A CNN panel blasted Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) on Monday because of her calls for people to harass Trump administration officials.
Several Trump administration officials have been confronted recently while trying to dine out. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen was confronted by protesters in a Mexican restaurant near the White House last Tuesday night and had to leave. Senior White House Adviser Stephen Miller was also yelled at two nights before as he at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was the latest Trump administration official to experience similar condemnation at a restaurant. Sanders and several family members were at the Red Hen restaurant in Virginia on Friday night when restaurant co-owner Stephanie Wilkinson approached the party and asked them to leave. When asked why she told Sanders to leave, Wilkinson told the Washington Post that Sanders works for a "inhumane and unethical" administration.
Over the weekend, Waters encouraged these type of incidents to continue.
"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," Waters said.
A.B. Stoddard, associate editor for Real Clear Politics, called Waters' comments "beyond overreach" and said it was outrageous for her to be stoking mob mentality.
"This is beyond overreach. It is so outrageous that she is trying to motivate voters on her side to be as divisive as President Trump," Stoddard said. "It is – I just find it really unbelievable that this is the kind of thing they are trying to stoke this mob mentality on the left."
CNN senior political analyst John Avalon said Trump officials being harassed in public will motivate Republican voters in the 2018 midterm elections.
"If Republicans are feeling a bit divided about the president, maybe a bit demoralized about the lack of the Republican Party in Congress standing up for the president, this is exactly the kind of thing that is going to get them motivated because it will create a veneer of moral equivalence," Avalon said. "If we get to a place as a country where it is open season on anyone if they serve in an administration – when mob rule starts being advocated by elected officials – that is bad for everybody."
Playboy reporter and CNN contributor Brian Karem said Waters proved nothing is worse than a Republican other than a Democrat.
"I might disagree with what you say, but will defend to death your right to say it. As much as I believe that, I also believe that in D.C. there is nothing worse than a Republican other than a Democrat, as Maxine Waters proved. That was way over the top," Karem said.
Karem acknowledged his contentious relationship with Sanders but said it wouldn't have stopped him from serving the press secretary.
"I would have served her. I have my disagreements with Sarah, but I go back afterwards and we're still able to talk ... What happened to just a little bit of civility?" Karem asked.