We need to go after Target in a very serious way.
It is time for decent,
ordinary Americans who do not believe in radical ideas in either direction to just
say I will not allow my kids to be corrupted by this trans agenda.
>> Just like the unhinged jihadists he likes to fear monger about,
Charlie Kirk and other far right conservatives are going after Target
because they disagree with the merchandise being sold in celebration of Pride.
Let's see what else he has to say.
>> And Target, it looks they're caving,
they say they're putting the clothes in the back.
I want Target to go bankrupt, I want them to close, I want Chapter 11, okay?
>> Somebody else can buy them up- >> No.
>> Be conservative, cuz it could be a bunch of empty buildings.
>> Yeah, I want them to go Chapter 11.
People say what does success look like, Chapter 11, okay?
I want skull and bones all the way down to
the absolute nails of the stores.
That's the only thing they understand is force, pain is a teacher.
>> Now conservatives have an interesting strategy in getting
various corporations to heel and give in to what they demand,
in this case it has to do with anything that seems to support the LGBTQ community.
And unfortunately, this has already led to individuals going into Target stores and
causing some damage, which is why Target has made some decisions already that
appears that they're ceding ground to what Republicans want.
Target said it was concerned about threats impacting our team members' sense
of safety and well-being while at work, after some customers had screamed at
employees and thrown the Pride-themed merchandise on the floor.
So I bring you, unfortunately, 24-year-old Ethan Schmidt, who takes the rhetoric
that you just heard from Charlie Kirk and basically incites violence,
he brings up the ante, and you're about to hear what I'm referring to.
We're gonna hear from him, and
then we're gonna show you what he did at a Target store, I believe in Arizona.
>> We're giving you a heads up that we're gonna be coming after you hard, hard.
I've already exposed you guys pretty good, but this is gonna be next level stuff, so.
>> [INAUDIBLE] wins, LGBT loses.
>> Yeah, I also like to hunt LGBT supporters on my free time,
that's one of my favorite pastimes.
Yeah, we're gonna be going on hunting expeditions pretty soon,
hunting the LGBT supporters across Arizona and Phoenix.
So keep an eye out for that, because you're not safe.
>> But I would venture to say that people aren't safe when this guy's around,
here's an example of what he did at a Target store in Arizona.
>> That there is no insert, there's nothing on it.
>> What the [BLEEP] man, what's wrong with you?
>> Just disgusting, it's devil worshipping, it's devil worshipping.
>> Now Target has already made some decisions about the merchandise.
Some of the merchandise they're moving from the front of the store to the back of
the store,
there will also be some items that they will no longer sell as a result of this.
And they're citing concerns about the safety of their employees.
I've got more details on this but, Cenk, I wanted to get your thoughts first.
>> Guys, this is really bad.
So these are vigilantes, and they're telling you, you just saw it on video,
we're gonna hunt you down, you should not feel safe.
What are people in the LGBTQ community supposed to think?
How are they not supposed to panic over that?
How are they not supposed to defend themselves over that?
So now when you got people talking about defending themselves against these kind of
vigilante thugs, we're gonna have chaos soon.
This is gonna be really, really bad.
You see, there's no check on them, there's no cops, there's no nothing.
Nobody ever gets arrested, right, so they just keep bullying everybody.
Bullying, bullying, bullying, and they're filled with hatred.
There was excuses in the past, no, we're not against gay people,
it's just that the lifestyle and blah, blah, blah.
They used to have excuses, they don't even have excuses anymore, they just go,
we hate LGBT people and we're hunting them.
And if you're in favor of LGBT,
you put a rainbow somewhere saying I don't despise gay people.
Well that's it, we're coming to hate on you, we're coming to destroy you,
how dare you not hate gay people?
Okay, look, if you're a Republican and
you don't like that, you got a funny way of showing it.
So you know how consistent we are, there was a deranged person on the so-called
left earlier this week that went after a reporter with a machete, and
we said it was totally unacceptable and that they are not part of us, right?
And they did physical force against these guys who were anti-choice on their campus,
etc., and we spoke out against it, right?
Republicans, where are you, nobody's reigning these guys in.
>> No, that's exactly right, I mean that's part of the problem.
I mean you'll see some, I guess at this point they would be considered moderate
Republicans pushing back against this on Twitter.
But other than that, they're getting encouraged by people
like Charlie Kirk, people like Matt Walsh, right?
And there's also this issue of misinformation in regard to what Target
is selling in the first place, so I wanna get to that.
Now as a result of everything that's been going on,
this week Target became the latest company to rethink its approach after facing
criticism for its Pride collection, which included clothes and
books for children that drew outrage from some on the right.
The retailer, as I mentioned earlier, decided to move its Pride displays,
including rainbow-striped collared shirts, yellow hoodies reading Not a Phase,
and baby clothing and accessories from the entrances of some Target stores around
the country and place them in the back.
Now in a statement, Target said this.
Given the volatile circumstances,
we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been
at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.
>> No, guys, I gotta jump in on that because that just rewards them.
