Radford bakery that turned Biden away sells out of 'freedom cookies'

The viral reaction to Chris the Baker shows the continuing resonance of "You didn't build that" in the presidential campaign.

By Mason Adams | The Roanoke Times

Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Kelly and Chris McMurray, owners of Crumb & Get It Cookie Company.

RADFORD — An Ohio man’s interaction with candidate Barack Obama in 2008 gave rise to “Joe the Plumber.”

Now, a Radford businessman’s decision not to host an “unscheduled” campaign event with Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday has sparked a news story that’s gone viral and led to a surge in business.

Just call him, “Chris the Baker.”

Chris McMurray had just opened his bakery, Crumb and Get It, Wednesday morning when he received a visit from Biden’s advance team asking if he’d host the vice president for a media event on the way to his scheduled speech at Virginia Tech.

McMurray politely declined out of a difference in politics, and Biden instead went up the street to the River Street Grill instead.

Later that day, WDBJ (Channel 7) reporter Orlando Salinas received a tip about Crumb and Get It via text message. The resulting story was picked up by the Drudge Report and a series of conservative blogs, leading to an outpouring of support online and at the store on Thursday.

At noon, McMurray turned down an interview request because he was too busy fielding a steady stream of orders, both from customers at the store and out-of-state patrons. A little more than an hour later, he closed the store because it had run out of cookie dough. It reopened a few minutes later, but with a sign in the window noting that only ice cream was being sold.

“It’s been a great day, a lot of great support,” McMurray said when he had a moment to talk. “A lot of folks are calling orders from out of state for local businesses and charities. That’s what we’ve got to catch up on.”

McMurray said the exchange with the Biden advance team had taken place just after he opened the store at 10 a.m.

“They said, ‘This is a place that we’ve identified for Mr. Biden’s stop,’ and they asked permission, if that would be OK,” McMurray said. “After much thought, I respectively declined. The exchange was very kind. It wasn’t at all heated. It was not at all hoarse. Even when she departed, it wasn’t at all ill-mannered. They were very nice. I told her no offense to the vice president, and she received that. We just had a difference of opinion politically.”

McMurray said that “convictions about my faith” factored into his decision not to host Biden. On a wall at the back of the bakery is painted this slogan, “Family: One of God’s masterpieces.”

The other reason that McMurray declined was President Obama’s attitude toward business.

“Very simply, ‘You didn’t build that’ [Obama] speaking of small businesses and entrepreneurs all across the country,” McMurray told WDBJ’s Salinas on Wednesday evening.

Obama made the remark during his July appearance in downtown Roanoke. Republicans seized on the comment as an example of the president's disdain for small business; Obama and his Democratic Party defenders say he was speaking about public infrastructure and his comment has been taken out of context. At least three nonpartisan campaign fact-checking organizations have come to similar conclusions. Still, the political reaction was so strong that Obama filmed a TV commercial within days further explaining his support for small business.

After the WDBJ story aired, McMurray said, “It just went bananas. Great support. It’s been wonderful. Of course we’ve had a few people who’ve been very critical, but by far the vast majority has been supportive and encouraging.”

At one point during the lunch hour on Thursday, two dozen people stood in line waiting to order cookies.

Jackie Moore of Radford said he’d before never visited Crumb and Get It, but he ordered a dozen cookies after seeing McMurray’s story.

“I stand with them,” Moore said. “I don’t believe you should be pushed into entertaining the vice president if you don’t agree with him.”

Many others felt the same.