Leuterers Regional Desk, Little Rock, AR
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was photographed Saturday night wearing what appeared to be a Pizza Hut tablecloth fashioned into a dress while attending an all-you-can-eat, town hall-style event with local residents, according to a photo taken by an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette staffer.
Several attendees fixated on the outfit as Sanders moved through the room. One woman briefly reached toward the governor as if trying to grab a salt shaker, apparently mistaking the red-and-white check pattern for a table setting.
One attendee said the outfit’s thin, checkered fabric looked “like it still had the fold lines,” adding that it appeared to have been taken “straight off a booth” moments earlier.
A member of the catering staff later dabbed at the front of the dress after Sanders dribbled meatball sauce on it, according to an attendee. Following that a busboy attempted to clear it and wipe it down.
Sanders said she liked the dress and told reporters she was considering making another outfit from “a patchwork of Denny’s menus.”
Asked about the source of the tablecloth, Sanders said she took it after learning her favorite pizza—the “Seven Meat Bomb”—cost $53.00, calling it “the least Pizza Hut could do.” She did not say whether the restaurant had given permission.
A Pizza Hut employee, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the governor “set a bad example” by walking off with the tablecloth. A delivery driver who was at the event put it more bluntly: “Two crimes were committed here. One, she stole the tablecloth. Two, she turned it into a dress.”
Sanders offered to replace the missing linen by buying a tablecloth at a Fabric World store, according to an aide. Local prosecutors said they do not plan to pursue theft charges. They declined to comment on whether the photograph itself could be considered a public nuisance.