Earlier this week, Maxine Waters encouraged Americans to protest high officials who enable Trump’s cruelty wherever we can, including in public spaces like restaurants.
Trump immediately responded with personal vitriol, calling Rep. Waters “Low IQ” and warning her to “be careful”, presumably of violence from his thuggish supporters. This is a threat he has repeated many times at rallies, egging on his “very fine” followers.
Waters reiterated that her call was for peaceful protest, and went on Chris Hayes’ program to recount all the times Trump has called for violence.
“He calls for more violence than anybody else,” the California lawmaker said. [...]
'I’d like to punch him in the face,'" Waters recalled.
“Another violent statement — ‘I’d like to knock the crap out of them,” Waters quoted.
“Another one — ‘Maybe he should be roughed up,’” Waters recalled.
Waters also pointed to the time when someone was removed from a May 2017 Trump rally in Massachusetts.
“Try not to hurt him but if you do, I’ll defend you in court. Don’t worry about it,” Trump said. — thehill.com/...
Responding to Rep. Waters’ moral clarity and call for action, both Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer rushed to defend her, and used their platforms to call out Trump’s naked hypocrisy and gaslighting. They both said a man who has led chants of “Lock Her Up”, called ordinary people “vermin”, “rapists” and “murderers”, shouldn’t expect civility from those he targets.
Just kidding.
That’s not what happened at all.
Pelosi decided to practice “bi-partisanship” and joined the right-wing gaslighting of Waters, suggesting what Waters said wasn’t “beautiful”.
Schumer chimed in as well, directly attacking Rep. Waters, saying it “wasn’t American” to ask voters to hold Trump administration officials accountable for their cruelty, even when they are complicit in the hostage taking of young children.
In their eyes, after a long day of working to strip our rights, Sarah Huckabee Sanders should expect to be politely served a relaxing meal at a farm to table restaurant. LGBT servers and immigrant cooks should quietly deliver a lovingly prepared meal to mendacious press secretaries working tirelessly to threaten the livelihood and security of their loved ones.
Fuck.
That.
Shit.
The House and Senate minority leaders, have demonstrated once again, that they lack the sense of urgency demanded by this moment, and possess the political instincts of the German opposition on the eve of the Reichstag fire.
To understand why Minority Leader Schumer—who failed to get a deal for DACA recipients; who gave multiple Democrats his tacit blessing to endorse Trump’s efforts to install a torturer as the head of the CIA and deregulate the banks; who announced his public support for Trump’s decision to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, making any peaceful and democratic resolution to the occupation even more remote and unlikely—took The Resistance to the pumps, you have to understand that everything he does as a politician is aimed at appealing to a well-off white suburban Boomer couple that only exists in his imagination.
That is not a joke or insult. It’s a fact, as he explained to The New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert last year.
The Baileys live in Massapequa, a town on the South Shore, across the bay from Jones Beach. Joe works for an insurance company; Eileen is an administrative assistant in a physician’s office. The couple have three children, two of whom are grown. Economically, the Baileys are doing O.K., but they worry about rising property taxes and what the future holds for their kids. They’re not strong partisans. They feel that politicians of both parties sometimes condescend to them, something they hate. The Baileys voted for Bill Clinton twice, then, in 2000, after much agonizing, pulled the lever for George W. Bush.
— splinternews.com/...
Pelosi and Schumer have bumbled once again, into handing the right an immense gift. Right wingers can now go around claiming there’s a “bi-partisan” consensus that Trump cabinet officials who lock up little children in cages should expect to be served champagne and caviar without a single eyebrow raised in their direction.
A Fox commentator said Pelosi and Schumer “were pulling [Rep. Maxine Waters’] chain back a little bit”.
Where were Pelosi and Schumer, these tireless defenders of civility, decorum and prompt meal-service when Paul Ryan literally held a rally with a baker who refused to serve Joe Biden?
The Republican ticket has embraced a new small-business hero. On Wednesday, the owner of a bakery who last week turned away Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. introduced Representative Paul D. Ryan at a rally in this city where President Obama uttered his “You didn’t build that” remark.
Chris McMurray, the owner of Crumb and Get It Cookie Company with his wife, told a crowd at another small business, a hardware store, “We are gathered here today to send a message to the Obama-Biden team that we did build it.’’
Mr. McMurray said the Biden campaign approached him to ask if the vice president could drop by his cookie shop while campaigning, and he replied, “Nothing personal, but I just happened to disagree with the president and the vice president on a few things.” — thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/...
Never heard a peep from them about civility at the time. They didn’t suggest Paul Ryan was un-American or ugly. Now all of a sudden, when someone on the left calls for direct action to protect the bodies and minds of young children from trauma, they morph into the civility police.
If Pelosi and Schumer had any idea how to do politics, they would have gone on every TV show that would have them to play clips of the vile things Trump has said and ask, “what were you saying about civility in the public sphere”?
Instead, we get the sight of two two white Democratic leaders implying that Maxine Waters is being un-American or engaging in ugliness.
What imaginary voters do they think they’ve appealed to by criticizing Maxine Waters? Do they think smacking down Rep. Waters is going to encourage turnout in the mid-terms?
You’ve got to wonder who Pelosi and Schumer are hanging out with if they think Democrats are clamoring for more milquetoast critiques of Trump.
Do the Democrats around you want their leaders to play nice with people yanking three month olds from their mothers? Or do they want Democrats to fight for what’s right?
It’s clear that we can expect no such fight from the two minority leaders. Which is probably why they are in the minority.
It’s time Democrats began choosing leaders capable of leading us out of this mess, rather than those who happen to enjoy geographic proximity to big donors.
— @subirgrewal