Sarah Sanders said she was thrown out of Mexican restaurant

June 25, 2018  13H:21  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Rachel Rubin and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, WASHINGTON 

WASHINGTON  - White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Saturday that she had been asked to leave a Virginia restaurant the night before because she worked for U.S. President Donald Trump.

“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 said on the official Press Secretary Twitter account.

On Saturday, the owner of the Red Hen confirmed the incident and said she stood by her decision to refuse service to Sanders, the Washington Post reported.

“Absolutely, yes,” the paper reported Stephanie Wilkinson as saying. “We just felt there are moments in time when people need to live their convictions.”

U.S. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S. June 14, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis

Wilkinson and the Red Hen could not be reached by phone on Saturday evening. Several thousand people have posted messages of support and criticism of the restaurant for the move on its Yelp page.

Earlier this week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was confronted by protesters at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C. Protesters yelled “Shame! Shame!” and it came as the Trump administration defended its hardline immigration policy at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Nielsen decided to leave the restaurant.