'They're Attacks On The American People': Andy Beshear Shreds Tariffs, Says Kentucky Is Hit Hardest

During a press briefing on Thursday, Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) answered a question about tariffs.

Transcript

00:00All right. Isaiah Kim Martinez.

00:04Thank you, Governor. I just had a quick question about bourbon.

00:07I believe we've seen Bullitt, as well as Wild Turkey, report seven to eight percentage sales decline.

00:16We've seen some other distilleries file for bankruptcy, some citing the trade policies that are happening.

00:23Can you speak? I mean, are we reading into a bigger issue here? Could you speak on that?

00:27Oh, there's no question that the federal tariff policy is hitting bourbon and hitting it hard.

00:34That's everything from the current relationship with Canada, where they have been insulted,

00:42where they've been told that they shouldn't be their own country,

00:45and they've responded by pushing more towards Canadian products and buying less American products.

00:51Now, I will say we are the only state that I know of that has a Democratic governor and two Republican senators

00:57that are all speaking out against tariffs.

01:00And I'd like to think that if this Democratic governor and Senator Paul and Senator McConnell

01:05all say they're attacks on the American people, it's because they're attacks on the American people.

01:10We're not always on the same page, but we all are singing from the same hymnal here.

01:15And it's definitely hurting bourbon.

01:17Now, bourbon might have had some corrections that were going to happen with supply,

01:21but when you see what's happening in Canada and the EU and other places, we know it's the tariffs.

01:27Last time, over $100 million plus in sales were lost during the first Trump administration with tariffs.

01:36They're set to hit Kentucky and hit us hardest because of the amount that we import

01:41and the number of products we export.

01:43That big, ugly bill and the Medicaid cuts are also set to hit us hardest.

01:47And so it hurts that a state that went for this administration by plus 30

01:52is bearing the brunt of its policies the most.