Wonder Woman: Rep. Maxine Waters

before I was born. She was elected to the California bragging Yes, I'm so youthful. She was elected the California State Assembly in the late seventies, then to Congress. She's represented l A through some very notable and difficult moments in its history, including, for example, the riots that followed the Rodney King verdict. And while she's been in politics for a long time, lately she's really captured the public imagination. This is Maxine Waters moment. She's a big head among

millennials who call her Anti Mazine. They get t shirts and coffee mugs with her now famous slogan, which we'll talk about, and she is not mincing words these days. She recently said that quote, the United States of America is being represented by the most despicable human being that could possibly ever walk the earth. That's pretty clear. Tell

us what you really think, Maxine. So I suppose now is the time to mention Katie that the idea with our Wonder Women's series is not to endorse a particular viewpoint, but instead we're having meaningful conversations with women who have made a big impact in their particular fields. That's right, And as I alluded to earlier, Congresswoman Waters certainly made a huge splash last summer in an exchange with Treasury

Secretary Steve Venuchin. Will get to that as well, but we started by asking her about President Trump's recent comments to crying immigrants from what he called shiphole Country. Her reaction to what he said. When you heard that, Maximi, I call you maccine by absolutely. When you first heard that, what was your reaction, Well, you know, it was just

a feeling of disgust. You know, I have been watching this president and paying a lot of attention to what he said, how he acts, and his tweeting, and I've known for a long time that this was a dishonorable human being, that this was a person with no good values. And I thought, you know, I'd heard just about everything that you could possibly hear from him, and when I heard this statement about shiphole countries, I thought, this is it. You know, we have got to put the pressure on.

Not so much to the people of Congress. They know and they should be doing more, but we've got to keep saying to the American people, this is your country. You have got to make sure that you put pressure on your elected officials, that you show up that we do everything that we can to get this man out of office. So what do you think is the recipe for doing that? I mean, you know, we've heard this before. You were saying impeachment a few months ago, and people

hear this, they're mortified. But what is the path forward? Well, you know, I have hope that our special counsel Moller is going to connect the dots in a way that people cannot deny it, that you can easily see that he's been involved in collusion, that he's obstructed justice, that he's been involved in money laundering, and when you add all of that to what he's revealed about his character, I don't know how members of Congress are going to

be able to stand with him. So I have a lot of hope that Mueller is going to reveal information about him that will make people understand and believe how danger he is. So clearly to me at least, the remarks were racist. Do you think that Donald Trump is a racist? Donald Trump is a racist? And I said at this morning on MSNBC, I wanted to be known by everyone that I am not unsure about how I feel about him and what I've seen and what I've heard.

And the interesting thing is now it seems that even in the media, print media, you know, electronic media, etcetera, you're hearing others say it more and more and more. And so yes, I'm sure that he's a racist. And what do you make of that change in tone and

change in sort of characterization of the president? Well, first of all, for me, I cannot help but think, why did it take him so long to understand what I think I have known for a long time, going back, even taking a look at his history where he and his father denied rental units to African or Americans and had to settle that. And there are other kinds of incidents that has helped me to come to this conclusion.

But I think for those who are willing to say it for the first time is that they can't doubt themselves anymore. They can't say, uh, maybe uh, you know, people are Russian to judgment about him, maybe he didn't really mean it. I think now more and more people are saying, oh, no, he has demonstrated without a doubt that he is a racist. Why do you think Donald Trump says these things? I mean, he's with a lot of members of Congress when he does it. It's not

as if he says it even privately. So what is motivating him to do these things? Do you think he's got mental issues or do you think he's a jerk? Or what? What do he why? Why is he doing this? Well? You know, I've had some people say to me, oh, you know, he's strategic, he knows what he's doing. I don't think he can help himself. I think this something

about his basic character. I think this is something about the way that he has learned to deal with the world, in the business world, with his family and all of that. I think it's the way he's been socialized, and I think it's the way he's been able to win in certain ways. Uh. And so I think that he can't help himself. It comes out and I really believe that because sometimes he tries to so called walking back, you know. So I think he is out of control. It's just

very it's unfathomable to me that he does this. It's so self sabotaging. Yes, yes, well, let me just say this. I think one of the most recent denials he's made is with the Wall Street Journal, and he is basically saying that he did not say what they're saying he said. But this period of his uh, this year that he's been in office, is replete with that kind of stuff.

