A CNN panel on Monday unanimously condemned Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., after she called on the public to harass Trump officials if they see them on the streets.
The panel, which consisted of Playboy White House correspondent Brian Karem, RealClearPolitics editor A.B. Stoddard, and CNN anchor John Avlon, had been prompted to discuss Waters’ highly criticized remarks from a rally over the weekend.
“If you see anybody from the Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, and a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd to push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere,” Waters said.
Stoddard said Waters appears to be “doing everything she can to prevent her own promotion” to House as chair of the Financial Services Committee, a position which she is poised to take.
“This is beyond overreach,” Stoddard said. “It is so outrageous that she is trying to motivate voters on her side to be as divisive as President Trump. I just find it really unbelievable that this is the kind of thing they’re trying to stoke, this sort of mob mentality on the Left. It’s the exact thing that will drive turnout on the other side.”
CNN anchor John Avlon said that her behavior prior to midterm elections is “exactly the kind of thing that will get [Republicans] motivated, because it creates a veneer of moral equivalency.”
“If we get to a place as a country where it is open season on anyone if they serve in an administration in public, when mob rule starts being advocated by elected officials, that is bad for everybody, Avlon said.
“And it is the opposite, as you pointed out, of Michelle Obama’s ‘when they go low, we go high,'” he added.
The Democratic lawmaker’s remarks come just days after a Virginia restaurant refused service to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders because of role in the Trump administration. The owner of the restaurant specifically noted the administration’s stance on transgender people serving in the military.
When asked for his take, Karem, known for his heated debates with Sanders during the White House press briefings, said he “would have served her.”
“I have my disagreements with Sarah, but I go back afterwards and we are still able to talk,” Karem said. “What happened to just a little bit of civility?”
Karem also called Waters’ rally over the weekend “way over the top.”
