SHARK TANK’s Kevin O’Leary Calls Out CA Government Double Standard COVID Rules

SHARK TANK’s Kevin O’Leary Calls Out CA Government Double Standard COVID Rules

By Movieguide® Staff

Esteemed SHARK TANK investor Kevin O’Leary called out California’s government for its overstepping restrictions and lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

O’Leary, also known as “Mr. Wonderful” on the show, is invested in Los Angeles’s food services. The investor questioned Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to close restaurants once again.

“I have a very simple question,” O’Leary said on CNBC. “How is it possible — when I’ve spent $60-80,000 on the back of the restaurant and on the front of the restaurant to provide the seats and the heaters and complied with the city ordinance and was just about to re-open … I’m shut down?

“And right across the street is a big-box retailer with food services, vending machines and open service courts providing food inside of a big box, walls around it,” O’Leary continued. “So you’re telling me the viral load in the outside of my restaurant is higher than the viral load inside of the big box, which is enclosed? That’s ridiculous.”

O’Leary also said that there is “no science claim” to support the closures and called the restrictions “totally unfair.”

O’Leary also argued that the country’s continually changing restrictions are “chaos” for business owners, operators and investors.

O’Leary’s comments are backed up by restaurant owners in L.A., who are unhappy with Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, also a Democrat, for their double standards.

Pineapple Hill Grill and Saloon owner Angela Marsden called out the harmful effects of the lockdown.

Marsden claimed that while the government has mandated she can’t serve guests in her restaurant, just next door there is an outdoor dining area set up for a TV production crew. The mayor has approved the adjacent outdoor eating space because he deemed entertainment workers as “essential.”

“I’m losing everything,” Marsden said. “Everything I own is being taken away from me and they set up a movie company right next door to my outdoor patio, which is right over here. And people wonder why I’m protesting and why I have had enough.”

"There's no science claim on this–how can outside be less safe than inside," says @kevinolearytv on lockdowns in Los Angeles. "This is totally unfair." pic.twitter.com/GNCwqth3rO

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) December 7, 2020