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'Guilty Of Stupidity': Eastham Restaurant Owner Regrets Attending President Trump Rally

EASTHAM (CBS) - The owner of a long-time restaurant in Eastham says his reputation is on the line after attending the President's speech in Washington, D.C. last week. "I've done nothing wrong, I'm guilty of stupidity," said Nate Nickerson, owner of Arnold's Lobster and Clam Bar.

He says he attended the rally at the invitation of a friend and was far back in the crowd, barely able to hear the president's words. But now he's the subject of death threats and threats to boycott his Cape Cod restaurant because he says he's been associated with the rioters. "I've been called a domestic terrorist, Hitler, that I went there to promote civil war," he said.

Nate Nickerson
Nate Nickerson (WBZ-TV)

Nickerson insists he was not near the violence when it broke out at the Capitol and denounces it. "What they did was incomprehensible, it's not acceptable, beyond not acceptable it's horrible," he said.

Nickerson said he's not an ardent Trump supporter, but has supported some of his policies. He says he made the decision to go on a whim, a whim he now regrets. "Ask me if I would go there now knowing what I know, and answer is of course not," Nickerson said. "I was in the right place at the wrong time, I'm a little grain of sand."

But his attendance has rubbed many the wrong way, to the point he had feared losing his business and is shaken by the backlash. "I knew people hated President Trump but I had no idea the level of hatred there is for this man," Nickerson said.

He says he's never experienced the kind of hatred that is now being leveled at him, and hopes he can set the record straight. "I'm really angry, so angry," he said.

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