Maxine Waters Encourages Supporters To Confront Trump Administration Officials In Public
Maxine Waters, Democratic congresswoman for California, encouraged her supporters at a rally on Saturday to confront Trump administration officials in public spaces like restaurants and stores, The Hill reports.
“I have no sympathy for these people that are in this administration who know it is wrong what they’re doing on so many fronts but they tend to not want to confront this president,” Waters said.
Congresswoman Waters added that these public confrontations are meant to encourage members of the Trump administration to distance themselves or outright oppose him and his policies.
People who work in Trump’s government have faced public pushback recently in response to their family separation policy of illegal immigrants at the Mexican border.
Protesters yelled “shame” and “End Texas concentration camps” at Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen at a Mexican restaurant last week. Protesters also blasted audio from one of the migrant children detention centers outside of Nielsen’s home.
As CNN reports, current White House Press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted that she was asked to leave a restaurant because she worked for Trump.
“Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left,” Sanders wrote. “Her actions say far more about her than about me.”
The owner of the restaurant, Stephanie Wilkinson, told The Washington Post that she asked Sanders to leave at the request of her staff and that she would do it again if she had the chance. Wilkinson said that she’s normally not a fan of confrontation but that she felt that the U.S. is at a time in its democracy where people have “to make uncomfortable actions and decisions to uphold their morals.” She cited Trump’s policies against having transgender people in the military and the “zero tolerance” policy at the border as the reasons why she did not want to serve Sanders.
At a previous White House press briefing, Sanders told reporters that it was “biblical to enforce the law” when they asked her about Attorney General Jeff Sessions using a bible verse to justify the family separation policy. Brian Karem, a White House correspondent from Playboy, stood up and confronted her on that point and asked her if she had any empathy, The Daily Beast reports.
There are some Democrats who seem to disagree with Maxine Waters’ push to confront members of the Trump administration in public spaces. According to The Hill, Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings said he thought that the restaurant owner should have served Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Maxine Waters calls for protesters to confront Trump officials in public: "Tell them they're not welcome anymore" https://t.co/6uR3wPWVMW pic.twitter.com/5MOpzyL25l
— The Hill (@thehill) June 24, 2018
