MSNBC host grills exec: 'Why aren’t they fighting like their businesses depend on' Biden’s re-election?
MSNBC's Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday interviewed two longtime business executives — Yale School of Management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, and Donny Deutch, chairman of the advertising firm, Deutsch Inc. — about American CEOs' decline in support for Donald Trump.
Wallace wondered if so many chief executive officers of American companies are critical of the former president — as Sonnenfeld stated in a recent op-ed — and if they believe American democracy would be at stake under a second Trump presidency, why have they not voiced their concerns more?
"You cannot get hired at any of the companies run by a fortune 500 CEOs if you're a convicted felon," Wallace said, asking Sonnenfeld, "If they really don't want to see Trump as America's next president, why aren't they fighting like their businesses depend on the re-election of Joe Biden?"
The Yale business leader replied, "These days you couldn't lead a trade union, you couldn't take over a neighborhood church as a minister if you had the same record. Where are those voices? I can't think of any voice in society other than politicians that have not spoken out more than the CEOs. The people that control the companies, 90% owned by employee pensions who spoken out, Harley Davidson, Disney, Coca-Cola, General Motors, these icons of American enterprise have suffered repercussions from Trump's reprisals for having spoken out, but they still speak out when they need to.
Sonnenfeld continued, "They're hired hands that run the companies, if stakeholders don't support them, it's pretty hard. But companies like Apple, Dell, Microsoft — they hold their ground on important social issues. They've been very courageous, and as an aside, these companies, which are condemned of being woke, dramatically out perform any of the alt-right economy, companies like Truth Social or [former GOP candidate Vivek] Ramaswamy's companies — they dramatically out performed them. Those companies perform terribly. These companies do well and do good. They believe they're not antithetical, but they can't do it alone."
Wallace then turned to Deutsch, saying, "Donny, help bridge the gap. I hear what Jeffrey is saying, I understand they have shareholders, and bosses. They also have workforces, including women, whose lives would be in danger if Trump were re-elected and the Supreme Court becomes more extreme." The MSNBC host asked, "When does the tipping become, if they do become visible public actors?"
Deutsch replied, "Let me give you the hard answer: They have one job, whether we like it or not, that's to increase shareholder value. In this polarized world right now, when you come out on one side, selling anything mass, and anybody in these Fortune 500 companies are in the business of selling to the masses, you're choosing a side and you're alienating another side. That's the unfortunate reality."
READ MORE: Why Trump suffers from 'lowest level of corporate support' in GOP’s history: exec
The veteran advertising executive added, "This is a very different moment in time, and the same way I said the military has to acted differently, the news media has to act differently, the clergy has to act differently, and CEOs, there is a call to action. And our world will not be as we know it, or as we have taken it for granted if Donald Trump is elected. I think CEOs do have to step out of the comfort zone but they have to look at the US value also. The corporation, the USA, will be damaged in many ways if Donald Trump is president."
I appreciate Donny understanding fraught nature of this for CEOs. But I think this is that moment. This is the moment to maybe get -- put everything on the line. we're asking the military to do that. generals don't want to tell people who to vote for. there are not-mattis, kelly, milly, but a lot of people who spent their lives nonpartisan -- committed to nonpartisanships out there. A lot of people who spent their lives walking the same walk that a CEO is trying to walk, for different reasons, and I'll leave it to the viewer to decide which is, you know, better or worse. But I guess my point is, this is that moment. This is that moment. to say, 'I can't lead a company if we lose our democracy.' I wonder do you think any of them will do something more brave?
I do think you will have some CEOs speaking out. There are heroes in every generation, category, occupational field and I do believe there will be some CEOs, these are the smartest people in the world, and I beg them please speak out. You know better. You know the truth about Donald Trump as a human and a business person. Put it on the line. That's why you get the big bucks.
Watch the video below or at this link.
Wallace grills exec: 'Why aren’t they fighting like their businesses depend on' Biden's re-election? youtu.be
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