Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., on Monday would not retract her controversial green light to harass Trump administration officials over a zero-tolerance immigration policy — but said it should be "peaceful resistance."
At a news briefing, Waters sought to clarify her remark in the wake of White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders' ejection from a Virginia restaurant because of her work for President Donald Trump.
Waters said her concerns are about family separation as a result of the administration's illegal immigration crackdown.
"This is about peaceful resistance to the kind of actions that we're experiencing from this president as he holds these children hostage," Waters said, referring to children who have been separated from illegal immigrants parents caught at the southern border.
"We want a plan; we want a capable plan that spells out how these children are going to be returned to their parents," she said. "That's what this is all about."
Waters said she believes the president has "earned" the description of him as a liar, declaring, "He has defined himself."
"Trump is the one who is creating the lies, trying to have people believe that I talked about harming people. There is nowhere in my statement, anytime, anyplace, that we talked about harm. So, our members of the Democratic conference are talking about stability . . . but protest instability. Protest is about peaceful resistance to the kind of actions that we are experiencing from this president."
But she said the more important concern is the separation of children from their illegal immigrant parents, noting "protesting is being done" against the separation, and began "before I even made my comments, and I suspect it is going to continue . . . until they come up with a credible plan that they give to the public, that people can say, 'Okay. This president hears us now.'"
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