Dinesh D'Souza Says Costco's Decision to Pull His Book From Stores Was Political
Author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza believes Costco's decision to pull his book, America: Imagine the World Without Her, from store shelves on July 1 was a political reaction carried out on the eve of the opening of his latest film.
In a statement released Tuesday, Costco said its initial decision to pull D'Souza's book from store shelves was not based on politics, but was purely due to lagging sales. The retailer later reversed its decision and announced that copies will be available in its stores for purchase in the coming weeks.
Reacting to the news, D'Souza told Fox News' Sean Hannity Tuesday night that Costco's claim that it pulled his book from store shelves due to slow sales is "very bizarre behavior."
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"The book came out about three weeks ago. About a week ago it surpassed Hillary's book on Amazon. It's actually No. 1 on Amazon's best sellers' list," D'Souza explained. "So, the sales of the book have been strong."
D'Souza added that the book is a companion to his docudrama by the same name, which opened this month in 1,100 theatres around the country. "The book is a companion for the film. And so, right on the eve of that, Costco executives issue the edict: pull every book from the Costco shelves."
He continued: "This is absolutely unprecedented, and the idea that it's based upon low sales is preposterous. Costco features hundreds of books; they even have book signings for people whose books are No. 10,000, No. 85,000 on the Amazon list. This is a clearly a political decision that they made. I think it's because of their alliance with the Obama administration and now they're feeling the heat, so they're trying to figure out how to wiggle out of it."
According to Hannity, the Federal Election Commission's campaign finance disclosure shows that Costco's former CEO donated $100,000 to Obama's campaign in 2012; and from 2008 to 2012, Costco employees donated $203,441 to the president.
"The CEO might like Obama, Obama might like the company and the top executives may donate to Obama. But still, Costco could realize they're a national chain that has customers all across the political spectrum [and say,] we're not going to let that kind of politics interfere in the way we organize our business," said D'Souza, who announced that his latest film is listed among the top 10 political documentaries of all time.
The Left, D'Souza commented, is terrified about the book because "the book and film have the capacity to inspire in people a love for America that the Left has been trying to undermine though the curriculum and through its anti-American attacks."
"I think what's interesting here is that the Left in this country has so much intolerance that they not only go after me through the courts, but they also figure out, let's try to ruin this guy's livelihood. Let's try to make sure people don't see his film; let's try to make sure they don't buy his books. And the Left is willing to wage that kind of a scorched earth campaign through a company like Costco," he added.
"Costco decided to order the books, so somebody else went to them and said, 'Why do you have D'Souza's book? Don't you know he's an antagonist of Obama?' And then the Costco guys decided to pull the book."
