Kevin O’Leary was a guest on CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip on January 27and, and he kept mentioning and interrupting about how he wanted his money back from the alleged fraud
Kevin O’Leary was on CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip(Image: CNN)
Kevin O’Leary goes on a rant about wanting his money and CNN viewers were not impressed.
The 71-year-old businessman was a guest on the January 27 episode of CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip. The panel were discussing the unrest in Minneapolis with ICE. Before the unrest escalated from the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, tension arose when Trump deployed ICE agents into Minneapolis because of claims of fraud that targeted Somali-Americans in the area. Kevin made a comment specifically about the alleged fraud at the table that included other guest panelist — Tiffany Cross, Ana Navarro, Jim Schultz, and Elie Honig.
“What about if you’re not left or right, you’re just a tax payer like me, a lowly tax payer and I’d like to investigate fraud. I want my money back that was stolen from me. Is that okay or is that not okay? I want my money back!” the Shark Tank judge said.
READ MORE: Karoline Leavitt storms out of press conference after bizarre pregnancy remarkREAD MORE: CBS Evening News viewers blast ‘tired’ Tony Dokoupil hours after boss Bari Weiss’ tense warning
Abby told Kevin that the fraud is being investigated and that people are being prosecuted. Kevin interrupted her, asking why aren’t that isn’t being discussed.
Abby continued, stating, that the Department of Justice “could be talking about [the fraud] but what they decided to do instead was send immigration officials into Minnesota presumptively cause they thought the fraud was only coming from foreigners when most of the Somalis who they are targeting are Americans.”
Once more, Kevin interrupted Abby while she was speaking and raised his voice, “I don’t care where it’s coming from. I want my money back!”
Kevin kept on interrupting Abby(Image: CNN)
Ana stepped in and tried to explain to Kevin that nothing that ICE is doing is “helping you get your money back.” Kevin went on to say, “I represent taxpayers and I want my money back!”
Ana retorted, “If you represent taxpayers than tell the president [Trump] that you shill for that he’s spending a lot of money to terrorize a city.”
The clip has circulated online and people online have blasted Kevin for coming across as childish as well as minimizing the current unrest in Minneapolis. Others also criticized the hypocrisy of him being a multimillionaire demanding his money back, him being Canadian talking on being a US taxpayer as well as supporting Trump who has pardoned fraudsters.
A person wrote, “Him interrupting everyone with his demands is unintentionally hilarious. Disingenuous toddler tantrum.”
A second person said, “The federal government is killing people in the streets and this f—er just wants ‘his’ money back?”
Another said, “O’Leary is a Canadian worth about $400 million. how much has he paid in U.S. taxes? O’Leary doesn’t ‘represent’ U.S. taxpayers.”
Ana chimed in, telling Kevin ICE will not help him get his money back(Image: CNN)
Another said, “He should talk to trump. He recently pardoned a bunch of fraudsters that won’t even have to pay back the millions they owed the taxpayers.”
Since his second term, Trump has granted clemency to several people convicted of fraud. Some of the people include Wanda Vázquez Garced, a former governor of Puerto Rico who pled guilty to a campaign finance violation linked to a 2020 election bribery scheme; Venezuelan-Italian banker Julio Herrera Velutini and former FBI agent Mark Rossini who were involved in the 2020 election bribery scheme with Wanda; Adriana Camberos (who Trump pardoned before in 2021 for fraud in a fake 5-hour Energy Drink scheme) and her brother were convicted in a fraud scheme involving groceries.
Kevin is a vocal supporter of Trump and has previously praised his business policies. He has expressed disagreement with Trump’s policies with tariffs but is still a consistent support of the Republican president.