Don't forget Billy Bush and the recording that was made where he talked about grabbing women by their private parts, and now he's trying to say that really wasn't my voice on tape. So I think he can't help himself. I think that he's dangerous. Uh. And what bothers me is that number one, he is negotiating with other countries and representing US, and he's alienating other countries. Do we do you think that any of the sticks, you know?

I wonder if it all becomes white noise. And I wonder if people become inured to this kind of rhetoric and this kind of behavior. Well, could you imagine if any other president had, if any other president paid off a porn star to keep quiet about their extramarital relationship. And that wasn't even the top story a couple of days ago when it came out. No, as a matter of fact, there's not been a lot of discussion about that. A hundred and thirty thousan dollar ears to the porn

star that was paid off by Cohen. But that's my question, though doesn't matter. Well, here's what It won't matter if it is sub rosa, if we don't talk about it, if we don't discuss it. And it's not so much about just saying I'm worried. We have to talk about this in relationship to the democracy, to our country. This is a man who doesn't care about the constitution, he doesn't care about the protocols of government, and care about

anybody but himself. Really, But I think we have to keep reminding people how unusual this is, how abnormal it is, and not allow it to become normal. So you mentioned Bob Mueller, the special counsel doing this Russia investigation. You've been out front on a campaign to protect Mueller. What are you protecting him from? Well, as you know, this president has demonstrated that he will cross over the line

in anything. I mean, when he decides that he wants to punish someone, when he decides he wants to say something nasty about someone, he has no filter, he will do it. And I think he was poised to fire Muller. I think he still would like to do it. But I think that enough people rose up. Uh, and not just members of Congress. I organize one dred and seventy one members. But you could hear some Republicans mumbling he

better not do that. And so I think that enough people you know, stood in support of Mola in different ways that caused him to at least back off to this point, can we do one, one or two more moral questions, just as long as just because I want to mention her poem that did so So you recently wrote a poem did very well, like the rest of

your social media posts, can you read it to us? Yes? Absolutely, Um a message to me life, stay strong and stand calm, continue to investigate them all you're indeed answering the people's call. The Krimlin clan is going to fall around you. The Democrats are building a wall. We look forward to the day to prison. They will all be hauled. Regular William, So you've asked about this investigation. What is Trump so

afraid of? Yes, what do you think he's so afraid of? Well, I absolutely believe he certainly knows what he has done and who he has been connected to, and he knows what Kushner has done, he knows what Wilbert Ross has been involved in, and all of the rest of them, that's you know, his allies around him. And so he knows if the investigation continues that they're going to find out what he has done and what his connections are to Putin and to some of the oligarchs of Russia,

and so he would like to stop it. He has put forth a lot of effort at starting out when he thought he could co op Comy and get him to uh not go forward with the investigation as he asked him not to do. And so I think he's afraid he's going to be discovered. I don't know the extent to which you know he has been involved with Russian and the extent to which he's been involved in money laundrying. But I believe that it is substantial. So

you mentioned in your poem the Kremlin clan. Yes, do you believe the Steel dossier that basically says Putin has some kind of blackmail on Trump? I believe that there are a lot of things in that that's here that are true. Uh. You know, I keep hearing from the FBI and others that it has not all been vetted. I wish they would get through with the vetting so that we will know which parts of it are absolutely true. But I do think that a lot of it is true.

