On Saturday’s episode of MSNBC’s The Saturday Show, host Jonathan Capehart interviewed California Democratic Representative Maxine Waters about her experience receiving death threats from a Texas man and predictably hijacked this into an absurd conversation about the threat of violence posed by a second Donald Trump presidency.

Capehart opened with a comment on the rise in threats against lawmakers since 2022, citing a report from Capitol police who “investigated more than 8,000 threats against members of Congress,” Of course, that included members of both parties. Before introducing Waters, he noted that she had attended the trial of a Texas man, sentenced to 33 months in prison and a $10,000 fine, who had made several threats against her life.

Waters said the man had threatened “not only…to put a bullet between my eyes, he was going to cut my throat,” adding that “he had people in the Los Angeles area, some of his friends or groups of people that he works with that were going to get me, that they had a contract out on my life.”

 

 

The MSNBC host completely omitted mentioning that Waters infamously called for harassing Trump officials in public spaces, which could have led to violence, in her frame of theorizing. In 2018, she told supporters, “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.”

Ironically enough, Capehart showed little sympathy for the congresswoman’s case but instead pounced on the opportunity to redirect the conversation to a ludicrous suggestion about a possible second Trump presidency, asking her, “How concerned are you, Congresswoman, about your safety, if Donald Trump is reelected?” 

Waters responded with a claim that Trump was specifically appealing to racists with his rhetoric and, consequently, puts the safety of people of color at risk:

So, I say all this talk is motivational with many of those who are racist, who are sitting at home listening to him, and they are taking him up on his threats even before the elections take place. And, so, it's about thousands, maybe millions of people, you know, being threatened and being at risk because of Donald Trump and his desire to wreak revenge on anything and everybody.

Capehart took everything just one step further with an outrageous allusion to three civil rights activists, Mikey Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman, who were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, prompting Waters to declare that “we could be in for more killings like that.”

This accusation unsurprisingly corresponded with the habitual bias of most leftists who, like Capehart, focus only on death threats to leftists. Back in 2022, his weekly PBS segment didn’t find the assassination threat to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sufficiently newsworthy.

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

MSNBC’s The Saturday Show

6/22/2024

06:41:13 PM EST

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Threats against lawmakers are on the rise again after hitting an all-time high in 2021, when Donald Trump's followers stormed the Capitol on January 6th. Last year, the Capitol police investigated more than 8,000 threats against members of Congress, an increase from 2022. A spokesman for the department predicted 2024 will be "A very busy year for our special agents.” 

This week, a Texas man who vowed to kill Congresswoman Maxine Waters, was sentenced to 33 months in prison and a $10,000 fine. The man left Waters voicemails with violent and racist threats in 2022 and doubled down when police warned him to stop. Congresswoman Waters attended the man’s sentencing hearing. She told the court the threats gave her nightmares and made her and her family fear for their lives. The Los Angeles Times reported that the congresswoman described herself as “haunted”.

Joining me now is Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California. She’s the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee. Congresswoman Waters, as always, thank you for coming to The Saturday Show. 

You've been in the public eye for decades. Why were these threats particularly painful?

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): Well, you know, it was sinister. He was a man who continued to call four times, and he made racial comments. He basically said, not only was he going to put a bullet between my eyes, he was going to cut my throat. And I want to tell you it did get to me. I’m not someone who walks around, you know, just fearful all the time, but this was more sinister, again. It was deadly. And, so, I’m haunted by those kinds of comments coming from him.

CAPEHART: Congresswoman, what made you want to face your harasser in court?

WATERS: I wanted to see who this human being was, and when he saw me, what was it about me that made him want to kill me? What did I say? What did I do that made him want to slit my throat, to put a bullet between my eyes? And, so, I listened to him, and I hope he listened to me. I had my children in court with me. My daughter was there, my son was there, and they’re always fearful that I’m going to be killed. And of course my staff has to endure these kinds of threats. 

This isn’t the first one we've had. We've had some others sentenced and put in jail, but this one seems more consistent and seemed more serious. Again, it seems as if this man was intent on not only threatening me, but he said he had people in the Los Angeles area, some of his friends or groups of people that he works with that were going to get me, that they had a contract out on my life.

CAPEHART: Mmm. How concerned are you, Congresswoman, about your safety, if Donald Trump is reelected?

WATERS: Well, I'm very concerned. Not only about my safety and not only about the safety of members of Congress, I’m concerned about the safety of so many people in this country, particularly people of color. Donald threat–Donald, you know, Trump has said that if he does not win it's gonna be fraud. And because it's gonna be fraud, there's gonna be blood in the streets. He threatens about a civil war, and he threatens there’s going to be violence. 

So, I say all this talk is motivational with many of those who are racist, who are sitting at home listening to him, and they are taking him up on his threats even before the elections take place. And, so, it's about thousands, maybe millions of people, you know, being threatened and being at risk because of Donald Trump and his desire to wreak revenge on anything and everybody.

CAPEHART: You know, Congresswoman, real quickly–in the less than two minutes we have left–you know, 60 years ago this week, three activists, Mikey Schwerner, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, they were murdered for trying to register black Mississippi residents to vote during Freedom Summer. What do you see as their legacy today, especially as the nation faces more threats of political violence like the ones you’ve faced?

WATERS: Well, first of all, I want to thank all those who joined in the Civil Rights Movement who were not black, who were not people of color, who joined with us to try and get justice and equality in this country. 

But we see they were killed, they were murdered, and I do believe that, you know, having listened to Donald Trump so many times, and having the attack–the insurrection that took place on the House of Representatives in Congress, on the Capitol, on the Capitol grounds, that we could be in for more killings like that. And I think Donald Trump has to take responsibility for what he’s saying about blood in the streets and violence if he's not elected to be the President of the United States of America.

CAPEHART: As always, California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, thank you for coming to The Saturday Show.

WATERS: Well, thank you so very much.

(...)