Elon Musk cheers Barstool Sports' Dave Portnoy after passionate call to reopen: 'Please run for office'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tech billionaire Elon Musk urged Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy to seek election Thursday night in response to a coronavirus video rant the latter posted on Twitter a day earlier.
“Well said,” Musk replied. “Please run for office. The politicians & unelected bureaucrats who stole our liberty should be tarred, feathered & thrown out of town!”
Portnoy’s profanity-laced rant raised the question of how long Americans can afford to have the economy shut down by government COVID-19 policies.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Emergency Press Conference - When Did Flattening The Curve Turn Into Finding The Cure,” Portnoy’s video caption reads.
“I would rather die of corona... or take my chances... I don’t want to start over,” he said in the video. “There are no great options but you can’t just decimate the entire economy.”
Coronavirus-related shutdowns have wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy, with the unemployment rate soaring to levels not seen since the Great Depression and about 30 million Americans out of work.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Musk has also been vocally critical of shutdown policies recently, reopening Tesla’s California plant in defiance of local restrictions there on Monday.
“Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules,” Musk tweeted Monday. “I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”
Officials backed off Wednesday and announced that the move would be OK, as long as the company follows worker safety precautions it had already agreed to. Those measures include having employees wear gloves and masks and installing barriers between work stations. The company has also reportedly agreed to check workers’ temperatures before they enter the facility.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ELON MUSK'S VICTORY IN FIGHT TO REOPEN TESLA FACTORY AN 'INSPIRATION': TAMMY BRUCE
Musk, whose company sued Alameda County to try and overturn the order, also threatened to move Tesla’s facility out of the state.
There were more than 1.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States as of Thursday evening and over 85,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News’ Frank Miles and The Associated Press contributed to this report.