And Trump has never said I wasn't in that hotel room. You know, I don't care what you said. He's never denied that. And of course we have learned that this is the way the Russians work. They blackmail, Uh. They lure you into situations so that they can have something on you. This is supposed to be common practice with Putin in particular. You've been a member of Congress since that. There was a moment last year when you really lit

up the national stage just to set the scene. You know what I'm talking about Treasury Secretary Stephen Nuchin was testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, where you're the top Democrat, and you became frustrated and said these infamous or famous three words, reclaiming my time. Is there some reason why I did not get a response to the letter that I sent May twenty three, So, Ranking Member Waters, first of all, let me thank you for your service

to California. Being a resident of California, I appreciate everything that you can the community there. I don't want to take my time. I also have appreciated the opportunity to claim in my time. Claim in mind, we're doing our claim in my time. The time belongs to the general. Lady from California. Just say it for us one more time, vaccine, reclaiming my time, reclaiming my time. I think that should

be the title of your memoirs, if you ever write them. Well, you know, I think that he had been taught that if he could take up the time complimenting me and saying nice things about me, I could not get to question him about why he had not answered the letter that we had sent. And in fact, those the rules of the House where if he does, it takes away from your time period. You're questioning the time. That's right. It takes away from our time period. And there's nothing

new about those words. You know, this is the regular art of business, and it has been used by other members. It's used from time to time, and for some reason people heard it for the first time. Well, I think it meant more than just reclaiming my time. I think that was symbolic for a lot of things at this moment in our history. Why do you think it captured the public's imagination. It went viral, and it's really becomes revered thing. I know, I don't know. I've thought about

it a lot. I think, um, one thing that happened was here you had a woman who's the ranking member of the Financial Services Committee, it happens to be an African American woman, and you had a rich, powerful man who's part of the president's cabinet, who is now the Treasury secretary. And for me to just not be intimidated by him, to not allow him to get away what

he was trying to do. I think it was inspiring and I think it helped people to have hope that g we've got some people there that are willing to take them on and to you know, force them to have to answer questions and to you know, deal with the issues that are before them. So I think it might have been a little inspiring. What kind of my goodness all kind of being back as you know, there's a man who created a song that's right, sort of

a remix of reclaiming My Time. And so I was on the view and they surprised me with him coming out of the audience sing and reclaiming My Time and the audience joining in with I was shocked. I said, I can't believe, first of all, and he's a good singer, he's excellent wan to talk about the things y, But I tell you what, the most interesting thing about it is, I have a lot of women who have decided that they were going to make some changes in their lives.

One person talked about a divorce, and this was a man really about how uh he felt, you know, he couldn't go on with his life, you know, because it had been so traumatic for him. But he said, I'm reclaiming my time. All kind of stories like that, and then of course these cute little things that happened on the internet at Halloween. There was these little girls kind of they had them dressed up like me, you know, with the kind of a jacket suit jacket and little

pearls and ear rings. And one was sitting there with the pumpkin, said reclaiming my candy. And you're are all kinds of stories, like people have taken this to fit situations in their lives and they are using it to basically declare that something different is going to happen. And so I've enjoyed these stories. It's a matter of fact, I'm writing about them. Are you? Are you writing a book about this? Not yet, but I'm I'm your journaling. Yes,

is that what you call that? Okay, I'm good. We're gonna take a quick break and we'll be back with more from Congresswoman Maxine Waters right after this. Now back to our conversation with Congresswoman Maxine Waters. So, I think a lot of people have gotten to know you recently as sort of a hero of the resistance movement, but I don't think they really know you well. So you grew up the fifth of thirteen children in St. Louis. Your dad left when you were two years old. About

that time, tell us about your mother. My mother, Um was a really beautiful woman who uneducated. She only went to third grade, and she came out of an interest in history because her father was not married to my grandmother, her mother, and he married someone else, and the that family became pretty prominent family, and the daughters of that family went to college, and the relatives on that side

were quite different from my mother's side. My mother's side was rather poor, and I was raised partly with my great grandmother because my grandmother died pretty early and she helped my mother. My mother was this young woman at sixteen years old, she married a man about thirty something years old, and I think a lot of that had to do with being poor and with your grandparents saying it's okay, you know. And so she had all of

five or six of us by my father. And I don't know all of the information about how she decided to leave and go to St. Louis. I mean, I don't I don't understands Arkansas. But was interesting that the first five children were all born in different states. And I think it was because my father was didn't have a talent or career. He was like a handy man, and so I think he traveled wherever that was work.

