WASHINGTON _ The recent public shaming of Trump administration officials in restaurants has triggered a fierce internal debate among Democrats over how far they should go in confronting the president and his policies.
The boisterous protests against Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Trump adviser Stephen Miller as they dined in different Mexican restaurants, and the ejection of White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Saturday by the owner of a Virginia eatery, caused some Democrats to embrace the strategy as an effective way to rally supporters and hold officials responsible.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., a frequent critic of the administration, gave a high-profile boost to the tactic by saying members of the Trump administration should be repeatedly confronted in their everyday lives.
"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 are not welcome anymore, anywhere," Waters said at a rally in Los Angeles on Saturday.
On MSNBC the next day, she doubled down, saying that Americans are fed up. "The people are going to turn on them, they are going to protest, they are going to absolutely harass them," she said.
But on Monday, several Democrats warned that such actions could backfire by eliciting sympathy for Trump officials, rallying Republicans to the polls in midterms or leading to similar protests against liberals by Trump supporters.
The Democrats' debate is not unlike the one raging over whether to openly call for the impeachment of Trump, something party leaders like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi say is not appropriate at this time, especially as Democrats are trying to regain control of the House.
Pelosi urged caution Monday about expanding the protests against Trump Cabinet members. Linking to an article about Waters' comments, Pelosi took to Twitter to urge civility.
"Trump's daily lack of civility has provoked responses that are predictable but unacceptable. As we go forward, we must conduct elections in a way that achieves unity from sea to shining sea," she said.
Other high-profile Democrats, like former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod, called it counterproductive.
"Disgusted with this admin's policies? Organize, donate, volunteer, VOTE! Rousting Cabinet members from restaurants is an empty and, ultimately, counter-productive gesture that won't change a thing," he said in a tweet.
The recent confrontations gave a new twist to progressive political protests. Protesters chanting "shame, shame, shame" drove Nielsen from a Mexican restaurant in Washington last week. A larger group continued the chants outside her Virginia home, decrying the Trump administration for separating families at the Southern border, and loudly playing audio of children begging for their parents in Spanish.
Heidi Hess, co-director of the progressive group CREDO Action, which led the action at Nielsen's house, said protesting outside an administration official's home is not "outside the realm of what seems absolutely necessary at this point."
"If you are ripping 4-month-olds from their moms, you have made a decision that there is almost nothing sacred," Hess said. "I don't think that ICE is terrorizing families only during the workday."
Hess disagreed with the Democratic leaders who are pushing back against the protests, saying they want the party to do whatever it can to halt Trump's policies.
"I think they are scared (that) it's not going to play well in some kind of contested political landscape, but I think they are wrong," Hess said.
