KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Kansas City area McDonald’s restaurant owner who attended the Washington rally that spawned a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol is apologizing after he wrote on social media that he was “glad” he didn’t miss the “HISTORICAL DAY.”
Jim Wagy said in a statement issued Wednesday that he was not part of the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 after a rally in which Republican Donald Trump repeated unsubstantiated claims that the presidential election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden was rigged, The Kansas City Star reports.
“I apologize for, and sincerely regret, the comments I made. At the time of my posts, I did not understand the totality of the devastation caused by the terrible attack on the Capitol,” said Wagy, who owns and operates eight restaurants.
On Facebook, Wagy said he took a 21-hour bus ride to Washington “to peacefully protest election fraud.”
“It was a HISTORICAL DAY in our history! I’m glad that I didn’t miss it!!!” he wrote on his Facebook account, which has since been deleted. He also described it as an “EPIC adventure.”
As a franchisee, Wagy is not an employee of McDonald’s, but the chain did denounce his rhetoric, describing it as “troubling and offensive.”
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