The Republican leader in the House of Representatives and an extremist congresswoman who advocates the “Anglo-Saxon political traditions” took action against Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, after she expressed support for protesters against police brutality.
On Saturday, Waters spoke in Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis, where Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was shot dead by police last week.
The California congresswoman spoke before the final arguments Monday in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis officer who knelt for more than nine minutes on George Floyd’s neck last May, resulting in the death of the Blackman and worldwide protests. had.
“I’m going to fight with all the people who stand for justice,” said Waters, who is black. “We must get justice in this country and we cannot allow these killings to continue.”
Tensions are high in Minneapolis.
Waters said: ‘We need to stay on the streets, and we need to become more active, we need to become more confrontational. We need to make sure they know what our business means. ”
As for Chauvin, Waters said: ‘I hope we get a verdict that says guilty, guilty, guilty. And if we do not, we can not leave. ”
On Sunday night, Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy said: “Maxine Waters stimulates violence in Minneapolis – just as she has incited it in the past. As Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi is not acting against this dangerous rhetoric, I will take action this week. ”
Waters, 82, a confrontational figure sometimes known as ‘Kerosene Maxine’, made headlines last week by telling Congressman Jim Jordan in Ohio ‘respect the chair and keep your mouth shut’ during a hearing with Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser.
She regularly clashed with Donald Trump and angered some Democratic leaders. Waters said in 2018 that people should harass Trump aides in public. Pelosi called the comments “unacceptable”. Senate leader Chuck Schumer voted for ‘not American’.
Observers said McCarthy’s most likely action is to seek formal censorship – a move that is unlikely to succeed unless enough Democrats support it.
Far to the right of McCarthy’s party, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene Waters’ words were similar to those of Trump when he urged supporters to march to Congress and reverse his election defeat, marking the deadly January 6 riots by the Capitol. resulted in.
“Speaker Pelosi,” she says tweeted. “You accused President Trump of saying he incited violence by ‘going up peacefully’ to the Capitol. So I can expect a yes vote from you on my resolution to suspend Maxine Waters for inciting violence, riots and abuse of power that threatens a jury, right?
Trump did tell supporters to “make your voice heard peacefully and patriotically”. He also said, “If you do not fight like hell, you will not have a land anymore.”
In February, Greene lost committee duties due to conspiracy-laden remarks. This weekend she drop plans to start an “America First Caucus” based on “Anglo-Saxon political traditions”.
Some Democrats want Greene out of Congress. It probably won’t work either.