Grotto Pizza in Delaware has cancelled a campaign event for America First senate candidate Lauren Witzke following a pressure campaign from the left.
The owner of the pizza joint then opted to go to the media and lie about their reason for the last-minute cancellation.
After Witzke announced her meet and greet at the venue, the left set up petitions and began a harassment campaign to get the owner to cancel the event. Their mob tactics worked, and less than 24 hours before the event, the shop posted on Facebook that it had been cancelled.
.. a small business and its working class employees from earning a living during this pandemic.
They would rather let ordinary American workers starve than let the democratic process play out. Remember that on November 3rd!
— Lauren Witzke (@LaurenWitzkeDE) October 9, 2020
Grotto Pizza posted on Facebook that the shop “welcomes a community of diversity which includes differences in age, sex, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion and political perspective.”
“Over the past 24 hours, we were informed a private event scheduled in our Pennsylvania Avenue location this evening was actually a political ‘meet and greet’ and actively being promoted by the event organizer,” reads the Facebook post from Grotto Pizza. “Once this information was confirmed, we reached out to the organizer of the event to inform them Grotto Pizza will not allow the event to proceed in our restaurant.”
“We do not allow campaign events in any of our locations and do not support any specific candidates in any elections,” the post continues.
Witzke had personally spoke to the manager, Dan Jeffers, who knew that it was a political event at the time that it was booked.
When contacted by Gateway Pundit, Jeffers would not comment about the event or his conversation with Witzke.
The announcement about the cancellation came after a social media pressure campaign against the event by Black Lives Matter activists Kristina Kelly and Keandra Mcdole, and a Change.org petition with 294 signatures.
The petition, titled “Do Not Mix Pizza With Hate Groups,” claims that “we can agree that it is ok for venues to host political candidates, this particular candidate is representing actual hate groups and Grotto’s should be ashamed to have them on their property.” They asserted that because the Proud Boys have provided security for Witzke’s events, she should not be allowed to hold them.
Speaking to Delaware Online, Jeffrey Gosnear, vice president of Grotto Pizza Inc., claimed that they did not know the event was political and that they have banned political gatherings since the 2018 midterms. However, the Gateway Pundit can confirm that there have been multiple political events at Grotto since 2018.
Witzke campaign event at Grotto Pizza
Speaking to the Gateway Pundit, Witzke said that “we understand that Grottos is a private company and they have a right to refuse service. We also understand that harassment campaigns from Antifa and Black Lives Matter are meant to intimidate, and why businesses wouldn’t want to involve themselves in politics.”
“However, Grottos lied to the Delaware News-Journal when they said they stopped hosting political events after the 2018 midterms, and that is unacceptable. They have held events for both Democrats and Republicans after 2018. It seems that they are not anti-politics, but rather anti-Lauren Witzke. Put simply, they caved to the violent far-left mob after the harassment campaign, and attempted to lie to the people of Delaware to avoid negative publicity.”
Witzke added that, “further, I spoke personally to a manager at the Grottos location Thursday night. He not only allowed the event to proceed, but also gave outlined the rules for our event. It wasn’t until Friday morning when a different Grottos representative called us and told us our event was canceled.”
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