Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) said on Saturday that she threatens President Donald Trump supporters "all the time" but that she wasn't promoting "violence" in June when she called on supporters to harass Trump administration officials.
Waters was speaking to a group in Los Angeles when she attempted to clarify her previous comments.
"I did not threaten [Trump] constituents and supporters. I do that all the time, but I didn't do that that time," she said. Her comment was met with laughter from the crowd.
In June, Waters said, "If you see anybody from [Trump's] 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, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere."
Trump responded on Twitter, writing, "Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person, has become, together with Nancy Pelosi, the Face of the Democrat Party. She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement. Be careful what you wish for Max!"
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1011295779422695424
During the Los Angeles event, Waters repeated the statement she made in June, defending it and criticizing those who classified it as violence.
She said, "What bothered me so much was they tried to frame that as violence. That was not violence. The poster child for violence is the president of the United States." People in the crowd responded in agreement, with one women yelling "amen."
"I do not advocate violence. I do not believe you should hit, kick, shoot ... We have to tell people the difference between violence and incivility and protesting," Waters said.
Waters made the remarks at an event hosted by the Stonewall Young Democratic Club where she received the group's "Lifetime Achievement Award" for her work "leading the fight to protect our Democratic ideals."