On the same week Antifa protesters shut down a street corner, threatened drivers with physical harm, and vandalized cars in Portland, Oregon, Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters called President Donald Trump “a poster boy for what a mob protestor looks like.”
Waters appearing on MSNBC with Chris Hayes was asked to comment on a montage of several Fox News Commentators and Republican politicians calling protesters from the left “mob rule.”
Waters responded, “This president is the poster boy for what a mob protester looks like. He is matter of fact, he’s the one who has been violent in his speech. He’s the one in his rallies have said things like this, I’d like to punch him in the face. Trump said that at one of his rallies. He said knock the crap out of them, would you, and seriously, OK, just knock the hell. I mean, I promise I will pay the legal fees. That’s the kind of talk that he has done. That’s violent talk, we don’t have that kind of talk that have come from the women that are protesting.”
Later in the interview Waters went on to defend protesters making people uncomfortable saying, “You don’t go around saying, may I please protest you? No. You gather your strength and you take it to where it has to go, and you will make people uncomfortable. That’s what change is all about.”
Hayes asked Waters to clarify her comments, “There are people who hear that and they think what you’re calling for is physical intimidation, things that fray at the social fabric, that make people cower at the possibility of violence, of setting someone off who is perhaps unwell. I want you to respond to that concern.”
Waters continued to ignore Antifa’s violent protest saying, “Well, that is absolutely untrue. If they would like to take and redefine … protest and call it something else, they’ll try and do that. They’ll try and get away with that, but that is not absolutely true. You don’t hear us talking about hitting anybody, punching anybody, killing anybody.”