'Struggling bar owner' in Biden ad is actually a big tech investor who inherited millions

An alleged "struggling bar owner" who blamed his business' failure on the COVID-19 response is actually a big tech investor who received a large inheritance.

The Blind Pig Bar, owned by Joe Malcoun, said that his bar was seeing no clients due to Trump's handling of the pandemic.

“We don’t know how much longer we can survive not having any revenue. A lot of restaurants and bars that have been mainstays for many years will not make it through this,” Malcoun said. “My only hope for my family, this business and my community is that Joe Biden win this election.”

According to the Washington Free Beacon, Malcoun received millions of dollars from his wife's grandfather ten years ago, and that he uses those funds to invest in big tech.

“Usually you become a CEO and you make money, and then the money allows you to become an angel investor,” Malcoun said. “I happened to have different circumstances where I had money (first).”

Additionally, Malcoun's bar struggles may not be entirely from Trump's COVID response. Malcoun told the Michigan Live Journal that it was "not worth it" to have live shows at his venue, despite having state clearance to hold limited capacity events.

“Now that we tried it and saw it’s really hard to communicate what it means to have a really socially distanced and live music show, we decided it’s not really worth trying,” said Malcoun. “The very last thing we want is to be the epicenter of a new outbreak.”

Malcoun clarified on Twitter that while he is indeed allowed to have patrons in his bar, he decided to close the doors because it would be "unsafe and irresponsible to do so."

“If Trump had taken this virus seriously from the beginning and imposed a national strategy to address it venues like the Pig would be open by now and you would be enjoying live music again,” said Malcoun from his now-protected account. “But instead he chose to weaponize COVID for his own political gain and has convinced his supporters that the medicine is the illness.”

“I am the mechanism for telling a story on behalf of thousands of others,” he tweeted. “Right now thousands of venue employees and musicians are out of work and millions of fans were robbed of live music experiences. That is the real tragedy.”

Malcoun's LinkedIn profile has him as the CEO of Nutshell CRM, the President of CKM Capital Partners, a co-founder of Cahoots, and the founder of A2 Helps.