Politics

Rep. Maxine Waters Is Boycotting Trump’s Speech

MSNBC

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
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California Rep. Maxine Waters will boycott President Trump’s address to Congress because she does not believe that she can control herself during the Republican’s speech, she said Tuesday.

Waters announced her plans to skip Trump’s address during a Democratic caucus meeting on Tuesday morning.

She reportedly told her colleagues that she did not think she would be able to maintain her composure during Trump’s speech.

“The president is not going to say what I want him to say,” Waters said in an interview with ABC News after the morning meeting. “He’s gonna take credit for everything.”

Waters, who boycotted Trump’s inauguration with dozens of her fellow Democrats, has repeatedly said that Trump should be impeached. She has also called his advisers “scumbags.”

While Waters is the only Democrat so far to announce a boycott, one of her colleagues is staging a silent protest.

New York Rep. Eliot Engel announced that he is breaking his 29 year streak of shaking the hand of each president ahead of speeches at joint sessions of Congress.

“Unfortunately, since January 20th, the new administration has shown no interest in working with the Congress on both sides to tackle problems, including Russia’s unlawful interference in last year’s election,” Engel said during a House floor speech.

“That’s why I’ve decided not to stand on the aisle of the House chamber to shake the president’s hand during this joint session of Congress, as I have done in the past through Democratic and Republican administrations alike.”

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