White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was kicked out of a restaurant called the Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia, on Friday night "because I work for [President Donald Trump]," she said on Twitter.
On Saturday morning, a second restaurant called the Red Hen, located in Washington, DC, tweeted out that it is not affiliated with the Red Hen that refused to serve Sanders.
The replies to the Red Hen's tweet, however, have been an absolute disaster. Turner has spent the last few days trying her best to explain to trolls how two different restaurants could have the same name and not be part of a chain.
It wouldn't even be legal for a DC-based restaurant to refuse service for political affiliation, which Turner pointed out.
The Red Hen has even been pulled into several conspiracy theories.
Which they're trying to handle as best they can.
Some people on Twitter are just tagging both Red Hens for the hell of it. It's a mess.
Turner told BuzzFeed News that while the replies may seem funny to people following along on Twitter, she's very aware that it could result in real-life violence.
Turner said that she's aware of the similarities between what's happening with the Red Hen right now and what happened as a result of the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory in December 2016. Far-right internet trolls inspired Edgar Maddison Welch, a 28-year-old from North Carolina, to go into a DC-based pizzeria with an assault rifle and fire three shots.
"The DC restaurant industry is small and close," Turner said. "It’s a lot easier for everyone outside of our community to see the humor in it."
She said that police have been monitoring the restaurant throughout the weekend. And she said that she expects police to continue monitoring the restaurant after President Donald Trump tweeted about the Virginia-based Red Hen on Monday morning.