Strict COVID crackdowns and reluctance to take action against perpetrators during the 2020 Minnesota riots has landed vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz in the hot seat with former small business owners in his state.
Former bar owner Lisa Zarza told "Fox & Friends First" on Tuesday that the Democratic governor's strict COVID lockdowns forced her into bankruptcy after she defied his orders.
"They took my food service license, essentially, and they suspended my food license, and then they revoked my right to have a food license in the state," she said.
"They revoked my right to have a liquor license in my state for five years, which was later overruled, but I lost two restaurants because of it. I lost two different restaurants because of it, and, I was fined over $300,000 for it."
Zarza now operates a bar in Wisconsin, and she insists that Walz is a danger to small businesses like her own.
She referred to the Harris vice presidential pick as "evil" in a recent New York Post article, a descriptor she doubled down on when asked about it during Tuesday's broadcast.
"I definitely think that Tim Walz is evil. He closed down our state not one time, but two times. In November of 2020, he decided that all bars and restaurants in our state needed to close down, and he opened up all big stores… Target, Walmart, Fleet Farm – they were all opened up 100% a week before Black Friday. He was looking out for the big people. He wasn't looking out for the small businesses of Minnesota."
"He talks about being so small-minded for small businesses. That's not who this man is," she added.
Former Minnesota bar owner Bill Hupp also criticized Walz on "The Big Money Show," Monday, for "neglecting the people he was supposed to represent" after his family-owned business was torched by rioters in 2020.
"It was a turbulent time…. and we had total lack of leadership beginning with Tim Walz and even the mayor. It was terrible," he said.
"We were left helpless without our police, our safety structure, the firefighters and the folks that would actually be out there to help control that kind of chaos, and, it was actually a terrible, terrible, environment."
Hupp said over 300 rioters "completely surrounded" his business building as he, along with his son and his son's friends, tried to board up before leaving.
Rioters allegedly threw frozen water bottles at Hupp and the others and set the store aflame with Molotov cocktails, leaving charred brick walls in their wake, according to The New York Post.
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Hupp told "The Big Money Show" co-host Brian Brenberg the current business climate in Minnesota leaves much to be desired.
"It's like a Third World country. It's absolutely terrible. The leadership is completely absent," he said.
"Walz is supposed to be a so-called veteran. That's not a veteran. Anyone that's absent without leave there when all the worst times that we needed somebody to help out, he was gone [and] the mayor was gone. Nobody to call."
