump's perspective and the Democrat perspective in one
SoundBite that is going to be reverberating everywhere. Let me
(27:30):
play this one more time and then we'll take some
calls to close up the Friday edition of the program.
But this just happened in the White House. Trump versus
the Democrat governor of Maine over the question of can
Maine continue to allow men who identify as women to
compete in athletics in their state? The governor says they can.
(27:52):
Trump says they can't.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Listen, DANCAAA has complied immediately, by the way. That's good,
But I understand Maine is the main here, the governor
of Maine out here. Are you not going to comply
with it?
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Federal law?
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Well, I'm we are the federal law. Well you better
do it. You better do it, because you're not going
to get any federal funding at all if you don't.
And by the way, your population, even though it's somewhat
liberal orlow, I did very well there. Your population doesn't
want men playing in women's sports. So you better you
better comply because otherwise you're not getting any any federal funding.
See every state, good, I'll see you, and could I
(28:30):
look forward to that. That should be a really easy one.
And enjoy your life after governor, because I don't think
you'll be an elected politics.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Amazing, This is so incredible. Trump set this up.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
He knew the governor of Maine was there, he knew
that she was defying him in the White House. That
couldn't have gone any better for him. He just took
an eighty moving towards nine percent issue that all sorts
of rational people guys. Sixty six percent roughly of Democrats
(29:09):
agree with Trump on this issue. It's like ninety four
or ninety five to five for Republicans. Two thirds of
Democrats agree with him this according to New York Times poll,
it's not me just like tossing out things. Eighty percent nationwide,
including roughly two thirds of Democrats and Maine to Trump's point,
(29:29):
is not a state that he lost by twenty some
odd points. Maine could vote Republican in twenty twenty eight.
It's up there with New Jersey, Virginia, states New Mexico
that were not that far away from flipping red five
to six points, kind of there in the margin.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
You talk to the Trump team, they.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Say, Man, if we had had the money that Kamala had,
if we'd had the one and a half billion dollars
that Kamala raised, we could one New Jersey. We could
have won Virginia. We would have been able to be
more aggressive in the way that we spent money. Right now,
look at what's going on. They're trying to flip the
New Jersey governor's race to red. Scott Presler did all
(30:14):
the work to try to flip Pennsylvania back red. He did,
But he's now got a major project underway to register
as many people in New Jersey as possible to flip
this back. How do you flip it back by being
on the right side of an eighty twenty issue, By
being on the right side of an issue that two
thirds of Democrats actually agree with you on, that isn't
(30:36):
even remotely political Trump has taken advantage of the Democrat
Trump derangement syndrome that they have decided whatever Trump says,
they oppose, and think about the things that they're opposing. Now,
men in men's sports, women and women's sports. They're opposed
to that wasting fraud in the federal government, shutting down
(31:01):
the southern border, deporting violent criminals. Trump is choosing things
that substantial majorities of the American public agree with him
on that aren't even historically political in nature, being on
the right side of them, and Democrats are crazily lining
up to oppose him, and we just got it crystallized
(31:23):
directly from the White House. It has now become Democrat
Party orthodoxy that men pretending to be women are able
to win women's championships.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
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We're rolling through the conclusion of the show. H my
takes to Buck by the Way and Carrie's lovely wife
for hosting us down here the past several days. We
back in Nashville on Monday. With the weather, we'll be
(33:07):
nowhere near as nice as it has been down here.
Buck on his way out to Colorado for a speaking engagement.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Several of you want to weigh in.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Jane in Banger, Maine, what do you think about the
conflict you just heard straight up from the White House
between your governor and the President.
Speaker 6 (33:24):
Yeah, I play great talking to you today. I'm a
Native manor I have lived here most of my life,
and the only reason Janet Mills was elected was because
of the southern third of the state, which includes Portland,
our largest city, probably two thirds the northern two thirds
of the state of the main overwhelmingly supports President Trump,
(33:47):
and I dare say that even amongst my Democrat friends,
they don't support what she's trying to do. And she,
I don't know. You probably aren't aware. She is an
attorney and at one point in a previous Democrat administration,
under a Democrat governor, she was actually Maine's attorney general,
(34:09):
and her skills I think are a lot greater in
her mind than they are in reality.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Well, let's be honest. I thank you for calling in.
I mean, how good of skills would you have? To
be to argue in your state of Maine. You say
you've been there your whole life that men who pretend
to say that their women should be able to win
women's championships. Do you think this is something that the
people of Maine believe?
Speaker 6 (34:33):
Absolutely not absolutely not absolutely not, Thank you, tend to
be filled with common sense. In Amen, there's no part
of it that even makes sense.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Thank you for the call.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Uh Again, I think this was brilliant strategically of Trump.
I think he picked Maine's governor. He's talking to all
the governors there, and he knows, again, Maine is close
to a fifty to fifty state. He knows that this
is a wildly unpopular position in general for Democrats, but
(35:11):
he called her out right there and this clip is
now echoing everywhere and most people are saying, how in
the world have Democrats lost their mind to such a degree?
John down in Augusta, Georgia, you used to live in Maine.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
What do you think about what you heard?
Speaker 7 (35:30):
Is this, Claire Buck? This is Clay Clay John from Augusta, Georgia,
never lived in Maine, but works there many times. You
know the state backwards and forward. No, the people no,
you backwards and forward. No coup backwards and forward, elon
backwards and forward. You guys are my heroes. Here's what
Trump is doing. He is beating them.
Speaker 8 (35:51):
At their own game. He was living by mamotto, which
is we will either find a way or make one.
Whose quote is that Hannibal? Who was Hannibal best best
general lever live? Was he the best general level lift?
(36:12):
He won every battle he was every inning? What battle
was he noted as winning that nobody else could win?
Hiding his army over the mountains. You know the mountains
I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah, he got over the Alps. I appreciate the call.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
We've only got twenty seconds left in the show, John
down in Augusta thanks to Jane up in Bangermain. Look,
Trump is winning because he's fighting battles that he can
win that the vast majority of the American public agree
with him on. And Democrats are absolutely insane. Go grab
the podcast. I'll see y'all on Monday. Sleeve Travis and
(36:45):
Buck Sexton on the front lines of the truth
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