Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Cracker Barrel’s $100M Disaster, GOP Probes Alleged DC Crime Cover-Up & Biden Packed Swing States
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: I will tell you this is the best of all,
- 0:04Speaker 1: and they're gonna fight me like the slav of a
- 0:07Speaker 1: governor you have in Illinois. This poor this poor guy
- 0:10Speaker 1: got thrown out of his business by his family.
- 0:13Speaker 2: But I met this gentleman.
- 0:14Speaker 3: I never met him before.
- 0:16Speaker 2: Sir, you're doing a great job.
- 0:18Speaker 1: You're doing an unbelievable Joe, Thank you very much.
- 0:20Speaker 2: But then he goes on television he says, oh, Trump
- 0:23Speaker 2: is a dictator.
- 0:25Speaker 4: If you're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with
- 0:28Speaker 4: Ben Ferguson.
- 0:29Speaker 1: Good Saturday morning to you, Ben Ferguson with you, and
- 0:32Speaker 1: these are some of the stories that you may have
- 0:33Speaker 1: missed that we talked about this week on the forty
- 0:36Speaker 1: seven Morning Update. First up, Crackerbarrell. They screwed up big time.
- 0:40Speaker 1: The President said, it's time for you to go backwards,
- 0:44Speaker 1: correct the course and learn from your mistake quickly so
- 0:47Speaker 1: you can be successful. Well within twenty four hours with
- 0:50Speaker 1: the President weighing in on the issue, Crackerberrell decided, Yeah,
- 0:54Speaker 1: we're gonna do exactly that, and we've got the story
- 0:57Speaker 1: behind it. Also, the one House working now with a
- 1:02Speaker 1: House GOP that has just launched a probe into the
- 1:05Speaker 1: alleged DC crime data manipulation lies from the Democrats claiming
- 1:12Speaker 1: that violent crime and crime in general is actually down
- 1:16Speaker 1: big time this year. Well, there's now an official probe
- 1:20Speaker 1: into it, and what they're fighting is truly shocking. And finally,
- 1:24Speaker 1: Democrats have now been exposed for packing swing states with
- 1:28Speaker 1: illegal immigrants. But before I get to that, I want
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- 3:49Speaker 1: it starts.
- 3:50Speaker 2: Right now, story number one.
- 3:52Speaker 1: You would think that companies would learn from the fiascos
- 3:57Speaker 1: and the disasters of woke ideology. A great example of
- 4:01Speaker 1: that is what happened with bud Light using a transgendered
- 4:05Speaker 1: person aka a dude acting like a chick to try
- 4:08Speaker 1: to promote their brand. We all know how that ended.
- 4:12Speaker 1: You would also think that CEOs in twenty twenty five
- 4:15Speaker 1: would understand that there's quite a few Americans out there
- 4:18Speaker 1: that just want brands to be normal and not push
- 4:22Speaker 1: in agenda, or if they have a core audience, don't
- 4:26Speaker 1: be ashamed of them and who they actually are. Well,
- 4:30Speaker 1: you would think that CEOs of companies would understand that
- 4:34Speaker 1: insert cracker barrel aiming to quote modernize. Under the new
- 4:39Speaker 1: CEO appointed in twenty twenty three, they decided it was
- 4:43Speaker 1: a good idea to trash an entire brand, but not
- 4:45Speaker 1: just the brand, actually trash the customers that have propped
- 4:50Speaker 1: up that brand for decades. They unveiled what they described
- 4:55Speaker 1: as a minimalist text only logo and upmitted the restaurant
- 4:59Speaker 1: de core, dropping the iconic image of uncle herschel, the
- 5:04Speaker 1: overalls clad man leaning on a barrel, and removing the
- 5:08Speaker 1: quote old country store from all of their branding. Yes,
- 5:13Speaker 1: it was a slap in the face or a middle finger,
- 5:16Speaker 1: however you want to describe it to the customers that
- 5:19Speaker 1: love Cracker Barrel Oil. Customers and branding critics then slammed
- 5:24Speaker 1: the changes, accusing the chain of abandoning not only its
- 5:28Speaker 1: nostalgic but also its Southern Country identity. The company's stock
- 5:36Speaker 1: tumbled by more than ten percent, in fact, to seventeen
- 5:40Speaker 1: percent if you look at the latest reports, and the
- 5:43Speaker 1: brand lost as much as one hundred million dollars in
- 5:46Speaker 1: its valuation. But apparently that wasn't enough for Cracker Barrel leaders.
