OPINION:
House Democrats have produced two radical demagogues whose policies would endanger the lives of innocent Americans, lead to the breakdown of society and undermine the U.S. Constitution.
Specifically, Reps. Maxine Waters and Rashida Tlaib have recently acted in ways that reflect unfavorably on the House of Representatives and betray their oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Ms. Waters flew to Minnesota where the murder trial of former Officer Derek Chauvin is in progress and said, “We are looking for a guilty verdict.” If Mr. Chauvin is not found guilty of murdering George Floyd in May 2020, she said, “We’ve got to stay on the street, and we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business. … We cannot go away.”
Demagogically encouraging the rule of the mob over the rule of law — and urging people to mobilize against the court and the police at a time of great tension — clearly is a violation of every member of Congress’ responsibility to uphold the rule of law and the Constitution.
Ms. Waters’ encouragement to the mob to use “confrontational” coercion to force society to render the result the mob wants creates an immediate threat to public safety.
However, Ms. Waters’ call for mob rule may be dwarfed in its impact by Ms. Tlaib’s call to abolish the police and close prisons. If her policies were followed, the years of violence and predatory assault on the innocent would utterly destroy the rule of law and eliminate public safety in ways even Ms. Waters’ incitement couldn’t achieve.
Ms. Tlaib, who represents Detroit, tweeted, “No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can’t be reformed.” She was setting a standard that was not merely radical, it was insane. Detroit’s police chief has called on her to resign.
In 2020, the United States had the biggest increase in murders in history. The level of violence from Portland’s virtually nightly attacks by Antifa to the looting and street violence that have become the norm in all too many cities is simply intolerable.
In Ms. Tlaib’s home district, the evidence is devastating. As I wrote last week, according to the City of Detroit’s 2020 Crime Report, there were 327 homicides in 2020. This is up from 275 the previous year, which is a 19 percent increase. There were 1,173 non-fatal shootings in 2020 — up from 767 the previous year — which is a 53 percent change.
For a member of Congress to propose in the middle of this devastating violence that we should end policing and close down prisons is beyond outrageous. It is a policy that, if followed, would lead to thousands of victims of violent crime.
There should be real consequences for this kind of life-endangering, society-threatening irresponsibility.
At the very least, Ms. Waters and Ms. Tlaib have violated the rules of the U.S. House as described in the resolution to remove Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments: “Whereas clause 1 of rule XXIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives provides, ‘A Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, officer, or employee of the House shall behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House’; and Whereas Representative _____ should be removed from her committee assignments in light of conduct she has exhibited.”
So, the standard for judging Ms. Waters’ and Ms. Tlaib’s words is not the right of free speech. At a time when there have been months of riots, buildings burnt, stores looted, and police across the entire country bracing for violence (with some National Guard already mobilized), the standard for members of Congress — those entrusted to lead us — is what “reflect[s] creditably on the House.”
Nothing Ms. Greene said was comparable in its potential devastation to everyday Americans as the Waters-Tlaib proposals of letting a mob overturn the U.S. judicial system, abolishing the police, releasing all violent criminals from prison, and allowing murder and violence rates to skyrocket.
Every member of the House of Representatives should be challenged to join in repudiating Ms. Tlaib’s pro-criminal position by voting to remove her from the committees on which she currently serves — the Committee on Financial Services and the Committee on Oversight and Reform (which gives her standing to bring her hostility to bear on federal law enforcement and federal prisons).
Similarly, members should remove Ms. Waters from the House Committee on Financial Services, of which she is the chairwoman.
The fight to repudiate Ms. Tlaib’s anti-police, anti-prison, pro-criminal position; and Ms. Waters’ call for mob rule to replace the rule of law will have five positive results:
1. The fight will draw attention to the staggering and frightening rise in crime and force the new media to cover the degree to which every American is now endangered by the anti-police, pro-criminal policies of the left.
2. It will draw attention to the kind of crazy ideas that now pass for legitimate policy proposals on the radical left. Most Americans do not know the level of radicalism and anti-Americanism that is now acceptable in the Democratic Party.
3. It will highlight the choice every Democratic House member should be forced to make. At a time when crime is rising, more and more innocent people are at risk, and more and more small business owners are threatened with bankruptcy from criminal mob violence, Ms. Tlaib’s and Ms. Waters’ views are a real threat. Will each House Democrat fight for the protection of his or her constituents or tolerate the pro-criminal statements and attitudes of Ms. Tlaib and her radical associates in “the Squad”? Will House Democrats defend the blatant call for mob rule as people shoot at National Guardsmen (as happened shortly after Ms. Waters spoke)?
4. Because crime and violence are going to continue to rise under the pro-criminal, pro-illegal immigration, anti-police policies of the Biden administration, these issues of the innocent versus the criminal will continue to grow in importance. Every act of violence and victimized innocent person is another reason to draw attention to Ms. Tlaib’s and Ms. Waters’ views and call for them to be dropped from their committees.
5. If the fight is sustained for eight weeks or more, the pressure will build and a surprising number of people will call to repudiate Ms. Tlaib, Ms. Waters, and other members of the radical left.
This is beyond politics. This is about insisting that members of Congress do not promote mob rule or work to make America less safe. It is about insisting that our leaders protect and defend the U.S. Constitution and act in America’s best interest as they have sworn to do.
• To read, hear, and watch more of Newt’s commentary, visit Gingrich360.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.