Lululemon CEO responds to viral story about store employees fired for confronting thieves — then doubles down



Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald is defending his company's decision to fire two employees who intercepted thieves.

What is the background?

Last month, two Lululemon employees — Jennifer Ferguson and Rachel Rogers — were fired for confronting three thieves who stole thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from the athletic wear retail store's Peachtree Corners location in Georgia.

The employees said they were given little explanation for their termination, other than for violating a zero-tolerance policy for confronting store thieves.

Lululemon later confirmed this. A representative for the company told TheBlaze that Ferguson and Rogers were fired for "knowingly violating our zero-tolerance policy related to physically engaging with the perpetrators which put their lives and the safety of our guests and other employees at risk."

Thanks to their actions, police apprehended the thieves, WXIA-TV reported, and they are facing felony robbery charges.

What did McDonald say?

Speaking on CNBC, McDonald justified firing the employees, whom Lululemon call "educators."

"We have a zero-tolerance policy that we train our educators on around engaging during a theft," McDonald said. "Why? Because we put the safety of our team [and] of our guests front and center."

According to McDonald, company policy directs Lululemon employees to allow thieves to steal at will.

"It's only merchandise at the end; [employees are] trained to step back, let the theft occur, know that there’s technology and cameras, and we're working with law enforcement," he explained.

"Unfortunately, in this situation the educators knowingly broke the policy, engaged with the thieves across multiple points — including following them out of the store — so post investigation and the zero-tolerance policy, which is well-known, that was what resulted in the termination," he added.

\u201c"The [employees] knowingly broke the policy, engaged with the thieves...that was what resulted in the termination."\n\nLululemon CEO Calvin McDonald on backlash after firing staff who intervened in store robbery.\n\n@CNBC @SaraEisen $LULU\u201d
— Squawk on the Street (@Squawk on the Street) 1685720673
McDonald also dispelled the claim that the employees were fired because they called police.
Just as Lululemon told TheBlaze, McDonald told CNBC that employees are permitted to call police — just not intervene to stop crimes in progress.

"Just to be clear, our educators are able to call the police," he said. "We train them to step back. It's about their safety, and we take that policy seriously because we've had instances, and we have seen in other retailers instances where employees step in and are hurt or, worse, killed.

"The policy is to protect them, but we have to stand behind the policy, to enforce it, and that was unfortunately the situation in this store," he explained.

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Dr. Scott Gottlieb responds to accusation that he asked Twitter to ban Alex Berenson for dissenting on vaccine efficacy



Dr. Scott Gottlieb responded Friday to an accusation that he colluded with social media companies to shut down dissent about the pandemic and the efficacy of the vaccines.

Gottlieb is a Pfizer board member and a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. On Thursday, former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson accused Gottlieb of a "secret months-long conspiracy" to shut him down and rob him of his free speech rights.

"They wanted Twitter, the most important global platform for journalism, to ban me, even though Twitter had repeatedly found my posts did not violate its rules," Berenson alleged. "They wanted to soil my reputation as a reporter and damage me and my family financially."

Berenson said he was going to file a lawsuit against Gottlieb.

On Friday, Gottlieb responded during an interview with CNBC, but said he would not answer to the specific allegation since a lawsuit was pending.

"This is kind of a convoluted conspiracy theory that somehow, you told Twitter to get rid of him because he was asking too many questions about the efficacy and safety of the COVID vaccine. Do you want to respond to that and tell us your side?" asked "'Squawk Box" host Joe Kernen.

"I've raised concerns about social media broadly, and I've done it on these networks around the threats that were being made on these platforms and the inability of these platforms to police direct threats, physical threats about people," Gottlieb explained.

"That's my concerns around social media and what's going on in that ecosystem," he added.

Kernen went on to detail his own experience with the virus and how vaccines kept him from getting severely sick.

"I'm unconcerned about debate," Gottlieb continued. "I'm unconcerned about debate taking place in platforms, I'm very concerned when physical threats are being made, physical threats against people's safety. I'm very concerned about physical threats against people's safety and the people who gin up those threats against individuals, that concerns me."

Gottlieb reiterated the point on his Twitter account.

"Respectful debate and dialogue is one thing, and should be encouraged and protected. But there's no place for targeted harassment, and misleading dialogue which can instigate a small but persuadable group of people to make targeted and dangerous threats," he tweeted.

Berenson said he has sent legal "demand" letters to Gottlieb and Pfizer, and says he has grounds to use them on the basis of a conspiracy to interfere with his civil rights.

Here's the video of Gottlieb's response:

\u201c"I've raised concerns about social media and the threats that are being made on these platforms," says @ScottGottliebMD on Alex Berenson being kicked off Twitter. "I'm unconcerned about debate being made. I'm concerned about physical threats being made for people's safety."\u201d
— Squawk Box (@Squawk Box) 1665754119

CNBC editor tears into Biden over new sky-high inflation numbers: 'Maybe things would have turned out a bit different'



CNBC on-air editor Rick Santelli reacted in live time Friday as abysmal new inflation numbers dropped, blasting the Biden administration for its hostile energy policies.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed Friday the consumer price index jumped 1% from April, climbing to a year-over-year spike of 8.6%, the highest rate in more than 40 years.

What did Santelli say?

Santelli was speaking live on "Squawk Box" when the CPI data for May was published. After reading off the alarming numbers, Santelli unloaded on President Joe Biden.

"I will say that out of all of the above, energy, energy, energy," Santelli began.

"You know, there are so many comments here about, 'Oh, the administration can only do so much,'" he continued. "You know what? We all said that about the Fed. And then there's this thing called 'forward guidance.' So the Fed gets the market to do things long before it takes action by telling [people] what's in their head what lies down the road."

