When it comes to controversy, Democratic California Representative Maxine Waters has most members of the House of Representatives beat hands-down. As the longest-serving African-American female member of Congress, one would think that Waters would try to make an effort to maintain a reasonable sense of decorum. Yet time after time, Waters has been on the “bleeding edge” of what’s acceptable behavior and what isn’t as well as being one of the most vocal Washington lawmakers that most people can name.
In fact, it was Waters’ behavior in the mid-1990s that sparked the most recent use of the Mace of the House of Representatives, a symbolic staff that’s carried by the House’s Sergeant-at-Arms, used to silence any members of the chamber who are acting unruly. When the Sergeant must make use of the Mace (which is supposed to quiet any Representative who’s causing a disturbance), observers can recognize that there’s something wrong.
And indeed, on July 29 of 1994, Waters’ verbal outbursts against Republican Representative Peter King of New York — who was then giving a floor speech — reached such a crescendo that the Sergeant had to threaten to make use of the Mace. This was the first time in at least 75 years that the Mace had either been used or had been threatened to be used by the Sergeant. Waters was asked to leave the House for the rest of that day, and the incident was recorded in the chamber’s records.
Although Waters entered the House in 1991, she’s a longtime Democrat who has historically supported Bill and Hillary Clinton. In fact, it was in the course of defending a member of Hillary Clinton’s staff that the above-cited incident with the Mace occurred. In 2008, Waters was a persistent and steadfast supporter of Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign and only endorsed Barack Obama when it finally became clear Clinton had no chance of being elected.
Given the history of Waters’ outspokenness, a closer look at her actions and comments makes one wonder if the Democratic Party hasn’t made use of her to effect some of its more baseless attacks and provocations. The following are some choice Waters quotes about various political matters:
On the Tea Party, Waters has said, “As far as I’m concerned, the ‘tea party’ can go straight to hell… and I intend to help them get there.”
On the U.S.’s relationship with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s government, she said the decades of the 1960s and 1970s were “a sad and shameful chapter of our history” and that Castro needed to be thanked for helping refugees “flee political persecution.”
On the Los Angeles riots that occurred in the wake of the Rodney King verdict in 1992, Waters said, “If you call it a riot, it sounds like it was just a bunch of crazy people who went out and did bad things for no reason. I maintain it was somewhat understandable, if not acceptable.”
Waters has a long history of attacking President Trump and people in his cabinet, typically via liberal news network MSNBC. As soon as Trump was elected, MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts interviewed Waters, who had this to say: “I don’t believe anything that Donald Trump says. He has lied and distorted information, all information, throughout this campaign… I want to know when he’s going to apologize to the disabled journalist about mocking him in front of the children of America. I have never seen anything like this. So are we going to work with him? Which Donald Trump are we working with? If it’s the same Donald Trump that’s shown himself throughout the campaign, then I don’t want any part of it.” Waters then ran back to Capitol Hill, where she insulted FBI Director James Comey for supposedly being responsible for President Trump’s election. “All I can tell you is the FBI director has no credibility,” blurted out the impulsive congresswoman following a Congressional briefing on alleged Russian hacking.
When President Trump gave his highly successful State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress, Waters declined to attend. “This is ceremonial. And in this ceremony, people lie. They smile. They shake hands. They hug each other. They honor the president. I’m not about any of that… I don’t choose to go. I don’t choose to honor him. I’ve said that. And I won’t be a part of the ceremony. And that’s that,” said Waters, who also castigated the MSNBC anchor interviewing her for implying she had shaken hands with any presidents at previous State of the Union addresses.
In February, Waters was talking on MSNBC about members of Trump’s cabinet having close ties to the oil industry. “All of these people are organized with these oil and gas interests in the administration and friends of the President of the United States, this back-channeling that you see. These are a bunch of scumbags, that’s what they are… I tell you this, Tillerson is there to get these [Russian] sanctions lifted. I believe it. Just watch him. He’s going to continue to work on it. This is important for him. He was there because he negotiated the deal for Exxon with Putin.”
