Democrats on Tuesday defended Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Saying that Republican critics are “utterly bogus” because they focus on comments she made in Minnesota that earned her an admonition from the judge presiding over Derek Chauvin’s trial in the death of George Floyd.
On Monday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., suspect Waters said that if Democrats don’t take action against the congressman who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, he will “take action this week.”
Speaking to reporters, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Said the GOP’s criticism of Waters was “an unfair distraction” and “absurd,” adding that the chairman’s comments did not amount to a call to violence.
“I think it is a completely false attempt to distract from what the Republicans know is the rhetoric of so many of their members, which has in fact helped, encouraged and condoned violent activity,” he said.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y., mocked McCarthy for having the “ guts’ ‘to target Waters’ comments after the January 6 Capitol riot, pointing to his vote against the Electoral College’s confirmation of votes after the violence and said he should focus on his own caucus.
“If you have a situation where Lauren Boebert is a mess, Matt Gaetz is a mess, Marjorie Taylor Greene is a mess,” Jeffries said. “Clean up your mess, Kevin. Turn this one off. “
And in an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Rep. Jim Clyburn, DS.C., Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala. “He said much worse things than” Waters’ comments “just minutes before the uprising” when speaking at the meeting that preceded it, “and I don’t remember Kevin McCarthy saying a word about that.
“So if he wants to bring forward the resolution, I hope he will also table a resolution on Mo Brooks,” said Clyburn.
Waters made the comments when she appeared on Saturday at a protest against racial justice in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a suburb near where the Chauvin trial is taking place that has been devastated by protests after Daunte Wright, 20, was killed by police this month. murdered.
“We need to become more confrontational,” Waters told reporters when asked what would happen if Chauvin is acquitted. “We have to make sure they know we mean it.”
Waters, meanwhile, said she was not moved by the GOP’s criticism of her comments. Some Republican lawmakers called for her to be expelled from Congress.
On Monday, Chauvin’s attorney filed a mistrial over Waters’s comments, arguing that she had, in fact, biased the jury. The request was denied, but Judge Peter Cahill called the comments “disgusting”.
“I’ll tell you that on appeal, Congressman Waters may have given you something that could lead to this entire trial being quashed,” Cahill said as the arguments wrap up and the jury’s deliberations begin.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., Asked if Waters’ comments are blameworthy, why wouldn’t Brooks be too? At that meeting, Brooks told the crowd it was time to “take up names and kick things.”
“Well, first of all, I have spoken out very clearly against any form of political rhetoric that incites violence,” said Scalise, the second-ranked House Republican injured by a politically motivated shooter while playing baseball in 2017. “If you look at Maxine Waters ‘comments, the judge in the trial yesterday acknowledged that Maxine Waters’ comments are so inflammatory that they could lead to an appeal if the verdict goes wrong.”
He said McCarthy would soon be submitting a resolution to the House of Representatives to disapprove Waters.
“It’s a powder keg down there and the last thing you want to make it worse and most of all appeal,” he said. “Look, we all watched what was happening and saw Officer Chauvin cross the border. We all need to make sure that justice is carried out. The last thing you want is to file an appeal that the judge himself recognizes. ‘
Haley Talbot contributed.