Kevin McCarthy demands Pelosi act on Maxine Waters’ ‘dangerous rhetoric’
House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy is calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold Rep. Maxine Waters accountable after she told protesters in Minnesota to “get more confrontational” — vowing that he will “bring action” if he must.
“Maxine Waters is inciting violence in Minneapolis — just as she has incited it in the past. If Speaker Pelosi doesn’t act against this dangerous rhetoric, I will bring action this week,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) wrote on Twitter late Sunday.
Waters (D-Calif.) has come under fire from Republicans for her rhetoric during an appearance early Sunday in Brooklyn Center, Minn., where a week earlier, Daunte Wright had been fatally shot by police and riots have ensued since.
Her comments also come as Minnesota and the nation brace for a verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial in Minneapolis, as closing arguments begin Monday.
Chauvin is on trial for killing George Floyd after the officer placed his knee on the man’s neck for more than nine minutes last May.
Waters stood with a crowd of protesters who earlier had been chanting, “No good cops in a racist system!” and “No justice, no peace!”
“We’ve got to stay in the streets, and we’ve got to demand justice,” she urged the crowd.
“We’re looking for a guilty verdict” in the Chauvin case, Waters said. “And if we don’t, we cannot go away, we’ve got to get more confrontational.”
A number of prominent Republicans have condemned her words, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who linked Waters’ actions to the greater Democratic Party.
“Democrats actively encouraging riots & violence. They want to tear us apart. ‘We gotta stay on the street,’ Waters was recorded saying, adding that protesters needed ‘to get more confrontational’ & they should ignore the curfew in place,” Cruz said on Twitter Sunday.
Waters appeared on MSNBC on Sunday, saying she went to Minnesota as a “kind of Auntie Maxine” to lend her support for the protesters.
Wright, 20, was fatally shot during a traffic stop April 11 by former Brooklyn Center Officer Kim Potter, who claims she mistook her service pistol for a Taser.
Since the incident, violence has erupted in Brooklyn Center, where dozens have been arrested amid rioting and looting.
