Trump criticizes restaurant that asked Sanders to leave; Virginia GOP urges boycott
From Richmond Times-Dispatch and wire reports 17 hrs ago
President Donald Trump on Monday took to Twitter to attack the Lexington restaurant that asked his press secretary to leave and the Republican Party of Virginia circulated an online petition urging Virginians to boycott the eatery. ... “The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders,” Trump tweeted. “I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!”
The Associated Press reported that photographs of the restaurant appear to show no evidence of serious disrepair to the red building with hunter green awnings and white doors and trim, though recent images appear to show some awning wear. ... The restaurant’s most recent health inspection, reported by the local news site Patch and available online, includes no record of violations. Inspectors noted “good food/unit temperatures,” said staff members had clean uniforms and aprons, and observed “excellent job on code-dating.”
The Republican Party of Virginia tweeted Monday: “Once again, the intolerant left has shown its true colors.” It urged people to sign a boycott petition “to show the Red Hen that patriotic Trump supporters are the silent majority in Virginia!”
....
Robert Denton, a longtime Virginia political analyst and head of the Department of Communications at Virginia Tech, said he was “alarmed” by the Lexington incident and by a Saturday rally at which Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, urged people to harass members of Trump’s Cabinet when they encounter them at places such as restaurants, department stores and gasoline stations. ... “I certainly think it reflects the intensity of the polarization that we’re seeing,” across ideologies, across parties, “across our dinner tables,” said Denton, who last year wrote a book called “Social Fragmentation and the Decline of American Democracy” with Ben Voth, an associate professor at Southern Methodist University. ... As for the state of politics, Denton said: “I think we’re getting to a dangerous point — tribalism almost at its worst.”
= new reply since forum marked as read