Trump cautions Waters after her calls for harassment
The Washington Post
President Donald Trump warned Rep. Maxine Waters on Monday to “be careful what you wish for,” offering a provocative rebuke to the California Democrat who has called for the continuing public harassment of Trump administration officials.
Taking to Twitter, Mr. Trump called Ms. Waters “an extraordinarily low IQ person” -- a moniker he has bestowed on her before -- and cautioned that he has a massive movement behind him.
“She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Be careful what you wish for Max!”
Ms. Waters, who has represented various Southern California districts in Congress since 1991, leaned into her more recent role as a leader of the anti-Trump resistance over the weekend, earning widespread condemnation as she called for the public to “absolutely harass” Mr. Trump’s Cabinet officials on the streets, lest they help their boss turn the presidency into a dictatorship.
“The American people have put up with this president long enough. What more do we need to see? What more lies do we need to hear?” Ms. Waters shouted at a rally in Los Angeles on Saturday. “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!”
Her comments came a day after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant. Ms. Sanders’ aborted dinner party followed spontaneous street protests against other Trump aides and allies, including Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who left a Mexican restaurant to cries of “Shame!” last week. Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller also was forced out of a restaurant over the weekend.
The flash mobs are inspired, in particular, by the administration’s new “zero tolerance” policy on undocumented migrants — whom Mr. Trump said should be stripped of their due-process rights — that resulted in the forced separation of thousands of children from their immigrant parents at the southern border.
But Ms. Waters’ indignation encompasses the entire Trump presidency — not just what he’s done, but who she says he is.
“He loves the strongmen and the dictators of the world because he wants to be just like them. He wants to run the country like them,” the congresswoman told MSNBC on Sunday, a day after her rally.
“And I want to tell you,” she said, “for these members of his Cabinet who remain and try to defend him, they’re not going to be able to go to a restaurant, to be able to stop at a gas station, to be able to shop at a department store. The people are going to turn on them, they’re going to protest, they’re going to absolutely harass them until they tell the president: ‘No, I can’t hang with you.’”
Her call to drive Trump officials from public life has made her a hero to many on the left — and has disturbed not only Trump supporters but some moderates and Democrats who accuse her of hastening the country’s descent from centuries-old civic standards.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pushed back against Ms. Waters in a Monday morning tweet that referenced a news story about her colleague’s comments.
“In the crucial months ahead, we must strive to make America beautiful again,” wrote Ms. Pelosi, who herself has been shouted down by protesters in San Francisco. “Trump’s daily lack of civility has provoked responses that are predictable but unacceptable. As we go forward, we must conduct elections in a way that achieves unity from sea to shining sea.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York went even further on the Senate floor Monday, saying that copying the president’s abusive tactics isn’t the answer.
“No one should call for the harassment of political opponents. That’s not right. That’s not American,” he said.
Some Republicans were less subtle in their condemnation of Ms. Waters.
Appearing on Fox News, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said what Ms. Waters was doing is “very dangerous.”
“She should apologize to the American public,” Mr. McCarthy said. He also urged Ms. Pelosi to stand up to her.
At Monday’s White House press briefing, Ms. Sanders referred to the Red Hen restaurant incident and said that all Americans should be allowed to disagree “freely and without fear of harm.”
Mr. Trump also targeted the Red Hen by using his 53million-follower Twitter account as if he were posting a restaurant review on Yelp.
“The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders,” he wrote. “I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!”
The restaurant’s most recent health inspection showed no violations and complimented the staff.