Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch suggested in a video statement over the weekend that more marches are needed in a time of "great fear and uncertainty" when many Americans "see our rights being assailed."
"I know that this is a time of great fear and uncertainty for so many people," said Lynch, who headed the Justice Department in the Obama administration. "I know it's a time of concern for people who see our rights being assailed, being trampled on, and even being rolled back."
"But I remind you that this has never been easy," she added.
Lynch told viewers that the public has always had "to work to move this country forward to achieve the great ideals of our Founding Fathers."
She described how this was done in the past.
"That has been people, individuals, who have banded together, ordinary people who simply saw what needed to be done and came together and supported those ideals who have made the difference," Lynch said.
Lynch then said that the people she described have marched for what they believe in and have even died doing so.
"They've marched, they've bled–yes, some of them have died," she said. "This is hard. Every good thing is. We have done this before, we can do this again."
Lynch's comments came as protests have broken out across the country since President Donald Trump was inaugurated, some of which have become violent. Many of the anti-Trump demonstrators have argued that the president is taking away their civil rights, echoing Lynch's opening two sentences in her statement.
The former attorney general did not mention Trump in her message but appeared to be insinuating that more protests are needed.
Senate Democrats shared the video over social media after it was posted online.