In one of the more bizarre interviews you’ll see this year, Cuomo Prime Time host Chris Cuomo had a heated conversation on Wednesday with the owner of a restaurant that will only serve unvaccinated people. Basilico’s Pasta e Vino, a neighborhood Italian restaurant in Huntington Beach, California, recently posted a sign on its window reading, “Notice. Proof of being UNvaccinated required. We have zero tolerance for treasonous, anti-American stupidity. Thank you for pondering.” Owner Tony Roman, a wannabe movie mobster who looks like he wears Stanzo brand fedoras (“they’re nice!”), said on Instagram that “masks are the greatest weapons of the lockdowns. They are used to divide Americans, just like the vaccination, and they represent fear, control and surrender.” He continued to defend his indefensible position on Cuomo’s CNN show.
In response to Cuomo asking if sign was “a little bit of a joke,” Roman replied, “You’re a smart guy. It’s an IQ test. Like I say to people when they ask me, if they’re so blinded with their rage and their hate, I tell them, you know what, if you don’t understand it, maybe we should put up a sign that says you’re too stupid to come into the restaurant.”
This made no sense to Cuomo, who asked Roman if he was vaccinated. Roman responded by demanding Cuomo give his vaccination status first, to which Cuomo replied that he and his family were vaccinated. “You’re failing the IQ test,” Roman replied, before then saying that barring vaccinated people from eating at his restaurant was not intended to be an anti-vaccine statement.
This was the hostile tone for most of interview. Roman brought up a pre-vaccinated Cuomo being caught not wearing a mask in public during the pandemic and his governor brother’s “nursing home fiasco,” while Cuomo grew increasingly exacerbated by Roman’s tired right-wing talking points. “This is not about whether I’m pro-vaccine or not, I’m pro-freedom and anti-tyranny,” he said. At the end of the interview, after accurately pointing that it “doesn’t make sense” for someone to claim they’re “pro-freedom” if his customers “can’t wear masks,” a frustrated Cuomo told Roman that he sounds “like an idiot.” Also, $20 bucks for spaghetti and meatballs? Get outta here with that.
You can watch the interview above.
(Via Raw Story)