Kevin O'Leary, a star of the TV show "Shark Tank" and a multimillionaire Canadian businessman, ripped into U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Friday, saying her opposition to Amazon building a regional headquarters in New York City cost the city thousands of jobs.
O'Leary and "CNN This Morning" co-hosts Kaitlan Collins, Poppy Harlow and Don Lemon were discussing why New York state is not a prime market for investments. O'Leary said it's more than just the state's high tax rate.
"The regulatory environment is punitive," O'Leary, known as "Mr. Wonderful," said. "I had a project in upstate New York behind the grid in Niagara Falls for electricity, a global data center we were building. Eventually, it got so bad with the politicians in the local region and the state policy, we moved it to Norway, and all the jobs. Norway has it now. Thousands of jobs coming out of that. That's New York. Uninvestable. Sorry, don't shoot the messenger. Just telling you the way it is."
Collins said, "We hear some pushback from elected officials on that," and Harlow added, "I was just going to say [Gov.] Kathy Hochul."
"I will debate them anytime of the day you want, particularly AOC," O'Leary said, referring to Ocasio-Cortez. "She is great at killing jobs. She kills jobs by the thousands. … Where did Amazon take their jobs? They took them away from her. She threatened to sue them if they created jobs. This is a reality that …"
Harlow interrupted, saying, "There is a little more to it, but let's not re-litigate that."
"Well, I'm sorry, just telling the truth," O'Leary said.
Lemon said, "He's saying what a lot of people are saying, especially about that Amazon thing here in New York."
Newsmax reached out to Ocasio-Cortez for comment.
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