- 5:52Speaker 1: They stuck to their plan day after day as it
- 5:56Speaker 1: continued to get out of control, and then when they
- 5:59Speaker 1: knew they had a road problem, they went on Good
- 6:01Speaker 1: Morning America. The Cracker Barrel CEO on the restaurant renovations
- 6:06Speaker 1: that had made everyone start talking about the brand. Here's
- 6:10Speaker 1: what she had to say when was asked about, Hey,
- 6:13Speaker 1: did you guys maybe make a mistake?
- 6:15Speaker 3: And I got ask this question, I think I'd probably
- 6:17Speaker 3: know to answer. What if all the customers are coming
- 6:22Speaker 3: at you hard enough about the look at a restaurant
- 6:24Speaker 3: and they want to go back to the old way.
- 6:26Speaker 2: Would you do it?
- 6:27Speaker 5: Honestly, the feedback's been overwhelmingly positive that people like what
- 6:30Speaker 5: we're doing. I'll give you another sound bite. I actually
- 6:33Speaker 5: happened to be in Orlando last week with all of
- 6:35Speaker 5: our managers. We bring them together and once every other year,
- 6:38Speaker 5: and the number one question that I got asked Michael
- 6:41Speaker 5: was how can I get a remodel? When can I
- 6:43Speaker 5: get a remodel? How do I get on the list?
- 6:45Speaker 5: Really so, because the feedback and the buzz is so good,
- 6:48Speaker 5: not only from our customers but from our team members.
- 6:51Speaker 5: They want to work in a wonderful restaurant. So we're
- 6:54Speaker 5: doing everything for our guests and our team members.
- 6:56Speaker 3: When Jula Messina, it's wonderful to have you here, pleasure
- 6:59Speaker 3: to be here, Thank you. I answer those questions for
- 7:01Speaker 3: all the Cracker Barrell fans out. There's a lot of
- 7:04Speaker 3: great changes.
- 7:04Speaker 5: Thank you so much.
- 7:05Speaker 1: A lot of great changes. Is how Good Morning America
- 7:08Speaker 1: put it? Well? That didn't go over well. Fast forward
- 7:11Speaker 1: to Monday and finally Cracker Barrel admitted defeat and there
- 7:15Speaker 1: woke CEO, realizing she had a very big problem on
- 7:19Speaker 1: her hands. Cracker Barrell acknowledged that it quote could have
- 7:22Speaker 1: done a better job of sharing who we are and
- 7:26Speaker 1: who will always be attempting to calm the furious customer base,
- 7:30Speaker 1: and had abandon the store. Their public communications team emphasized
- 7:35Speaker 1: that quote beloved elements like Uncle Herschel rocking chairs out front,
- 7:40Speaker 1: the classic decor would in fact remain in the stores.
- 7:45Speaker 1: And then there's the politics of this. Donald Trump weighed
- 7:49Speaker 1: in strongly saying quote Cracker Barrell should go back to
- 7:52Speaker 1: the old logo and made a mistake and manage the
- 7:55Speaker 1: company better than ever before. Hours later, the white out
- 8:00Speaker 1: via the pre Secretary of Caroline Levitt praise Cracker Barrell's
- 8:04Speaker 1: decision to revert, stating that Trump has unmatched business instincts
- 8:10Speaker 1: and that the brand made a great decision to trust
- 8:13Speaker 1: the President of the United States of America. By Tuesday evening,
- 8:18Speaker 1: Cracker Barrel had changed her tune even more. They announced
- 8:22Speaker 1: it would scrap the new logo entirely and revert to
- 8:26Speaker 1: the original old Timer design with Uncle Herschel and the
- 8:30Speaker 1: old Country store naming back. The company described the change
- 8:34Speaker 1: as listening quote to its customers and reaffirming the importance
- 8:38Speaker 1: of tradition, hospitality, and comfort. Now, Donald Trump's vocal criticism
- 8:45Speaker 1: and the public urging made a massive difference and aligned
- 8:50Speaker 1: with widespread customer outrage as well as the financial losses.
