Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ response to Bud Light row is a toe-curling embarrassment
Sarah Huckabee Sanders releases line of beer koozies featuring ‘real women’ in politics. (Sarah Huckabee Sanders/SarahForGovernor.com)
The Republican governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, has released a line of “real women” drink coolers in yet another bizarre example of the transphobic backlash against trans TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney’s partnership with Bud Light.
Sanders, who served as the White House press secretary while Donald Trump was president, released the line of beer “koozies” with female Republican governors printed on them, tweeting out an advert with the message, “real women don’t have to fake it”.
The ad is packed full of transphobic dogwhistles and anti-trans rhetoric.
“Big companies can’t tell the difference between real and fake anymore,” the advert said. “We will know the difference.”
The video claimed that the beer coolers would help Republicans “salute the real women of politics” while “covering up the label of a big woke company”.
The advert was predictably mocked on Twitter, with one commenter saying: “It is not – and I mean not – an SNL sketch, even though every fibre of your being will scream at you that it is.”
Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ beer koozie advert criticising “woke” beer brands could be taken as a swipe at Bud Light, who have been relentlessly slammed for sending Mulvaney a personalised can of beer.
Since the influencer posted a video collaborating with Bud Light in early April, anti-trans bigots have targeted the beer company with bomb threats, vowed to boycott the brand, destroyed shelves of cans and, in the case of Kid Rock, have even shot at cases of the drink.
One ‘conservative dad’ even released his own “woke-free” beer, although he’s reportedly having trouble getting anyone to agree to make it.
Mulvaney was also targeted with hate for her partnership with Nike, after sharing a paid post on Instagram featuring photos of herself wearing the brand’s leggings and sports bra.
In a press briefing on 20 April), White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned the violent backlash to the brand using a trans influencer.
“When a transgender American posts a video about a brand of beer they enjoy and it leads to bomb threats, it’s clear that the level of violence and vitriol against transgender Americans has to stop,” she said.
