RUSH: Barry Diller says that New York is over. Nobody is coming back to New York, and working from home doesn’t work, according to Barry Diller. He said businesses in New York have been destroyed. It ain’t happening.

Now, he’s a New Yorker through and through. He may know. His opinion does carry some weight.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Barry Diller. Audio sound bite number 15. The Fox Business Channel today where Maria Bartiromo, she got IAC and Expedia chairman Barry Diller. “What are you seeing in New York, Barry? What’s your take on recovery post-pandemic, the protesting, the looting that we saw earlier this year in New York City?”

DILLER: We opened our offices actually Labor Day, we said, “Pease come, if you can,” and truthfully no one comes. There’s so much of the city idle, it is not sustainable. Drive anywhere, walk anywhere, and you see local destruction. We gotta get used to the risks. And we’ve gotta take some risks — particularly people who are not vulnerable — and get back to full life. Work from home is not productive. The concept of work from home does not work, full stop.

RUSH: Oh, wow. There are not very many people saying this. He’s a lone voice. A lot of people, particularly running corporations — like Tim Cook says he’s ecstatic with the work Apple employees are doing from home, for example. But here he is: “Working from home is not productive, full stop.” It doesn’t work. They opened their offices on Labor Day, and nobody showed up. New York ain’t coming back.

Trump said, past couple weeks, New York’s not coming back, not as currently being run. Combination of de Blasio and Cuomo. But it was I, El Rushbo, who offered that opinion months ago. It’s just the handwriting’s on the wall. You can’t shut down a city like this. And you can’t teach people that, hey, you know, you don’t have to live in New York anymore.

You don’t have to go into the city to work anymore. You can’t teach people that and then expect them to just ignore it. If people don’t have to spend $1,200 a month for rent on a closet that they live in, they’re not gonna do it. And they have learned that they don’t have to do that.