Former President Bill Clinton said he has “a lot of respect” for the way White House press secretary Sarah Sanders handled herself after being asked to leave a restaurant in Virginia because she works for the Trump administration.
“Would it be better if that didn’t happen? I think it would,” Clinton told late night comedian Trevor Noah on his Tuesday night show.
The former president said he read about the incident and had respect for how the Red Hen restaurant owner debated why she kicked Sanders out of the restaurant, but said he “also had a lot of respect for the way Sarah Huckabee Sanders handled it.”
Clinton said Sanders handled the situation with dignity and commended her for quietly leaving, while still offering to pay.
“Maybe what I’d like to see is that this be the beginning of something where it would be better if we started talking to each other again,” Clinton said of the incident. “Sooner or later, people have to stop tearing each other down and go to work. But I think you can’t foment as much hatred as has been fomented by the administration without having a blowback. So if they want to have civility, they have to stop the name-calling and take the lead.”
Last Friday, Sanders was asked to leave a 26-seat restaurant in Lexington, Va., where she was dining with family and friends. The owner made it clear the motivation behind kicking her out was because of her position in the Trump administration.
[Also read: Red Hen hit by ‘chicken s–t’ protest after Sarah Sanders booted from restaurant over the weekend]
