Maxine Waters Got Such Serious Death Threats After Trump's Tweet That She Canceled Events

Hostile messages and at least one "very serious death threat" have led Rep. Maxine Waters to cancel two public events, CNN reported. The threats come less than a week after the congresswoman encouraged supporters to publicly confront members of the Trump administration in protest, spurring President Trump to then attack her on Twitter. Waters was scheduled to speak at events in Texas and Alabama.

"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," CNN reported Waters said in a statement released Thursday. "There was one very serious death threat made against me on Monday from an individual in Texas, which is why my planned speaking engagements in Texas and Alabama were cancelled this weekend."

According to The Washington Post, Waters was expected to speak Friday at an annual conference held by the National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women Friday in Birmingham, Alabama. Safety and security concerns also caused Waters to cancel a separate upcoming event in Texas.

"This is just one in several very serious threats the United States Capitol Police are investigating in which individuals threatened to shoot, lynch, or cause me serious bodily harm," the congresswoman said.

Earlier this week, President Trump took offense to Waters encouraging public protests against Trump administration officials and cautioned her to "be careful what you wish for" over Twitter. "Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person, has become, together with Nancy Pelosi, the Face of the Democrat Party," Trump tweeted Monday. "She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement. Be careful what you wish for Max!"

But Waters didn't, as Trump claimed, call for "harm to supporters." Rather she encouraged continued public protest and verbal confrontation of Trump administration officials following incidents in which Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had their meals interrupted by protesters outraged about the Trump's immigration policies. Nielsen was heckled at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C. while Sanders was asked to leave an eatery in Virginia.

"If you think we're rallying now you ain't seen nothing yet," Waters said Sunday while speaking at a rally in Los Angeles, California. "'If you see anybody from that [Trump] 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... No peace, no sleep." Waters said the goal of such protests would be to show Trump administration officials how unsupported their immigration policies were and to encourage them to cut ties with the president.

The congresswoman's remarks, however, ignited debate about civility in politics and earned her bipartisan criticism from her fellow members of Congress, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Waters later moved to clarify that she'd been encouraging peaceful protests against Trump administration officials.

"I believe in peaceful, very peaceful, protests," NBC reported Waters said Monday. "I have not called for the harm of anybody. This president has lied again when he's saying I called for harm to anyone." She said she would support peaceably booting a Trump administration official out of a restaurant as a form of protest.

But this isn't the first time Waters has received death threats due to her vocal opposition of President Trump. A man who allegedly called Waters' office and told her "you're going to wind up dead, Maxine, 'cause we'll kill you" if she continued to speak out against Trump plead guilty to the crime in April.

Capitol Police told CNN the investigation into the most recent death threats levied against Waters was ongoing.