Member of Congress Maxine Waters is recently accused of making “unwarranted physical contact” with a journalist. In an alarming allegation, the reporter opened up on social media and revealed that the Congress representative “shoved” his arm.
The Young Turks reporter Michael Tracey tweeted that Rep. Maxine Waters showed “ridiculous behavior” while he was interviewing her. Tracey called the Congress member “erratic, intemperate and unprofessional.”
“I’ve interviewed many members of Congress and never once have any one of them initiated unwarranted physical contact. Maxine Waters did just that today. After asking her two questions at a public event – the ‘March For Truth’ in Los Angeles – she became agitated, stormed off, and ‘shoved’ my arm. As I explicitly stated in my initial tweet reporting the incident, I didn’t perceive the incident to be excessively violent. The words ‘push’ or ‘swat’ would be apt descriptors – anything that connotes ‘unwarranted physical contact.’ My camera person observed the incident and immediately identified it as a ‘shove’ or ‘push.’ The semantics are immaterial here, as it obviously doesn’t rise to the level of an assault or anything remotely criminal. It just shows Waters to be erratic, intemperate, and unprofessional. I had an entirely uneventful interview with Rep. Brad Sherman just moments before.”
The reporter went on to add a video of the “shoving” by Rep. Maxine Waters. To his surprise, not many think it as an act of “swatting” and simply stated that the reporter was standing in her way even after she is done answering the questions.
Here’s my full exchange with Rep. Maxine Waters — erratic, intemperate behavior on her part. https://t.co/rRt3CZOdHg
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 3, 2017
Many people are titling this to be a funny incident and many memes of the exchange between The Young Turks reporter Michael Tracey and Rep. Maxine Waters are already floating now on the internet.
You guys have it all wrong: Michael Tracey was referring to the breeze left in Auntie Maxine’s wake that violently abused his lost manhood. https://t.co/qKtgRitjhB
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!?? (@mmpadellan) June 4, 2017
Please pray for Michael Tracey, seen here immediately after being brutally assaulted pic.twitter.com/z1wvH7Evcz
— Matt (@IrregularMatt) June 3, 2017
Hidden camera footage of Maxine Waters’ brutal assault on Michael Tracey pic.twitter.com/hkcmgR3psR
— shauna (@goldengateblond) June 4, 2017
I understand Michael Tracey’s issue as Maxine Waters initiated physical contact with me as well pic.twitter.com/92Z6f7R2qQ
— maura quint (possibly parody sometimes depending) (@behindyourback) June 3, 2017
The reporter tried to clear and answer as many doubts and questions of commenters, and clarified that he did not “block her egress.” Michael Tracey even tweeted that he is amazed that so many people are defending the “ridiculous behavior of sitting member of Congress.”
Many even asked the reported if he is charging Maxine Waters with “assault charges,” to which Tracey said that it was “not assault, but ridiculous behavior.” According to Michael, Rep. Waters “physically flailed” him to cut short an interview.
The point is that evading interview questions by angrily flailing at an interviewer is preposterous conduct for a member of Congress.
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 4, 2017
Swatting at a reporter’s arm to evade questions during an interview is indeed ridiculous.
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 4, 2017
Many people on Twitter are now also claiming that reporter Michael Tracey is using the hyped story to gain popularity. The investigative reporter at The Young Turks , Michael Tracey, was previously a columnist for VICE , covering both the 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns. He’s also been a contributor to the New York Daily News , The Daily Beast and many other publications.
Michael Tracey is a pathetic excuse for a “journalist” (was fired from Vice), and is now using his platform simply to feed alt-right trolls.
— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) June 3, 2017
This is considerably more attention than Michael Tracey deserves imo pic.twitter.com/jSb15Uyh35
— Genuine HIPAA Expert (@mumbly_joe) June 4, 2017
Tracey even got his cameraman to comment on the Waters incident. The cameraman titled it as “extremely violent” but can be seen laughing and shying away from the camera throughout the video.
Here’s my camera guy Ty describing the Waters incident pic.twitter.com/vSz0V8m6Hd
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 3, 2017
Meanwhile, Maxine Waters seems undisturbed by the entire incident of allegations by The Young Turks reporter. She is continuing her call for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. During her recent tweets, she asked the president to be ready for impeachment.
Trump can unleash the full force of Fox, fringe, & fake news media on me all he wants. I’m not going anywhere! #getreadyforimpeachment
— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) June 3, 2017
Rep. Waters also recently said that Americans cannot wait for another election and that she is hopeful about Donald Trump’s impeachment. The member of Congress said that Americans and party members do not need to wait that long or else the country will be destroyed by then.
“‘Oh my god, she said the word impeachment! Oh my goodness, it’s too soon to say that! We can’t focus on it because we have members in districts he won and they can’t afford to talk about impeachment!’ We can’t wait that long. We don’t need to wait that long. He will have destroyed this country by then. We cannot wake up every morning to another crisis, to another scandal. We cannot have the uncertainty.”
[Featured Image by Alex Wong/Getty Images]
