Maxine Waters Explains Her 'Confrontational' Comment

Maxine Waters on Monday hit back at Republican attacks of her comments about the deaths of Daunte Wright and George Floyd at the hands of police: "I am nonviolent," she tells theGrio, rejecting any GOP classification of her as attempting to incite violence. When she called on protesters to "get more confrontational" if Derek Chauvin is acquitted in Floyd's death, what she meant was "confronting the justice system, confronting the policing that’s going on, I’m talking about speaking up," the California congresswoman tells the site. "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."

She said Republicans will take any excuse to accuse Democrats and those protesting Black people's deaths at the hands of police, and said she refuses to be bullied or intimidated: "Any time they see an opportunity to seize on a word, so they do it and they send a message to all of the white supremacists, the KKK, the Oath Keepers, the [Proud] Boys and all of that, how this is a time for [Republicans] to raise money on [Democrats'] backs," she said. Following Marjorie Taylor Greene's plan to introduce a resolution to expel Waters from the House of Representatives, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he'll introduce a resolution of his own to censure Waters, the Hill reports. Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, backed Waters and said there is no need for her to apologize for her comments. (The judge in Chauvin's trial thinks Waters' comments could form the basis of an appeal if the former Minneapolis cop is found guilty.)