‘Pawn Stars’ Rick Harrison Says Rubio Endorsement Hurt Business

Rick Harrison of the reality show “Pawn Stars” says his bottom line has suffered as a result of his support for presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio.

During an exclusive interview with CNN on Friday, Oct. 30, the famed Las Vegas artifacts and merchandise negotiator, whose show first aired on History in 2009, opened up about his support for the Republican candidate.

After meeting Rubio at an event in Vegas earlier this year, Harrison says he was “deeply impressed” by the 44-year-old junior senator.

“It was the first time I sat down with a politician that long and it wasn’t ‘the party, the party, the party.’ All he was talking about was people. Quite frankly, I’ve never had a politician talk like that,” said Harrison. “His dad was a bartender at a bowling alley and his mom was a maid at a casino here in town… You need someone who has experienced what people are experiencing.”

Harrison gave Rubio a tour of his business, the famed Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, back in May, before hosting a birthday party for him at his Las Vegas home.

The TV star now says his willingness to support the Republican party, and Rubio in particular, has affected business.

“I suddenly became famous and I was the one willing to throw my career away to endorse a Republican. When you endorse a Republican, everyone sort of frowns on you. I don’t know why, but hey,” Harrison told CNN.

When asked if he has felt any negative repercussions of his decision to go all-in with Rubio, he said, “To a degree, yeah. There have been some endorsements that didn’t happen.”

Harrison also spoke to CNN about Donald Trump, who he said is probably “a nice guy,” despite his wealth, and Hillary Clinton, whose accomplishments include destabilizing the Middle East and the “Ukraine situation.”

“I think she was a very bad negotiator,” he said of Clinton.

On political correctness, Harrison says he does worry his entire life could be derailed by the “liberal PC Police,” should he say something erroneous.

“The PC thing, it’s gone over the top… It’s not a perfect world we live in. You can’t raise kids that way and then just throw them out in the world because it’s not a perfect world.”