- 8:55Speaker 1: And then Cracker Barrew had to fully admit that the
- 8:57Speaker 1: rebrand was a mistake. Not only was a mistake because
- 9:01Speaker 1: they were ashamed of apparently their image, they were ashamed
- 9:05Speaker 1: of their customer base. They wanted to be new, trendy
- 9:08Speaker 1: and woke. Well now, Cracker Barrel said, after losing one
- 9:12Speaker 1: hundred million in their market cap, Okay, I guess we're
- 9:15Speaker 1: just gonna go back to how things were before. Remember,
- 9:19Speaker 1: nothing was actually broken. And this is the bigger question
- 9:22Speaker 1: that so many people should be asking, especially in the advertising,
- 9:28Speaker 1: marketing and the business brand world. Why on earth would
- 9:33Speaker 1: you try to take an iconic brand like Cracker Barrel
- 9:36Speaker 1: and change into something clearly that doesn't align with your customers.
- 9:41Speaker 1: It's an amazing brand, it's a business that people love
- 9:44Speaker 1: going into. The food is actually incredible, and the President
- 9:48Speaker 1: United States of America calling them out was a brilliant move.
- 9:52Speaker 1: By the way, he was also protecting so many of
- 9:54Speaker 1: the people that worked there and people that invested in
- 9:58Speaker 1: the business. Well done to the President of the United
- 10:01Speaker 1: States of America for doing this. It'll be very interesting
- 10:04Speaker 1: to see how long the leadership at Kracker Barrel will
- 10:07Speaker 1: still be employed after this nightmare and disaster.
- 10:11Speaker 2: Next story number two, there is.
- 10:13Speaker 1: A big story brewing and it involves the House GOP
- 10:17Speaker 1: launching a probe into alleged DC crime data manipulation. And
- 10:24Speaker 1: it's happening right before our very eyes. Yes, Democrats are
- 10:29Speaker 1: now being accused of covering and lawing claiming that crime
- 10:34Speaker 1: was dropping when in reality it was still extremely high.
- 10:38Speaker 1: And that is where you insert House Oversight Committee Chairman
- 10:41Speaker 1: James Comer. He has launched an investigation into President Trump's
- 10:46Speaker 1: allegations the DC crime data is being manipulated by local
- 10:51Speaker 1: police leadership. Now you may ask yourself this question, like
- 10:56Speaker 1: why do I care? Well, let me explain. The action
- 11:00Speaker 1: actually comes less than a week after the Justice Department
- 11:03Speaker 1: announced a federal probe into the statistics. That's a big deal.
- 11:08Speaker 1: The Trump administration is facing escalating pushback over the present's
- 11:12Speaker 1: decision to frame federal agents involved in DC as a
- 11:17Speaker 1: public safety issue when violent crime in the city. They're
- 11:20Speaker 1: now claiming, is that a quote thirty year low. The
- 11:24Speaker 1: problem is the citizens are saying that's a lie, and
- 11:28Speaker 1: now whistleblowers are coming forward. A whistle blower quote with
- 11:32Speaker 1: direct knowledge of internal MPD operations and crime data discussions,
- 11:39Speaker 1: also informed the committee the crime statistics were allegedly manipulated
- 11:44Speaker 1: on purpose, on a widespread basis, and at the direction
- 11:49Speaker 1: of senior MPD officials. That is what Comer wrote in
- 11:53Speaker 1: a letter to the Metropolitan Police Department's chief, Paulina Smith. Quote.
- 11:59Speaker 1: While mp he took action against the single district commander,
- 12:03Speaker 1: the issue potentially affects all seven patrol districts, as MPD
- 12:08Speaker 1: leadership allegedly instructed commanders to routinely downgrade the charges to
- 12:15Speaker 1: quote artificially label crime at a lower statistic. So you're
- 12:21Speaker 1: going to artificially lower crime the District of Columbia's crime stats,
- 12:26Speaker 1: so then you can then say it's safer, even though
- 12:29Speaker 1: it is actually not and it maybe is even more
- 12:32Speaker 1: dangerous than it was the last time you look. So
- 12:35Speaker 1: if you know that you do what they're doing, you
- 12:37Speaker 1: just do it. You just make it up as you go, right,
- 12:41Speaker 1: you say no, no, no, everything's great. Crimes down right,
- 12:44Speaker 1: crimes down, crimes down? Who could be against how great
- 12:49Speaker 1: things are now? Aka Donald Trump, we don't need you to
- 12:51Speaker 1: send in the National Guard.
