Former North Carolina Lawmaker's Pottery Barn Rant Mocked Online as States Lift Coronavirus Orders

A former North Carolina lawmaker's complaint about a Pottery Barn only being open for customers [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

A former North Carolina lawmaker's complaint about a Pottery Barn only being open for customers who schedule appointments went viral on Twitter. Rep. Scott Stone, now the president of American Engineering, blasted the store for closing early when it is inside a mall that remains open until 7 p.m. Stone defended his comments and criticized North Carolina for reopening slower than other states. On Friday, the state's Department of Health reported the single highest one-day jump in confirmed coronavirus cases.

On Saturday, Stone tweeted a photo of a Potter Barn store at a Charlotte mall. The store's employees asked that customers call to schedule a time to shop inside, between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., as they try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Stone did not agree with this policy, demanding they "be open" if they are allowed to be. He also did not like the store closing two hours before the rest of the mall. "Do you actually want to sell anything?" he added.

After his tweet went viral, Stone defended his tweet, saying he loved how "lefties are so worked up" about him expressing his "frustrations" with North Carolina's decision to reopen at a slower pace than others. "Maybe they believe [government] should continue to write checks forever and keep the entire economy closed?" he wrote. He later agreed that 96,000 deaths from the deadly and highly contagious virus "are tragic," but he said, but the 75 people in Mecklenburg County who died had pre-existing conditions or were in nursing homes. "We should be laser-focused on protecting the most vulnerable. That's were most governments have failed in dealing w this crisis," Stone wrote.

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On Friday, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported the most significant one-day jump in lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state. Another 1,107 people tested positive for the virus. The state has recorded 22,725 total cases so far. It is in the middle of "phase two" of the reopening process, which will allow restaurant capacity to increase to 50 percent, and children's camps can reopen. Bars and gyms are still closed.

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Mecklenburg County includes Charlotte, North Carolina's largest city. The county alone has had 3,142 coronavirus cases recorded, reports the Charlotte Observer. On Saturday, there were 200 new cases, the highest total. There were no new deaths reported.

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The U.S. has more than 1.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases, by far the most of any country in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University. As of Saturday, more than 96,000 Americans have died, while 350,000 have recovered. More Americans are being tested as well, with the number reaching 12.3 million on Saturday.

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