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Former Bush cabinet member: 'I'm not worried about' Sarah Sanders

Former George W. Bush cabinet official Carlos Gutierrez said on CNN's State of the Union with Jake Tapper that he's not worried about White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders after a Virginia restaurant owner requested that she leave the restaurant.

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Ryan Struyk (CNN)
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former George W. Bush cabinet official Carlos Gutierrez said on CNN's State of the Union with Jake Tapper that he's not worried about White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders after a Virginia restaurant owner requested that she leave the restaurant.

Instead, the former Fortune 500 company CEO expressed concern about racial and ethnic minority children growing up in the United States with President Donald Trump in office. Gutierrez has been a frequent critic of Trump; he endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

"I'm sorry that Sarah Huckabee Sanders had a bad day. I'm not worried about Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I'm worried about the African-American kid in school who gets harassed by kids who think they have a license to harass because the President says so," said the former Secretary of Commerce.

"I'm worried about the Hispanic kid, the Hispanic-American citizen, who is harassed at school and called a member of MS-13 because the President calls immigrants from Hispanic countries members of MS-13," he told Tapper. "I'm not worried about Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I'm worried about millions of kids that today are seeing a different America."

Gutierrez, also the former CEO of Kellogg Company, worked closely on the issue of immigration for the George W. Bush administration. He was born in Cuba, came to the US in 1960 and studied in Queretaro, Mexico, according to the White House' archived website from the Bush administration.

Sanders said in a tweet on Saturday that she was asked to leave the Red Hen restaurant by its owner in Lexington, Virginia.

"Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so," Sanders tweeted.

The owner of the Red Hen restaurant, Stephanie Wilkinson, told the Washington Post that her staff felt uncomfortable with Sanders in the restaurant.

"I have a business, and I want the business to thrive. This feels like the moment in our democracy when people have to make uncomfortable actions and decisions to uphold their morals," she told the Washington Post.

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