Maxine Waters Quotes (34 Quotes)

It's all designed to keep people very much intimidated and not challenging the power. And I found the same old tactics worked in Congress too.

He changed the way African Americans are viewed in this country

We're building a growing movement against the war in Iraq that will give people who feel uncomfortable about the war a place to share their concerns and discuss and work through a solution -- should it be immediate withdrawal or an exit strategy. We want to build a consensus that we want to get out.

Many of us are guilty of having allowed Tom Bradley to do whatever he has done without really challenging him, without making sense out of what was going on in City Hall. And so now we are confronted with a situation where we have two candidates and we don't know who they are really and what they care about.

I don't think anybody that knows me would think that I'm so understanding. Most people say I'm too pushy, I'm too aggressive, I'm too assertive, I'm too confrontational. That I ask for too much. I've never been considered patient, or even conciliatory in most instances. But I don't think anything happens in a short period of time. Particularly when you're talking about dealing with Congress and government. It just doesn't happen.

We have governors all over the country, we have deficits, people are unhappy, ... I think the Californians spoke, but Americans will be speaking about the economic situation all over the country, it's not about Democrat or Republican.

The way I see it is they came to his house, uninvited, ... They had not only the force of the embassy but the Marines with them. They made it clear that he had to go now or he would be killed.

Clinton never said, My Administration is going to pour resources into the poor community. But I really do believe that Bill Clinton is more liberal than oftentimes his politics. He's practical. But I think his heart is decent.

He didn't have a weapon. He didn't try to run away. He did nothing that could cause the police to bang his head against that police car.

The urban agenda, from my point of view, is what we are going to all help make it. I see myself as helping the White House forge an urban agenda.

I don't have them down here asking me what my urban agenda is. I don't find them really doing in-depth stories on community-based organizations that have been struggling for a long time and who are out trying to get funds. They aren't interested in those stories.

How does he support Clinton's urban agenda? He doesn't know what it is.

I don't understand people who say, Aren't you disappointed with the Democrats, or Clinton I knew that Clinton's campaign was geared toward bringing whites back into the Democratic Party.

If you ask a young man in South-Central about the difference between the Democratic and Republican parties, he can't tell you. As you evaluate that whole discussion about what must be done to bring whites back into the Democratic Party, you can see why th

You have your local city government and your community redevelopment agencies who will tell you that they want to take private property because they want to do away with blight, they want to upgrade the neighborhood, ... I don't buy that.

I had a wonderful experience recently in anticipation of the second Rodney King verdict where I decided to do a letter to the community about how I really felt. It's times such as that, that I feel that I'm connecting. And there are other times I'm shocked by what I see and what I discover. And when I'm shocked by it, I think, God, I'm losing it, that I don't really understand what's going on out there.

I don't think it works to just be mad at them - Maxine Waters out ranting and kicking down the doors. It would be so easy to dismiss you and marginalize you.

Policy, for the most part, has been made by white people in America, not by people of color. And they have tended to take care of those things that they think are important. Whether it's their agricultural subsidies, or other kinds of expenditures that are certainly not expenditures for poor people or for people of color. And so we have to band together and keep fighting back.

The power to impeach a president should not be casually used to remove a president and overturn an election simply because we don't like him or his policies. The constitution is on trial, and we hope that we will uphold the constitution and the civil rights of everybody involved.

Liberals warned that it could make it easier to tear down poor neighborhoods. We don't need you on this one, ... We need you to respect the right of those minorities and those poor people to hold on to what is their own.

You're trying to jump on the bandwagon at the last minute when you should have been there a long time ago.

That's what mayors do. They lobby Congress to provide resources for their city.

I don't believe in giving private properties to someone else for private use to make money off of it.

disrespect and contempt for our community.

I will reconsider my endorsement for Mr. Gore if he takes this political position, ... I do not think that this should be handled as a political matter. It is not a custody case, it is an immigration case. Our immigration laws are absolutely clear.

They are already working on the articles of impeachment. They know where they are going. No, they are not going to allow any censure motion. They do not care ... what evidence is presented by the White House or anybody else.

Every member of this committee should be offended by the ... wild spin that was just put on by Mr. Lindsey in attempting to somehow send a message to Monica Lewinsky that she has been undermined by the president of the United States and thus set her up to be angry at the president in case she's called as a witness, ... We're no fools.

I've been in this struggle for many years now. I understand racism. I understand that there are a lot of people in this country who don't care about the problems of the inner city. We have to fight every day that we get up for every little thing that we get. And so I keep struggling.

I don't care that it is not signed by a senator.

This nation has always struggled with how it was going to deal with poor people and people of color. Every few years you will see some great change in the way that they approach this. We've had the war on poverty that never really got into waging a real war on poverty.

I think Hillary and Bill are really liberals at heart. I think that, in addition to being liberals, they are very practical. They have made some decisions about what it takes to win.

I have a right to my anger, and I don't want anybody telling me I shouldn't be, that it's not nice to be, and that something's wrong with me because I get angry.

The mayor's race is a very sad event for me. I feel no connection. I have no passion. And I don't feel compelled to do anything.

You try to manipulate the process. In Sacramento, I was very good at it, at getting legislation passed. And when I came to Washington I thought that I was going to approach it differently. That the conventional wisdom was such that you had to not be confrontational, not challenge too much, but understand that there was great tradition.