Clinton: I ‘Respect’ Way Sanders Handled Restaurant Boot, But WH Can’t Expect ‘Civility’

Former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday evening told “The Daily Show’s” Trevor Noah that he “respect(s)” the way White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders handled getting booted from a Virginia restaurant over the weekend.

“She was very dignified, she didn’t chew them out, she didn’t pitch a fit, she didn’t call them ‘immigrant loving thugs’ or whatever,” he said. “She just got up and left and offered to pay, so maybe what I’d like to see is this be the beginning of something where it would be better if we started talking to each other again.”

Clinton said it would have been “better” if the owner of the rural eatery, Red Hen, hadn’t asked Sanders to leave, but he said he also respected the way the owner handled the situation. He added that that kind of demonstration can sometimes be effective on a policy level, recounting a time when a man began protesting at church because Clinton hadn’t budgeted enough funding to combat AIDS.

“And he was absolutely right,” he said.

While he said he thought Sanders handled the situation well, he said the heckling of those who work for President Donald Trump will likely continue.

“It’s hard to pour that poison down people’s throats and not have some of it come back and bubble up,” he said. “You can’t foment as much hatred as been’s fomented by the administration without having a blowback, so if they want to have more civility, they need to take the lead and stop the name calling.”