Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), a ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee, said on Monday that she refuses to sit down with President-elect Donald Trump to find common ground on policy differences.
MSNBC host Jacob Soboroff asked Waters whether she agreed with incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D., N.Y.) strategy of working with the Trump administration on areas they can find agreement.
"No, absolutely. I do not agree. I tell you that been a problem in my party that when we are in power, we are nice. We bend over backwards to work with people," Waters said. "Trump has stepped on everybody. He has no respect for his own colleagues, let alone those on the opposite side of the aisle."
Waters continued by asking why she or Democrats should trust Trump when "he'll tell you more thing today and another thing tomorrow."
"I have no intention of pretending everything is alright and that we are going to work together. For me, as the ranking member of the Financial Service Committee, where he said he's going to bring down Dodd-Frank and he's going to get rid of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, I am going to fight him every inch of the way," Waters said.
Soboroff asked Waters to clarify whether she would refuse to sit down with Trump if she received an invitation to meet on common grounds at the White House.
"Oh no, I won't go," Waters said. "I'm not going to sit down with him. I'm not going to go. I'm not going to pretend. Enough pretending. This business of calling names and lying and retreating on your promises, et cetera. Why should I trust him to be any different with me?"
Waters then reminded Soboroff that she is a ranking member on the Financial Services Committee and that she worked very hard to implement the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms following the 2008 financial crisis. She even went as far to say that the banks got away with "murder."
"No, I don't trust him. I don't believe him. I have no intentions of sitting down with him. I'm going to fight him every inch of the way," Waters said
Waters' strategy of refusing to find common ground with the incoming Trump administration conflicts with Schumer's promise to work with the administration.
Schumer told ABC News’ Jon Karl and Rick Klein during their "Powerhouse Politics" podcast last week that he thinks Trump's $1 trillion infrastructure plan sounded good to him.
"We’re not going to oppose something simply because it has the name Trump on it, but we will certainly not sacrifice our principles just to get something done," Schumer said.