LEXINGTON, Va. – Nearly a year after asking White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave her restaurant, Stephanie Wilkinson, co-owner of The Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, wrote an op-ed piece published by The Washington Post Tuesday.
Wilkinson never expected that asking one of President Donald Trump's top officials to leave her restaurant would turn into a firestorm.
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"The incident had gone from a Facebook post to a tagged tweet to nationally trending news with the whoosh of lighter fluid to a flame," wrote Wilkinson about the morning after asking Sanders to leave.
Discussing the backlash, Wilkinson recalled how she received a text message from a Minneapolis area code threatening to burn down the restaurant.
As the summer carried on, she described how her mail carrier went from delivering the messages in a rubber-banded bundle to entire large white plastic tote bags full of letters and packages.
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Wilkinson wrote how in the more than 4,000 pieces of mail she was called a racist, bigot and a hypocrite but some did support the actions she took on June 22.
"What’s more, for every wish that our business die a painful death, there was a dollar bill or a generous check or an order for a gift certificate," Wilkinson said in the piece.
Wilkinson said despite the initial backlash, nearly a year later business is still good.