Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-California) said Monday that she found some of President Barack Obama’s choice of words as he spoke to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) on Saturday night, “curious.”
Mr. Obama, at the CBC awards banquet had told the gathering, “stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying.” He added, “I don’t go around feeling sorry for myself. We are going to press on. We have work to do.”
Waters said on CBS “Early Show” she was unsure who the president was talking to.
“I am not sure who the president was talking to. As you know the CBC was out in five cities holding town hall meetings and job fairs, addressing the 16.7 percent unemployment that’s real, that translates in some areas to 30-40 percent unemployment.”
“I found that language a bit curious because the president spoke to the Hispanic caucus and certainly they are pushing him on immigration. And despite the fact he has appointed Sotomayor to the Supreme Cout, he has an office for excellence in Hispanic education in the White House,” Waters said. ““He certainly didn’t tell them to stop complaining.”
“And he never would say that to the gay and lesbian community who really pushed him on don’t ask, don’t tell or even in a speech to AIPAC, he would never say to the Jewish community, ‘Stop complaining about Israel.’ So I don’t know who he was talking to because we are certainly not complaining. We are working. We support him and we are protecting that base because we want people to be enthusiastic about him when that election rolls around.”
Waters added she believed that the president had heard the cries of the African-American community and the economic pain that is being experienced. For the first time, she said, Obama had included the words, ‘black’ and ‘African-American’ in his speech to the Congressional Black Caucus.
