The blog site Redstatewave claimed Wednesday that Representative Maxine Waters was “getting criminally charged.”
Redstatewave began the article by clarifying that “Laura Loomer, a conservative investigative journalist, is charging ‘Auntie’ Maxine for assault, citing Waters hit her hand and swatted her face with office papers.”
“She hit my hand, then she swatted me in the face twice w/ her papers,” Loomer said on Twitter after reportedly filing a police report.
Loomer made a name for herself by—among other performances—disrupting Shakespeare in the Park last summer after the play’s depiction of a Trump-esque Julius Caesar.
Is Redstatewave’s headline accurate?
The short answer: No, Waters is not being “criminally charged.”
Criminal charges are made by a governmental authority, a category Loomer is not part of. The simple act of filing a police report does not immediately incur “criminal charges” against the subject.
Here’s a video of the incident:
Maxine Waters, the California Democrat advocating for the harassment of those in the Trump administration, quickly escapes to a guarded elevator as @LauraLoomer questions her.
Hilarious how Waters advocates for harassment, yet hates being on the receiving end. pic.twitter.com/xeuRuubsxM
— Kyle Morris (@RealKyleMorris) June 27, 2018
Hyperbole and misleading headlines are a staple on the blog. With titles such as “BREAKING: Senator Chuck Schumer just ended Maxine Waters!” and “BREAKING: President Trump Just Played 4D Chess With the Dems!” some visitors might be led to believe that Redstatewave is a satirical website. (The fact that most, if not all, articles on the blog are written by “MAGA Student” certainly does not help.) But as far as TWS Fact Check can tell, the website does not consider itself to be an (intentional) joke.
The exact same article (header, body, and all) also appeared on ussanews.com, conservativeangle.com, redstatewatcher.com, conservativepost.com, and several other pop-up blog sites.
If you have questions about this fact check, or would like to submit a request for another fact check, email Holmes Lybrand at [email protected] or the Weekly Standard at [email protected]. For details on TWS Fact Check, see our explainer here.