>> Okay, let me get to, you're right, it encourages what we're seeing.
>> They're gonna do it again- >> I know.
>> And again and again.
>> But the thing that these companies care about more than
appeasing any side of the political aisle, is money.
>> Of course. >> And what's surprising to me is that
while boycotts, traditionally speaking, have not been effective,
they have been effective in regard to the whole Bud Light debacle and
also with Target.
I don't think that they're making this decision because they care about their
workers, I'm keeping it real.
I think they're making this decision because their stock took a huge hit.
>> Their workers, no, no, no, of course, no.
>> Let me give you the numbers, though.
>> Yeah, no, of course it's about the money, but I got strong thoughts on that,
too, so go ahead.
>> So Target apparently lost 9 billion in market value since angry social media
users called for a boycott of the Minneapolis-based retailer over its
rollout of the PRIDE collection, featuring LGBTQ-friendly clothing for children.
So this wasn't really a boycott, but the stock value took a hit, right?
So a week ago Wednesday, before the controversy erupted,
Target's stock closed at $160.96 a share,
giving the big-box chain a market capitalization of $74.3 billion.
As of early trading on Thursday, however,
shares of the company were trading off 1% at $141.76.
>> Okay, so, guys, a couple of things here.
So, number one, I'm officially changing my position on right wing boycotts,
and I'll tell you why, and I'll tell you why it's also overhyped.
But first, in the past, right wing boycotts never, ever, ever worked.
They would do these things, Disney, way before DeSantis,
Disney doesn't hate gay people enough, that boycott was 20 years ago, right?
And they went after Disney, Disney held strong, and
their sales did not go down 0.1%, completely and utterly ineffectual.
But that was before the Republican base got radicalized and before social
media spread that message so much more effectively than some rando evangelical
Christian group out of Sarasota that nobody ever heard from, okay?
So now when the Charlie Kirks and the Matt Walshes put the message out and
they say to their radicalized base, okay, we're hating Target,
we're hating Bud Light cuz they don't hate gay people, it works.
So now does that mean that every company should panic, no,
it depends on what your demographics are.
Remember, Nike went right in their grill and brought in the guy they hate most,
Colin Kaepernick, to do a giant ad campaign.
And in the beginning their valuation dipped, and
then it skyrocketed when sales numbers actually came in.
Because Nike's demographic is young, which is very progressive, so that worked.
If your demographic is old, Bud Light, I don't know what Target's demographics are,
then, yeah okay, then the right wingers are older and that might hurt your sales.
But there's one factor that nobody talks about, which is that this initial dip for
Target, and Nike, and all of them is that the stock market.
It's not based on any actual sales,
it's the reaction that super right wing Wall Street traders have to the news.
Remember, almost everyone on Wall Street is right wing, so
when they hear the right wing is mad about Target, well this is gonna destroy Target,
everybody sell, sell, sell, sell, cuz it's their perspective.
They did the same exact thing to Nike and they were dead wrong, and
then when the sales numbers came in they turned around, okay?
So unfortunately, because of how right wing Wall Street is, and because
now these boycotts are more effective, you're gonna see so much more of them.
Now in reality,
the left wing should be doing peaceful boycotts of companies that corrupt our
politics by bribing politicians- >> That'd be every single one of
them, Cenk.
>> I know.
>> They would never shop again.
[LAUGH] >> I know, but we can go one by one.
But we got no leadership on our side, so instead we have these monsters running it.
And now to Charlie Kirk, so he said they should go to Chapter 11, he started
talking about it in the context of finance so I'm giving you that context, okay?
But then when you see this violence already happening,
when you know your base is totally deranged.
When you know 28% of Republicans already say they think it's time for
violence and you have seen right wing violence time, after time, after time.
When you say you should use force, and I wanna see skull and bones everywhere,
do you think that maybe some people might misinterpret that?
>> He didn't say, okay, but let's be fair.
He said skull and bones meaning he wants to watch Target fail,
right, [CROSSTALK] >> No, I just said,
he said it in a financial context, but
do you think every Charlie Kirk viewer is gonna understand that?
>> No, I get it, I get it.
>> He's egging them on, going, Chapter 11, skull and bones, I want skull and
bones everywhere, he knows his audience is gonna misinterpret that,
he wants them to misinterpret it.
No, I give no quarter to Charlie Kirk, he's a terrible guy and
he's doing it on purpose.
And he loves the idea of vigilante violence, sick, absolutely sick.
We're gonna have nonstop fighting in the streets.
Our social fabric is completely decaying.
So if I'm LGBTQ, what am I gonna do, just sit there and wait for them to attack me?
Look, I don't want the violence, I think the violence is disastrous,
I don't think the left should go anywhere near that.
But vigilante stuff is gonna break out everywhere now.
And by the way, no one's getting protected in the streets either, okay?
I don't know where the cops are, both the left and the right now hate the cops so
they're nowhere to be found.
People are already attacking each other in the streets.
This is just, chaos is coming, guys.
>> I hear you, we're there, we're already there.