White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks to the media during the daily briefing. Photo / AP
US President Donald Trump escalated a feud with a veteran Democratic lawmaker who called for aggressive protests of administration officials.
The President warned Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California to "Be careful what you wish for Max!," even as leaders in both parties cautioned against increasingly caustic political rhetoric.
Trump's message, conveyed on Twitter, stood in sharp contrast to a call for civility by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whose ouster from a Virginia restaurant sparked a furious debate over whether opponents should take out their political frustrations against Administration officials in their private lives.
The tensions have flared as part of an acrimonious debate over immigration and the separation of migrant families at the US-Mexico border, which has prompted some protesters to hound Republican officials outside their homes, in restaurants and at cinemas.
Sanders was asked to leave the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, at the weekend because the owner said she believes Sanders works for an "inhumane and unethical" Administration.
In recent days, Democratic fears of a backlash have spilled into public view after Waters, a vocal Trump critic, told supporters at a Los Angeles rally that "if you see anybody from that 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!" She repeated that call in an MSNBC interview.
In a rare rebuke of a fellow Democrat, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi pushed back today against Waters' comments.
"In the crucial months ahead, we must strive to make America beautiful again," Pelosi wrote in a tweet. "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."
This is what happens when your restaurant is also called "Red Hen" https://t.co/C8PK4TS6O6
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 26, 2018
Some Democrats worry that the remarks by Waters, coupled with the ejection of Sanders, are an unneeded distraction at a time of swelling public anger over reports of desperate children being separated from their parents because of the Trump Administration's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy.
Trump responded to Waters with insults. In a tweet, Trump called Waters "an extraordinarily low IQ person" who, together with Pelosi, had become "the Face of the Democrat Party." He also appeared to issue a veiled threat to Waters herself.
"She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement," Trump wrote. "Be careful what you wish for Max!"
A Waters spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
Later, at the White House press briefing, Sanders referred to the Red Hen incident and said that all Americans should be allowed to disagree "freely and without fear of harm."
"We're on the verge of losing our democracy". What does this mean?
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) June 26, 2018
"Healthy debate on ideas and political philosophy is important, but the calls for harassment and push for any Trump supporter to avoid the public is unacceptable," Sanders said. "America is a great country, and our ability to find solutions despite disagreements is what makes us unique."
Both parties have grappled with threats in recent years amid political firestorms. In the wake of the passage of President Barack Obama's healthcare law, Democratic lawmakers received death threats. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) said his family was threatened when he clashed with supporters of public labour unions in 2011.
Trump has also been accused of stoking violence through his language at rallies. In 2016 in Iowa, for example, he said that if someone decided to "knock the crap out of" a protester, he would "pay for the legal fees, I promise."
Adding to the mixed messages, the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out an email with the subject line, "Wacky Jacky's delusional world view," using Trump's mocking nickname for Representative Jacky Rosen, the Democratic Senate nominee in Nevada.
Trump quoting Guardian interview with David Lynch, in which Twin Peaks director says: "He could go down as one of the greatest presidents in history because he has disrupted the thing so much."https://t.co/cGqWIjfXds
— Julian Borger (@julianborger) June 26, 2018
Waters has long been a hero to some Democrats and a villain to some Republicans - and her clashes with Trump have elevated her profile further. "I don't honour him. I don't respect him, and I don't want to be involved with him," Waters said in January 2017.
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally, described the Waters-Trump standoff as another instance of elements of the Democratic Party being outraged by Trump's election in 2016, which could play to Trump's advantage.
"If the country looks up at the television and sees Maxine Waters saying what she said, that Democrats should make life miserable for the Trump Administration, most voters will say that's not right," he said.
But others said the Trump wing of the GOP should not be too encouraged.
"It doesn't mean anything. It's the tribal outrage of the week," said veteran Republican strategist Mike Murphy, a Trump critic. "Each tribe feeds itself, and the circus eventually moves on to something new. These are cheap calories and won't move the needle very much."
So after all these calls of civility Trump has:
— Person Woman Man Camera TV (@ClaraJeffery) June 26, 2018
1) essentially threatened a Congresswoman
2) turned a crowd on a reporter
3) called a Senator a drunk
While Democrats feel increasingly confident about their chances in November's Midterm elections, they are also being pulled into near-daily political riptides by a president who has thrived on controversy for decades.
One Democratic leadership aide described the Waters comments as "a gift" to Republicans.
"She went too far. Her comments, to an impartial observer, came off as a call for violence, and that is too far," said the aide. "It became a distraction and, obviously, it needed to be addressed."
Democratic strategist Paul Begala warned that overly aggressive tactics could backfire by alienating the voters that his party needs most.
"My aversion to answering right-wing hate with left-wing hate is strategic as well as moral," Begala tweeted. "The R's are trying to keep older, high school educated white men angry. I want to show college-educated GOP women there's no home for them in vulgar, vicious Trumpland."
Sarah Sanders did not deserve to be humiliated by a restaurant owner in Virginia. Insulting people holding different political views is not the American way. Far left zealots are ramping up hatred and violence is coming. Check out https://t.co/fqUvO5EEW0 for honest news analysis.
— Bill O'Reilly (@BillOReilly) June 24, 2018
Several congressional Democrats issued clear rebukes of Waters's remarks, although they did not mention her by name.
"No one should call for the harassment of political opponents. That's not right. That's not American," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor. He added: "The President's tactics and behaviour should never be emulated. It should be repudiated."
Senator Cory Booker, (D), appearing on MSNBC, urged protesters to follow the example of the Rev. Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders "who always did it by recognising the dignity of even those who you oppose, even those who are trying to destroy you, even those that hate you."
More broadly, there is concern among some veteran Democrats that Republican turnout in November's Midterms could be stoked by the issues being targeted by various Democratic activists, such as the ongoing Russia probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and calls for Trump's impeachment.
"The only way we lose the House is if we do something to rile up the Trump base," Ed Rendell, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, said this month. "Right now they're a little riled, and the worst thing we could do is talk about impeachment. I'd like to kidnap Tom Steyer and hold him in Bolivia until after the election."
A moment of civility: As POTUS is delayed due to weather, @CNN’ s @Acosta gave up his chair to an elderly Trump supporter. She was so appreciative that she wanted her photo taken with him. Her son said to Jim, “You’re a good man. Your mama raised you right.” #SCGov pic.twitter.com/0vXaCgjugE
— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) June 25, 2018
Steyer, a California billionaire, is funding a national television advertising campaign that calls for Democrats to rally behind impeaching Trump.
Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean. (D), who ran for president in 2004 amid anti-war feeling in the party and later served as national party chair, dismissed the latest controversy as a "Beltway game" - and predicted that Democrats would do well this year because of bigger questions facing voters.
"It's not about Maxine Waters, it's now about the survival of the country," Dean said in an interview.
"Trump's provocations are irrelevant, and more people are just not interested in them, especially people under 40. They're focused on building a different kind of America that embraces people and doesn't appeal to hate."
My latest for @GlobeOpinion https://t.co/u93wci3Jxs
— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) June 26, 2018
“[Restaurant owner Stephanie] Wilkinson's actions are a form of holding political elites accountable, forcing them to answer for their actions — something citizens rarely have the opportunity to do.” — @zackbeauchamp https://t.co/rjLtftBR9v
— Vox (@voxdotcom) June 25, 2018
The site was used by Hezbollah to plan attacks on Israeli civilians.