Rep. Maxine Waters of California continues to face backlash from a wide array of sources, and some of these would be very surprising. For one thing, she is actually facing some backlash from members of her own party regarding her poorly-worded comments regarding the Derek Chauvin trial. Does the fact that she has angered her Democratic colleagues bother her? Probably not, but it could very well end up costing her in the end. This comes on the heels of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) vowing to place a censure on Waters.
The Details
According to Fox News reporter Chad Pergram, there were a number of Democrats who found Maxine Waters’ comments “totally revolting” and said that there is some “disgust” surrounding the House Democratic Caucus and this mindset has “metastasized” after Maxine Waters was publicly rebuked several other members of the Democratic party.
“Congressional Democrats continue to have major issues with House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) regarding her ‘confrontational’ comments in the state of Minnesota this past weekend,” Pergram reported. “There are many rank-and-file Democrats that found what Maxine Waters said very revolting. However, this disgust among Democrats continues to metastasize after the Hennepin, MN County Judge Peter Cahill criticized Waters from his bench, categorizing her remarks as “disrespectful remarks toward the rule of law.”
Indeed, there is a growing consensus among Democrats that it is entirely appropriate to censure Waters with a formal censure.
The quote goes as follows:
“Fox has been told that there are a lot of Democrats that are ticked off at Waters. Additionally, there is a large number of congresspeople and other lawmakers who are concerned about the various metrics involved with this, not to mention the potential violence that could be associated with this. Not to mention that there are plenty of moderate Democrats who are beside themselves simply because of their midterm races being threatened amidst the “defund the police” movement. With such a narrow majority, most Democrats realize that they can only afford to lose two votes on their side. This means that Waters should be careful what words she uses. Indeed, there are even some Democrats that might even in fact support a “reasonably worded” censure towards Maxine Waters. Additionally, for some Democrats in a battleground district, it might be good politics to engage in censuring her. Finally, the coup de grace is that there are even a few Democrats that are so angry at Waters that they would relish the opportunity to censure Waters.”
The Background
The thing that Waters did that brought all of this controversy on would her decision to urge her supporters to “get more confrontational” if Chauvin had been found not guilty.
“You’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business,” she said, and at the same time she openly dismissed the curfew that Minnesota law enforcement had enacted.
Judge Cahill, who was the presiding judge of the Chauvin trial, blasted Waters with a sternly-worded reply:
“I will give you that Congresswoman Waters may very well have given you some grounds for an appeal where it might result in this whole trial being overturned,” Judge Cahill said when the defense argued for a mistrial over Waters’ remarks. He still turned down the motion, but he did give their view some merit.
“This right here is going back to what I continued to say from the very beginning. I wish that our elected officials would stop talking about this case, and stop doing so in a manner that is so disrespectful to the rule of law and our functioning as the judicial branch,” the judge added.
“The fact that they fail to do so is abhorrent!” he said.
Pelosi’s Take
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi weighed in on the issue, and she outright dismissed any criticism of what Maxine Waters had said, even to the point of defending her.
“No, in my opinion she shouldn’t apologize,” Pelosi said on Monday.
“Maxine talked about confrontation in the manner of the Civil Rights movement. I myself believe that we should take the cue of the George Floyd family. They’ve handled this with an amazing amount of dignity.”
What do you think? Your comments are appreciated!
