By:  Hadassa Kalatizadeh

“Shark Tank” star and multi-millionaire Kevin O’Leary, said Democratic-led states in the U.S. are “uninvestable” thanks to over regulation, and commented that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is “great at killing jobs.”

On Friday, O’Leary, also known as Mr. Wonderful, made a guest appearance on “CNN This Morning”, giving his take on the recent decline in US jobless claim numbers.  “How strong is the job market really? The number of first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell to 190,000 last week. @kevinolearytv is here to discuss,” CNN This Morning tweeted, posting the clip of the interview.

As reported by the NY Post, O’Leary said the data, together with a low 4% unemployment rate, make for “an extraordinary economy” in which “we’re hiring every day and we’re competing every day.”  The business investor, who boasts a net worth of roughly $400 million, also referred to the post-pandemic remote-work trend — noting that people have gotten so used to working from home that they don’t want to go to the office anymore.  He said this was a twist “that nobody saw coming.” Adding, “This is the competition of states,” in which a “new generation” of employees can apply for jobs in any state.

O’Leary,68, then went on to speak about how he and other investors won’t invest in or grow their businesses anymore in blue states including New York or California.  “I don’t put companies here in New York anymore or in Massachusetts or New Jersey or California. Those states are uninvestable,” he said.  “The policy here is insane. The taxes are too high. We put them in Fargo, North Dakota, because 40% of the people work elsewhere, including Boston.”  He described a debate he had with left-leaning Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), noting, “I say, ‘Look, Senator, we’ve got to move the companies out of your state because you are not investable anymore. You are punishing people if they are successful, you overtax them, you hit them with a super tax.’ New Jersey, what a mess! New York, uninvestable.”

Show anchors Poppy Harlow and Don Lemon asked O’Leary if it was just the high taxes. O’Leary noted, “Oh, the regulatory environment is punitive.”  “I had a project in upstate New York behind the grid in Niagara Falls for electricity — a global data center we were building. Eventually it got so bad with the politicians in the local region and the state policy, we moved it to Norway and all the jobs,” O’Leary said.  “That’s New York. Uninvestable,” he declared, adding, “Sorry, don’t shoot the messenger. Just telling you the way it is.”

Anchor Kaitlin Collins had said there will likely be “pushback from our elected officials in New York on that.”  That’s when O’Leary got fired up saying, “I’ll debate them any time of the day you want, particularly AOC.” He then took it as an opening to publicly pounce on the infamous “Squad” member’s economic policies, saying, “She’s great at killing jobs. She kills jobs by the thousands.”  He took a jab at AOC’s efforts to stop Amazon from opening its second headquarters in Queens, NY, which would have brought some 25,000 jobs to the city.  “Where did Amazon take their jobs? They took them away from her. She threatened to sue them if they created jobs. I mean, this is a reality,” O’Leary said.

Harlow, 40, attempted to defend the 33-year-oldcongresswoman, saying, “There’s a little more to it, but let’s not re-litigate that.”