A restaurant in Arkansas told the state’s MAGA governor she wasn’t welcome there.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who previously served as a White House press secretary during Donald Trump’s first presidential term, said she was asked to leave a restaurant called The Croissanterie in Little Rock last week by the eatery’s owners.
“Last week I was having lunch with two other moms at a restaurant when the owner approached a member of the State Police Executive Protection Detail and said my presence made their employees feel threatened and told us to leave,” Sanders wrote in a post on X on Thursday, responding to a story about the matter by The Daily Wire editor-in-chief Brent Scher.
“Arkansans are known for their warm hospitality, and while that restaurant didn’t meet that standard, my administration will continue to focus on lifting Arkansans up, not tearing others down,” Sanders concluded.
One of the restaurant’s employees responded to the initial Daily Wire story, stating that the eatery did not regret its decision.
“Good morning! Sarah Huckabee Sanders no amount of evil you send our way can ever take our smiles away!!!” Zachary Hickman, a The Croissanterie employee, wrote on Facebook on Thursday. “I’m proud af to work here! I’m proud af to be gay and I’m proud af to be an Arkansan. My voice matters. Try again.”
Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Sanders referred the Daily Beast to her social media post.
The Daily Beast reached out to Hickman for comment.
It’s not the first time that Sanders, 43, has been asked to leave a business due to her political affiliations.
In 2018, while she was still working as Trump’s press secretary, a co-owner of The Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, asked Sanders and her to leave as a form of protest against the “inhumane and unethical” Trump administration.
At the time, Sanders posted on Twitter that “her actions say far more about her than about me.”
Last week, the Arkansas governor joined Erika Kirk, the newly appointed CEO of Turning Point USA, for a joint press conference to announce the conservative youth outreach group’s expansion to campuses statewide.
“Charlie Kirk’s impactful legacy continues through @MrsErikaKirk and @TPUSA every day,” Sanders wrote in an X post on March 11. “I’m thankful they came to Arkansas to help bring Club America chapters to schools across our state, inspiring students to fearlessly live out their values.”
Just days later, the TPUSA chapter at the University of Arkansas, the state’s largest university, announced that it had cut ties with the national organization.
“We have many grievances with Turning Point USA, but I will share only one,” Dino Fantegrossi, the former UA chapter’s president, wrote in a statement. “We are generally put off by how Charlie Kirk has been used by TPUSA since his assassination.”
“Statements like ‘Charlie would have said....’ and ‘Charlie would have wanted...’ have felt in many instances disingenuous and manipulative,” the statement continued. “Charlie Kirk cannot speak for himself anymore, and we do not recognize the way others have attempted to speak for him.”
