Maxine Waters Cancels Two Public Appearances After Receiving a ‘Very Serious Death Threat’

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has canceled two public events in Alabama and Texas this week after she received “hostile mail” and “one very serious death threat,” CNN reports.

The threats follow comments Waters made last week urging protestors to confront Trump administration officials in public.

“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,” she said in a statement, according to CNN.

“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,” she continued. “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.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Capitol Police told CNN that it does not comment on ongoing investigations.

The congresswoman faced fierce criticism after she called on her supporters to confront Trump staffers in public for the administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy that has led to over 2,300 migrant children being separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Waters’ rally cry followed two incidents of Trump officials facing public backlash. Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was confronted while she ate at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C., and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was kicked out of a Virginia restaurant.

President Trump accused Waters of calling for harm to his supporters. Waters has denied that she was promoting violence.

“I did not call for harm for anybody, the President lied again,” Waters told Chris Hayes on MSNBC on Monday night. “As a matter of fact I believe in peaceful protest.”