Republican Accountability Project to Kevin McCarthy: “Clean Up Your Own House” Instead of Censuring Maxine Waters

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Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:51 pm

The Republican Accountability Project slammed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a new ad, urging him to address the behavior of members within his own party rather than censure Representative Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) for remarks she made ahead of the conviction of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.

The controversy arose when Waters addressed protesters following the police shooting of Daunte Wright in Minneapolis, Minnesota as the nation waited for Chauvin’s trial to conclude.

Waters had said that if Chauvin was not found guilty, “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.”

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“We’ve got to get justice in this country, and we cannot allow these killings to continue,” Waters said at the time.

McCarthy had responded by accusing Waters and House Democrats of promoting “violent rhetoric.”

Speaker Pelosi, and every other House Democrat, had the opportunity to condemn the violent rhetoric of our colleague Representative Waters.

Instead, they condoned it.

And the House and our justice system are worse off because of it.

— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) April 20, 2021

To that end, the Republican Accountability Project’s latest ad features past statements from Representatives Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Madison Cawthron (R-N.C.) urging their supporters to “be violent” and “lightly threaten” lawmakers for not backing former President Donald Trump‘s baseless allegations that the 2020 general election results were fraudulent. McCarthy never voted to censure them––and even promoted these conspiracy theories on his own––but he did move to censure Waters; the House ultimately voted to table the resolution 216 to 210 along party lines.

“If Kevin McCarthy really opposes dangerous rhetoric, he can start by cleaning up his own house,” states the voiceover in the video.

You can watch it below.