CNN host Don Lemon defended Rep. Maxine Waters' (D-CA) recent incendiary comments in Brookly Center, where she called for people to get "more confrontational" if Derek Chauvin is not convicted for murder.
Lemon said anyone who has "half a brain" knows Waters was not calling for increased violence. Brooklyn Center, just north of Minneapolis, endured several days of riots and looting after the police shooting of Daunte Wright. Former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter shot Wright with her handgun when she meant to use her taser after Wright began to resist arrest.
"Maxine Waters is a sharp-tongued, rabble-rousing lawmaker who came out of the civil rights movement. And as a black woman who had to fight tooth and nail for everything she has gotten, so while I as a black person can understand her rage and her anger, I understand that, and I understand that she makes a lot of people uncomfortable," Lemon told anchor Wolf Blitzer.
"Look at me, everyone. Do you really think Maxine waters is calling for violence? Maxine Waters is not calling for violence. Everyone knows that. She makes a lot of people uncomfortable, especially a lot of men and, quite frankly, especially a lot of white men, because she puts them in their place," Lemon continued. "She tells you, 'Shut up, respect this person, don’t talk to me that way,' and she gives it to you like it is."
Lemon conceded what Waters did was not constructive, but "Maxine Waters is not the issue here and we cannot be distracted by Maxine Waters."
Chauvin trial Judge Peter Cahill told the defense team after jurors left the courtroom to begin deliberations that Waters "may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned."
Water also requested a police escort for her trip to Minnesota before encouraging people to stay out in the street if the verdict is not to their liking.