Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) has found herself in hot water this week after she was caught on camera telling protesters in Minneapolis to “get more confrontational” if Derek Chauvin was not found guilty in the death of George Floyd.

Now, Waters is once again standing by her comments, saying that Republicans are only attacking her for this to distract from the Capitol riot, which she described as a “domestic terrorist insurrection” spearheaded by former President Donald Trump.

Close

“I attended a peaceful rally to demonstrate my support in this fight to get justice for people of color who are violated and killed day in and day out,” Waters wrote in an oped for the Los Angeles Times. “While there, I was asked: Ms. Waters, what do we do if we don’t get a guilty verdict? What should protesters do? I responded: “We got to stay on the street. And we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational.” Confronting injustice has been my life’s work.”

“Now, because of who I am, the right wing and members of Congress who subscribe to the views of groups like QAnon, the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and the KKK have targeted me,” she added. “Those very people have done so to divert attention from the fact that they aided and abetted a violent, domestic terrorist insurrection led by Donald Trump. To target me and say that I was violent or encouraging violence is a blatant distortion of the truth. I am nonviolent.”

This came days after Waters made her controversial comments in Minnesota.

“We’re looking for a guilty verdict,” Waters said of Chauvin’s case. “And we’re looking to see if all of the talk that took place and has been taking place after they saw what happened to George Floyd, if nothing does not happen, then we know that we’ve got to not only stay in the street, but we’ve got to fight for justice. But I am very hopeful, and I hope we are going to get a verdict that says ‘guilty, guilty, guilty.’ If we don’t, we cannot go away.”

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) introduced a resolution afterwards to condemn Waters for this, but House Democrats blocked it.