Appearing Saturday on MSNBC, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) claimed, without evidence, that minority communities fear President Donald Trump’s goal is to declare martial law. Her comments come as protests over the death of Geroge Floyd continue to rage across the United States.
A partial transcript is as follows:
ANCHOR: Tell me congresswoman whether or not you think the influence of the president is the primary factor, is it an abetting factor? These things that have gone on with black folk and law enforcement are not new of January 20, 2017. How much do you put this directly on the president, and how much of this deep systemic stuff that we haven’t quite dealt with yet?
REP. MAXINE WATERS: It’s a combination of both. This president has certainly been responsible for dog-whistling for much of that constituency that empowers him and tells them get tough and he tells police officers to be rough on those that they arrest. He has basically undermined John Lewis, one of our civil rights leaders in Congress, and talking about his district by basically saying we live in rat holes. He has disparaged blacks in so many ways. All that stuff about loving blacks is so disingenuous. Nobody believes that. He’s such a liar. He cannot be trusted. And yes, I think he has emboldened those who are racist. He’s emboldened police officers to be nastier, tough, to do things like the chokehold. I believe all of that.
[..]
Many people think he likes the confrontation because he tends to want to be a dictator, that he wants to have martial law. This has been whispered for months, particularly in minority communities that the president wants to have martial law, and he wants to take over and have police control.