In a Tuesday appearance on FNC’s “Fox & Friends,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) ripped Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) for her rhetoric amid the trial against former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd. Chauvin was found guilty the day before on three counts.
McCarthy acknowledged that the justice system worked in bringing justice to Floyd, but suggested an appeal over her threat of violence if the wrong verdict were reached could overturn the decision.
“[E]very Democrat and Speaker Pelosi had the opportunity to condemn this violent rhetoric,” McCarthy outlined. “Instead, they condoned it, which only makes the House of Representatives and the Justice Department weaker. This isn’t political. We’ve watched Maxine Waters say this before. If you see them at a gas station, you see them in a restaurant, get in their face. Tell them they’re not wanted. She travels to a place that is not her district right before a jury is going to hear the final verdict, and what does she do? She brings violence where the judge himself said it was abhorrent, that here we had justice system work.”
“What happened to George Floyd should never happen to anyone,” he continued. “He was killed. He was murdered, and the justice system worked yesterday, but now the judge even raised the issue because of Maxine Waters, an appeal could move forward to disrupt our justice system when we have an opportunity here to heal some wounds and come together for a more perfect union. That type of rhetoric does not help and condoning it does not help the system work either.”
McCarthy went on to say if the trial gets overturned, there would be “an uproar.”
“I think the Democrats have to go home and answer for their vote yesterday,” he stated. “It was an easy vote to have censure. It was, I think, across all Americans would agree. Not just my words, because there were none of my words in that resolution. All I did was quote the judge. And she could disrupt something that the judicial system just worked and proved, finding this officer guilty. But what if he wins on an appeal because she went to Minnesota and told people to have violence? … America itself would be in an uproar. And Democrats had an opportunity to condemn it, but they condoned it.”
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