President Biden said Thursday that he agrees with “whatever” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) says — despite the congresswoman’s record of inflammatory remarks.
“Rep. Maxine Waters — whatever Maxine says, I agree with,” Biden said at an event in Los Angeles.
It’s unclear if he was being sincere or attempting dry humor about the notoriously hot-headed lawmaker.
The president has offered warm words for Waters before, including appearing to urge her to run for the Senate last year.
“Senator, I hope. You think I’m kidding, I’m not,” Biden said when he shook Waters’ hand at a June 2021 event.
Waters controversially urged protesters in Minneapolis last year to “get confrontational” if ex-cop Derek Chauvin was acquitted of murdering George Floyd.
The judge presiding over Chauvin’s trial said that Waters’ commentary might allow the guilty verdict to be overturned.
Waters also referred to the White House as the “the White Supremacists’ House” during the Trump administration and urged protesters to “create a crowd” if they ever saw the 45th president’s Cabinet members eating at a restaurant, shopping or pumping gas
Biden also implied Thursday that he was responsible for Los Angeles securing the 2028 Summer Olympics, despite the fact that the IOC awarded the Games in 2017, when Trump was president.
“The extension of the Metro’s Purple Line, it’s going to cover one of LA’s busiest areas and job centers from UCLA, the future home of — to many sites of the 2028 Olympics. By the way, congratulations,” Biden said. “I did not use any undue influence. I just said I like LA. Anyway, I’m going to get in trouble.”
After Los Angeles was awarded the 2028 Olympics, bid chairman Casey Wasserman, who had supported Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, told Trump, “it wouldn’t have happened without you.”
Biden also advocated for Los Angeles to be awarded the Olympics. When he was vice president, Biden appeared at a 2015 decision-making event and said, “I’m not here lobbying for any city, though I do love Los Angeles.”
The president’s remarks about Waters and the Olympics follow a litany of other questionable comments in recent speeches — including the president saying Wednesday that he visited the Rio Grande and that his late son Beau “lost his life in Iraq.”
Earlier this month, Biden searched for the late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) at an event, despite the fact that he publicly mourned her death eight weeks prior and even called her family to offer condolences.