politics
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As conservative country stars such as John Rich and Travis Tritt continue their calls for a boycott of Bud Light, Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth has responded to the ongoing controversy on Friday (April 14).
In a statement posted to the company’s official Instagram page and Twitter account, Whitworth said that he felt a responsibility toward making sure “every consumer feels proud of the beer we brew,” pointing to Anheuser-Busch’s history of support for “our communities, military, first responders, sports fans and hard-working Americans everywhere.”
In regards to the ongoing backlash, Whitworth clarified the company’s objectives as a brand: “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people,” he wrote. “We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”
Conservative backlash to the brand began when transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney participated in a branded partnership with Bud Light, advertising its Easy Carry Contest across her social media accounts, in which she thanked the company for sending her a can of the beer with her face emblazoned on the side.
In response to Mulvaney’s video, artists including Kid Rock and Ted Nugent began speaking out against the brand, with Tritt and Rich starting their own respective boycotts of all Anheuser-Busch products.
Whitworth never directly referenced Mulvaney, Tritt, Rich, or the boycotts themselves in his statement. Instead, he focused on “the importance of accountability and the values upon which America was founded: freedom, hard work and respect for one another,” while also adding that he as CEO would focus more on “protecting [Anheuser-Busch’s] remarkable history and heritage.”
Closing his official statement, Whitworth said that he would “continue to work tirelessly to bring great beers to consumers across the nation.”
Check out Brendan Whitworth’s full statement below.
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Rep. Justin Pearson and his colleague Rep. Justin Jones were famously ousted from the Tennessee House by the GOP supermajority due to their involvement in a gun violence protest. After Rep. Jones was formerly reinstated, Rep. Justin Pearson regained his House position on Thursday (April 13).
By now, the story of Rep. Justin Pearson and Rep. Justin Jones being shown the door for what some observers viewed as politically and even racially driven motivations have spread far and wide. Both men have ties to the respective communities they represent in the state and ran for office on the heels of their activism work.
Pearson, 28, has also emerged as a stirring orator, using a speaking style that some have compared to late civil rights activist and Black History icon in Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In a statement republished by local news outlet WREG, Pearson expressed gratitude for returning to the House to do the work and represent the will of the people.
From Pearson’s statement:
I’m so humbled and grateful to once again represent District 86. Thank you to those who rallied, marched, wrote letters, posted on social media and prayed for this moment. I thank the members of the Shelby County Commission for their courage to do what is right, to protect the representation that voters in District 86 went to the polls twice to earn.
An ugly byproduct of the brouhaha in Tennessee is the comments of conservative pundits and detractors who failed to call out the fact that Pearson and Jones were unlikely targeted under illegal circumstances.
Instead, talking heads like Tucker Carlson is currently under fire for saying that Pearson is using the voice of a “sharecropper” which prompted some chatter.
As it stands, the reinstatement of Rep. Justin Pearson and Rep. Justin Jones is, as many in the state and abroad have said, a win for democracy.
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Photo: Getty
Kanye West
Owens credited the Yeezy mogul for designing “Blexit” merch — a portmanteau for “Black” and “exit” that mimics Britain’s exit from the European Union — for her movement she launched in late 2018 that encourages Black voters to leave the Democratic party and register as Republicans.
“Blexit is a renaissance, and I am blessed to say that this logo, these colors, were created by my dear friend and fellow superhero Kanye West,” Owens told Page Six at Turning Point USA’s Young Black Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 27, 2018 (Owens was Turning Point USA communications director at the time of the event).
But ‘Ye cleared the air on Twitter a few days later when he denied helming the designs. “I introduced Candace to the person who made the logo and they didn’t want their name on it so she used mine,” he wrote. “I never wanted any association with Blexit. I have nothing to do with it.”
West later wrote the mishap exposed him to the dangers of falsely spreading ideas he doesn’t personally align himself with and announced, “I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative !!!” But that obviously didn’t signal the end of West’s political antics as he continued to push forward with his 2020 presidential campaign under his independent “Birthday Party.”
