House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is under fire after threatening U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the chair of the Financial Services Committee, with censure and claiming she “broke the law.” Waters is being used by the right as a straw man after she traveled to Minnesota to speak with Black Lives Matter protestors and telling them they must continue confrontations.
“We’ve got to stay on the street and we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business,” Waters said on Saturday as activists protested the killing of 20-year old Daunte Wright by a Brooklyn Center police officer.
Waters on Monday clarified her remarks after right wing uproar.
“I talk about confronting the justice system, confronting the policing that’s going on, I’m talking about speaking up. I’m talking about legislation. I’m talking about elected officials doing what needs to be done to control their budgets and to pass legislation.”
But McCarthy and his far right wing extremists, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, went on the attack, with Greene saying she wanted to expel Waters.
“This weekend in Minnesota, Maxine Waters broke the law by violating curfew and then incited violence,” McCarthy falsely claimed. “Speaker Pelosi is ignoring Waters’ behavior—that’s why I am introducing a resolution to censure Rep. Waters for these dangerous comments.”
McCarthy’s motion is being seen as pure partisan politics and fundraising fodder. Social media users were furious.