Fox News has long exhibited a cavalier attitude about workers' safety and economic concerns in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Fox Business host slams COVID-19 restaurant restrictions on outdoor dining: “It’s not even the people who eat there, it’s the employees” who are at risk
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From the December 9, 2020, edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): And now a minor victory yesterday, hopefully it's the beginning of major victories. You had a judge, in a 73-page ruling, decide that there's no science behind the shutdown of outdoor dining and gyms. He said this: “The restaurant closure order is an abuse of the department's emergency powers. It's not grounded in science, evidence, or logic. It should be adjudicated to be unenforceable as a matter of law.” Tens of thousands of businesses shut down, 500,000 could be shut down if they have to take another pause. Charles, what does this mean in the big picture?
CHARLES PAYNE (FOX BUSINESS HOST): Five hundred thousand are right now what they call in economic free fall. That's according to the National Restaurant Association, they put this out on Monday: 110,000 already permanently out of business, that's 17%. We're talking about millions of human beings, lives, dreams that are completely crushed. Why? Because restaurants apparently, I think it's 3.1% of nonresidential spread, or -- and most of that, by the way, aren't even these kind of restaurants you're talking about, those are like chain restaurants. And it's not even the people who eat there, it's the employees.
This is so nonsensical, it's so nonscientific. It is a complete abuse of power that we've seen across this country from local and state elected officials. They are punching us -- they're just powering us down. You remember when Mike Bloomberg wanted us to have smaller Slurpee cups? You know, their inner Bloomberg has come out. They're going to make us live the life they want us to live, and they're going to make sure we do it whether it's constitutional or not, whether it's scientific or not, and I'm glad this judge did this rebuke -- 73 pages. This wasn't a flippant opinion. He put a lot of thought into it, and what he said is echoed by millions of people around America -- particularly these small businesses, which are being crushed for no real good reason.