Some may call her congresswoman, others even call her auntie.
But on the ESSENCE Empowerment stage Saturday, she became Reverend Maxine Waters when she took the audience to church with a spirited anti-Trump administration sermon.
And outside of the president himself, she also had special words for Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.
“Ben Carson was appointed to be the HUD secretary,” she said. “He knows nothing about the mission of HUD. He doesn’t care about people in public housing. He believes that if you are poor, it is your own fault. And he doesn’t know the difference between an immigrant and a slave.”
She was referring to the time this past March when Carson claimed that slaves were the same as free-willed immigrants.
She continued: “And if he thinks when he comes before my committee where i am the ranking member of the financial services [SIC] that I am going to give him a pass, I am going to take his a** apart.”
Waters also gave time to other Trump administration cronies like Education Secretary Betsy Devos to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. She wanted to make it clear that she would refuse to remain silent against their policies.
But her most impassioned words were saved for Trump himself.
“Ladies and gentleman, I am taking off the gloves,” she told the crowd about the president.
“I don’t honor him, I don’t respect him and I am not going to tolerate him,” she said. I am going to do everything I can do to get him impeached.”
By the time she was done with her 15 minute speech, she was leading an “impeach 45” chant. And the crowd ate it all the way up.