Reporter Presses Psaki on Why the White House Is Not Defending Maxine Waters

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is being asked why officials in the White House are not coming to the defense of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) as she faces Republican criticism over remarks she made about protesters getting “more confrontational.”

During a press briefing on Tuesday, PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor asked Psaki, “Speaker 👤Nancy Pelosi came to the defense of Rep. Waters. Rep. Waters, as you said, clarified, she said, ‘My actual words don’t matter.’ I wonder why the White House isn’t also coming to the defense of Rep. Waters, given that she is now facing an onslaught of attacks, especially by Republicans. I wonder why the White House isn’t saying, ‘We back what she said about being confrontational, she obviously wasn’t threatening violence.'”

“There are civil rights leaders who are saying that’s what civil rights is is to be confrontational, to be active,” she added.

Psaki responded, “Well, she also clarified her own remarks, Yamiche, and I think that’s the most powerful piece to point to.”

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Over the weekend, Waters attended a police brutality protest where she said that if former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is not found guilty of murdering George Floyd, “We’ve got to stay on the street and we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.”

Her comments prompted Republicans to accuse her of inciting violence.

However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) defended Waters as she said, “Maxine talked about confrontation in the manner of the Civil Rights movement. I myself think we should take our lead from the George Floyd family. They’ve handled this with great dignity and no ambiguity or lack of misinterpretation by the other side.”

“I don’t think she should apologize,” she added.