By Sean Yoes, AFRO Baltimore Editor, syoes@afro.com
Maxine Waters (D-CA.), the seemingly indomitable political firebrand who represents large swaths of South Central Los Angeles, is now taking fire politically from the Left, as well as the Right. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY.), the Senate Minority Leader recently attacked Waters during a speech on the Senate floor, describing her call for the public harassment of Trump administration officials as `un-American.’ “I strongly disagree with those who advocate harassing folks if they don’t agree with you,” Schumer said. “If you disagree with a politician, organize your fellow citizens to action and vote them out of office. But no one should call for the harassment of political opponents. That’s not right. That’s not American.”
Waters responded to Schumer during a segment on MSNBC’s `AM Joy,’ July 1.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (Courtesy Photo)
“Leadership like Chuck Schumer will do anything that they think is necessary to protect their leadership,” Waters said. “What I have to do is not focus on them. I’ve got to keep the focus on the children,” Waters added in reference to the nearly 2,000 children that remain separated from their parents because of Trump’s `zero tolerance’ immigration policy.
After White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant last month because of her allegiance to Trump, according to a report in RT News, Waters told supporters “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
It seemed predictable Trump would lie and twist Waters’ words to claim she called for violence against his supporters. In a tweet, Trump also worked in a thinly veiled racist dig against Waters, one he has utilized many times against the enerable Congresswoman, and issued a warning to Waters. “Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person, has become, together with Nancy Pelosi, the face of the Democratic Party. She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement. Be careful what you wish for Max!” Waters isn’t backing down.
According to a report in The Hill, during an immigration rally over the weekend Waters said,“I know that there are those who are talking about censuring me, talking about kicking me out of Congress, talking about shooting me, talking about hanging me,” Waters told the crowd in Los Angeles. “All I have to say is this: If you shoot me you better shoot straight. There’s nothing like a wounded animal.”
