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Democrats Defend Rep. Maxine Waters, Call for Calm in Minneapolis
Posted
April 20, 2021
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2:13Now PlayingMaxine Waters has been a galvanizing figure for decades, speaking boldly for racial justice in communities across the country and enduring the harsh criticism that comes from being an outspoken Black woman in America.
The powerful congressional leader makes it a point to show up, as she did ahead of jury deliberations in the trial of Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, accused in the death of George Floyd, the Black man pinned under the officer's knee last summer sparking global protests over police violence.
When Waters urged demonstrators to "stay on the street" in the pursuit of justice — namely, a guilty verdict — advocates of police reforms and racial equality viewed her commentary as another voice in the country's long march toward Civil Rights march.
But detractors, including the defense attorney and the judge hearing the case, pounced on it as incendiary rhetoric, as others piled on, shifting attention away from the white police officer on trial over the killing of a Black man and onto the congresswoman for raising her voice in protest.
Leading Republicans on Capitol Hill seized on the comments, the latest opportunity to attack Waters. On Tuesday, the GOP Whip Steve Scalise fended off questions about his party's own incendiary rhetoric, namely Donald Trump egging on the mob of supporters to storm the Capitol in the deadly Jan. 6 riot.
"I would like to see Maxine Waters apologize for the inflammatory comments that she's made," he said.
Democrats rallied swiftly, and forcefully, to defend Waters as a Civil Rights leader for Black Americans and others, as they also called for calm in Minneapolis and elsewhere while the jury deliberates.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic Caucus chairman, said Republican leaders need to "sit this one out."
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