We nonetheless would argue that Ms. Huckabee, and Ms. Nielsen and Mr. Miller, too, should be allowed to eat dinner in peace. Those who are insisting that we are in a special moment justifying incivility should think for a moment how many Americans might find their own special moment. How hard is it to imagine, for example, people who strongly believe that abortion is murder deciding that judges or other officials who protect abortion rights should not be able to live peaceably with their families?

House Speaker Paul Ryan also called on Waters to apologize for her remarks.

“There’s no place for this, she obviously should apologize,” Ryan said Tuesday at a press conference.

“That we should resort to violence, harassment and intimidation? That’s dangerous for our democracy,” he said.

Waters, a California Democrat, called on her supporters at a rally on Saturday to confront Trump Cabinet officials in public spaces like restaurants and department stores to protest the administration's policies.

“In exercising her constitutional right to freedom of speech at a recent rally, Congresswoman Waters did not, as she has made clear, encourage violence, like President Trump has been doing since the election. She, instead, encouraged Americans to exercise their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly by letting President Trump and members of his Administration know that separating young immigrant children from their parents is not who we are as a country," said Congressman Cedric Richmond, chairman of the CBC in a statement.

Richmond instead pointed to Trump's own language insinuating violence on the campaign trail.

“We cannot forget that President Trump, as a candidate, encouraged his supporters to beat up his detractors at rallies, and, as president, morally equated white supremacists with anti-racist activists and encouraged police officers to beat up suspects. In fact, almost every day President Trump says something that makes this country more dangerous for people who look like Congresswoman Waters and other minorities. Where is the national conversation on civility in these moments?" Richmond said.

Waters herself is calling out Trump for perpetuating what she calls "lies."

“Trump is the one who is creating lies,” Waters told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday. “Trying to have people believe that I talked about harming people. There’s nowhere in my statement, anytime, anyplace that we talked about harm.”