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House rejects GOP effort to censure Rep. Maxine Waters over remarks to Floyd protesters

Maxine Waters gestures with one hand as she speaks into a microphone.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) hosts a community meeting in January of last year.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
By Jennifer HaberkornStaff Writer 
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WASHINGTON —  The House voted 216 to 210 on Tuesday to reject a Republican effort to censure Los Angeles Rep. Maxine Waters over her comments to protesters last weekend.

The vote came shortly before the jury in the trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin found him guilty on all three charges, including second-degree murder, in the killing of George Floyd.

Waters had said at a demonstration in Brooklyn Center, Minn., last weekend that if Chauvin were not convicted, “then we know that we’ve got to not only stay in the street, but we’ve got to fight for justice,” according to video of the event. “We’ve got to get more active. We’ve got to get more confrontational. You’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.”

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People celebrate as the verdict is announced in the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota on April 20, 2021. - Sacked police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter on april 20 in the death of African-American George Floyd in a case that roiled the United States for almost a year, laying bare deep racial divisions. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

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Republicans quickly criticized the comments, accusing her of instigating violence. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) brought a censure resolution against her.

Waters brushed aside the criticism, saying she has always promoted nonviolence and accusing Republicans of “bullying” her.

During the vote on the censure resolution, Waters stood confidently in the well of the House, chatting with other lawmakers and occasionally glancing up at a vote tally in the chamber.

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“I love my colleagues, and they love me,” she said after the vote. “I don’t want to do anything to hurt them or hurt their chances for reelection. I will make sure that they are comfortable with my kind of advocacy so that we can all be sure that we can do the right thing.”

In this image from video, former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin is taken into custody as his attorney, Eric Nelson, left, looks on, after the verdicts were read at Chauvin's trial for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, Minn. (Court TV via AP, Pool)

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Jennifer Haberkorn

Jennifer Haberkorn covers Congress in Washington, D.C., for the Los Angeles Times. She has reported from Washington since 2005, spending much of that time roaming the halls of the U.S. Capitol. Before arriving at The Times, Haberkorn spent eight years at Politico writing about the 2010 healthcare law, a story that took her to Congress, the states, healthcare clinics and courtrooms around the country. She also covered Congress and local business news for the Washington Times. Haberkorn is a native of the Chicago area and graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis.

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