So I don't know how she managed that. I don't really understand how she took her children and left, but he followed her at one point, I think, to St. Louis. And that's when I was born at home without you know, we had no health insurance. I think, um, I mean why, um, very poor, went on welfare and I think he was there for a while, left and then came back when I was about two years old. Yeah, so I didn't

know a lot about him. Thirteen children and very poor, uh family, and yet your mother must have given you all something. So she was strong. Now, she was very very strong and amazingly uh kind of self educated because she didn't get a formal education, wrote lovely letters, and she was a survivor. And she was married a second time. There were two children that was born in between the first marriage and the second marriage, and all the rest were born to the second marriage, and like a whole

a different family. But she was strong and uh we you know, she raises in church. We went to church every Sunday and went to Sunday schools, a lot of hard work because don't forget, the first three were girls, the first four for girls, and so we did everything we had to do it. We shovel coal, we watched wendows, we fixed broken things. I mean, we did everything. But I want to tell you I'm very grateful for it

now because I depend on nobody. You know, I can, you know, whatever I have to be prepared for whatever I have to get ready for whatever I have to do. You know, we're in an old house, for example, and all of a sudden, you know, life went out. I said, where's the shields box? You know, I had to go and put I want to stow at bottom fields as I put him into black My husband did quite no. So she taught you how to be strong and independent. I'm curious of the thirteen kids, are are many still living?

And do you still stay in touch with them? That yes, I'm in touch with them. As a matter of fact, long before my mother passed three years ago, I had started, maybe twenty years ago, of having a Mother's Day luncheon. It's kind of like a family reunion, but it happens on Mother's Day, and so all of the family participates, all of the my siblings participate in this luncheon. And now you know, my nieces and nephews and great nieces

and nephews. They all participate and we went on her like you know a queen and you know she would be senter focus. Well she only so she How old was she when she passed? Ninety seven years old? And that was three years ago that she passed away. But the all thirteen kids are still learning. No no, no, no no. We have at least four of them have passed along the way. So you moved here to l Ae. You worked at a factory, as a telephone operator, as

a teacher at head Start, assistant teacher. What I don't want to gild the lily there. What drew you then to get involved in politics? Well, I think it was my time and head Start, the head Start program was and still is very special for me. It was doing

the war on poverty. It was a new program. There was a new program under the Big War on Poverty where a Sergeant Shriver and others had been had decided that they were going to deal with poverty and they were going to put funds into creating programs that would help people get jobs, help people get job trained, help people service interns. When they elected officials, all of this was coming about. This was a very exciting time and so at that time, I would say service representative for

the gas company. And I had a friend and she heard about the War on Poverty and the head Start program, and we talked about, you know, this program is going to be very important. It's gonna give little children from poor families and from working class families an opportunity to have a preschool education, which you know was kind of unheard of except for if you were rich or you had money, you were wealthy. And so we both tracked it down and we applied. Oh I got the jobs,

she didn't. There's increasing scientific evidence that early childhood education is so critically important, Maxine, as we know. And yet there is a piece in the New York Times magazine talking about how preschool teachers are paid pitiful wages and really treated with very little respect and considered babysitters. How do you see that changing? Because there's such a disparity between children of means and children of poverty when it comes to their vocabularies, when it comes to really starting

them off on the right track. How can how can we change that? Well, you know, at one time this country was moving towards embracing the fact that we had to invest in our very young children and provide preschool. Now, we always had a few right wingers who thought, no, they didn't want a preschool. Uh, this was putting their children in the hands of others, too young and all of that. But really there was a feeling that this

was very, very important. You know, when I look at where we are today with right wing conservatives who don't have they don't want government to support education. They want to privatize all education. And when I take a look at the way these private post secondary schools or ripping off you know, the government, I am almost numbed by the fact that we have gone backwards. But you're absolutely right to the degree that you invest in education for

young of children. Uh, not only do you get them prepared for elementary school, but you have them learn to think early. And we were taught and head Start to help individual children understand that they were important, that they were good. And so I I love head Start and I believe in hit Start, and I'm worried because their efforts to spread out head Start without more money. It's interesting.