On Halloween (Oct. 31), Owens penned an apologetic blog post titled after the rapper’s fourth studio album 808s & Heartbreak for falsely tying him to her Blexit movement, especially considering how much he means to her as a “superhero” and as a “friend.”
“Listening to music from Kanye West and Jay-Z is what I give credit to having kept my spirit alive on some of the very worst days. It’s a crazy thing to know that you wake up one day and someone whose words and lyrics literally kept your spirit alive is suddenly your friend. God is good. There are so many people in this world who love Kanye West because they know he is great and powerful and cool, but not every person in this world knows what it means to have someone’s rap lyrics literally save you,” she began writing. “…If I had to imagine what it would feel like to have a bullet pierce my heart, it would be exactly like the moment I learned Kanye told the world he felt I had used him. I wouldn’t wish the way I felt last night upon my worst enemy.”
She continued: “I never once said that Kanye designed the t-shirts for BLEXIT. This is a lie that seems to have made its way around the world; a lie I would like to again correct for the record. Kanye was completely right to feel used in that regard and as I have done personally, I would like to publicly apologize to him for any undue stress or pain the effort to correct that rumor has caused him, his business relationships, or his family. He simply never designed them.”
Since then, Owens and Ye have patched things up, with Owens supporting the rapper by attending his controversial Paris Fashion Week show in 2022, and Ye returning the favor by walking the red carpet premiere of her film, Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM.
With a rising tide of anti-LGBTQ sentiment making its way around the globe, Lil Nas X wants his fans to know that he is there to support them.
On Wednesday night (April 12), the “Old Town Road” rapper retweeted a report from a fan account that said his song “Sun Goes Down” off of Montero had reached No. 1 on the iTunes charts in Saudi Arabia.
In his tweet, the rapper sent a message specifically to his LGBTQ fans in Saudi Arabia, hoping that the song’s message resonated with them. “to my gays [sic] fans from saudi arabia reading this, i hope this song is getting you through whatever you’re going through,” he wrote. “and i hope someday soon the laws against us change and you can be free in your own home.”
The song traces Lil Nas’ personal journey from experiencing suicidal thoughts at a young age to self-acceptance of his queerness later on in life, with many seeing it as a hopeful anthem to coming out. “I know that you want to cry/ But there’s much more to life than dying,” he sings on the final post-chorus. “Over your past mistakes/ And people who threw dirt on your name.”
The rapper’s tweet was specifically referring to the Middle Eastern country’s criminalization of queerness. According to Human Dignity Trust, a U.K.-based legal advocacy group working to challenge same-sex discrimination laws around the globe, Saudi Arabia criminalizes same-sex sexual activity as well as public gender expression for trans people, with “a maximum penalty of death.”
Lil Nas’ touching message comes a few weeks after the rapper received criticism online for a tweet asking “where do the gays be in africa” shortly after Uganda passed a historically broad anti-LGBTQ law.
See Lil Nas X’s sweet message to his LGBTQ fans in Saudi Arabia below:
to my gays fans from saudi arabia reading this, i hope this song is getting you through whatever you’re going through and i hope someday soon the laws against us change and you can be free in your own home. https://t.co/Cn7j2FMdM3— pussy (@LilNasX) April 13, 2023
With musicians such as Kid Rock, Ted Nugent and Travis Tritt all calling for a boycott of Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch products following their partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, the “365 Days of Girlhood” star is ready to share her side of things.
Mulvaney was a guest for the latest episode of Onward With Rosie O’Donnell on Tuesday (April 11), where she appeared to respond to the ongoing backlash against her work with brands including Bud Light and Nike. “I have tried to be the most uncontroversial person this past year, and somehow, it has made me controversial still,” she told O’Donnell. “I think it comes back to the fact that these people don’t understand me, and anything that I do or say then somehow gets taken out of context and used against me. And it’s so sad, because everything I try to put out there is positive.”
While Mulvaney didn’t directly address the Bud Light boycott or Nugent and Tritt during the interview, O’Donnell did in her introduction, specifically calling out Kid Rock’s video in which he shot an assault rifle at three cases of Bud Light.
