Democratic California Rep. Jackie Speier defended protesters who heckled Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen out of a Mexican restaurant on Tuesday night.

WATCH:

Nielsen was forced to leave a restaurant where she was eating dinner after protesters swarmed her and began shouting “shame! shame!”

“I would say that what happened there was probably spontaneous,” Speier incorrectly claimed. “Those weren’t progressives, those were just people who are disgusted by the way the administration has thought it was OK to separate parents and their children. Under no circumstance is that anything less than child abuse, and when you have the American Academy of Pediatrics coming out and saying that this is irreparable harm —”

The protesters who heckled Nielsen were actually members of the Washington, D.C. chapter of Democratic Socialists of America and were allegedly tipped off to her presence by an employee at the restaurant. (RELATED: Socialist Activist Who Harassed Homeland Security Secretary Works For The Department Of Justice)

CNN anchor Erin Burnett asked Speier if she thinks it’s OK for people to be driven out of a restaurant when they’re trying to have a private dinner.

“I suppose everyone has the right to have dinner where ever they want. I can’t speak to whether that was spontaneous from people that were in the restaurant or if people followed her there. I don’t know the facts and the situation,” Speier replied, before blaming Trump for the incident. “But I do know that if you foment hate as the president does on a daily basis, in his base, it also creates a reaction by others.”

Follow Amber on Twitter