Maxine Waters: Poster Child For Term Limits
So far, I haven’t written one word about the Derek Chauvin trial in Minneapolis.
Two reasons for that: One, I’m too busy during the day to watch the trial. Two, I rarely weigh in on court cases while they’re underway or even once they’re over.
For several years I covered courts for The Virginian-Pilot and I quickly learned that if you weren’t present in the courtroom for an entire trial - to hear and to observe all of the witnesses and the lawyers - it was a fool’s errand to second guess the process.
If only Rep. Maxine Waters had similar impulse control.
This fire-breathing, belligerent 83-year-old woman, in her 15th term in the House, has a history of behavior unbecoming to a member of Congress. She’s the poster child for term limits.
In 1992, Waters led street demonstrations in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict, even going so far as to defend the looting of Korean grocery stores by rioters: “There were mothers who took this as an opportunity to take some milk, to take some bread, to take some shoes... They are not crooks."
Yes, they were crooks. And I watched the looting. I didn’t see many ladies pushing strollers.
True to form, Waters flew into Minnesota over the weekend in time to grab a microphone and the spotlight to call for violence if former police officer Derek Chauvin, who is accused of murdering George Floyd last May, isn’t convicted.
“I hope we get a verdict that says guilty, guilty, guilty,” Waters bellowed. “And if we don’t, we cannot go away. We’ve got to stay on the street. . . . We get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational.”
Just as the jury was about to begin deliberations.
This behavior and call to violence is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to stand. A member of Congress has no business implicitly threatening jurors and the entire judicial system if a verdict isn’t rendered to HER liking.
On Monday’s “Kerry and Mike Show” we discussed what should happen next. My co-host, Mike Imprevento, is a lawyer and he had a brilliant suggestion: He said the judge should order Waters to appear in his court and ask why she shouldn’t be charged with jury tampering.
Waters would not be able to claim any sort of congressional immunity because she wasn’t speaking from the House floor, but was in Minnesota when she uttered those ugly, incendiary words.
That didn’t happen on Monday although the defense lawyer argued for a mistrial, pointing out that the jurors should have been sequestered. One of the jurors, he said, lives in Brooklyn City where the latest protests and acts of violence have taken place. And where Maxine Waters shot off her mouth.
Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill denied the motion while expressing disgust over Waters’ behavior: “I’ll give you that Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned…
“I wish elected officials would stop talking about this case, especially in a manner that is disrespectful to the rule of law and to the judicial branch and our function.”
Unless I’m mistaken Judge Cahill essentially instructed the defense to use Maxine Waters’ call for violence as a reason to overturn a guilty verdict on appeal.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if Chauvin were found guilty but eventually freed because of the despicable behavior of a congresswoman from California?
