Getty Images
WASHINGTON — A prominent Democratic lawmaker said he thought the restaurant owner was wrong for asking White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders to leave her eatery.
“I think the restaurant owner should have served her,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. “I really do,” he added during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
On Friday night, Sanders, her husband, Bryan, and six other adults sat down to eat at the Red Hen in Lexington, Va . — a town about three hours west of the nation’s capital.
Owner Stephanie Wilkinson asked Sanders to leave.
“I was babbling a little, but I got my point across in a polite and direct fashion,” Wilkinson told the Washington Post. “I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation.”
“I said, ‘I’d like to ask you to leave,’” she told the paper.
Sanders confirmed what happened using her White House Twitter account Saturday morning.
“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,” the press secretary wrote. “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,” Sanders added.
Reached by The New York Post on Saturday, Sanders said she didn’t want to discuss the encounter beyond the tweet she sent out.
The incident happened on the heels of a group of Democratic Socialists showing up at Mexican restaurant MXDC in Washington on Tuesday to protest Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s role in the policy of separating children from family members at the U.S. border.
And last Sunday, a patron of the restaurant Espita Mezcaleria approached Trump aide Stephen Miller — a hard-liner on immigration who also decided to go out for Mexican — calling him a “fascist” to his face, a source told The New York Post.
While Cummings said Sanders should have received her supper, he believed President Donaldn Trump played a role in the acrimony that led up to the incident.
“I think President Trump has created this,” he said. “He’s basically given people license to state things that are ugly and those things then turn into actions, as we now see.”
Carlos Gutierrez, who was commerce secretary under Republican President George W. Bush, agreed.
“I’m sorry that Sarah Huckabee Sanders had a bad day. I’m not worried about Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I’m worried about the African-American kid in school who gets harassed by kids who think they have a license to harass because the president says so,” Gutierrez said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.
“I’m worried about the Hispanic kid, the Hispanic-American citizen who is harassed at school and called a member of MS-13 because the president calls immigrants from Hispanic countries members of MS-13,” he continued.
“I’m not worried about Sarah Huckabee Sanders, I’m worried about millions of kids who today are seeing a different America,” Gutierrez concluded.