Right-wing media are criticizing Maxine Waters over civility. Here’s what they’ve said about her in the past. 

Written by Grace Bennett

Published


Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

Right-wing media are criticizing Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) after she encouraged people to publicly protest Trump administration officials who are complicit in the atrocious family separation policy at the U.S border. But the “civility” these outlets are touting has been absent in their many vicious past attacks on Waters.  

For more than a month, the Trump administration separated immigrant children from their asylum-seeking parents and detained them in child prisons, apparently with no plan in place to reunite the families. The administration took infants as young as 3 months old from their guardians, kept children in cages, and deported some parents without their kids -- while officials continuously lied about their own policy. President Donald Trump has since signed an executive order ending the policy of family separation, but the order’s future might be in jeopardy given that it calls for the inhumane and likely illegal policy of indefinite detention of migrant children (with their parents). And for those families already separated, some parents may never see their children again, and the administration has offered other parents -- many of whom sought asylum after fleeing violence or persecution -- an impossible choice: They can continue seeking asylum and risk not seeing their kids for the duration of the case, or they can be reunited and deported.

In the face of this atrocity -- and the administration’s many others-- people have begun to stage peaceful protests against the architects and defenders of family separation. On June 23, Waters joined those cheering on the protesters’ efforts, encouraging people to continue putting pressure on Trump officials. Speaking at a rally, she said, “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere.” Waters has since been attacked by people who are fretting over the “incivility” of her remarks. But right-wing critics have flung racist, sexist, and all-around vile comments at Waters for years.

  • After watching a clip of Waters speaking in Congress, former Fox host Bill O’Reilly lobbed a racist attack at the congresswoman, claiming he couldn’t hear “a word” Waters said because of her “James Brown wig.”

  • In an homage to O’Reilly’s racist remark, conservative “media analyst” and YouTube personality Mark Dice tweeted a picture of James Brown, writing, “Congresswoman Maxine Waters dropped by the #MTVAwards as a presenter tonight!”(The tweet has since been deleted.)

  • Fox's Newt Gingrich fantasized about Trump beating Waters in a boxing match.

  • Infowars host Alex Jones likened Waters to a rabid dog.

  • Jones also called her a “dumb witch,” and he once said, “I think she’s hot. I’m into necrophilia.”

  • Jones also once killed a small bug on air after labeling it “Maxine Waters.”  

  • Infowars ran an article titled “Maxine Waters is a globalist race pimp embarrassment.”

  • Trump ally and radio host Michael Savage called Waters “one of the most despicable people in the history” of Congress.

  • Savage also argued that Waters should be charged with “sedition,” saying, “I don’t know if [she] can even spell it.”

  • He also said that Waters was “working for the Muslims who want to kill us.”

  • Radio host Rush Limbaugh called Waters a “lunatic.”

  • The New York Post’s John Podhoretz, who is also a contributing editor for The Weekly Standard, accused her of “worship[ing] at the feet of totalitarian monsters.”

  • Syndicated right-wing columnist Ann Coulter said that without affirmative action, Waters couldn't get a job “that didn't involve wearing a paper hat.”

  • Former Fox host Eric Bolling told Waters to “step away from the crack pipe.”

  • Fox’s Laura Ingraham said she would prefer “Madea doing political commentary” over Waters.  

  • After the president recently called Waters a “low IQ person,” Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk tweeted: “If Maxine Waters was really so smart, why does she refuse to take an IQ test?”