- 12:53Speaker 5: Well.
- 12:54Speaker 1: Comber noted in his letter that the DC Police has
- 12:56Speaker 1: suspended a commander, Michael Pulled, for allegedly manipulating crime statistics
- 13:03Speaker 1: like I mentioned on purpose media accounts of the incident. Additionally,
- 13:08Speaker 1: note that the police union claims police supervisor in the
- 13:11Speaker 1: department in fact manipulated crime data to make it a peer.
- 13:15Speaker 1: Violent crime was fallen considerably compared to last year. Now,
- 13:20Speaker 1: his committee is requesting documents and transcribed interviews with the
- 13:24Speaker 1: commanders of each of the seven patrol districts in Washington,
- 13:27Speaker 1: d C. And then you have Donald Trump. He has
- 13:31Speaker 1: called the statistics released by the FBI quote fake to
- 13:35Speaker 1: justify federal intervention in DC and his plans to intervene
- 13:40Speaker 1: in other cities. The President has also said that he's
- 13:43Speaker 1: interested in using DC as a test for operations in
- 13:47Speaker 1: other cities, and on Sunday he even raised the ear
- 13:51Speaker 1: of Maryland's Governor Wes Moore when he threatened to send
- 13:54Speaker 1: troops to Baltimore. Now, Democratic leaders what they do well?
- 13:58Speaker 1: They lost their minds. They started picketing, they started screaming,
- 14:02Speaker 1: they started yelling, and what do they do well? They
- 14:05Speaker 1: were angry, Yes, they were angry that the president United
- 14:09Speaker 1: States America isn't buying into, as many would describe it,
- 14:13Speaker 1: business as usual. This is exactly why Donald Trump keeps
- 14:19Speaker 1: winning on the issues because he's not backing down.
- 14:22Speaker 2: And here his story. Number three.
- 14:24Speaker 1: The Biden administration, we're now learning, packed swing states with
- 14:28Speaker 1: over one million illegal aliens. Why solely for a power grab?
- 14:34Speaker 1: In just two years into his first term as president,
- 14:38Speaker 1: President Joe Biden's border policies helped welcome more than a
- 14:42Speaker 1: million illegal aliens to the nation's electoral swing states, and
- 14:46Speaker 1: additionally some four hundred and fifty thousand illegal aliens into
- 14:51Speaker 1: Texas alone. The latest Pew Research Center estimates specifically look
- 14:56Speaker 1: at the rate at which Biden increased the elegal alien
- 15:00Speaker 1: population in a two year window from twenty twenty one
- 15:04Speaker 1: to twenty twenty three. Notably, the Biden administration packed swing
- 15:08Speaker 1: states with more than a million illegal aliens during those
- 15:13Speaker 1: two years, with likely many more resettling in such states
- 15:18Speaker 1: from twenty three through twenty twenty four. In particular, the
- 15:23Speaker 1: swing state of Florida, so it's illegal alien population grow
- 15:28Speaker 1: by a staggering seven hundred thousand in just two years
- 15:32Speaker 1: under President Biden. Another example of just how much they
- 15:36Speaker 1: wanted to pack this country of the legal immigrants to
- 15:39Speaker 1: change the electoral map completely is Georgia. Georgia not even
- 15:45Speaker 1: close to the border with Mexico, well, their illegal alien
- 15:48Speaker 1: population grew by more than one hundred thousand. Pennsylvania and
- 15:53Speaker 1: Michigan each added at least eighty thousand legal aliens to
- 15:57Speaker 1: their resident populations in twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two.
