Photo : Aaron P. Bernstein ( Getty Images ) Restaurants are theoretically safe places where you can enjoy your chicken chimichangas in peace. But as part of a growing national trend, they have become—if you’re involved in politics—a place where those who oppose your viewpoints can confront you or refuse you service. Advertisement Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant last month (no, not that Red Hen). Department Of Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was confronted at a Mexican restaurant. Just today, a bartender reportedly cursed at White House senior adviser Stephen Miller as he picked up takeout sushi. Now comes news that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was pursued in the parking lot of a Louisville, Kentucky restaurant by what the Washington Post described as “an angry crowd.” On Saturday, protesters had gathered at the Louisville branch of the Immigration And Customs Enforcement Office when word came that McConnell was dining at a restaurant several miles away. Through social media, a chapter of the Democratic Socialists Of America then mobilized their ranks toward the restaurant. When McConnell walked out of the restaurant’s back door, he was confronted by the group—several holding cameras. Chants of “Where are the babies, Mitch!”, “Turtle head!”, and “We know where you live, Mitch!” rained down upon the Senate Majority Leader, the Post reported. The Louisville Courier-Journal stated that one protester blared Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power” from a loudspeaker.<doc-sep>‘‘If the Leader comments on being called a fascist and a supporter of ICE by a small handful of extremist protesters then I will let you know,’’ McConnell’s spokesman, David Popp, wrote to The Washington Post after the incident. The Louisville encounter was the second time in two weeks that McConnell’s private life has been disrupted by a spontaneous protest - and it was the latest in a weeks-long series of confrontations between powerful Republicans and those eager to shame them on camera, wherever they are found. A group of Democratic Socialists and other angry protesters pursued Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell through a restaurant parking lot in Kentucky on Saturday, berating him with a mixture of immigration rhetoric and personal insults — and at one point an apparent threat to visit his home. Advertisement McConnell - who supports the Trump administration’s detention of families who illegally cross the border, but opposed the president’s short-lived policy of separating parents from their children - was having lunch Saturday at Bristol Bar & Grille, in his hometown. As it happened, hundreds of people were protesting outside Lousiville’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office, just a few miles from the restaurant. Among them were leaders of the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, whose national fame has been growing since one of its members upset the Democratic incumbent in a New York primary last month. So when someone spotted McConnell at the restaurant and asked for help confronting him, the socialist group helped spread the word on social media. And within a few minutes - just as happened after Trump’s homeland security secretary was spotted dining last month (and then Trump’s press secretary and his EPA administrator a few days after that (and McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao, (who is also President Donald Trump’s transportation secretary) in a separate incident as they left a dinner two weeks ago) - a scene was made outside the Bristol Bar & Grille. Advertisement At least half a dozen people, several with cameras, were waiting in front of the restaurant when McConnell walked out, with his checkered shirt tucked into his jeans and two dining companions at his side. ‘‘Vote you out, vote you out!’’ the crowd began to chant. ‘‘Where are the children?’’ one of them asked, not for the last time. The three men didn’t stop or slow, or even look at the crowd, though someone shouted ‘‘Go home!’’ As McConnell’s party turned a corner into the parking lot, a woman with an ankle-length dress and a backpack tried to block their path. She walked a step ahead of the Senate’s top Republican, and the rest of the crowd followed close behind, still chanting and shouting. ‘‘Where are the babies, Mitch?’’ ‘‘Turtle head!’’ The Democratic Socialists claimed several members in the crowd. But Andrew Massie, whose video of the confrontation went viral, said later that the socialists didn’t invite the man who called the majority leader ‘‘turtle head’’ - and a few moments later shouted: ‘‘We know where you live too, Mitch! We know where you live! Yeah! We know where you live, Mitch!’’ McConnell still said nothing; he simply climbed into the back seat of an SUV with a ‘‘Team Mitch’’ sticker on the window. The two other men (one of them a top state Republican, according to the Courier-Journal) got into the front, and the protesters could only shout at them as the engine fired up. Advertisement ‘‘Abolish ICE, abolish ICE!’’ they chanted. ‘‘No justice, no peace!’’ ‘‘No comfort for fascists!’’ said the turtlehead man. ‘‘We did good, fellow citizens,’’ one of group congratulated the rest as the Highlander headed toward the alley. And true enough, video of the impromptu protest would be seen by hundreds of thousands of people, and make national news, and be praised by those on the left who think Trump’s allies deserve no peaceful meals while hundreds of migrant children are still being held from their parents. But not everyone thought so. As McConnell’s SUV left the parking lot, one of the videographers turned around to see a red convertible idling behind them, its driver glaring. ‘‘Let them live their lives,’’ the man said as he pulled up beside the group. ‘‘It’s none of your f----ing business.’’ Now a few of the protesters stopped chanting after the departed majority leader and turned on this driver who would dare confront the confronters. ‘‘What a potty mouth!’’ a woman behind the camera jeered. ‘‘Keep on talking, fella, you’re going to be a star.’’ Like McConnell, the man in the convertible made no reply. He soon left the parking lot, too, accompanied by indistinguishable angry screams.<doc-sep>
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]