Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary slams Ocasio-Cortez: ‘She’s killing jobs by the thousands’

Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary accused Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) of being “great at killing jobs” on Friday and making New York City “uninvestable.”

“They’re great at killing jobs. They’re killing jobs by the thousands,” O’Leary said during an interview on “CNN This Morning.”

He also blamed politicians for making New York City “uninvestable,” alleging that Ocasio-Cortez “already planned to sue ‘Amazon’ if they created jobs.” O’Leary was referring to the company’s decision last summer to cancel the planned warehouse in Newark, NJ

“Sorry. Don’t shoot the messenger. Just tell you how it is,” he said, adding that he would discuss officials in New York “at any time of the day.”

O’Leary received opposition from the hosts after those comments, with presenter Poppy Harlow saying he did not give the whole story.

Harlow said, with co-host Don Lemon shortly afterwards:

“It says what a lot of people say especially what happened after the Amazon event here in New York,” Lemon added.

O’Leary also mentioned earlier in the interview that he no longer invests in states such as New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey or California.

“I no longer put companies here in New York or in Massachusetts or in New Jersey or in California. Those states are uninvestable, he claimed. The politics here are insane. The taxes are too high.”

Instead, O’Leary added, “We put them in Fargo, North Dakota, because 40 percent of people work elsewhere, including Boston.”

He said that big cities tend to “punish” successful people with higher taxes.

While he blamed Ocasio-Cortez and other politicians for regulations in most cities, he insisted that remote work had made a huge difference between businesses and the economy post-pandemic.

O’Leary made it clear that there is a new generation that “has no intention” of working in a post-pandemic office—and this is an important piece to remember when trying to be competitive in the job market. But he said it didn’t change productivity.

“I found out it didn’t change anything because they didn’t know anything else. Some of them just got out of college and started working out of their homes. They never worked in an office,” O’Leary said. “What changes is basically [a company’s] project management.”

He explained that companies should now set deadlines and worry less about their employees working 9-5.

“You say to someone ‘Look, you have to get this done by noon next Friday,’ you don’t really care when they do it, and they don’t work 9-5, as long as it’s done,” O’Leary said. …however, it’s probably a less private time on the weekends.”

“I call my staff 24/7. That’s the deal. If you’re not working in the office, I can call you at 2 a.m..”