On Tuesday, the vast majority of Republicans led by Kevin McCarthy, made a consistent effort to castigate Rep.Maxine Waters following her comments over the weekend; asking protestors to “get more confrontational” if Derek Chauvin is found innocent in the murder of George Floyd.
McCarthy, who serves as the House Minority Leader, led the team of Republicans to pass a resolution to condemn Maxine Waters, citing her comments as the crux of “directed lawlessness,” which has further “raised the potential for violence.” Although the Democrats succeeded in countering the censure resolution, they were only able to do so with a thin margin.
Despite staunchly believing in their people to overturn the resolution, the vote turned out to be 216-210, with four party associates who did not vote. Just after the vote took place, Maxine Walters bravely faced the news and proclaimed that she admired her colleagues and none of her actions would ever harm them or their odds for getting reelected. In the statement with CNN, Waters elaborated on how she wants to take each person on board with her ways of action, stating that each person being on the same page would ultimately help in “doing the right thing.”
This didn’t sit too well with McCarthy who took to Twitter and declared Pelosi and other Democrats an accessory in the crime. According to the House Minority Leader, the House Democrats had the power and ability to condemn the actions of Maxine Walters, and instead, they chose to overlook her violent outburst. This he believed, was the real cause of the House and Justice System to be “worse off.”
McCarthy’s alleged anger had been triggered by Water’s call for protestors at a time when the nation was swamped by targeted killings of Black people. The Republicans immediately accused her of provoking violence, despite her firm affirmations on her intentions being pure and completely non-hostile. In fact, in an interview at a later date, Water’s rebuttal was direct and clear: She was not asking for a violent demonstration but was only asking people to question the unjust justice system of the U.S.
Despite the Democrats putting up a unified stance to support Maxine Waters, there were a few like Joe Manchin who simply stated that she should not have made such a sensitive statement at a time like this. However, White House speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN that Waters did not say anything that could have led to a violent outburst. Moreover, she further stated that Waters does not need to issue an apology for what she said, as it did not bear any consequence.
Pelosi’s views were mirrored by the likes of Hoyer who told CNN that Maxine Waters would never want hostility, mentioning how she is a staunch believer “in her issues”. He further added that her confrontational comment perhaps only referred to facing the civil rights movement in history.
