Two Republican Men Tried to Silence Maxine Waters. It Did Not Go Well for Them.

At a House of Representatives meeting Friday, Mike Kelly (R-PA)—one of those dudes that has adopted the strategy of trying to sound exactly like Donald Trump in order to further his political career—had harsh words for Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California. The debate was about the potential repeal of the 2013 Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s indirect auto lending guidance, which essentially functioned as a way to prevent auto dealers from cheating minority buyers through “dealer markups” that added extra interest to loans. The CPFB found, using zip code and surname date, that minorities and women were unfairly targeted by such practices.

You can guess which side of this debate Republicans ended up on, and you can guess which side Mike Kelly was fighting for when he said the following:

“We’re trying to make America great every day and every way and the best way to do that is to stop talking about discrimination and start talking about the nation. We’re coming together as a people in spite of what you say.”

Oh boy. You’ll notice he said this without interruption from Republican chair Tom McClintock. Maxine Waters, in her response, was not granted the same courtesy. It didn’t matter—she took them both to school:

Yesterday, on the House floor, RM @RepMaxineWaters had #notonesecond for Republican efforts to undermine anti-discrimination policies. Watch ? pic.twitter.com/n36Gh2Msbg

— Financial Svcs Dems (@FSCDems) May 9, 2018

Of course, Republicans hold a majority and managed to repeal the CFPB’s lending guidance anyway, because if there’s something that hurts poor people in this country, they’ll stop at nothing to see it through. But hopefully Waters’ righteous indignation will echo into the future, and make the impending blue wave that finally removes these people from power just a little bit taller.