Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) injected some unexpected humor into a House Rules Committee hearing when a Republican challenged her to condemn communist leaders.
Instead, the congresswoman noted that former President Donald Trump has an affinity for authoritarian leaders Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong-un.
The committee debated a Republican-introduced resolution on “denouncing the horrors of socialism” on Tuesday.
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) questioned Waters, who said the resolution is “wasting our time” because “the biggest threat to our democracy” was the Capitol insurrection in 2021 when a mob of Trump supporters tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
“I think the fact that this isn’t passing on suspension just says everything about my friends across the aisle, that you can’t condemn socialism?” Reschenthaler said. “I mean, in your opening remarks, you were talking about Putin, Kim Jong-un, and Xi. You know what they all have in common, right?”
“Trump,” Waters responded.
Several people, including Reschenthaler, laughed.
“Trump?!” he exclaimed. “North Korea, China, and Russia?”
“He loves Kim Jong-un,” she responded.
“That’s quite the intellectual leave,” he said. “I would say ‘communism.’ Would you like to denounce any communist leaders?”
Waters declined and instead held up a sheet of paper. She began quoting from an infamous speech where Trump told a crowd he and Kim “fell in love.”
“Kim wrote me beautiful letters and they’re great letters, and we fell in love,” Waters said, quoting the former president.
Waters stopped reading to ask Reschenthaler, “You sure you wanna hear the rest of it?”
For the record, Putin is not a communist, but a thuggish kleptocrat.
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