I just want to point out there was a study that showed for kids of means versus kids of poverty, by the time they're five, the vocabulary gap is thirty million words. What yes? And then if kids aren't at the same level by fourth grade, they never catch is never going to catch you. So I think that just shows how critically important early childhood education is. That's right. We should the Congress of the United States of America

should be doing everything possible to invest in preschool education. So, uh, you got elected to the California State Legislature and your signature cause it seemed at that time was divesting from apartheid era South Africa. Lot of the important issues I dealt with. So now there's discussion on college campuses and elsewhere about divesting from Israel. How are those movements similar and different in your mind? And do you think that's a good idea? Well, you know, Uh, the investment has

always been kind of controversial. Uh. When we worked to divest, uh, and I worked on divesting our pension funds from companies that we're doing business in South Africa, I was very sure that all of those companies, American firms in particular, that were there, uh, and they were a part of the exploitation. Uh, they were part of not only the under payment of their workers, but they could see how they lived, they could see how the apartheid government treated them,

but they were only interested in their bottom line. And so that moved me to say, no, this is not right. These American firms cannot be there basically sighting with the apartheime government against these people that they're exploiting and they're working for pennies and all of that, and so I felt very comfortable with the fact that we should get

involved in divestment. I'm hearing a lot more about this movement with Israel, and so I have to admit that I have not paid as much attention to what goes on in Israel as I was paying attention to what was going on in Africa, and so I am learning. I joined Jay Streak just to learn more about because they seemed UH and they are. I'm convinced that they are.

That they are credible in the way that they evaluate what is happening, and the way that they deal with the issues, and the way that they take responsibility, and the way that they sometimes don't agree certainly with net Yahoo and others UH and their pro peace and pro Israel. It's an organization largely started by Jewish co Founders, but they therefore a peace agreement, and I agree with them and I follow them a lot, but they advocate divesting

from Israel. So divesting from Israel is hugely controversial and complicated, and and what are your views on that, Brian. I'm opposed to it because I think there's no moral equivalence between what happened in South Africa and what is currently happening in Israel. Despite the profound differences that I personally have with Netanya, whose government, I don't think divestment is the right way to move them to change. But it's interesting. It's become a big topic of conversation among a lot

of young liberals in particular. It is and one of my dearest friends who I really need so often to be able to talk to, died. Did you ever hear the name Stanley Shinbau, Yes, of course, long time very famous Democratic Jewish actor this in l Yes. And he was an adviser to me, you know, he helped me through some of these issues. So I will keep up with it and I will see. Yes, you've represented the district where there were major riots. Of course after the

Rodney King's verdict. Of course I was covering that on a daily basis, and and you try not to excuse but explain why people were rioting. More than sixty people were killed, lots of shops and businesses destroyed. Has been more than a quarter of a century. When you look back on these riots, what are your thoughts today? Was anything really accomplished? Well, here's basically what I think and

what I was thinking then. After I was elected, and in that district that I had at the time, there were several public housing projects, and supposedly we had programs at the city. Leave of all that was dealing with the job training and dealing with trying to get young

people employed because the employment rates were very high. But every time I went through, whether it was Nickerson Gardens, Jordan Downs, Imperial Courts, Kanzak Village, all of these places, I could see nothing but young men hanging out, hordes of young people, and I could think, why aren't the city resources getting here? Why don't we see the job

training programs that I decided to create one myself. And while I was there doing this work, I learned an awful lot about how people were living and why they were living that way. First of all, real poverty secondly, lost hope. These young people didn't think anything was gonna happen to them. They couldn't get a job, they didn't have any money. Uh, they didn't think anybody cared about them, And so their lives were absolutely separate and apart from what goes on in the other part of the city.

