'America Reports' panelists Taylor Riggs and Jackie DeAngelis discuss the controversy surrounding the iconic motorcycle company and the importance of political neutrality in businesses. The Harley-Davidson motorcycle brand and business model are being "attacked" from within, social-media influencer Robby Starbuck suggested in a new post on X. He cited the words of the company's own CEO, Jochen Zeitz, who's been accused of going woke as he oversees the iconic brand.
The German-born Zeitz took over as CEO in May 2020. "Imagine standing in front of CEOs of luxury brands that now think you are the ‘sustainable Taliban,’ as somebody once called me," Zeitz said in a speech at the Zermatt Summit in Switzerland in 2020, referencing his time as board member of Kiering, parent company of Gucci, Puma and Stella McCartney. HARLEY-DAVIDSON ‘USED’ BIKERS BEFORE ‘WOKE’ CONTROVERSY, FORMER OUTLAW RIDER CLAIMS A few minutes later in the same speech, Zeitz referenced the terror group again, as shown in the video that Starbuck shared this week.
"Of course, Harley’s all about the sound and the smell of the Harley-Davidson, isn’t it?" Zeitz said to attendees at the chic Swiss conference. A red, white and blue Harley-Davidson motorcycle in Chicago, Illinois. (Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) "So I became the Taliban again in a sustainable way," Zeitz said in the video, as he's shown smiling and walking back and forth on stage and referencing Harl.