- 16:02Speaker 1: North Carolina is another great example, as a swing state,
- 16:06Speaker 1: added one hundred thousand plus illegal aliens from twenty twenty
- 16:10Speaker 1: one in twenty twenty two, in Ohio adding almost seventy
- 16:14Speaker 1: five thousand more as well. Arizona added fifty thousand illegal
- 16:20Speaker 1: aliens in the two years of the first two years
- 16:23Speaker 1: of Biden administration. Nevada and Wisconsin each absorbed thirty thousand
- 16:29Speaker 1: illegal aliens during that first two years. Colorado, which is
- 16:33Speaker 1: rapidly turned blue in the last decade, saw more than
- 16:36Speaker 1: one illegal aliens added to its population in twenty twenty
- 16:39Speaker 1: one and twenty twenty two. If you look at the
- 16:42Speaker 1: total population of some of these states, this is a
- 16:44Speaker 1: massive increase. And then look at New Hampshire for example,
- 16:50Speaker 1: they have a population of one point four million. They
- 16:54Speaker 1: added more than ten thousand illegal aliens in the first
- 16:57Speaker 1: two years of the Biden administration. Now why is this
- 17:01Speaker 1: so significant. The Biden administration knew what they were doing,
- 17:05Speaker 1: and they knew they were overseeing a massive surge of
- 17:08Speaker 1: illegal aliens in non border states that would help them
- 17:12Speaker 1: when it came to redistricting and to how many representatives
- 17:16Speaker 1: different states receive based on population. They knew that illegal
- 17:21Speaker 1: immigrants are going to be counted in the census. And
- 17:23Speaker 1: that's exactly why when the bob wire was put down
- 17:26Speaker 1: at the southern border in Texas, Joe Biden sent in
- 17:30Speaker 1: what forkliffs to raise it up to allow more illegals
- 17:34Speaker 1: into the country. You'll look at illegal aliens in New Jersey,
- 17:38Speaker 1: for example, which election predators say could be taped over
- 17:42Speaker 1: the next ten years. In Texas, a GOP stronghold, the
- 17:46Speaker 1: Democrats have long sought to flip to their side. Texas alone,
- 17:50Speaker 1: during the first two years, the Biden administration absorbed about
- 17:53Speaker 1: a half a million illegal aliens in just the first
- 17:56Speaker 1: two years under Biden. Now, New Jersey saw a flex
- 18:00Speaker 1: of more than one hundred and fifty thousand illegal aliens
- 18:02Speaker 1: during that same period. The Pew Research Center estimates that
- 18:07Speaker 1: the illegal alien population also had a record in twenty
- 18:10Speaker 1: twenty three under Biden at more than fourteen million. Now, again,
- 18:14Speaker 1: this was in twenty twenty three. Scholarly estimates from years
- 18:20Speaker 1: prior suggest the illegal alien population today in twenty twenty
- 18:24Speaker 1: five is well above twenty two million, which brings us
- 18:30Speaker 1: back to reality. Why is Donald Trump doing so much
- 18:33Speaker 1: to secure the border, and why is Donald Trump doing
- 18:36Speaker 1: so much to make sure the census doesn't count illegal aliens?
- 18:38Speaker 1: And why is Donald Trump doing so much to make
- 18:42Speaker 1: sure that illegal immigrants are not given the right to
- 18:45Speaker 1: vote so that they alter and change our elections, Because
- 18:49Speaker 1: he understands what the Biden administration was trying to do.
- 18:53Speaker 1: They were trying to pack swing states with well over
- 18:57Speaker 1: a million illegal aliens from day one of the by
- 19:00Speaker 1: administration within the first two years. And what happened after
- 19:03Speaker 1: we had an open border policy during those first two years,
- 19:07Speaker 1: they then rolled out the red carpet for illegal aliens.
- 19:10Speaker 1: They started giving them hotel rooms and credit cards and
- 19:13Speaker 1: sell phones and food. They started giving them everything to
- 19:18Speaker 1: entice them to flood America. Then you may ask yourself
- 19:22Speaker 1: this question, why do we not have the numbers after
- 19:26Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, because there's so many people who are
- 19:29Speaker 1: trying to count. There are so many illegal immigrants there.
- 19:32Speaker 1: And this goes back to what Donald Trump has been
- 19:34Speaker 1: saying since the very beginning. If you don't have a
- 19:39Speaker 1: secure border, you don't have a country. And now we
- 19:44Speaker 1: understand the plan the Biden administration said, Let's pack the
- 19:47Speaker 1: Swing States, just like we want to pack the Supreme Court,
- 19:51Speaker 1: and then we'll give them amnesty and they'll vote for
- 19:54Speaker 1: US forever. And that's exactly why Donald Trump is fighting
- 19:57Speaker 1: it so hard right now.
- 19:59Speaker 4: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
- 20:02Speaker 4: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
- 20:06Speaker 4: you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
- 20:09Speaker 4: in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
- 20:13Speaker 4: and we will see you back here on Monday morning