The Left “Weaponized” Pandemic for Political Gain

"Pandemic LA 002" (CC BY 2.0) by Cody Williams

In an interview on Friday with Fox News, Robert Unanue CEO of GOYA Foods slammed the political Left, saying that they “weaponized” the pandemic to shut down the U.S. economy for political reasons.

Fox News host Steve Doocy told Unanue, “You were called to the White House to talk about the coronavirus and the response and you went, and then political Left tried to cancel you with essentially a boycott. But then it turned around, people were supporting you with a buycott and I understand Goya Foods has just finished your biggest, most successful year ever.”

To which Unanue responded with, “Yes. You know, the problem is it’s a political year and they weaponized coronavirus unfortunately to shutdown this economy.” The CEO continued, “The worst thing we can do is shut down our economy, kill our spirit.”

Unanue then started talking about how the political left “essentially declared martial law.” He said that people need a reason to get up in the morning, may it be God, family, or work. However, the lockdowns imposed mostly by Democratic states took away these reasons. He further said,” They’re taking away our ability to work. They essentially declared martial law, I believe, in this country, shutting everything down.”

The GOYA CEO then added that lockdowns is the worst thing that they could do just for political gain. Before adding that such a step is “criminal” and “immoral.”

“To shut down this economy for this basically political reasons and, you know, we’re one nation under God. We’re not one nation under Twitter. We’re not one nation under big media, or under central government,” Unanue said.

Last December, Unanue admitted that his company jokingly named far-left Democrat, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) an “employee of the month,” after her call to boycott Goya Foods boosted record sales.

In an interview with Michael Berry on “The Michael Berry Show, he said, “When she boycotted us, our sales actually increased 1,000 percent.” He continued, “So we gave her an honorary, we never were able to hand it to her, but she got employee of the month for bringing attention to Goya and our adobo.”

The CEO stated that the comments made by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez allowed the company to extend its reach to “so many new people” while at the same time, holding onto its base of customers.

On the radio show, Unanue also said that it is “interesting” to see Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, calling to boycott Goya and “go against her own people … to go against people of her own Latin culture.”

Ocasio Cortez previously called out Unanue after he praised President Trump at an event in the White House last July.

After President Trump signed an executive order on the “White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative,” Unanue said, “We’re all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump, who is a builder.”

However, said comments by CEO were too much for Ocasio-Cortez to even solicit a reaction from the representative. She wrote on Twitter, “Oh look, it’s the sound of me Googling ‘how to make your own Adobo,’” referring to one of Goya’s popular seasonings.

She then posted another Tweet, “Get yourself friends like these: this tweet wasn’t up for TWO MINUTES when my friend hit me up with the recipe. (Their note: ‘the ginger is controversial, but worth it’),” while retweeting a friend’s adobo recipe.

Meanwhile, Unanue said in the interview, “To some extent I can understand AOC. She’s young, she’s naive, she doesn’t get it. But you’ve got someone like [Sen. Bernie] Sanders, who’s older than us … other than me, who still doesn’t get it.”

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