Recently, the government announced that Exxon would still not be allowed to drill in the Russian Arctic Sea because of sanctions put in place by former President Obama, proving that despite Waters’ words, Secretary of State Tillerson hasn’t made any mountains move in relation to Russia and oil.
In March, Waters said something was “wrong” with Trump in yet another MSNBC interview. “I don’t like the way he talked about women and grabbing women by their private parts. I don’t like the way that he treated Hillary Clinton and the way that he kind of stalked her in a debate and got in her face and called her crooked. I don’t even like the way he treated some of his own colleagues, and so, he came to the presidency with the kind of character and background that made me distrust him or not honor him and not respect him.”
Indeed, Waters has made Trump’s character a central part of her critique of the president. “He’s the president of the United States; people are still talking about ‘he’s going to change,’ ‘he’s going to become presidential.’ He has not changed. He is not presidential. As a matter of fact, he is worse now than he was in the campaign… We are being disrespected all over the world, and if he wants to continue talking about how great Putin is, and how bad the past president was, then I know something’s wrong with this person; he doesn’t deserve to be president.”
Later the same month, Waters was sure that incriminating connections between Trump and Russia would be found. “I’ve always said that I believe if we get the investigations that need to be done — if we drill down — we’re going to see the connections. We’re going to understand the role that this administration has played during the campaign with Russia. And when we see that, [Trump] certainly will be eligible for impeachment. I do believe that.”
To date, however, no illicit ties have been found between the Trump campaign and Russia. But that hasn’t stopped Waters, who’s said on television, “my greatest desire is to lead [Trump] right into impeachment.”
Of course, if one goes back to 1998, Waters was one of the most ardent defenders of then-President Bill Clinton in the latter’s impeachment hearings. On the House floor, she had this to say about the Democratic president: “Today, we are here in the people’s House debating the partisan impeachment of the president of the United States of America while the commander-in-chief is managing a crisis and asking world leaders for support. This is, indeed, a Republican coup d’etat… Bill and Hillary Clinton are the real targets, and the Republicans are the vehicles being used by the right-wing Christian coalition extremists to direct and control our culture.”
Yet Waters did not deny the president had done something wrong. “The rule of law has been violated in denying the president notice of charges, by the abuse of power in the collecting of so-called ‘evidence’ and the denial of the presumption of innocence. President Clinton is not guilty of the trumped-up charges presented in these four articles of impeachment. Yes, Bill Clinton is guilty of certain indiscretions in his private life. However, he did not commit high crimes and misdemeanors.”
But high crimes and misdemeanors might be something that Waters might want to look up the definition of; in 2010, a subcommittee of the House’s Ethics Committee charged the California congresswoman with three counts of flouting House rules and regulations in connection with shady financial institution OneUnited Bank.
Waters had requested federal bailout money for the bank (which former Democratic Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank also has ties to) while neglecting to tell Treasury officials that her husband had served on the bank’s board of directors and held significant amounts of the company’s stock. But the Ethics Committee — chaired by Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren from Waters’ home state of California — dragged its feet for three years and ultimately let Waters walk away unscathed in the scandal while issuing a mere “letter of reproval” to Waters’ grandson, who was serving as Waters’ top aide at the time.
Perhaps Waters hadn’t learned her lessons about her family profiting financially from companies needing to do business with, for and by the sanction of the government.
In 2004, the Los Angeles Times revealed that Waters’ relatives made more than $1 million from doing business with causes, candidates and companies that Waters had helped. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) added Waters to its list of the most corrupt members of Congress for 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2011. Watchdog organization Judicial Watch also named Waters as one of the most corrupt members of Congress. And in June 2009, Citizens Against Government Waste awarded Waters its “Porker of the Month” prize for her seeking earmarks for the humbly-named Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center in California. In response to these allegations of impropriety regarding herself and her family, Waters responded, “They do their business, and I do mine.”
In summary, it may be high time that Congress once again puts Waters (and her family) under the Ethics spotlight, so voters can see exactly whose business in the Waters family is intertwined with whose. There’s an old expression about people living in glass houses, and from just about any vantage point in the country, Waters’ abode is looking pretty transparent.
