There are many downsides to being a generally over-chatty person like Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters.
Your excess words may minimize slavery. Your excess words may incite violence. And your excess words may peddle lies that have long since been debunked.
But worst of all? Your excess words might very well come back to shoot you in the foot.
Case in point, Waters recently suffered a metaphorical bullet wound to her foot after a confrontation with GOP Rep. Chip Roy during a discussion about “Denouncing the Horrors of Socialism” by the House Rules Committee on Tuesday.
You can see the pertinent exchange below:
The exchange certainly starts off innocently enough.
Roy begins by recalling an op-ed written by a Democrat voter from Cuba, using it to skewer Waters’s past support for socialism.
“(This voter) essentially pointing out the extent to which Democratic socialism is a lot like ‘the system my family fled except its proponents promise to be nicer when seizing your business.’ And that’s the truth,” Roy said.
The representative from Texas then proceeded to bring up a different quote, this time plucking from Waters’s ever-excessive verbiage.
“Ranking Member Waters, in a 2008 hearing, you said, quote, ‘And guess what this liberal will be all about? this liberal will be all about socializing, would be about basically taking over the government, and the government running all of your companies.’ End quote. Simple question: Do you stand by that statement?” Roy asked.
“Simple answer,” Waters begins, before proceeding to provide an answer that is quite literally anything but.
“I am here today, in this Rules Committee because we’re taking up time with basically a non-issue,” Waters said. “First of all, you claim that socialism has engulfed this country, that it keeps creeping, it’s going to take over private businesses, etc. etc. That is not happening.
“We’re in a democracy that we’re trying very much to save and to not have disrupted, undermined, in the way that…”
At this point, Roy, obviously fed up with Waters’s excess word salad, simply asks her again to disavow her prior 2008 statements.
“I am not a socialist,” Waters said. “I’m a capitalist. And I commit to you that I am here to save Social Security, to save Medicare, to save seniors and veterans and for some of you who have adopted certain kind of ways that you support what you now claim is socialism, I’m here to say to you: Come on.”
It’s at this point that Roy, once again, presents Waters’s own words to her.
“So ‘this liberal will be all about socializing. Will be all about basically taking over and the government running all of your companies …’ You disagree with that? You now denounce that statement?” Roy asked.
“I am not a socialist,” Waters said.
Roy appeared to accept Waters’s answer at this point, but not without having embarrassingly exposed her and her values.
Imagine how much differently this entire exchange could’ve gone had Waters not had the interminable habit of over-talking.
Fortunately for her detractors, Waters does have a habit of over-talking, which means clips like the one above will likely never be in short supply.
