Celebrity chef Andrew Gruel slammed the hypocrisy of “posturing” government leaders targeting small business owners across the nation with coronavirus restrictions.
Gruel, who has worked hard to keep diners safe at his Los Angeles eateries as Gov. Gavin Newsom continues to impose stricter orders to stem the spread of the virus, spoke with Fox News host Tucker Carlson Friday about the current state of the restaurant industry in America.
“For the rest of this show, because this is no longer an academic exercise, we’re going to be taking a look at what this country might become if Democrats were to take complete control of the government,” Carlson said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” referring to the Senate runoff elections in Georgia set for January 5.
“Already the Democratic Party has promised more lockdowns and a national mask mandate. How much more of this can small businesses — independent businesses, the backbone of this country — how much more of it can they take?” Carlson continued before playing Gruel’s video message from last week in which he set California’s Democrat governor and other leaders straight.
(Source: Fox News)
Gruel fired back at “all the haters” who have attacked him for defying the state’s strict COVID-19 orders in a video posted earlier this month. The Slapfish Seafood owner came to his own defense after being called a “grandmother killer,” explaining why he is is “not an a**hole” for choosing to keep outdoor dining open despite orders by Democrat leaders in the state.
‘I’m not the a-hole!’ Celeb chef who’s bucking COVID restrictions has a message for ‘haters’ – and Gov Newsom https://t.co/IOx02bsXxk pic.twitter.com/evFCB4nsbb
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) December 4, 2020
“You’ve clearly thought about this a lot because it affects your life and the life of your family,” Carlson said to Gruel.
“The authorities have decided it is not dangerous for us to go into Walmart, a massive retailer for China and stand in an enclosed space with thousands of other people that it is very dangerous to eat an appetizer outside. Where are they getting this idea? On the basis of what science” he asked the chef.
“Well, there is no science, there is no data, and obviously that has been reflected in some of the recent rulings, but still they are obviously superseded by even larger rulings,” Gruel replied.
“What this is driven by is it’s driven by a special interest campaign whereby selective industries can continue to operate at the expense of small businesses in America,” he added.
“The bigger story beyond hypocrisy is the bad policy, the rubric by which they are kind of locking us down. Look, we’ve got employees, team members, myself and family, all we want to do is work, right? I appreciate all the attention that my viral rant has gotten me and all the retreats if you will,” Gruel continued.
“But at the end of the day, it’s not just the pandemic that is unfortunately hurting people but we’ve also got hundreds of thousands of businesses being destroyed, and where is our relief?” he asked.
Carlson noted that, in interviewing many restaurant owners in the past few months, he is struck by “how much smarter and deeper they are, how much more deeply they’ve thought about the world.”
The Fox News host added that “it makes me even sadder than your entire sector of the economy is being destroyed.”
“Do you think there’s some reason they are targeting you?” he asked.
“We are the low-lying fruit, there’s a lot of posturing going on right now,” Gruel responded.
“In the absence of a complete and utter shut down — which they themselves aren’t going to want to abide by — so why would we do that? And they’re picking selectively these industries,” he added.
“We’re not dumb, and these decisions are relatively smug, right? They think we can just normalize their hypocrisy but when I can go into Costco, I can buy a piece of pizza and then I can walk through Costco eating the pizza without a mask on, indoors, while people are literally breathing on my neck, but I can’t sit outside and maybe have dinner with friends or family – that’s a more dangerous situation,” Gruel noted.
“If people are going to dine out and eat outdoors, then they’re going to be eating indoors and according to their own science and data, that’s worse,” Gruel concluded.
“If they can make you do something that unreasonable,” Carlson wondered, “what can’t they make you do?”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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