A Florida diner owner who told Biden supporters to eat “elsewhere” after 13 U.S. service members were killed during President Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan has been inundated with support, forcing her to temporarily close down the business Thursday after selling out of food.
“I’ve gotten so many people calling me from all over the world, from Europe, trying to purchase meals for veterans, which I still haven’t been able to organize,” said DeBary Diner owner Angie Ugarte, according to the Daily Mail.
“I think that the veterans will be fed for the rest of the year at the rate I’m getting donations,” Ugarte said.
The business owner went viral after posting a sign on her restaurant’s front door last week that directed those who still support Biden to take their “business elsewhere.”
“If you voted for and continue to support and stand behind the worthless, inept and corrupt administration currently inhabiting the White House that is complicit in the death of our servicemen and women in Afghanistan, please take your business elsewhere,” the sign reads.
As highlighted by The Daily Wire, the diner owner emphasized that many of her regular customers are U.S. veterans, “and the deaths of 13 U.S. soldiers during the chaotic and rushed exit from Afghanistan was a breaking point.”
Ugarte plans to keep the sign up on her front door until all Americans stranded in Afghanistan return to the U.S.
“It was the only thing I felt like I could do,” she told Fox 35. “I was just angry. I was just let down. I felt like one of those mothers, or wives, or sisters who were gonna get that knock on the door.”
“If you really, really still stand behind what’s allowed this to happen and the way it happened – which was unnecessary then I really don’t want to be associated with you in any way and I certainly don’t want your business,” Ugarte said.
“I’ve had people come to the door and look at it and turn around and walk away. And I’ve had people come into the kitchen while I’m cooking and say, ‘Hey, I love your sign,’” she added.
After selling out of food on Wednesday, supporters continued to visit the diner the following day, the Mail noted, “with one woman posing in front of the diner holding a Trump 2020 banner, while others coming from Daytona Beach, Hunter’s Creek near Kissimmee, and Monticello just east of Tallahassee.”
“We wanted to come over here and thank you personally,” Rod Phillips, a member of the Vietnam Veterans of America Florida State Council, told the diner owner. “I respect the presidency of the United States, but this could have been handled much better, much better.”
“Being a Vietnam veteran and combat-wounded, I don’t wish war on anybody. But there is a proper time and place to get out of there,” he added. “One American is too many to be left behind enemy lines.”
Related: Florida Restaurant Tells Biden Supporters To ‘Take Your Business Elsewhere’