Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) had nothing to say to Bill O’Reilly after the Fox News host made a racist and sexist comment about her Tuesday. But she did have a lot to say to viewers tuning in to MSNBC.
“I am a strong black woman, and I cannot be intimidated. I cannot be undermined,” Waters said after MSNBC host Chris Hayes asked her about O’Reilly’s disastrous insult.
“I cannot be thought to be afraid of Bill O’Reilly or anybody. And I’d like to say to women out there everywhere: Don’t allow these right-wing talking heads, these dishonorable people, to intimidate you or scare you. Be who you are. Do what you do. And let us get on with discussing the real issues of this country.”
The California congresswoman also thanked Hillary Clinton for coming to her defense earlier Tuesday, saying that she appreciated the former secretary of state “standing up for all women and in particular for black women.”
Hours earlier, O’Reilly apologized to Waters in a statement to The Huffington Post for his comment about Waters’ hair. During an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” O’Reilly responded to a clip of the congresswoman addressing the bigoted behavior of President Donald Trump’s supporters by saying, “I didn’t hear a word she said. I was looking at the James Brown wig.”
Waters said she had nothing to say to O’Reilly but railed against the Fox News host and his former boss, Roger Ailes, for having “no credibility.”
“They have been sued by women. They have had to pay millions of dollars in fines for harassment and other kinds of things. And so we know about that checkered past. And we also know that when a woman stands up and speaks truth to power that there will be attempts to put her down, and so I’m not going to be put down. I’m not going to go anywhere. I’m going to stay on the issues,” she said.
Shortly after Waters appeared on MSNBC, O’Reilly addressed his racist remark during his Fox News show, but he snickered while he issued an apology to the congresswoman.
Judging from the congresswoman’s inspiring response, she’s not too concerned about O’Reilly.
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Source: HuffPost Black Voices