Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters said Tuesday that “nobody believes” her promise to “take Trump out” was a call to harm the president.
WATCH:
Earlier in October, Waters told the crowd at a a gala for the Ali Forney Center that she was going to “take Trump out tonight.” (VIDEO: Maxine Waters Jokes That She Wants To ‘Take Trump Out’)
CNN’s Chris Cuomo asked her during a Tuesday morning interview if the comments were encouraging violence against President Trump, and Waters cited her position as a black elderly woman to defend herself.
“That’s absolutely ridiculous,” she said. “Nobody believes that a 79 year old grandmother who is a congresswoman…was talking about doing any harm. The only harm that I may be doing to the president is I want him impeached.”
“Everybody knows I am on the front lines–not talking about causing harm to anybody–but I am talking about impeachment and I’m not going to stop,” she continued.
Cuomo bought Waters’ denial of threatening the president, but asked her if she would consider using more respectful rhetoric in the future. Waters claimed that she has always been “responsible” and blamed the “white nationalists” for attacking her because she is a black woman.
“I know that the right-wing, the white nationalists, all of those who are organized around this president do not like this, and people are not accustomed to a woman, in particular an African American woman, taking this kind of leadership,” Waters said. “How dare me criticize the President of the United States?”