It's another world. And so when it happened, it was almost as if I knew that something was going to give. And I attempted to describe the hopelessness. You don't agree to riots as being the answer, but what you have to understand is that if you have this consistent poverty, and you have hopelessness, and you have abandonment, that something's gonna give. That's what I saw. Do you think things have improved, Oh, over the years, yeah, things have improved.

But you know, the way that the conservatives talk about it is as if you don't continue to build on progress. We put money there, Look, nothing happened, you know, we put money there a long time ago. Things change, but it takes time. To your point, well, it takes time. And to move families and children from generations of poverty

takes even more than time. It takes time plus time and so, yes, there have been changes, and yes, I think there have been setbacks, but I don't think that our country and our government have been prepared to deal with the complications of poverty and how to unwind it and get people out of it. So coming back to your personal story, Yes, there was an article last year in the Daily Beast and the headline was Maxine Waters from most Corrupt to resistance hero. I want to ask

you about the first part of that headline. That must have hurt a lot. Well, I wish that I could say it did, except I have heartened over the years because I have been involved in controversial issues and I have fought against the established way of doing things. So I've been criticized and I've been called names, and I'd be happy to discuss with you what this is all about. And I think about it a lot now, uh, in

terms of how it evolved, and here's what. When the recession took place where there was a subprime meltdown which brought us to basically a crash. When that happened, one of the things that happened was a bank, a black bank that my husband served on as the board of directors who never took any director's fees. Just wanted to make sure that we had a minority institutions in the community, and he had retired from that even before this incident

took place. But when it took place, the president of the Minority Bankers Association came to me and said, this is a disaster. It put them at great risk. They said, we we'll go out of business. Gotta do something. I said yes, because I worked with minority institutions. So I called the Treasury Secretary and asked him if he would meet with the representatives from the minority banks, and he

said yes. So just to give some background to our listeners that the controversy at the time was, as you said, there was this bank in the community where your husband had been involved, and the criticism of you was that you would intervene to try to get bail out money in support of this bank. Just so people understand. But so people also understand small banks, community banks, and minority

banks can't get into the Treasurer's office. Yeah, Jamie Diamond walks into the treasure's office like he owns it, and the big CEOs of the banks, and so they need some help. I am not above given help where I think help is needed, and so Republican inside the Treasurer's office Maxine Waters controversial husband. They tried to say he was serving on the bank boyd At the time he was not, but both of us had money in this bank, and so they tried to say that I was doing

something special for a bank. When they came to me, it was representing all of the banks, the minority banks, and so they met with him. Uh and uh. It became a story. As a matter of fact, it was somewhere in the New York Times who got a call with this. And I handled it very wrong because when this person came to me because they had gotten a call from the Republican and asked me about this, I wouldn't talk to him. I said, you're out of your mind.

I mean, I just handled it wrong. And I think that the story really developed out of the fact that I resisted engaging the reporter. At the time. You were cleared by an investigator. Absolutely, and we always knew we would be. Is it frustrating? Is it frustrating vaccine that that this sort of label kind of pops up and seems to haunt you now and again. Oh, here's what I have come to groups with It's the same way

that I deal with airplane flights. When I'm on the airplane and I'm in the air, no matter how restless I am, no matter if I had fear, it's nothing I can do at the time. I have to stay on that plane and keep riding, you know what I'm saying. And so, of course this is gonna pop up. And one of the things that I do believe is that everybody knows that we're totally exonerated, that they found none

