Conservatives accused Rep. Maxine Waters of encouraging violence on Sunday at a Minnesota anti-police protest.
The moment: The California Democrat told protesters in Brooklyn Center to “stay in the street” if Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer charged with second-degree murder in the death of George Floyd, was acquitted.
- Rioting has erupted in Brooklyn Center, a suburb of the Twin Cities, following the apparently accidental shooting of a black man, Daunte Wright, by a police officer on April 11.
- “If nothing does not happen, then we know that we’ve got to not only stay in the street, but we’ve got to fight for justice,” Waters said, who went on to say that protesters “got to make sure that they know that we mean business.”
The reaction: Critics on the right blasted Waters for what they characterized as crossing state lines to incite a riot.
- House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he would “take action” in the absence of any disciplinary measures against Waters from Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia, Republican, introduced a resolution to expel Waters from the House.
- “It’s abhorrent to incite violence and propagate a race war,” Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, tweeted in response to Waters’ remarks.
Context: Waters’ inflammatory rhetoric has been the target of conservative ire in the past, especially as civil unrest spread in the summer of 2020.
- Right-leaning critics scrutinized Democratic calls for violence after an article of impeachment was brought against former President Donald Trump for allegedly inciting the January 6 Capitol riot.
