| Time | Text |
|---|---|
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A Stand for Courage
00:07:17
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| And I have a fighter. | |
| You all know my love of courage. | |
| Without it, there is no chance for good to prevail on Earth. | |
| Tony Roman is the man. | |
| He's the owner of Basilico's... | |
| So let's see. | |
| Pasta e vino. | |
| We were even giving you The Godfather. | |
| I mean... | |
| By the way, is there something like wrong about that Italian guy comes on the show and we play The Godfather theme? | |
| You know, it's almost like the Italian national anthem these days. | |
| I'll tell you one thing, we're with you on Columbus. | |
| Oh, okay. | |
| Well, you know, that's another stand that we took. | |
| When they tore down the statues, I put up a drink on our menu, saying raising our own statue to an Italian hero. | |
| And again, people's heads exploded, and I enjoy doing it. | |
| So he has kept his restaurant open, which is all... | |
| I've asked restaurants to do. | |
| Why are you listening? | |
| It shows you the power of fear. | |
| I mean, it's not... | |
| When Tony Roman is not here, because I don't want to take his time, I want to reflect with you some very, very, very big conclusions that I've drawn about humans as a result of what I've seen in America the last six months. | |
| Maybe next hour. | |
| And applying it to the terrible situations in Russia and Germany in the mid-20th century. | |
| All right, anyway, back to Tony Roman. | |
| So let's see. | |
| So no masks. | |
| And this is meant seriously. | |
| Has anybody that you know gotten seriously ill as a result of their experience in your restaurant? | |
| There's been nothing traced back to the Basilico. | |
| There's no contact tracing of anything. | |
| And your workers have been showing up every day? | |
| This has actually been one of our healthiest years that we've ever had. | |
| Right. | |
| You know, we've had years in the past where an employee would get a flu and we'd make him stay home. | |
| You know, we would do that anyway, right? | |
| So, but yeah, when we took our stand against the masks, that's when the left really went. | |
| It went insane. | |
| And the supporters of the tiny dictator, you know, here in our state, especially on the celebrity side, we got hit from everywhere, you know, the shamers. | |
| And, you know, based on that, we started to receive death threats, people calling to threaten, you know, basically to burn the restaurant down. | |
| They want to follow me to my car, put a bullet in the back of my head and everything else. | |
| Yeah, that's the tolerant left that we always talk about. | |
| Right. | |
| There's no such thing as tolerant left. | |
| If you're a tolerant left, you're a liberal. | |
| That's it. | |
| So, this has been a success for you? | |
| Have people... | |
| Flocked to your restaurant? | |
| You know at first when I took the stand it wasn't a business thing like I said I didn't think about the business at all and I tell people who considers taking a stand you are blessed to be in a position to have a platform of a business to be on the front lines of this and take a stand not for your business but for for America, right? | |
| And so when I took our stand, even my young staff, they thought it was nuts. | |
| They said, Tony, this is going to be bad for business. | |
| I didn't care. | |
| I didn't care at all. | |
| If my space was a plot of dirt, I'd do the same exact thing that I'm doing now. | |
| And initially, a lot of people didn't show up. | |
| We were empty. | |
| People would come pick up to-go food and delivery, and that was it. | |
| But over time, they started showing up. | |
| But when the hate started coming towards us and that was publicized, the supporters started to come from everywhere. | |
| I mean, we have people driving from Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Utah, Oregon, Washington, LA all the time. | |
| Ventura, Sherman Oaks, they're coming from everywhere. | |
| And it's because at the restaurant, it's not... | |
| Yeah, sure, you come down, you have great food. | |
| It's Italian home-cooked style food. | |
| It's my mother's food. | |
| She created all the recipes. | |
| But it is a movement now, and people want to be part of the battle. | |
| People come down there, and you should see the energy. | |
| It's incredible. | |
| Patriots everywhere. | |
| They're swarming the place. | |
| And I'm meeting great people. | |
| I'm definitely coming. | |
| I mean, I just got to finish my book. | |
| And as I told you, I publicly announce the day I hand in the book, January 31, where the next day we're coming to you for a celebration. | |
| And a living martyr is coming, which is a very big deal. | |
| I appreciate that. | |
| Because he's somewhat of a hermit. | |
| That would be amazing. | |
| And I want to say something else. | |
| That was a joke. | |
| He's not a hermit. | |
| No, no, he's not a hermit. | |
| He looks like a hermit. | |
| He's not a hermit. | |
| He's been a gentleman. | |
| He's been very helpful. | |
| No kidding. | |
| He's awesome. | |
| But I want to say, too, that when business owners feel fear about taking a stand, first of all, if you're going to take the stand, do it fully. | |
| Do it fully. | |
| Don't do half measures. | |
| No restrictions, right? | |
| None. | |
| Go back to pre-margin. | |
| So here's the question. | |
| Everybody listening is waiting for this question, including me. | |
| So here it goes. | |
| Why are you almost alone among restaurant owners? | |
| That's what I was going to get to next. | |
| Because the fear people feel, right? | |
| And I tell them, when you feel that fear... | |
| Think about the real heroes. | |
| Think about the founders of this country who sacrificed everything to gift you the precious freedoms and liberties that you have. | |
| And think of the soldiers who have fought and died, who have taken real shrapnel and bullets, right? | |
| In defense of those things. | |
| And you're going to surrender all of that over a mask mandate and a pandemic of fear? | |
| No. | |
| You have to... | |
| When you're afraid of losing a liquor license or a business license or receiving a citation or a fine, think about them and honor them. | |
| Because if you surrender those things, you are dishonoring them. | |
| And I think if people have that in mind, they will feel the courage that I feel. | |
| And it's as simple as that. | |
| God, we are such kindred spirits. | |
| I've always said how Normandy has affected my life. | |
| Going to Normandy Beach. | |
| Seeing thousands of guys lying dead at the age of 20. There's nowhere I'd rather go than there. | |
| I cannot wait to make that trip. | |
| I said, wait a minute. | |
| So I'm going to be scared of Gavin Newsom? | |
| These guys attacked Nazi machine guns? | |
| And I'm going to be frightened of Fauci and Newsom and Pelosi? | |
| You've got to be kidding. | |
| Or Garcetti? | |
| These are nothings. | |
| And think about this. | |
| The lockdown started today. | |
| The new lockdown, right? | |
| What is today? | |
| The anniversary of Pearl Harbor. | |
| That's right. | |
| Well said. | |
| Right? | |
| Think about that. | |
| I do think about that. | |
| That's why you're here. | |
| Thank you. | |
| Appreciate that. | |
| I want the line. | |
| People should call for reservations, you think? | |
| Well, we only reserve one table in the restaurant. | |
| It's like the Godfather table. | |
| Six or more. | |
| It's first come, first serve? | |
| It's first come, first serve. | |
| But people have a great time waiting outside. | |
| Basilico's Restaurant, Orange County, California. | |