of that to be true. Uh. And the other thing is, you know, if your constituents developed trust because you have dealt with them in a trustful way, it doesn't bother them. Let's move on. And I want to get your thoughts. As a strong African American female, he's been involved in politics for a very long time, how you feel about this so called reckoning that we're in the midst of in terms of women reclaiming their powers and he claiming

their time and standing up and speaking out. Well, I come from the women's movement, Bella Apps A Glorious Steinhum, pat Ty Mink. I mean this was part of my development and I think what either we did wrong or we were not able to do well was we did not keep it going, so that we entered into a point in time where young women said, you know, I'm going to have a career and I don't want to be seen as a broad burning woman the way those women were, and we do it differently. Excepted just come

full circle. Accepted his come full circle with the focus on sexual assault. And so I'm pleased that women are willing to speak up and now that we know there's a difference, because you know, at my age, we came from a time when men whistling, when men talking about how good you look with your body. I mean, we just thought that was the way it was, you know what I mean. And so you know, I'm hearing these stories about women in workplace situations. And we always heard

about the casting couch. Now that we always heard about and we everybody just took it for granted that's the way it is. But now that's being undone and women can come forward and they can say it, they can talk about it, and they know it's something wrong with it. The only thing that I worry about is that I want and I think this will happen at some point

in time. There has to be a way by which we have the opportunity to understand and is there a difference between rape and putting your hands on somebody and saying certain things? I mean, we got to figure all that out and tried to say that, uh, and he got damon ized, if you will, for making It's a very very fraught time right now, and think emotions are extremely high. Are you optimistic this is going to translate into changes in policies and especially even on Capitol Hill.

I was shocked to hear that there was a whole fund to help people who had been accused of this, right, I mean to talk about that what? Yes, yes, as it's slight discrimination, uh, in the workplace and in government where you know, people have complaints and they're real, and so there has to be some structures that are designed to deal with that. We had one wasn't very good. We found it wasn't wasn't it designed primarily to pay

off of victims. So yeah, well, I guess you know, and I guess we didn't pay enough attention to it. But we did find there were settlements that were made that was a thirty day cooling off period. All of that's being changed now the women have gotten together and they are redefining the kind of support that women should have who have complaints that they come forward with. Let me ask you a political question. Yes, there's a lot of optimism now among Democrats that you all can win

the House this year. But there's been a lot of angst and a lot of consternation over the unpopularity of your leader Nancy Pelosi, and many Democrats have said it's time for her to step aside, that she's hurting the cause. What's your reaction to that. Well, first of all, I know Nanty Pelosi very well. We've worked in this state together, and we worked on voter registration many years ago. I think she might have been chair of the party at

the time. She's strong, she's smart, and she's politically a genius really and we would not have Obamacare but for Nancy, and I can name probably a few other things. And so she has done a fabulous job. This attack on her started with Republicans, for sure. Yeah, they demonized her San Francisco Republican Nancy Pelosi, what have you? And they took it out and they worked it And so I don't like the fact that Democrats would pile on to what Republicans started and the way that they use this

to demonize her. Of course, there has to be room for young people to come in. Look, I'm seventy nine years old, but the millenials like me, you know what I'm saying. They're saying. But so I don't know if it's age as much as it is you know, how you frame what you do when you're the speaker, and she has been the speaker, and when you're the leader and you're balancing everything from the liberals, you know, to the conservatives in your party. It takes an expert and

a good mind to do that. I like her. I don't think she should be driven out. I think that she's done a good job. I would stand up and defend her any day of the week. I don't know what's going to happen. Of course, we have young people coming into the Democratic Party. They're hungry and they want to move up. I'm kind of from the old school, you know, and I'm saying, look, you can't just jump over everybody, you know what I mean. It takes a little work, you know, to do this. And so I'm

sympathetic among the millennials whom you're so popular. There's a there's a label you've been given lately. Anti. Yeah, can you explain that label for people who don't understand it. I can try and explain it. And I think the person who really kind of got it started works at All Magazine, a young creative writer, Eric Thomas, and I think he started and the way he describes it, sometimes

