Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) on Monday said she would not apologize after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called her out as “that woman” in response to remarks McClain made on the House floor Monday criticizing Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who called for racial justice advocates in Minnesota over the weekend to “get more confrontational.”
“As ‘that woman,’ no I won’t apologize for calling out the double standards that you have set @SpeakerPelosi,” McClain wrote on Twitter.
Waters on Saturday night, during a visit to Brooklyn Center, Minn., the town where 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man, was shot and killed by a police officer last week, was asked what protesters in the streets should do if former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, whose trial in the killing of another Black man, George Floyd, was taking place nearby, is found not guilty.
“We’ve got to stay on the street, and we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational, we’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business,” Waters responded.
Waters’s comments, which came two days before closing arguments in Chauvin’s murder trial, sparked backlash among Republicans, with several members, including McClain, accusing Waters of inciting violence.
“Once again, this weekend, we saw a member of the majority openly call for more confrontation in a Minneapolis suburb,” McClain said during her floor speech. “That very night, there was a drive-by shooting in that community where police and the National Guardsmen were targeted. If this were reversed, if this was said by a Republican, you know that the majority in this chamber would move to strip that representative of their committees and possibly to expel them from Congress.”
When asked by a reporter if Waters should apologize for her comments, Pelosi said she did not and instead called out McClain for her remarks.
“That woman on the floor should be apologizing for what she said,” Pelosi said Monday, referencing McClain’s speech.
Waters defended herself from the GOP criticism, telling The Grio on Monday that she is “nonviolent,” adding that she is “not worried that they’re going to continue to distort what I say. This is who they are and this is how they act. And I’m not going to be bullied by them.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) also accused Waters of condoning political violence.
Waters became an aspect of the Chauvin trial on Monday after defense attorney Eric Nelson argued that Waters’s comments could have prejudiced the jury and were grounds for a mistrial.
The judge denied Nelson’s motion for a mistrial but did say that he wished elected officials would stop talking about the case, especially in a manner that is “disrespectful to the rule of law.”
“If they want to give their opinions they should do so … in a manner that is consistent with their oath to the Constitution,” he continued.
In a tweet on Monday, McCarthy said he planned to introduce a resolution to censure Waters for her “dangerous” comments, adding that the congresswoman “broke the law by violating curfew and then indicted violence.”
On Sunday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) announced that she planned to introduce a resolution to expel Waters “for her continual incitement of violence.”