“Kid Rock had to take an assault weapon and shoot the boxes of beer, proving what? Beer companies have been supportive of the LGBTQIA community for decades!” O’Donnell declared, dumbfounded. “This is not the first time! Who do you think sponsors Pride? C’mon. Gay people, trans people, we drink beer, too, man! Put down your gun, Kid Rock, it’s in bad taste — especially after what happened at the school in Nashville.”
Mulvaney did speak about watching Drew Barrymore receive exceptional amounts of online hate for embracing her on her talk show, and how that moment was indicative of the larger issue at hand. “It’s bullying in the fact that they want anyone who associates themselves with trans people to be under fire,” she said. “They want to essentially shame people into thinking that if you associate with someone like me, you are to be laughed at, and you are now the crazy one. Because you’re ‘giving in’ to someone’s identity, or just acknowledging their existence.”
As for why right-wing trolls seem to specifically target her, Mulvaney shared her own theory. “I’m an easy target is because I’m still new to this,” she said. “Going after a trans woman that’s been doing this for, like, 20 years is a lot more difficult. So I think maybe they think there’s some sort of chance with me … but what is their goal?”
The star went on to say that since beginning her public transition over a year ago, she has watched as transphobia has “gotten so bad for the community,” especially in relation to legislators around the country passing a record number of anti-trans bills. “I’m just like, ‘We just have to stay alive,’” Mulvaney said. “This is the time, I think, for not only just everyday straight people, but we need every letter of the alphabet to show up for us, because I think it’s all hands on deck.”
The interview comes shortly after Mulvaney shared a video across her social media platforms as a response to the ongoing backlash. The clip, from Mulvaney’s Day 365 Live cabaret show at New York’s Rainbow Room in March, sees the star singing “No One Is Alone” from Stephen Sondheim’s 1987 musical Into the Woods. “It’s hard to see the light now, just don’t let it go,” the TikTok star wrote in the caption, quoting the track. “This song felt fitting for the week I’ve been having. All is well! Cheers.”
Listen to Mulvaney’s interview with O’Donnell below:
As right-wing legislative attacks against queer and trans people continue to skyrocket around the country, some conservatives seem to only be talking about one thing as of late: Bud Light.
On April 1, transgender TikTok star and social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney shared a video of herself participating in Bud Light’s Easy Carry Contest for the end of March Madness, revealing that the company helped her celebrate her “365th day of womanhood” with “possibly the best gift ever” — a commemorative can of Bud Light with Mulvaney’s face emblazoned on the side.
While Anheuser-Busch (the company that makes Bud Light) told Billboard in a statement that the commemorative cans bearing Mulvaney’s face are “not for sale,” that didn’t stop right-wing commentators from causing an uproar online, saying that the brand shouldn’t be promoting transgender “ideologies.” Some even said that they would be “boycotting” the companies many products, which include Budweiser, Busch, Stella Artois, Michelob Ultra, Hoegarden and others.
Some of those who spoke out included celebrities such as Kid Rock and Travis Tritt, who promised that they would be cutting all ties with the brand from that point forward. Other artists, including Jason Isbell and Zach Bryan, defended the brand against the online backlash, pointing out the importance of diversity. Even shock jock Howard Stern weighed in on the issue, saying he was “dumbfounded by why someone would care so much” about a trans person acting as a spokesperson for the beer brand.
See what artists have had to say about the ongoing Anheuser-Busch controversy below:
Kid Rock
One of the first artists to express his displeasure with Anheuser-Busch, Kid Rock decided to take his anger out with some help from an assault rifle. Posting a video across his social media on April 3, the self-proclaimed “Devil Without a Cause” said that he was “feeling a little frisky” and promised to be “as clear and concise as possible,” before firing a series of rounds at three unopened cases of Bud Light, sending the drinks spraying across his lawn.
Making good on his promise of remaining “clear and concise,” the “Cocky” singer yelled “f–k Bud Light, and f–k Anheuser-Busch” directly into the camera to close out his video.
