Maxine Waters: 'Take Trump out' remark was about impeachment

"That's absolutely ridiculous ... that a 79-year-old grandmother who is a congresswoman and who has been in Congress and politics all these years doing any harm," the California Democrat told CNN's Chris Cuomo in an interview on "New Day." "The only harm I might be doing to the President is I want him impeached."

While speaking at the Ali Forney dinner -- a gala for LGBT youth -- in New York on Friday night, Waters -- one of Trump's fiercest critics on Capitol Hill -- told the crowd she was motivated to "take Trump out" and received a huge ovation.

"Wow, what a moving evening this is. I'm sitting here listening, watching, absorbing, thinking about Ali even though I never met him," she said at the dinner. "And with this kind of inspiration, I will go and take out Trump tonight."

During her interview with CNN, she said she wants to impeach Trump because his actions and rhetoric are harmful for the US.

"Everybody knows that I'm on the front lines not talking about harming anybody but I am talking about impeachment," she said. "I don't think this President should be representing our country ... he creates controversy, he cannot get along with our members of Congress, and I'm going to continue my efforts to impeach him."