Inversely, Santelli said the "forward guidance" from Biden has been to demonize the oil and gas industry.

“What was the forward guidance with this administration on energy? We know the answer," he said. "Maybe they can’t get things to happen faster, but by giving positive forward guidance, by not closing pipelines, by not talking pre-election about how much they don’t like fossil fuel, maybe things would have turned out a bit different."

\u201cBREAKING: Consumer prices rise by 8.6%. #Inflation hits the highest level since 1981.\u201d
— Squawk Box (@Squawk Box) 1654864443

What is Biden saying?

The president addressed the ongoing inflation problem Friday by once again turning to his trite scapegoats: Russian President Vladimir Putin and the oil industry.

"Putin’s Price Hike hit hard in May here and around the world: high gas prices at the pump, energy, and food prices accounted for around half of the monthly price increases, and gas pump prices are up by $2 a gallon in many places since Russian troops began to threaten Ukraine," Biden said in a statement.

The reality, however, is that gas prices have more than doubled since Biden took office last year. The average price of gas was $2.39 per gallon on Jan. 20, 2021. Today, the average price hit $4.99 per gallon, an all-time record.

Meanwhile, Biden also said, "[I]t is also important that the oil and gas and refining industries in this country not use the challenge created by the war in Ukraine as a reason to make things worse for families with excessive profit taking or price hikes."

But that is not true. While the Biden administration has repeatedly tried to blame oil companies for price gouging, economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas made it clear that oil companies are not responsible for gas prices.

"Since only 1 percent of service stations in the U.S. are owned by companies that also produce oil, U.S. oil producers are in no position to control retail gasoline prices," the economists wrote last month.

Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter outright for whopping $43 billion price tag, says company needs to be transformed into platform that respects free speech



Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX CEO, has offered to buy all of Twitter for $43 billion, according to a Thursday morning Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The news comes just days after Musk declined to join the company's board of directors after having purchased a 9% stake in the company.

What are the details?

Musk on Thursday announced that he would be willing to pay $54.20 per share — a 54% premium over the stock's price prior to Musk's acquisition of his stake in the company.

Musk in a statement said that he believes the social media company has incredible potential — which he believes he can unlock as its sole, private owner.

"I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy," Musk wrote in a letter included in the SEC filing.

"As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced," he continued. "My offer is my best and final offer, and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder."

"Twitter," he added, "has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it."

I made an offer \nhttps://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001418091/000110465922045641/tm2212748d1_sc13da.htm\u00a0\u2026
— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1649935401

What has the company said?

Twitter said that it would "carefully review the proposal" in response to Musk's bid.

"The Twitter Board of Directors will carefully review the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company and all Twitter stockholders," the company said in a statement on the move.

Following the announcement, Thursday's pre-market trading of Twitter stock was up approximately 11%.

Anything else?

Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives told CNBC on Thursday morning that he believes there is little chance that Twitter would reject Musk's offer.

"This puts Twitter’s back against the wall ... there’s really no way that Twitter in my opinion could reject this," he said.

"This puts Twitter's back against the wall ... there's really no way that Twitter in my opinion could reject this," says @DivesTech on @elonmusk's offer to buy $TWTR.pic.twitter.com/jTOL8h4Cbx
— Squawk Box (@Squawk Box) 1649932566

Fauci describes the word 'mandates' as 'radioactive,' but says people seem to react better to 'requirements'



During an interview on CNBC, chief medical advisor to the president Dr. Anthony Fauci described the term "mandates" as "a radioactive word," but noted, "requirements, people seem to respond better to that."

The public health figure said that "we're never gonna get outta this outbreak if we still have 50 million people who for reasons that are still very, very difficult to understand, refuse to get vaccinated when you have a virus that's killed 800,000 Americans ... So if people still do not wanna get vaccinated sometimes you have to, for the common good, make requirements."

"Mandates-that's a radioactive word. Requirements people seem to respond better to that. They work," says Dr. Fauci. "We are never going to get out of this outbreak if we still have 50 million people who for reasons that are very difficult to understand refuse to get vaccinated."pic.twitter.com/4378v2pzNe
— Squawk Box (@Squawk Box) 1639742770

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 65.2% of the U.S. population consisting of people ages 5 and above has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 77.1% of that demographic has received at least one dose.

While the current definition of full vaccination involves receiving two shots of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Fauci says that people should get a booster in order to achieve the best protection.

"But there's no doubt that optimum vaccination is with a booster. I mean there is no doubt about that. Whether or not the CDC is gonna change that, it certainly is on the table and open for discussion. I'm not sure exactly when that will happen," he said.

"There is no doubt that if you want to be optimally protected you should get your booster," says Dr. Anthony Fauci on what is considered as "fully vaccinated." "Whether or not the CDC is going to change that--it is certainly on the table and open for discussion."pic.twitter.com/yqRrRMnYN0
— Squawk Box (@Squawk Box) 1639740493

The CDC on Thursday endorsed the recommendation of an advisory panel that had voted unanimously to recommend mRNA COVID-19 vaccines as the "preferred" option compared to the Janssen vaccine.

"Today, CDC is endorsing updated recommendations made by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the prevention of COVID-19, expressing a clinical preference for individuals to receive an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine over Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine," the CDC noted on Thursday.

Fauci, who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for more than three decades, has been a prominent and polarizing figure throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

During an interview on MSNBC earlier this month, Fauci said that while it would be preferable for people to get vaccinated voluntarily, if they are not willing to do so, "sometimes you've gotta do things that are unpopular but that clearly supersede individual choices and are directed predominantly at the communal good."

Vaccine mandates imposed by governments and by private sector businesses have proven to be highly controversial throughout the pandemic, with some Americans decrying them as infringements on individual liberty.