It looks like Rep. Maxine Waters will once again escape any consequences for her inflammatory remarks regarding the Derek Chauvin trial.
According to the Washington Examiner, Waters, who was intensely criticized by Republicans and even some House Democrats for suggesting that a verdict other than Chauvin being found guilty should result in more confrontation in the streets, was ultimately saved by her colleagues in a formal vote that could have resulted in a censure.
After making the remarks during a protest on Saturday night, when the jury still had access to the mainstream media, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy immediately vowed to press for censuring the 82-year-old California Democrat, with other Republicans accusing her of inciting a call to violence.
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McCarthy’s promise to propose a resolution came to fruition on Tuesday, with a formal House vote that resulted in a party-line vote of 216-210 against censuring Waters for her remarks. Four members didn’t register a vote.
Waters’ words, which many believe were inflammatory at the very least, were fiercely defended by a number of top House Democrats, including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who told reporters that he and others believed that Waters’ remarks were taken “out of context” and were just typical rhetoric related to the civil rights movement.
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“To confront is to come face to face with what you need to, ah, face or to deal with, and that is what she said,” Hoyer said in a desperate attempt to alter reality. “It does not imply violence.”
“Chairwoman Waters’s remarks reflect the very profound anger and sense of hopelessness that she and many others, myself included, feel when we see African Americans being killed during encounters with our law enforcement and their families not seeing justice,” Hoyer added, even calling the GOP’s attempt to censure her over the remarks a political “gotcha” move.
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Waters received support from even higher up, including being defended by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Many on social media and on the Republican side of the political aisle argued that Waters’ remarks had the potential to influence the outcome of the trial — a possibility that wasn’t lost on the judge presiding over the trial who acknowledged to Chauvin’s defense attorney that her remarks could very well be used in Chauvin’s appeal to overturn the convictions.
“I wish elected officials would stop talking about this case, especially in a manner that’s disrespectful to the rule of law and to the judicial branch and our function,” Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill on Monday, adding that he believed her comments were “abhorrent.”
One has to wonder what the outcome would have been if the roles were reversed and a Republican member of Congress made the same remarks about a high-profile trial. I have a feeling that they’d have been drummed out of Congress within hours.
