Red Hen and Sarah Sanders controversy hits Vermont bakery

Associated Press | Burlington Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Red Hen owner resigns from business group The owner of the Lexington, Virginia restaurant where Sarah Huckabee Sanders was refused service is reportedly stepping down from a local business group. Nathan Rousseau Smith has the story.

MIDDLESEX — A Vermont bakery called the Red Hen has received angry messages from people confused with a similarly named Virginia restaurant that refused to serve White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Red Hen Bakery co-owner Randy George tells WCAX-TV the negative messages about his eatery in Middlesex, Vermont, have come by phone and online.

Seven-hundred miles away, the owner of the Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia, asked Sanders to leave the restaurant Friday, citing the concerns of employees who are gay and know Sanders had defended President Donald Trump's desire to bar transgender people from serving in the military.

George says his bakery isn't affiliated with the Virginia eatery. He says everyone is welcome.

Other unaffiliated Red Hen establishments in Connecticut, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., also have been targeted.