Maxine Waters mocks: I threaten Trump supporters ‘all the time’

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) mockingly said in a speech last weekend that she threatens Trump supporters all the time, defending her comments in June that said people should confront members of President Trump’s administration.

Waters said she was not threatening Trump supporters or constituents when she called on people to confront Trump Cabinet members and supporters in June —  and said Trump was wrong to accuse her of doing so at the time.  

{mosads}”I did not threaten [Trump] constituents and supporters. I do that all the time, but I didn’t do that that time,” Waters said to laughter from a crowd in Los Angeles.

Waters also said she was not advocating any violence against political opponents and sought to draw a distinction between her remarks and Trump’s on that issue.

“What bothered me so much was, they tried to frame that as violence,” Waters said. “That’s not violence.”

“The poster child for violence is the president of the United States. He’s the one who threatens,” she explained. “Don’t forget at his rallies, when he said go ahead and beat them up, I’ll take them out on a stretcher.”

“I do not advocate violence,” she said. “I do not believe you should hit, kick, shoot.”

“We have to tell people the difference between violence and incivility and protesting,” Waters added.

Waters earned attention and criticism for the remarks from June. 

“I said, if you see them anywhere, if you see them in a restaurant, if you see them in a department store, even at a gasoline station, just tell them, you’re not welcome here or anywhere,” Waters recalled in the weekend remarks.

“Of course it frightened a lot of people,” she added.

This story was updated at 2:35 p.m. to clarify the context of Waters’s remarks.