A restaurant in Florida has a message for President Joe Biden’s supporters: go eat somewhere else.
Angie Ugarte, owner of the DeBary Diner in DeBary, posted a sign on her restaurant’s front door last week directing supporters of the president to find somewhere else to dine. Ugarte said she posted the message the day that 13 U.S. service members died from a terror attack in Afghanistan during the United States’ withdrawal.
“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 says.
Ugarte said that many of her regular customers are vets, and the deaths of 13 U.S. soldiers during the chaotic and rushed exit from Afghanistan was a breaking point. She said she plans to leave the sign up until all Americans still stranded in Afghanistan return to the U.S.
“It was the only thing I felt like I could do,” Ugarte 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,” she said.
Ugarte added that she has gotten mixed reactions about the sign, turning off some customers and earning compliments from others.
“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,’” Ugarte said.
Biden completed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on Monday, one day before his self-imposed deadline of August 31. The final U.S. troops left Afghanistan days after ISIS-K, an Islamic State-affiliated terror group, attacked Kabul’s airport where the U.S. was overseeing NATO evacuation operations.
A suicide bomber detonated outside of one of the airport’s main gates and other militants opened fire on the airport. Thirteen U.S. service members died in the attack along with dozens of Afghan civilians. The U.S. launched two drone strikes against ISIS-K targets in response to the attack. One strike killed a purported planner for the terror group while another struck a car full of Afghan civilians, killing 10 people including children, according to reports.
The U.S. withdrawal has effectively stranded hundreds of American citizens still believed to be in Afghanistan, as well as thousands of Afghans who worked with the U.S. military during its two-decade occupation in the country.
The Biden White House has claimed that the U.S. holds an “enormous amount of leverage” over the Taliban that can be used to retrieve the stranded Americans and others. That leverage includes potential international aid to Afghans as well as “access to the global marketplace.”
Related: Pentagon Announces Official End To U.S. War In Afghanistan