GOP lawmaker calls on Waters to resign, introduces censure measure

A House Republican on Monday introduced a measure to censure Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and called on her to resign following her comments calling on Democrats to publicly confront officials in the Trump administration.

“If you think we’re rallying now you ain’t seen nothing yet,” Waters told supporters at a rally in Los Angeles over the weekend. “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

{mosads}Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said the California Democrat’s comments do “not become somebody who’s in Congress,” arguing disciplinary action is appropriate.

“So we just introduced it, we have some co-sponsors, but what she did was to basically incite people to come after and attack members of the president’s cabinet,” Biggs told The Hill. “And also spread that out to more people.”

The measure calls on the congresswoman to resign, issue a formal apology to administration officials “for endangering their lives and sowing seeds of discord” and release a statement that neither harassment nor violence is an appropriate form of protest.  

Waters defended her remarks on Monday, but encouraged peaceful protest.

“I have nothing to do with the way people decide to protest. Protest is the democratic way as long as it is peaceful,” Waters said. “I believe in peaceful protest. It is guaranteed to you in a democracy.” 

Five members of Congress have signed on to the motion to censure so far.

“Everybody agrees that it was just highly objectionable what she did,” Biggs said.