A Buffalo Wild Wings in Michigan canceled a viewing party for President Trump’s Thursday evening rally, prompting the top echelons of the GOP to call in the social-media troops and resulting in a quick reversal.
The Livingston County Republican Party had its viewing event for the Minneapolis rally canceled by the restaurant in Howell after it had received a “number of complaints,” party chairwoman Meghan Reckling told the Livingston Post.
The restaurant “canceled our event and we are no longer welcome to use the premises tonight,” she said.
Enter the top national echelons of the GOP.
Republican National Committee chair Ronna Romney McDaniel attributed the cancellation to left-wing political correctness, something the chain would later deny while confirming that the cancellation and reversal had happened.
“Just learned @BWWings cancelled a Michigan viewing party for @realDonaldTrump’s rally,” she wrote on Twitter on Thursday evening.
She urged her 375,000 followers to call both the restaurant and BWW’s corporate offices — and including their respective phone numbers — to “tell them the left’s cancel culture has gone too far.”
Just learned @BWWings cancelled a Michigan viewing party for @realDonaldTrump’s rally.
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) October 10, 2019
Call the restaurant 517-545-2100 and their corporate office 866-704-0777 & tell them the left’s cancel culture has gone too far.
The left’s tactics won’t stop us from keeping MI red in 2020!
She proclaimed that “the left’s tactics won’t stop us from keeping MI red in 2020!”
Brad Parscale, who manages Mr. Trump’s reelection campaign, amplified the message, retweeting Mrs. McDaniel’s post and exhorting his 395,000 followers to “Call! Let them know.”
Call! Let them know. https://t.co/ROZIWikjRy
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) October 10, 2019
Just before the rally began, the viewing party was back on.
“Buffalo Wild Wings has agreed to work with us on tonight’s event and for that we are grateful,” Ms. Reckling told the Livingston Post.
Christopher Fuller, a spokesman for Buffalo Wild Wings, wrote to The Washington Times to note that the restaurant in question is franchise-owned.
He said neither the chain as a whole nor its corporate parent — Ms. Reckling had first blamed the cancellation on “Corporate” — had anything to do with what he described as a mistake by a shift manager “not based on political motivations or pressure.”
“The viewing event at the franchise-owned restaurant was inadvertently cancelled based on a misunderstanding, but was quickly reinstated. The group has in fact previously hosted events at the restaurant without incident. The franchise owner apologizes for the misunderstanding,” Mr. Fuller said.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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