President Donald Trump is to blame for Rep. Maxine Waters’ (D-Calif.) calls for public harassment — if not quite outright violence — against Trump administration officials, according to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) logic.

“In the crucial months ahead, we must strive to make America beautiful again. Trump’s daily lack of civility has provoked responses that are predictable but unacceptable. As we go forward, we must conduct elections in a way that achieves unity from sea to shining sea,” Pelosi tweeted Monday.

Close

Although Pelosi exhibited no qualms about calling Trump out by name for his “daily lack of civility,” which has “provoked responses” from Democrats, she failed to mention Waters by name when condemning her “unacceptable” response.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer split from Pelosi, saying “I strongly disagree with those who advocate harassing folks if they don’t agree with you. No one should call for the harassment of political opponents. That’s not right. That’s not American.”

Waters, a prominent member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Financial Services, is one of Trump’s most vocal congressional critics.

But Waters fielded bipartisan backlash after she urged anti-Trump Americans during a rally Saturday to protest against Trump administration policies by initiating public confrontations with officials simply because of their association with the president.

“If you think we’re rallying now, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” Waters told a rally in Los Angeles. “If you see anybody from that [Trump] 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’s comments came after White House press secretary Sarah Sanders revealed Saturday that the owner of The Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, asked her to leave Friday because she worked for Trump. The confrontation occurred after a rough week filled with backlash against the Trump administration over an immigration enforcement policy that separated children from their illegal immigrant parents at the border.

Sanders isn’t the only Trump administration official to face protesters and confrontations during the family separation flap. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and adviser Stephen Miller also were either denied service or asked to leave restaurants. Protesters even swarmed outside Nielsen’s home.

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

But Waters doubled down on her calls for confrontation Saturday during an MSNBC interview, saying that she harbors “no sympathy for these people that are in this administration who know it’s wrong for what they’re doing on so many fronts.

“These members of his Cabinet who remain and try to defend [Trump], they won’t be able to go to a restaurant, they won’t be able to stop at a gas station, they’re not going to be able to shop at a department store. The people are going to turn on them,” Waters added. “They’re going to protest. They’re absolutely going to harass them until they decide that they’re going to tell the president, ‘No, I can’t hang with you.'”

Related: Mike Huckabee Shares More ‘Red Hen’ Craziness: Family Was Followed to Next Restaurant

Trump responded to Waters Monday on Twitter, saying, “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!”

Trump also retweeted Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) Monday tweet saying, “Trump haters still haven’t realized how much they help him with their condescension of those who either voted for him or don’t share their hatred of him. And how much they help him with their irrational hostility towards those who work for him.”

Waters’ comments were met with bipartisan criticism from those warning that such acceptance of public harassment would create a dangerous precedent.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Monday on Fox News that Waters “should apologize to the American public.”

McCarthy said he has “friends on the other side of the aisle — we philosophically disagree. We have debates about our philosophy difference. But we’ll sit down, have dinner together, have a cup of coffee together or whatever. We need civility in this country. But the idea that you’re asking people to go forward, that becomes very dangerous, and it becomes a risk inside our country as well.”

ABC News’ “The View” co-host Meghan McCain, daughter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), tweeted Sunday, “This is absolutely insane — and extremely dangerous. My father in law works in the administration, does this mean when we go out to dinner we should be ambushed?!? Don’t ever again give me any of the ‘when they go low, we go high’ lip service.”

“Dems have a singularly uncanny ability to take a week of visceral leftward momentum … and suddenly drive millions back into Trump’s arms. #smh,” HLN host S.E. Cupp tweeted Monday.

PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.

(photo credit, homepage and article: YouTube)