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After crude pipe bombs were sent to several high-profile political targets on Wednesday, Rep. Maxine Waters is vowing to continuing to speak out and hold the president accountable for his violent rhetoric.
—Pipe bombs aimed at several Trump political targets alarms nation at highly divisive time—
On Wednesday, Waters spoke exclusively to Blavity after a bomb addressed to her Washington office was intercepted.
Waters said Trump needs to take responsibility for citing these kinds of hateful attacks.
“I think the president of United States should take responsibility for the kind of violence that we are seeing for the first time in different ways,” Waters told Blavity.
“I think the president of the United States has been dog-whistling to his constituency, making them believe that their problems are caused by those people over there. And I think they are acting in a way that they think the president wants them to do and the way he wants them to act.”
“[Trump] in his own way really does promote a lot of violence,” she added.
“We must not be intimidated to the point that we stop advocating and protesting for justice,” she said.
—Bomb threats put spotlight on vitriolic political rhetoric—
Waters is just one of the high-profile politicians sent pipe bombs yesterday.
Targets included former president Barack Obama, and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The U.S. Secret Service said the devices were discovered during normal mail screening and never reached them.
Thursday morning news broke that authorities intercepted pipe bombs sent to Joe Biden and Robert De Niro.
Watch Blavity’s entire interview with Maxine Waters here.