(Headline USA) A Minnesota business owner slammed Gov. Tim Walz for “decimating” her bar and several other local businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lisa Zarza, 52, operated Alibi Drinkery, as well as Froggy Bottoms River Pub and Lily PADio, when Walz issued stringent shelter-in-place orders for all residents.
At first, Zarza “did everything I was supposed to do,” she said: “I wore my mask. I social distanced. I stayed at home.”
But months went by, and even as Walz gradually loosened restrictions, he refused to let bars and restaurants reopen for in-person dining until May 2021.
Zarza and several other business owners decided to reopen anyway in October 2020.
“I stood up because he stripped us of our rights,” she told the New York Post.
“It was a discrimination against certain groups of people and we were one of them,” she added. “He didn’t have a right to do what he did to us.
She noted a clear double-standard applied when it came to small businesses versus large corporations, even though the risk was the same.
“Everything else, literally Target, Walmart, Home Depot—everyone was open 100%,” Zarza said. “The same exact order that shut us down, opened them all up.”
But Walz’s administration hit back at the restaurant owners, threatening them with crippling fines and revoking their liquor licenses.
“I was threatened with arrests, I was threatened with fines,” Zarza said.
“At the end of the entire lawsuit, my lawsuit including Attorney General fees was over $300,000,” she added. “I filed personal bankruptcy.”
When she heard Vice President Kamala Harris had selected Walz to be her running mate, “I almost dropped to my knees and I was sick,” Zarza said.
“I was literally sick to my stomach,” she continued. “Everything that he did to our state came back. I rode an hour to work and cried the whole way.”
The pub owner argued Harris “made a big mistake” picking Walz as her vice president.
“She thought she was getting some Podunk freaking farmer. She didn’t,” Zarza said. “I think he’s an evil man who overstepped his role as the governor. He took small businesses and ripped them up. He destroyed us.”
Zarza added, “We don’t want him running our country. Good god.”
