A man walked into a metro Atlanta vape shop and was immediately asked to leave.
His offense? Wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat and a shirt supporting President Donald Trump.
The man posted a video of his experience with an irate employee at Xhale City in Tucker to YouTube on Friday, and the video had quickly racked up almost 700,000 views as of Monday afternoon.
The clerk has since been fired, Xhale City said on Facebook. He was not identified.
WARNING: This video contains vulgar language throughout the recording: Vape shop employee in rage over customer in Trump shirt
In the video, the customer asked an already exasperated clerk about purchasing some vape juice for his wife’s e-cigarettes. The clerk refused, telling him to stop recording and leave the store.
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The clerk told the man he would not serve anyone who supports the president, calling Trump treasonous and racist and punctuating his remarks with a string of expletives. At several points during their encounter, the clerk screamed expletives at the top of his lungs, the video shows.
Another customer, who is black, is shown standing near the counter looking dumbfounded but keeping to himself. The two men, who are both white, involve him anyway.
“I don’t have a problem with you, sir, whatsoever,” the first customer said to the second. “I just want good healthcare for my kids. I don’t have any problem with the color of your skin, or yours.”
At one point, it appeared the clerk flings his arms toward the man recording the video. The man claimed assault and told the clerk he would not call his corporate bosses or the police if the clerk would just sell him the product he needed for his wife.
For a moment, the clerk appeared to calm down and grabbed the product off the shelf. Then the man recording threw a verbal jab of his own.
“God bless America,” he said. “Capitalism wins again.”
Things escalated from there.
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“(Expletive) your capitalism,” the clerk said in the video. “(Expletive) your president. He's a racist, stupid piece of (expletive). You're a racist, stupid piece of (expletive).”
The video ended without any transaction taking place.
Xhale City announced the clerk’s termination a few hours later.
“Tonight, we had an employee act improperly toward a customer,” the business said in a statement. “Xhale City does not tolerate this kind of behavior from its employees. When we identified the employee at fault, we fired him immediately. We've also spoken to the customer and apologized. We value our clients and treat them with respect and dignity, regardless of their political views.”
The DeKalb County Police Department confirmed it received a call for service from the location, “but the caller canceled the call prior to the police officer's arrival. Therefore there was not an incident report done,” spokesman Sgt. J.D. Spencer said.
Xhale City posted a second video to its Facebook page on Sunday showing the customer had returned, still in his black MAGA hat. He said he harbored no ill will toward the business and would continue to shop there.
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