RICHMOND, Va. -- The owner of a Richmond food truck is calling his Facebook post about attending President Trump's rally Wednesday a "mistake." That rally came before the rampage at the U.S. Capitol that left five people dead and briefly delayed the Electoral College tally.
Billy Metzger usually spends his time inventing and making Cajun food for his Curbside Creations food truck, but on Wednesday he decided to travel to DC to exercise his freedom of speech.
"They were doing the votes that day, and I just felt the calling that I wanted to go and see what it was going to be," Metzger said.
Although investigations into the voting process have not found any significant irregularities, Metzger said he did not believe the presidential election was legitimate, and he wanted to voice his opinion at President Donald Trump's rally.
"It was a historic thing," Metzger said. "It was very peaceful and nice the whole time."
But, a post he made on his personal Facebook page from the event has people on social media upset, and accusing Metzger of participating in the violent mob that invaded the capital.
In the post he wrote, "What a day...I made it to the front doors of the capitol, took a few flash bangs but missed the pepper spray and rubber bullets."
Metzger said the post was "100 percent" a "mistake."
"I did a horrible job of wording it," Metzger said.
Metzger said he did march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the capitol, but once there he stopped at the fence and turned around.
"When I said the doors I wasn't meaning literally," Metzger said. "I went up to the front behind the fence at the very beginning because the flash bangs were going off, trying to see what that was, when I saw what it was and felt what it was I was like this isn't for me and I went back."
He even showed us a photo that he said shows his GPS coordinates on the day of the event.
They show that he went up to the fence but no further.
"100 percent I don't support people who broke into the capitol. I don't support anyone who does any violence, that's not what this rally was supposed to be about, and if I had known it would have been that I wouldn't have been there," Metzger said.
But now Metzger and his family are facing a major backlash.
Metzger was the President of the Richmond Food Truck Association, but according to a post on their Facebook page, the group demanded his resignation stating that he made an irresponsible decision to participate in a rally that led to abhorrent violence, and is contradictory to the values and beliefs of the association.
"The now-former president of the Richmond Food Truck Association made the decision to participate in the rally in Washington, DC, that led to abhorrent violence against our Capitol and American democracy," The Richmond Food Truck Association posted Thursday. "In doing so, he made an irresponsible decision that is contradictory to the values and beliefs of the highly diverse and community-oriented membership of the association, and a unilateral decision that potentially compromised the businesses of over fifty other food truck operators."
Metzger said he voluntarily resigned immediately.
"This was my mess, and I needed to fix it," Metzger said.
But, his business has received over 200 negative Yelp reviews since his post.
"I've had death threats, I've had aerial photos of my house, my address, it's overwhelming," Metzger said. "I'm just a small business trying to make a living, for people to do that over me going to a rally is just unacceptable."
