Maxine Waters: We shouldn’t be concerned about Pence, Trump should be

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) played up reports that Vice President Pence is eyeing a 2020 presidential run on Sunday, warning that President Trump should be concerned about his second-in-command. 

“The rumor is is that [Pence] is getting ready because maybe he believes that something might happen and he should be ready to step in, or that he could run in 2020 and win,” Waters told MSNBC’s Joy Reid Sunday on “AM Joy.”

“So I don’t think that we should be concerned about him. Trump should be concerned about him,” she continued. 

{mosads}Waters, a frequent and outspoken critic of President Trump, made her comments following a New York Times report on Saturday that said advisers to the vice president he has been hinting to party donors that he is ready to run in 2020 if Trump does not.

Pence called the rumors “laughable and absurd” on Sunday. 

“The American people know that I could not be more honored to be working side by side with a president who is making America great again,” he said in a statement. 

But Waters explained Sunday why she believes the president is so vulnerable at the moment. 

“If the people around you are leaking in the way that they’re doing, they are trying to tell us something. Of course, we don’t want classified information leaked out and I don’t think that they would do that with a credible president. They’re doing that to this president because he has defined himself as someone who cannot be trusted,” she said. 

And she said she knew where to start on national security leaks 

“The first thing they need to do is start with the president,” Waters said. “The president gave classified information to Russians in the White House and our ally Israel was very upset with us, so start with him.”

The congresswoman also warned that impeachment could be a possibility if the president fires special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed by the Justice Department to probe Russian election meddling and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

“I believe that if he moves on Mueller, that he has crossed the line,” Water said. 

“It’s a combination of that kind of thing and the information that’s going to come out about him that would cause impeachment,” she continued.