Nancy Pelosi: Maxine Waters Comments ‘Unacceptable’ — and Trump’s Fault

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) criticized comments by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) over the weekend calling on the public to “harass” members of the Trump administration — but said the President was to blame for Waters’s rhetoric.

Pelosi, who serves as House Minority Leader, and would be Speaker again if Democrats win the midterm elections, weeted Monday morning:

It was unclear which of Trump’s remarks Pelosi was referring to as a possible provocation.

Pelosi is struggling to contain the damage after Waters’s incendiary remarks threatened to motivate Republicans to turn out in November — of only out of a sense of self-preservation. (Cartoonist and pundit Scott Adams observed Sunday that the best slogan for the GOP in 2018 might turn out to be, “They’re Coming for You Next.”)

Waters’s statements to MSNBC included the following:

I have no sympathy for these people that are in this administration who know it’s wrong for what they’re doing on so many fronts. They tend to not want to confront this president or even leave, but they know what they’re doing is wrong. I want to tell you, these members of his cabinet who remain and try to defend him, they won’t be able to go to a restaurant, they won’t be able to stop at a gas station, they’re not going to be able to shop at a department store. The people are going to turn on them. They’re going to protest. They’re absolutely going to harass them until they decide that they’re going to tell the president, “No, I can’t hang with you.” This is wrong. This is unconscionable. We can’t keep doing this to children.

…

We’ve got to push back. We’ve got to say no. I, for example, have stepped way out there. I said this man needs to be impeached. I know a lot of people think we’re not ready to say that. Some people have said a long time ago he would become presidential. He will never be presidential. This man does not have any good values. I believe he needs to be impeached. As a matter of fact, a long time before he’s doing what he’s doing now with these children. I think he had done enough to undermine this country and to have us understand we cannot trust him, that we should have come with an impeachment resolution. So, I believe we cannot wait until the next presidential election. We have to resist him. I want to see him impeached.

Pelosi has downplayed calls from her party for the president to be impeached.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.