“I think he’s a racist, I think he’s a throwback and I don’t mind saying it, any day of the week.”
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“I think that Jeff Sessions is very dangerous … and I think that he absolutely believes that it’s his job to keep minorities in their place,” Waters told me. “And so I think we have to watch him, we have to keep an eye on him, and be prepared to push back.”
The 13-term California congresswoman sat down with me in her Capitol Hill office on May 4, just after delivering a speech on the House floor against the Trumpcare bill, but before she had to dash back out to cast her “no” vote. So emphatic is Waters in making her points against the president and the attorney general and, well, everything, that you will hear her finger and ring tapping the desk as she makes each point.
Waters became known as “Auntie Maxine” after R. Eric Thomas’s hilarious and brilliantly written review of her blunt, no-nonsense 21-second comments about a briefing with FBI Director James Comey back in January. The title of Thomas’s piece for Elle.com was “Congresswoman Maxine Waters Will Read You Now.” And for 30 minutes, to quote Thomas, Waters continued “reading this town for filth.”
“I’m so offended by this president that I think it requires me to speak truth to power, to say it like it is and to be as honest as I possibly can about what I think about him being the president of this country,” Waters told me. She believes Trump “colluded with the Russians, with the Kremlin … to undermine our election system and thus undermine our democracy.”
“This man has no good values. … He’s indecent,” Waters continued, railing against Trump. “He’s a person that certainly cannot be a role model for our children or for anybody else. The fact that he is the president of the United States is dangerous for us all.” And that’s not all Waters had to say. Listen to the podcast to hear the rest of her take on Trump and Sessions and the whole “Auntie Maxine” craze surrounding her.
“I love being called Auntie Maxine,” she said, smiling broadly.
“Cape Up” is Jonathan’s weekly podcast talking to key figures behind the news and our culture. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever else you listen to podcasts.