A Michigan music venue owner featured in a Joe Biden ad campaign lamenting his struggles to survive during coronavirus restrictions is actually a wealthy tech investor — who supported local lockdowns, according to reports.
Joe Malcoun was featured in the heart-tugging Biden ad that aired during NFL games Sunday complaining about the chances of his Ann Arbor bar and music venue, the Blind Pig, surviving the pandemic.
“We don’t know how much longer we can survive not having any revenue,” he complained in the ad. “This is the reality of Trump’s COVID response … This is Donald Trump’s economy,” he said.
“My only hope for my family and this business and my community is that Joe Biden wins this election,” he claimed, saying it “makes me so angry.”
The ad suggested Malcoun’s future and his family were at risk, but made no mention of the bar owner’s numerous other businesses as a wealthy “angel investor” in tech companies.
Malcoun admitted in a 2018 interview with Click On Detroit that he made his start thanks to a huge inheritance from his wife’s grandfather, a real estate investor, that he admitted was “almost like winning the lottery.”
It soon made him “the go-to guy when it came to seeking investments,” the local news outlet said, helping companies raise millions.
He was also called the “driving force of entrepreneurship in Ann Arbor” when he was featured in Crain’s Detroit Business “40 under 40” profile.
Malcoun blamed Trump for the lockdowns, but had actually willingly closed the Blind Pig in June despite being allowed to stay open.
He told MLive at the time that the venue tried “dipping our toe in the water” by opening up, but claimed he was more concerned about coronavirus safety than letting in customers.
“No matter what precautions we take or whether or not we’re doing the legal thing, if we can’t communicate to the community the main intention of being safe, it’s not worth it,” he said in June.
“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. The very last thing we want is to be the epicenter of a new outbreak.”
He said his management would only open “based on what’s safe.”
“My sense is that it’s going to be a while,” said Malcoun, who has donated thousands of dollars to support Biden’s campaign, Fox News said, citing local records.
Neither the Biden campaign nor Malcoun responded to Fox’s requests for comment.