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?"

READ MORE: CEOs left 'remarkably meandering' Trump event 'less predisposed' to voting for him: financial columnist

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



from Alternet.org https://ift.tt/i03aNvM
via sinceretalk

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How misinformation could shape the Israel-Hamas war

Image
I wanted to interview Nicholas Grossman regarding the role of misinformation in the war between Israel and Hamas. In particular, I hoped to ask the professor of international relations at the University of Illinois, and senior editor of Arc Digital , about misinformation that arose from American reporting on an explosion at a hospital in Gaza. You know what? I ended up repeating a bit of misinformation! I asked him to lay out the facts about a blast that “killed hundreds, including kids,” and he said nuh-uh (not his words). In fact, Professor Grossman said, “there never were hundreds killed by an explosion at that hospital. Media reported that the hospital was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike killing 500, but that was based on something a Hamas-controlled agency said and was never supported by evidence.” Professor Grossman went on to say “what apparently did happen is something hit a nearby parking lot and caused a smaller explosion, most likely a rocket fired from Gaza towards I
Read more

PA GOP Senate candidate who says he 'started with nothing' actually grew up in a mansion

Image
David McCormick, who is Pennsylvania's presumptive Republican U.S. Senate nominee, has often suggested he grew up poor in a rural community. But a new report finds that his upbringing was far more affluent than he's suggested. The New York Times reported Friday that McCormick — a former hedge fund executive who lived in Connecticut as recently as 2022 — has been cagey with voters about his childhood. McCormick has tweeted that he was "raised in Bloomsburg working on his family's farm," said on a 2022 podcast that he " started with nothing " and told CBS News that same year that he " didn't have anything " growing up as the son of two schoolteachers. But according to the Times , McCormick's father, Dr. James H. McCormick , was appointed president of what is now Bloomsburg University by Gov. Milton Schapp (D) in 1973. He moved his family into Buckalew Place — the official mansion for presidents of the school that currently spans 5
Read more

'It is his aphrodisiac': Ex-RNC chair explains how gag order 'stimulates' Trump and his base

Image
As President Donald Trump faces gag orders in two separate cases — one from Judge Arthur Engoron presiding over his New York civil fraud trial, and the other from Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will preside of his Washington, DC January 6 trial in March — some experts expect him to violate the orders soon. With a history of threatening and verbally attacking others, MSNBC's Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday pointed to the fact the ex-president's rhetoric influenced January 6 rioters who chanted, "Hang Mike Pence!" Noting Trump "gets deeply stimulated and excited by the violence," Wallace asked analyst and ex-Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele what he thinks the MAGA hopeful's "calculation is on whether violating these gag orders lands him in jail is a good thing or bad thing for him." POLL : Should Trump be allowed to hold office again? Steele replied, "You put your finger on two very important words t
Read more