Mexican Restaurant Owners Harassed After Attending Donald Trump Rally
Last week, the owners of Tucson, Arizona restaurant Sammy’s Mexican Grill, Betty and Jorge Rivas, were spotted at Donald Trump‘s Phoenix campaign rally in the VIP area. After a photo of the pair’s appearance was posted to the Facebook group of Grupo de Palfeis, a marketplace for the advertisement of goods and services, The Arizona Daily Star reported that the restaurant drew a barrage of negative comments.
From Grupo de Palfeis, the stream of negative comments moved to Yelp and Google, where Sammy’s Mexican Grill continued to be attacked.
“Very ugly stuff. They are saying nasty stuff about the restaurant,” said owner Jorge Rivas.
As reported by KOLD, Jorge and his wife have been accused of racism for their support of Trump.
“Just yesterday I had a few guys say ‘you guys are — you’re racists, you’re evil, you’re the worst of the worst.'”
After the incident, Jorge and Betty posted a video to Facebook in which they defended their rights as “naturalized American citizens.”
“Just because we are Latinos, it doesn’t mean that we have to feel like every other Latino in this country,” Jorge said in the video.
“We are individuals and we feel that we have the constitutional right to meet and support whoever we want.”
Great get out the vote event today at Sammy's Mexican Grill in Catalina! We won over some undecided voters today and everyone else is getting more people to the polls! Thank you Sheriff Joe and Supervisor Miller for coming as well! #AZ01 #FlipAZ01 #TeamWendy #VoteNOV6th pic.twitter.com/daZ6DBeOu2
— Wendy Rogers (@WendyRogersAZ) November 3, 2018
It’s not the first time the Rivas’ have faced backlash for their support of Trump. In 2016, Betty was invited on stage with Trump during a March 2016 campaign rally in Ruscon Arena, which led to hateful phone calls.
Despite the pushback, Jorge says that business at Sammy’s Mexican Grill has remained unaffected.
“People know us quite well in this area. I feel more than anything they know who we are. We are not mean, bad or racist people. They know what they see posted online is a bunch of crap.”
According to Jorge, the pair have no plans to step out of the public eye or take a different approach to their business.
Threats and violence against Trump supporters have drawn media attention on many occasions. As The Inquisitr previously reported, earlier this month, a woman was accused of punching retired NYPD police officer, Daniel Sprague, for the hat he was wearing. According to Sprague, he believes his red hat was mistaken for a MAGA hat.
In another case, a Florida man in a Trump costume was punched by a teenager as he waited in line for a haunted house attraction that took place at e Collier County fairgrounds.
