Free Republic

A Virginia state delegate for the town where Sarah Huckabee Sanders was refused service Friday night criticized the restaurant owner with the ultimate Trump-country insult — she has ties to Hollywood. Del. Ben Cline, a Republican who also is running for the U.S. House this November, dropped the “Meryl bomb” Saturday in a tweet apologizing to Mrs. Sanders, the chief White House spokeswoman. “On behalf of my hometown of Lexington, I want to apologize for the rudeness of one liberal New York transplant (who also happens to be Meryl Streep’s cousin),” he wrote of restaurateur Stephanie Wilkinson, who since Friday...

The Lexington, Virginia, restaurant that kicked out White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Friday night instantly became the target of online harassment and conspiracy theories, and things have escalated quickly: Owner Stephanie Wilkinson is being doxxed, with users posting her home address and phone number on various message boards and social media platforms. As Vox explains, “Doxxing is a common internet practice used to punish or shame someone and is a particularly common practice among the alt-right and other white supremacist organizations who operate online in places like Reddit, 4chan, and Twitter.” Last year, Reddit shut down three...

After about 48 hours of squawking about the Red Hen’s refusal to serve White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Friday night, followed by a tweet by President Donald Trump inaccurately accusing the restaurant of uncleanliness (people who own health department-cited establishments shouldn’t throw stones), and then also hearing Rep. Maxine Waters , D-Calif., essentially call for mobs to descend upon Trump aides, I’ve had my fill of the topic. Moreover, after all the hand-wringing over the last couple of days, we should refocus on the real issue - the unprecedented racist conduct of a president who has threatened...

n February 1960, four black students walked into Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina, sat down at the lunch counter, and attempted to order coffee. As the segregated establishment catered to whites only, nobody would serve them. Waitresses ignored their attempts to get their attention and place orders. Other (white) patrons either ignored them as well or made it clear by word and deed that they should move on. Those four students never got served that day. But they returned the following day with hundreds of compatriots. From Greensboro, their protest spread across the South. Black would-be patrons were harassed, verbally...

Some Democrats are reportedly concerned that public appeals to “absolutely harass” Trump administration officials will come back to hurt them in the polls and benefit Republicans. There have been several recent instances where Trump officials have been publically shamed, including Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen at a Mexican restaurant and White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, who was asked to leave by an owner of a restaurant in Virginia. On Saturday, Florida Attorney General – and ardent Trump supporter – Pam Bondi was confronted by a group of protesters outside the screening of a documentary about Mister Rogers in Tampa....

WHEN STEPHANIE WILKINSON, the owner of the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Va., asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave that dining establishment last Friday, she opened up yet another front in America’s ongoing cultural war. Those on the right and some on the left have bemoaned the decline in civility reflected by Wilkinson’s decision. “Let the Trump team eat in peace,” wrote the Washington Post editorial board, which expressed concern that “justifying” such “incivility” will leave only the most “zealous” to pursue a career in public service. “Kind of amazed and appalled by the number of...

In 1836, at the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, a 28-year-old lawyer named Abraham Lincoln delivered one of his finest addresses. Lincoln condemned the sharp increase of mobs in America, which had exploded in number as the debate over slavery and regional animosity intensified. “Accounts of outrages committed by mobs, form the every-day news of the times,” Lincoln said. Many of these mobs had turned violent and subverted the law. They were undermining free government. Calls for civility are sometimes vapid excuses to shut down political dissent. But what’s occurring now in America is not just heated debate at...

As we all know, Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia asked White House press secretary Sarah Sanders and her family to leave on June 22. The owner of Red Hen, Stephanie Wilkinson, explained to The Washington Post that some of her staff were uncomfortable, including the LGBT staffers, due to Sanders support of a ban on transgender people in the military and a gay couple being refused to have a wedding cake baked for them because of religion. Wilkinson told The Washington Post that she pulled Sanders to the side and politely asked her to leave, saying, “I explained that...

During a toy drive outside a federal building in Los Angeles on June 23, Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, advocated for the Left’s latest Trump resistance strategy which had little to do with reasoned debate. “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up and if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere,” Waters said. The strategy kicked into high gear this past week...

Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte has invited White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders back to Lexington, Virginia, saying the rude reception she received at the Red Hen restaurant didn’t reflect the “kind and caring people” of his district. Mr. Goodlatte, who represents the Sixth Congressional District, reached out Saturday to Ms. Sanders, a day after she was kicked out of the eatery by owner Stephanie Wilkinson, who cited her opposition to the Trump administration. “What @PressSec experienced in Lexington last night is very unfortunate and doesn’t reflect accurately upon the kind and caring people of Lexington that I know,” tweeted...

