Several U.S. Democrat leaders had suspicious packaging sent to their offices on Wednesday.
Both current and former elected officials were targeted including Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder and Rep. Maxine Waters. In regards to Waters, a Maryland mail facility intercepted a package that was headed to the representative's office in Washington while similar makeshift pipe bombs were also found addressed to others.
In a Blavity Politics exclusive interview on Wednesday, Waters sounded off on finding out she was one of the intended victims. It was also discovered that, later that same day, South Los Angeles postal workers found a suspicious package addressed to the representative.
In her response, Waters spoke to how President Trump's hateful rhetoric has only helped to incite various hateful attacks that have unfolded since his time in office.
"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. Trump recently celebrated Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte, who pleaded guilty to assaulting a Guardian reporter last May.
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Waters has become a target of the right-wing base because of her vocal stance against the Trump administration and its policies. She’s also been leading the fight for impeachment against Trump.
But when it comes to being threatened, Waters is not one to back down. Earlier this year when Waters responded to threats of right-wingers threatening to shoot her, she said, “if you shoot me you better shoot straight.”
She delivered that same energy when responding to Wednesday's bomb threats.
"We must not be intimidated to the point that we stop advocating and protesting for justice," she said.
The incredibly bold and fearless Waters let us know she's not one to be intimidated. She stated this in 2017 in response to Bill O'Reilly's racist comments when she said: "I am a strong Black woman, and I cannot be intimidated. I cannot be undermined."
This time, Waters is serving another reminder.
"I don’t know whether the bombs are real or not, but we should not crawl under the bed, close the doors, not go out, be afraid to go to rallies," she said.
"We have to keep to doing what we’re doing in order to make this country right; that’s what I intend to do, and as the young people say, 'I ain’t scared.'"
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