Rep. Maxine Waters called on her supporters to publicly confront and harass members of the Trump administration in response to the “zero tolerance” policy that led to the separation of families at the border.
The California Democrat and vehement critic of President Donald Trump made the comments on Saturday, first at a rally in Los Angeles and later in a television interview.
“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere. We’ve got to get the children connected to their parents,” Waters said at the Wilshire Federal Building, according to video of the event.
“We don’t know what damage has been done to these children. All that we know is they’re in cages. They’re in prisons. They’re in jails. I don’t care what they call it, that’s where they are and Mr. President, we will see you every day, every hour of the day, everywhere that we are to let you know you cannot get away with this,” she added.
Waters appeared on MSNBC later in the day to double down on her remarks, saying she has “no sympathy” for members of the Trump administration.
“The people are going to turn on them. They’re going to protest. They’re going to absolutely harass them until they decide that they’re going to tell the President, ‘No, I can’t hang with you.'”
CNN reached out to Waters’ office on Monday morning and did not immediately receive a response.
Her comments were swiftly criticized. Sen. Jeff Flake, a retiring Arizona Republican who has repeatedly criticized Trump, tweeted, “Left or right, nobody deserves this kind of treatment.”
And Meghan McCain, the daughter of Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, called Waters’ comments “absolutely insane” and “extremely dangerous.”
McCain, who is also the daughter-in-law of Douglas Domenech, the current Assistant United States Secretary of the Interior for Insular Areas, asked on Twitter, “does this mean when we go out to dinner we should be ambushed?!?”