Jason Isbell
After watching Kid Rock express himself through gunplay, country star Jason Isbell decided to take the rap-rocker to task through a series of tweets. Retweeting the rap-rocker’s original video, Isbell mocked the clip, asking, “Is this one of those three words you wish you could say to your teenage self things.” Later, retweeting an infographic that showed Coors Light’s long history of corporate support for the LGBTQ community, the “Cover Me Up” singer said, “This is finally how we get him. Leave no bigoted beers to drink.”
When a number of users tried to clap back at Isbell, he continued to taunt them, telling one fan who said “Kid Rock is 100 times a better musician than you” that “he can’t shoot for s–t though can he.”
Travis Tritt
As the backlash to the brand continued, country singer-songwriter Travis Tritt announced on Twitter on April 5 that he would be “deleting all Anheuser-Busch products from my tour hospitality rider,” adding that there were “many other artists who are doing the same.”
As for why those other artists didn’t seem to be vocalizing their alleged boycott of the brand, Tritt theorized that their silence was due to “fear of being ridiculed and cancelled. I have no such fear.” The “T-R-O-U-B-L-E” performer also added that while he went on a tour sponsored by the brand back in the ’90s, he did so when they were “a great American company,” before they apparently “sold out to the Europeans and became unrecognizable to the American consumer.”
The “Here’s a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)” singer didn’t stop at Anheuser-Busch. Sharing an advertisement from Jack Daniel’s promoting its own Pride campaign with drag stars from RuPaul’s Drag Race, Tritt said that buyers “should take note.”
In full disclosure, I was on a tour sponsored by Budweiser in the 90’s. That was when Anheuser-Busch was American owned. A great American company that later sold out to the Europeans and became unrecognizable to the American consumer. Such a shame.— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) April 6, 2023https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
John Rich
John Rich of country duo Big & Rich made it very clear that he would be one of the artists joining Tritt in his boycott of Anheuser-Busch’s products. In an April 5 tweet, the “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)” singer asked his fans, “What beer should my bar @rnrbarnash in Nashville replace #BudLight with,” referring to his restaurant/bar Redneck Riviera. He also posted a poll on Twitter asking his followers if they were “thirsty for a Bud Light now,” with the resounding response being “Hell Naw.”
Noodles (The Offspring)
With a handful of artists declaring that they would be boycotting Anheuser-Busch products, The Offspring’s lead guitarist Noodles (born Kevin John Wasserman) announced that the band would be going in exactly the opposite direction. “We are going to be adding Anheiser-Busch products & Jack Daniels to our hospitality rider just to piss off a bunch of dimwitted bigots who fear what they don’t understand,” the guitarist wrote over a retweet of Tritt’s original statement. “I know a s–t-ton of artists who feel exactly the same. (And we all drink A LOT).”
Ted Nugent
With more and more stars commenting on the ongoing backlash to Anheuser-Busch, Ted Nugent appeared on Newsmax April 6 to support of Kid Rock, saying he “trained” the singer appropriately, “because nothing says ‘I love you’ like a fully automatic MP5 and nine-millimeter blasting about 600 rounds per minute.”
Shifting his focus to Anheuser-Busch, the “Cat Scratch Fever” singer said that he would “never allow” any Anheuser-Busch products “anywhere near my world,” and called the company’s work with Mulvaney was “the epitome of cultural deprivation.”
Zach Bryan
Rising country superstar Zach Bryan came to the defense of the trans community on Twitter, attempting to diffuse the growing tension. “I mean no disrespect towards anyone specifically, I don’t even mind @travistritt,” he tweeted on April 8. “I just think insulting transgender people is completely wrong because we live in a country where we can all just be who we want to be It’s a great day to be alive I thought.” He added a shoutout where he told Tritt that “I love Jack Daniels (my dogs name) and I will drink enough for both of us I promise.”
When some fans pointed to a recent incident where former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines was allegedly “physically assaulted” by a group of protestors supporting trans rights, Bryan quickly said he did not support any kind of violence. “I just have family transitioning and have blood to defend here,” he wrote. “No one threaten me pls.”
I mean no disrespect towards anyone specifically, I don’t even mind @Travistritt. I just think insulting transgender people is completely wrong because we live in a country where we can all just be who we want to be It’s a great day to be alive I thought— Zach Bryan (@zachlanebryan) April 8, 2023https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
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Justin Jones, one of the two Black Democrat representatives expelled by Republicans last week from the Tennessee House, was sworn back in.
