‘Confrontational’: Maxine Waters undeterred by Marjorie Taylor Greene criticism of Chauvin trial remarks

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WASHINGTON — The judge in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial in the death of George Floyd criticized recent comments by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and said her words could be grounds for the defense to appeal a verdict.

The congresswoman, who has long been a lightning rod for criticism from the right, was already facing a torrent of Republican ire for her comments over the weekend urging protesters in Minnesota to “get more confrontational” if Chauvin is not convicted, with several GOP lawmakers calling for Waters’ expulsion from Congress.

Chauvin’s lawyer asked the judge to declare a mistrial over Waters’ comments, arguing that she had prejudiced the jury. Judge Peter Cahill denied the request, but said that Waters’ comments were “abhorrent” and that she may have handed the defense a lifeline anyway.

“I’ll give you that Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned,” Cahill said as arguments in the case concluded Monday and the jury began deliberations.

Waters appeared at a racial justice protest Saturday night in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a suburb not far from where Chauvin’s trial is taking place, which has been roiled by protests after a police officer killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright last week.

“We’ve got to stay on the street and we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational,” Waters told reporters when asked what would happen if the Chauvin trial, which is wrapping up this week, ends in acquittal. “We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.”

While Republicans called for Waters to be punished for her comments, she is unlikely to face punishment because Democrats control Congress.

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“No, I don’t think she should apologize,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Monday. “Maxine talked about ‘confrontation’ in the manner of the civil rights movement.”

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy accused Waters of “inciting violence” and said if the Democratic majority in the House doesn’t do anything to censure her, “I will bring action this week.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who herself has been the subject of calls to be removed from Congress, introduced a resolution to expel Waters from the House. Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., called for Waters should to be “immediately removed from Congress” and other GOP lawmakers called for a “sanction” to “hold her accountable.”

“Rep. Waters is a danger to our society,” said Greene, who was accused of helping encourage a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, in a statement.

Waters responded to Greene’s criticism by calling it a distortion of her remarks.

“I am not worried that they’re going to continue to distort what I say,” Waters told The Grio. “This is who they are and this is how they act. And I’m not going to be bullied by them.”

Conservatives saw her comments as an encouragement for more violence and rioting. Waters allies say Republicans are trying to distract from right-wing violence, like the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, by picking another fight with one of their go-to targets.

“What she said is nothing new. She has always said the same kind of thing. She has always stood up for the downtrodden,” said Rev. Jewett Walker, a politically connected African American pastor in Los Angeles who has worked with Waters for years. “There are people who do not like that.”

In 1992, a year after Waters was first elected to Congress, her South Central Los Angeles district exploded after the acquittal of the white police officers who beat black motorist Rodney King. While other politicians denounced the riots, Waters questioned whether it should even be called a riot.

“If you call it a riot, it sounds like it was just a bunch of crazy people who went out and did bad things for no reason,” Waters said at the time, according to the Los Angeles Times. “I maintain it was somewhat understandable, if not acceptable. So I call it a rebellion.”

Republicans have long used Waters as a boogeyman to help them raise money and to excite their base — and as a wedge to try to convince moderate swing voters not to support other Democratic candidates in battleground districts.

Now in her 15th term in Congress, Waters herself has never faced much of a political threat in her overwhelmingly Democratic district, where she regularly wins re-election with over 70 percent of the vote.

“For decades, Congresswoman Waters has been one of the most outspoken women leading the fight for justice,” said Aimee Allison, who founded the group She the People, which works to advance women of color in politics. “She will not be deterred, and neither will Americans who are demanding more accountability from our criminal justice system.”

She’s such a lightning rod, though, that her Republican challenger last year, Navy veteran Joe Collins, raised a whopping $10.6 million and he went on to outspend Waters more than 5 to 1, according to campaign finance reports. Even though Collins lost that bid 72-28 percent, he has already raised more than $500,000 for a re-match in 2022.

“Maxine Waters is a complete disgrace to the United States and to South L.A.,” Collins said on Fox News Monday in an appearance likely to garner even more donations.

Collins called on Congress to remove Waters from office by invoking a clause in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that disqualifies federal officeholders who have “engaged in insurrection.”

It’s the same clause that liberals wanted to use to prohibit Trump from running for office again after the Capitol riot and to expel Greene — an effort Waters supported.

On MSNBC Sunday, Waters defended her rhetoric.

“I wanted to be there, kind of as ‘Auntie Maxine’ to show them that not only do I love them and I support them, but they can count on me to be with them at this terrible time in all of our lives,” she said of her trip to Minnesota.

“Auntie Maxine” is the moniker the 82-year-old lawmaker embraced when she became an early hero to younger progressives opposed to former President Donald Trump.

She was one of the first Democrats to call for Trump’s impeachment, frequently accused Trump of being controlled by Russians (the featured post on her Twitter account is still a 2017 meme with the hashtag “#KremLINKlan”), and she encouraged supporters to harass Trump officials.

“If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome,” she told a crowd in 2018. Her remarks came after criticism of incidents of Trump officials being antagonized in restaurants.

That earned her a spot near the top of Trump enemy’s list, as the former president frequently railed against the “extraordinarily low IQ person” in tweets and rally speeches, where audiences loved to boo the congresswoman with whom they were already very familiar from conservative media.

Cesar Sayoc, the Florida man sentenced to 20 years in prison for mailing pipe bombs to Trump critics, sent one to Waters and her office has repeatedly been targeted.

Just last week, she earned blowback from conservatives and applause from the left for telling Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a staunch Trump ally, to “shut your mouth” during a committee hearing with Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor.