Tamron Hall Talks To Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms About 2 Chainz And Tyler Perry’s Plans To Potentially Reopen Businesses

Source: Studio One / Radio One

On today’s episode of “Tamron Hall,” Tamron speaks with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms who has clashed with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp over his decision to reopen select businesses while she continues to urge people to stay home. During the interview, among other topics, Tamron asked the mayor about recent reports that two prominent Atlanta celebrities, 2 Chainz and Tyler Perry, planned to reopen their respective Atlanta businesses.

As we reported last week, 2 Chainz, who owns two restaurants in Atlanta, initially planned to reopen his eateries in hopes of bringing back the nearly 80% of his staff currently laid off. He ultimately reconsidered and decided to offer customers take-out only for now.

The mayor spoke about 2 Chainz decision saying,

“I know that 2 Chainz and his wife Kesha have a loving heart for our community that really is unparalleled. So I know for them when he talks about laying off 80% of his employees, there are faces and there are families that go along with that. But I was so glad that he reached out to me and told me that he would not be opening because he is listening to reason and logic and what he is saying is that I am not going to risk putting my employees in harm’s way because we are opening up too soon. There will be a day when we’ll get back to business as usual and we will be able to go to restaurants and embrace each other again. We just aren’t there yet.”

It’s so good to have Keisha in Atlanta to shepherd residents on not falling victim to policies that are not in the best interest of their health and well being.

Tyler Perry is also considering reopening Tyler Perry Studios — but only with the Mayor’s blessing and also taking precautions like having the cast and crew live on site during productions.

Hit the flip for Keisha’s take on that Perry’s studio potentially reopening.

Tyler Perry is considering reopening the Tyler Perry Studios with certain parameters, which have been reported to include screening employees for fever before entering the production facility and having the cast and crew live on site until the end of the production. Perry also noted he would not move forward with any plan without first discussing with Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.On Perry’s tentative plan, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms commented, “I think Tamron, we all agree it has to be a phased approach and I’ve not discussed this in detail with Tyler but I think it’s a very different situation if you know that you have a set of people who have not tested positive and they are living in a contained area. But that’s something I would want to get input from our health experts on. We know we are going to have to phase in this economic recovery. So I can even see us opening up dental offices perhaps and medical offices and places where people have access to PPE and know the appropriate way to put it on but when I see pictures of people getting their beards trimmed without a mask on, we know you are putting one another at risk and that’s what this is all about, it’s about not putting each other at risk, especially in a city and in a state where so many people have underlying health conditions that often make this virus deadly.”

Also on Monday’s “Tamron Hall,” Tamron talks to Reverend Dr. William J. Barber, II, about hunger and poverty during this pandemic, as well as baseball legend Cal Ripken Jr. on how he is pitching in to help strike out hunger. Two other guests include a hog farmer who is dreading her farm’s future for the first time in 42 years and a dad using food lines for the first time to feed his family.

Will you be watching?