A top conservative leader criticized former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) for tweeting out a picture of gang members, saying they were House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) “campaign committee.” Bob Vander Plaats, the president and CEO of Iowan conservative group The Family Leader, chastised the former governor on Saturday. “Where did my friend and pastor @GovMikeHuckabee go?” Vander Plaats tweeted. “I want him back. I’ll assume someone hijacked his twitter account.” “He’s way better than this!” He added. Vander Plaats was responding to a tweet from Huckabee on Saturday appearing to link Pelosi with gang members. “Nancy Pelosi introduces...

10:00 AM PT -- Her dad, Mike Huckabee, just weighed in on the incident by tweeting ... "Bigotry. On the menu at Red Hen Restaurant in Lexington VA. Or you can ask for the “Hate Plate”. And appetizers are “small plates for small minds” 8:45 AM PT -- Sanders just said, "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. Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully...

What an ugly display. On Thursday, Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his much anticipated review on FBI and DOJ actions during the Hillary Clinton email investigation. But rather than discuss the findings from the report that reveal anti-Trump bias and corruption at the highest levels of the Department of Justice and FBI, the liberal White House reporters peppered Sarah Huckabee Sanders with questions on the Obama policy of splitting children of illegal aliens from adults. Liberals are determined to blame Trump for a policy that was on the books during the Obama years. At one point CNN political analyst Brian...

Full title: Huckabee: Hillary campaigning for Democrats 'is like Jeffrey Dahmer do the ribbon cutting at a restaurant opening'Mike Huckabee joked Thursday that having Hillary Clinton campaign for Democratic candidates is like “having Jeffrey Dahmer do the ribbon cutting at a restaurant opening,” during an appearance on Fox News Thursday. “Some people can’t let go ... it’s just that simple,” Huckabee said of Clinton on Fox's “Outnumbered” after the show mentioned Clinton joking on Tuesday that “Fox News is always trying to impeach me.” Clinton was referring to recent GOP ads that show her as a way of firing up...

To the CMA Foundation Board From Mike Huckabee March 1, 2018 Dear Board Members: I hereby tender my resignation effective immediately. I hope this will end the unnecessary distraction and deterrent to the core mission of the Foundation which is to help kids acquire musical instruments and have an opportunity to participate in music programs as students. Since I will not be able to continue in what I had hoped to be useful service in this endeavor, I wanted to at least put some things on the record. I have no expectation that it will change the irrational vitriol directed...

Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has resigned from the board for the Country Music Association Foundation, one day after he was appointed the position. Within 24 hours, Huckabee's appointment faced harsh criticism with a prominent artist manager sending a letter to the foundation calling Huckabee's election 'grossly offensive' due to his political opinions and associations with the National Rifle Association. 'Huckabee speaks of the sort of things that would suggest my family is morally beneath his and uses language that has a profoundly negative impact upon young people all across this country,' Owen wrote. Owen and his husband have...

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) said "we are all going to lose patience with the attorney general" over his perceived apprehension to prosecute people like Lois Lerner and Peter Strzok. "I love Jeff Sessions. I think he is a great guy, but he has got to do the job he is there to do," Huckabee said. He said Sessions, a former Alabama senator, must "enforce the law... universally. Without regard to who the person is." Huckabee said Sessions may be holding off on prosecuting Lerner, the former IRS employee allegedly implicated in the conservative nonprofit targeting scandal, or Strzok,...

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) in a tweet Tuesday compared President Trump to British leader Winston Churchill. Huckabee said he had just been to see the film “The Darkest Hour,” which dramatizes Churchill's experiences as prime minister during World War II, calling it a reminder of “what real leadership looks like.” “Churchill was hated by his own party, opposition party, and press. Feared by King as reckless, and despised for his bluntness,” Huckabee tweeted. “But unlike Neville Chamberlain, he didn't retreat. We had a Chamberlain for 8 yrs; in @realDonaldTrump we have a Churchill.”

President Trump spoke with Mike Huckabee, the father of his press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in an interview that aired Saturday night. He discussed Iran, Puerto Rico and Las Vegas, and returned repeatedly to the claim that "I was handed a mess" and that the media is treating him unfairly despite his successes. On the Las Vegas gunman: "This was a sick person, but probably smart." He congratulated the police for acting so quickly, and said many of the victims he met "support what I do." On the hurricane response: "We got very high marks. We got A-pluses." On Puerto...