On Monday (April 10th), members of the Nashville city council held a special session to return Jones to the legislature. After a prayer by council member Zulfat Suara for the six lives lost in the Covenant school shooting as well as those lost in a mass shooting in Kentucky that day, the vote was unanimously in favor of Jones, 36-0. An hour later, he returned to the state capitol surrounded by hundreds of supporters and took his oath on the steps.
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“I want to welcome democracy back to the people’s house,” he said after returning to his old desk. “No expulsion, no attempt to silence us will stop us, but it will only galvanize and strengthen our movement,” he said, concluding with: “Power to the people!” The move by the Nashville city council members was done so swiftly that Jones hadn’t missed a floor session of the Tennessee House.
House majority leader William Lamberth & House Republican caucus chairman Jeremy Faison issued a statement before the vote saying that “should any expelled member be reappointed, we will welcome them.” A vote to reinstate Rep. Pearson was scheduled to be held by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners in Memphis on Wednesday (April 12th). Both lawmakers have expressed that they will run in special elections to be held later this year to permanently obtain their seats.
Jones, along with Pearson and Rep. Gloria Johnson, were targeted by the Republican majority of the legislative body for expulsion last Thursday (April 6th). The vote took place a week after the three lawmakers had taken to the House floor and interrupted a session by demanding action be taken on gun violence, using megaphones to lead protesters. Jones and Pearson would be expelled through a vote, while Johnson (who is white) was spared, prompting her to cite racism as the reason her fellow Democrats were kicked out.
The move by the Republican majority of the House, something that had only been done twice since the Civil War, sparked local and nationwide outrage all the way to the White House, as President Joe Biden expressed his anger and Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise trip to Nashville to speak at Fisk University in support of the lawmakers. Lawyers for Jones and Pearson, including former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, sent a letter warning against retaliation to House Speaker Cameron Sexton.
As conservative uproar over Bud Light teaming up with a trans person continues, Ted Nugent threw his hat in the ring to criticize the beer brand.
The “Stranglehold” singer appeared on a recent episode of Newsmax’s “Eric Bolling the Balance” to share his response to Anheuser-Busch working with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. “The beauty of my life is that I’ve never spent one red cent on alcohol,” the guitarist said. “But I made sure that my entire crew and my family will never allow any Anheuser-Busch products anywhere near my world.”
After referencing a Pride-related campaign coming from Jack Daniel’s as well, Nugent called out these campaigns for being “disrespectful” to the brands’ “core consumer demographic,” appearing to refer to conservatives. “How can they possibly have a meeting around the table and come to the conclusion that they’re going to piss in the face of the people who pay their salaries?” he said. “This is the epitome of cultural deprivation in an ongoing tsunami of cultural deprivation.”
Nugent is just one in a series of artists to share their displeasure with Anheuser-Busch’s recent work with Mulvaney. Country singer Travis Tritt declared that he would no longer include any of the company’s products on his tour rider, while John Rich of duo Big & Rich “congratulated” anyone who was joining him in boycotting Bud Light.
Perhaps the most fiery response came from Kid Rock, who declared “f–k Anheuser-Busch” in a video last week after shooting three cases of Bud Light with an assault rifle. Nugent applauded the “Devil Without a Cause” singer in his interview, saying, “I think I might’ve trained Kid Rock appropriately, because nothing says ‘I love you’ like a fully automatic MP5 and nine-millimeter blasting about 600 rounds per minute.”
The partnership in question came when Mulvaney posted a video to her social media accounts promoting a March Madness-themed campaign for Bud Light, wherein she received a commemorative can of the drink with her face emblazoned on the side. Anheuser-Busch stood by its campaign in a statement to Billboard last week, saying it was one of “hundreds” meant to help the brand “authentically connect with audiences across various demographics.” The spokesperson also added that Bud Light cans with Mulvaney’s face were not for sale, since the piece was “a gift to celebrate a personal milestone.”
