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Royal Oak's Duggan's Irish Pub took to social media on Thursday to say it denounces far-right groups like the Proud Boys after a viral photo showed what appeared to be members of the group drinking at the bar.
In a now-deleted Facebook post, Duggan's said it does not support "white supremacy groups" and called posts that suggested otherwise "a deliberate and vicious lie conceived to damage and hurt Duggan’s business":
Duggan’s is being maliciously slandered and falsely accused of supporting white supremacy groups. A person (with his/her name and date deliberately crossed out) posted a picture on Duggan’s Facebook page that was taken several years ago (when we had carpeting on the second floor) of a few men in our establishment, one of which was wearing a shirt that said Proud Boys on it. UNTIL TODAY, WE DID NOT EVEN KNOW WHO THE PROUD BOYS ARE OR WHAT THEY REPRESENT. We are a restaurant not a political establishment. Duggan’s does not post any political signage or advertisements in our establishment. We do not ask our customers what their political beliefs are. DUGGAN’S DOES NOT SUPPORT OR CONDONE ANY HATE GROUPS. We welcome everyone from all ethnicities. To claim otherwise is a deliberate and vicious lie conceived to damage and hurt Duggan’s business. It is a shame that social media allows people to make false accusations, and it is a further shame that some people automatically believe the false accusations simply because they read them on social media.
A photo making the rounds on social media appears to show three men wearing the Proud Boys' signature black and gold shirts drinking at Duggan's. A caption claims that the group frequents the bar.
Duggan’s in Royal Oak openly supports the proud boys as customers. The proud boys are an openly violent white supremacist group, they want people like me and other marginalized folks dead. If you claim to be an ally to black people, LGBTQ+ people, and others, DO NOT GO THERE pic.twitter.com/ZuUY6OfFn9
— Hank (@Mountaingoat_69) October 1, 2020
A Duggan's employee told Metro Times that the management still condemns hate groups, but deleted the post because it was attracting too much vitriol.
"There was a lot of hateful, bad comments on it, so they decided to take it down to not encourage it anymore," the employee said.
In 2017, Michigan Republicans for Trump gathered at Duggan’s Irish Pub in Royal Oak for a support rally that turned violent, resulting in the arrest of one anti-Trump protester.
The Proud Boys are in the news because during Tuesday night's shitshow of a debate, President Donald Trump was asked to condemn the white supremacist groups that have supported him. It was an easy question — a layup, really — and of course Trump fucked it up. Instead of simply denouncing hate groups, Trump responded in the weirdest way possible, saying, "Proud Boys, stand back and standby" — echoing when he said there were "very fine people, on both sides" of the clash between white nationalist groups and protesters in Charlottesville in 2017.
The Proud Boys quickly celebrated Trump's comments as a sign of support, emblazoning the quote on memes and shirts.
On Thursday, Trump told Fox News's Sean Hannity that he does not condone hate groups.
"Let me be clear again: I condemn the KKK. I condemn all white supremacists," he said. "I condemn the Proud Boys. I don't know much about the Proud Boys, almost nothing, but I condemn that."
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