Trump press secretary turned out of Virginia restaurant
WASHINGTON – White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant Friday night by the owner because of her ties to President Donald Trump, Sanders acknowledged Saturday on Twitter.
“Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left,” Sanders tweeted from her official work account. “Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.”
The restaurant’s Facebook page was inundated with posts supporting Sanders and deriding the restaurant in Lexington, about a three-hour drive southwest of Washington, D.C. Calls to the restaurant were routed to a voicemail box that was full.
It was the second night in recent days that a member of the Trump administration was hounded from a restaurant.
On Tuesday, protesters heckled Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen as she ate at a Mexican restaurant in Washington.
She, too, left the restaurant. The demonstrators jeered “End Family Separation,” referring to the policy that Trump reversed on Wednesday. The policy had required that adults arrested trying to cross the U.S. border illegally be criminally prosecuted. If accompanied by children, those kids could not be kept with the adults.
Since the policy was enacted in May, border agents have separated about 2,300 children from their families.
Sanders’ father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, accused the owners of Red Hen of intolerance.
“Bigotry,” Huckabee tweeted.