it's complimentary in the beginning, and sometimes it's not. It's like that aunt who comes to your house, looks around and talks about things aren't right and things should be changed, and just because she's done a little bit better in her life and now she's got a good retirement and doesn't sound like I uh that uh, but it's like sometimes you do. And she's bossy uh she um, she takes advantage sometimes she schools. Uh. But but you know, when you're in hard times, in difficult she's always got

that extra dollar to give you, you know. I mean it's that kind of thing. You know, you mentioned your seventy nine and we're going to let you go and enjoy the rest of your Sunday. But how long do you think you'll be doing this? Maxine? I haven't the slightest idea. Sometimes well, let me just say this, I am blessed in many ways because I have a lot of energy, and I have good health and I'm not tired. Ever, you know what I'm saying. I sometimes ask myself, why

are you doing this? Why do you continue to do this? And then something good will happen, like Alabama, you know, and then you go, oh boy, we can at them now vote like Alabama. And so I go through these periods where I'm sometimes disgusted and I think, um, I

should be off someplace enjoying life a different way. And then when something good and inspiring happens, and I see people being helped and you get a good story about, you know, something that happened to a family or veteran or childs or seniors, or I just get all inspired all over again, and it gives me more energy and I get up ready to go. If you say, God, bless those African American women in Alabama, oh God, yes, I mean to tell you, uh, you have to think

about this. There was a time when in the South and Alabama, people were so intimidated they didn't even get registered to vote. They were fraid that the local grocery store was going to cut off their line of credit. They thought that someone's gonna come and force them out of their rental house. They went about to and just think how far they have home. They have come to the point where they're exercising power and I'm just thrilled about it. What's your prediction. I think we can take

back the house. I think we can do that, not only because of Donald Trump, but a lot has to do with him. And I think now for people who had sold, sold, solid sold on the Democrats and the party, that they see a big difference now, the big difference. Like you know how some people say are it's no difference between Democrats and Republicans, they are all politics and not saying that. Now, Uh, they see that there's a big difference, and I think that's helping a lot. I

think people are inspired. But you know, when you uh think about the women, the women's movement and what's happening with racism that now people stand up against as as you saw in Alabama when you took a look at those two candidates and how there's no way that a Democrat could have been elected to that Senate seat, but a Democrat was elected to that Senate seat, because not only are people not fearful and intimidated anymore, they inspire it.

They know that there's a difference now and I'm glad that the young people are saying it, because if you haven't had the experience of racism upfront, if you have not been denied, if you've not have not been called the N word, if you've not been told you couldn't eat at a counter, you don't really get what these people are talking about. I mean, they don't really understand that,

but I think now they get it. Well. Maxine Waters, thank you so much again for coming to visit us after church here in Los Angeles, and it's been really fun to watch you in action, especially in the last year or so. And uh, we'd love to have you back on because one thing is certain, we'll have plenty to talk about even in two weeks time, so maybe you'll come back down the road is the all our

investigation continues, and have talked to us about that. I'll be happy to I try to keep the discussion going. I think that's so important. And thank you for keeping it going. Thank you for having me. He appreciate it. That wraps up this week show. The Invisible Studios in Los Angeles helped us out this morning on a Sunday morning, no less, so thank you to them. Add to our producer Gianna Palmer, who joined us in l A for this one. A little bit of a boon doggo, but

we're glad she's here. Really selfless of you, Gianna, to abandoned snow in New York for l A to do this one with us. Anyway. Jared O'Connell, back in the cold, mixed this episode. Thank you to him. To our assistant producer Nora Richie as always, and to Emily being a over at Katie Current Media, My great assistant Beth Demas. I don't know how I would live without her. Moves Mountains, Alison Bresnik brings all things social media in for a

smooth landing. Mark Phillips wrote our theme music, and Katie Kurriic and I are the executive producers of this show. So our wonder Women's series keeps on rolling. Next week, we'll talk to you then from Sonny, Los Angeles. Bye bye, bye bye