Cancel culture critic Pete Hegseth backs Florida diner's ban on Biden voters in Fox News segment

• Fox News host Pete Hegseth has been a frequent critic of cancel culture.
• Yet on Wednesday, he said he supports a Florida business denying Biden voters from entering.
• The Florida diner posted the ban in reaction to Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal.

Pete Hegseth, a co-host of the weekend edition of "Fox & Friends" who portrays himself as a recurring adversary against cancel culture, on Wednesday endorsed a business turning away customers based on who they voted for.

Appearing on the panel of "Outnumbered," Hegseth reacted to the DeBary Diner's lengthy notice telling Biden voters that they are unwelcome in the Sunshine State establishment.

"If you voted for and continue to support and stand behind the worthless, inept and corrupt administration currently inhabiting the White House that is complicit in the death of our servicemen and women in Afghanistan, please take your business elsewhere," the notice reads.

Although Hegseth has previously railed against similar moves from businesses and other entities, he remarked upon how significant the disclaimer could be in an off-election cycle.

"Yeah it's a free country, for now," Hegseth said of the business owner's decision. "And she's expressing a sentiment and speaking for a lot of people ... And the ballot box feels so far away, and even then, there are a lot of questions about election integrity for a lot of people, and so there's a lot of dismay, and they don't know where to turn.

"And ultimately a statement like that is a guttural scream that 'I love my country, I love the troops who defend it, and I don't respect those who don't, and don't stand by that,'" he continued. "So customers can make a choice, and I actually think this will lead to a lot more business for her than those who turn away."

However, Hegseth made the exact opposite argument in 2018.

"What does it say about the left that they stand in solidarity with a business that kicks out a paying customer just because of their political position?" Hegseth asked in response to a restaurant turning away then-White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Fox News host Martha MacCallum, who was also filling in on the panel, briefly raised a counterpoint harkening back to the Trump era.

"I did not like it when the Trump administration employees were chased out of restaurants or berated while they were eating," MacCallum said.

Hegseth grew in prominence over the course of the Trump administration for advocating for pardoning troops accused of war crimes.

A Princeton University graduate, he's also pushed for more privatization within the Department of Defense. Trump officials considered him for the role of Secretary of Veterans' Affairs since he's served tours in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as in Afghanistan and the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Samarra.