Jack Daniel’s also offered a statement to Billboard last week, standing by their values of “individuality and living life boldly on your own terms,” and adding that their products are made “with everyone in mind, including the LGBTQ+ community.”
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The billionaire “friend” and Republican donor who treated Clarence Thomas to luxury trips is now embroiled in another scandal over his purported collection of Nazi memorabilia.
According to reports, the Supreme Court Justice and his wife, Ginni, have enjoyed luxury trips courtesy of Texas real estate magnate Harlan Crow for close to two decades. But a source has disclosed that Crow, who also owns an extensive collection of historical artifacts at his home, also has in that collection a disturbing amount of memorabilia from the Nazi regime.
In the article published last Friday (April 7th), the source recounted their shock at seeing the mementos while attending a function at the Republican megadonor’s home in Dallas. “It would have been helpful to have someone explain the significance of all the items. Without that context, you sort of just gasp when you walk into the room,” they said. They went on to describe three paintings in the collection, “something done by George W. Bush next to a Norman Rockwell next to one by Hitler.”
Apparently, Crow owns two landscape paintings done by the Nazi dictator in addition to other Nazi memorabilia which includes a signed copy of Mein Kampf, table linen, and a teapot owned by Hitler adorned with the regime’s insignia of an eagle with talons grasping the swastika. The rest of the collection also features artifacts from the antebellum period as well as statues of dictators such as Joseph Stalin and Josip Tito of Yugoslavia in a space noted as the “Garden of Evil” in a piece from 2014 and the death mask of Lakota nation leader Sitting Bull.
As word spread online of the billionaire’s disturbing collection, a collection of friends from the conservative and far-right world leaped to his defense on social media. These included the notorious scientific racist lecturer and The Bell Curve author Charles Murray, whom it was later revealed enjoys close ties to Crow through a think-tank partnership.
Justice Thomas contested the initial reports of his acceptance of those trips and not declaring it as required by a law instituted after the Watergate scandal. Crow issued a statement after the reports came out, claiming that he and his wife “have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue.” Crow has backed numerous cases that have come up before the Supreme Court, and the discovery of these lavish trips has many legal experts alleging that Thomas broke the law in a conflict of interest.
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In a shocking display, the Republican-led House in Tennessee’s state legislature voted to expel two Black Democrat lawmakers over their support of gun control reform.
On Thursday (April 6th), the House chamber led by members of the Republican Party voted 72-25 to expel Rep. Justin Jones, who represents a district in Nashville. They went on to vote 69-26 to oust Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis. Their effort to expel Rep. Gloria Johnson failed by a single vote with the count being 65 – 30. When questioned by the press about the differences in the voting outcomes between her and Pearson and Jones, she replied: “I’ll answer your question; it might have to do with the color of our skin.”
Pearson told reporters before taking the floor for the vote: “This is a first in American history. And we are losing our democracy to white supremacy. We are losing our democracy to patriarchy.” He and Jones would lambast the GOP membership in their remarks before the vote. “The world is watching Tennessee,” Jones said. “What is happening here today is a farce of democracy.” He would go on to call the Republican members a “lynch mob” and point out their hypocrisy. ‘For years, one of your colleagues, an admitted child molester, sat in this chamber – no expulsion’, he said in his speech that has gone viral.
The three lawmakers were singled out for their participation in a protest led by students and parents at the state capitol a week earlier, days after a horrific school shooting in Nashville that claimed the lives of six people including three 9-year-olds. Jones, Pearson, and Johnson used megaphones to lead the chants of protesters that called out GOP lawmakers for obstructing efforts to reform gun control laws.
The resolutions to expel “The Tennessee Three” were practically identical, and claimed their protests “reflects adversely upon the integrity and dignity” of the House. Biographical information for Jones and Pearson was wiped from the legislative body’s website and both seats were listed as vacant. The expulsion votes have only occurred three times in Tennessee House history according to a report – for contempt, bribery, and sexual misconduct. Despite the alarming situation, there is hope – the empty roles would normally be filled by special election, and Pearson and Jones can run again in their districts and be appointed to fill the slots. If both regain their seats, state law prevents them from being expelled for the same offense.