Maxine Waters responds to death threats: ‘You better shoot straight’
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has addressed a series of recent death threats she said she has received, telling would-be threateners to “shoot straight” during an immigration rally on Saturday.
“I know that there are those who are talking about censuring me, talking about kicking me out of Congress, talking about shooting me, talking about hanging me,” Waters told the crowd in Los Angeles.
“All I have to say is this, if you shoot me you better shoot straight, there’s nothing like a wounded animal,” she added to cheers.
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Waters was forced to cancel a pair of events in Alabama and Texas this week after a “very serious death threat.”
She said she has been getting harassed after she called for protesters to confront Trump administration officials in public over its “zero tolerance” immigration policy.
President Trump slammed Waters during a campaign rally earlier this week after inaccurately claiming in a tweet that Waters called for protesters to harm his supporters.
“As the President has continued to lie and falsely claim that I encouraged people to assault his supporters, while also offering a veiled threat that I should ‘be careful’, even more individuals are leaving (threatening) messages and sending hostile mail to my office,” Waters said in the statement, according to CNN.
Waters insisted that she was not calling for harm and said she believes in “peaceful protest.”
The Democrat then appeared on MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes” on Monday and read a list of times when Trump has used physically charged rhetoric.
Waters tore into Trump during the rally on Saturday.
“How dare you take the babies from their mother’s arms,” Waters said.
“How dare you. How dare you take the babies from their mother’s arms!” Rep. Maxine Waters says President Trump has gone too far with his zero-tolerance policies that led to separating families. https://t.co/s5VHotCcgS pic.twitter.com/gD28BJNsy0
— CNN (@CNN) June 30, 2018
The lawmaker has been criticizing the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy which previously separated migrant children from their parents.
Trump signed an executive order earlier this month to end the practice of family separations.
“Families Belong Together” marches took place all across the country on Saturday as thousands of children have yet to be reunited with their families.
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