Mitch McConnell Hounded Out of Louisville Restaurant by Protesters

Republicans should probably stop going to restaurants: This past weekend, a crowd of protesters chased Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, out of a restaurant in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. McConnell and two other men were leaving Bristol Bar & Grille in downtown Louisville after lunch when a group of angry constituents began shouting, “Vote you out!” and “Go home!” a video of the scene shows.

According to the Washington Post, the Senator supports the Trump administration’s detainment of immigrants who cross American borders illegally, but was against the separation of parents from their children. That didn’t stop the small crowd from demanding answers. “Where are the children?” and “Abolish ICE!” they shouted as McConnell walked towards his car. One protester called McConnell a “turtle head.”

A host at Bristol Bar & Grille confirmed to Eater via phone that McConnell had dined at the restaurant on Saturday, and noted that the Senator was a regular. “The staff is always happy to serve him,” they said, but couldn’t recall what the Senator had ordered for lunch this past weekend. “He always orders something different,” they said.

The restaurant, which opened its first location in 1977, serves dishes like white chili, black bean soup with sausages, crab cakes, shrimp Rockefeller, chicken Florentine, and a chorizo burger. The restaurant’s Yelp page now shows several reviews related to the incident, with one local resident rating it one star and writing, “They served Mitch McConnell. That’s all there is to say. An anti-Louisville politician who didn’t get turned away? Bye.”

Protesters gathered in front of the Bristol after someone spotted McConnell inside, and suggested on Twitter that a group meet at the restaurant. Word spread quickly. A few miles away, several hundred supporters of the Democratic Socialists of America were already gathered and protesting the Trump administration’s recent immigration policies in front of Louisville’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office. Some of them left that rally and arrived at the Bristol just as McConnell and his group were getting ready to leave, cameras in hand.

This is the third time in recent weeks that a Republican member of government or Trump administration official has been accosted while dining at a restaurant. At the end of June, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. Last week in D.C., a diner and her son demanded that then-EPA chief Scott Pruitt resign; he submitted his resignation letter less than a week later.

According to the Washington Post, McConnell has not commented on the incident.

• ‘Where are the babies, Mitch?’: McConnell pursued from restaurant by angry crowd [WaPo]