A group of conservative African American figures, including Star Parker, gathered on Capitol Hill on Thursday and called on House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to censure Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., after she called on her supporters to confront members of President Trump’s administration in public.
“This is a dangerous and unhinged call that signals to liberal activists that violence is a preferred way to demonstrate this disagreement,” said Johnathan Alexandre, director of public policy at the Liberty Counsel. “This resistance is not progressing at all, but is rather in a standstill, hunched over in a dark corner of bitterness and self-loathing and now dangerous retaliation.”
Last month, after the owner of the Red Hen restaurant in Virginia after she asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave, Waters encouraged her supporters to follow suit and confront members of the Trump administration.
Video of those remarks at a Los Angeles rally earned Waters rebukes from Republicans and some Democrats. For instance, House Speaker Paul Ryan called on her to apologize, saying “There’s no place for this.” Some, among liberal circles, have defended her, including the Congressional Black Caucus.
Since then, more members of the Trump administration have been engaged by protesters in public, as well as allies of the president, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
— Star Parker (@UrbanCURE) July 12, 2018
The group that descended on Capitol Hill on Thursday emphasized that free speech is a protected right, and no one should be harassed for supporting the president.
Johms Gool, senior pastor of Victory Christian Center, claimed that their lack of respect for civil dialogue is indicative in the Left’s attempts to undermine the Constitution, and by extension praised the president for nominating Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court because he believes in the original meaning of the Constitution.
“I contend that our Constitution is never outdated because rather than being hundreds of pages filled with policy like these modern constitutions, our founder put together a few simple pages dealing with human nature,” Gool said. “Now, human nature has no expiration date, and neither does our constitution, and although it was not perfect, it left a means for fixing imperfections, allowing me to stand before you today,” he added.
Parker, president of the Center for Urban Renewal Education, condemned Waters for encouraging the kind of behavior that keeps families separated and leads to civil war. She stated their press briefing was to show Waters is not the face of all of black America.
“Congresswoman Maxine Waters has violated the sacred trust we each have to each other as Americans that have each of our rights stop at the others nose. Her call to extremism based on where another American citizen works and who they associate with must be sternly addressed by Speaker Paul Ryan and apology is not enough, nor did she offer one, after being asked by House Speaker,” Parker said. “We move into two months of intense debate over the next SCOTUS nomination the censuring of Maxine Waters becomes of extreme urgency so we compel Speaker Paul Ryan to heed the call of many on the Freedom caucus today and his colleague and censor Maxine Waters today.”
— Star Parker (@UrbanCURE) July 12, 2018
Also in attendance was Diante Johnson, President and founder of the Black Conservative Federation, Rev. Derek McCoy, Executive Vice President of CURE, Bishop Aubrey Shines and Bishop David Richey.
As they held their event, a separate group of black women released a statement imploring Ryan to reverse his request for a public apology from Waters.
The group, calling themselves #IStandWithMaxine, has also rebuked House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticizing them for their own less explicit criticism of Waters, BuzzFeed News reports.
“Maxine Waters has served in the US House since 1991. She served in the CA Assembly from 1977-91. She is the most senior among 12 Black women currently serving in Congress. She is a lifetime public servant who fights for the most vulnerable among us. #IStandWithMaxine,” tweeted Kristen Clark, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Maxine Waters has served in the US House since 1991
She served in the CA Assembly from 1977-91.
She is the most senior among 12 Black women currently serving in Congress.
She is a lifetime public servant who fights for the most vulnerable among us.#IStandWithMaxine pic.twitter.com/EGOzLHm78z— Kristen Clarke (@KristenClarkeJD) July 7, 2018
At the Los Angeles rally last month, Waters said, “I have no sympathy for these people that are in this administration who know it is wrong what they’re doing on so many fronts but they tend to not want to confront this president.”
She added: “For these members of his Cabinet who remain and try to defend him they’re not going to be able to go to a restaurant, they’re not going to be able to stop at a gas station, they’re not going to be able to shop at a department store, the people are going to turn on them, they’re going to protest, they’re going to absolutely harass them until they decide that they’re going to tell the president ‘no I can’t hang with you, this is wrong this is unconscionable and we can’t keep doing this to children.'”
Waters also said: “God is on our side.”
The clergymen at Thursday’s conference closed their press briefing questioning whether she was referencing the God of the Judeo-Christian ethic.
