Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
By Cleveland Urban News.Com Staff Reporter Gwendolyn Piits and Editor-in-Chief Kathy Wray Coleman
CLEVELAND, Ohio- California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, a Los Angeles Democrat, has become a thorn in the side of President Donald Trump, and she brought her message against the boastful Republican president to Cleveland last week, speaking on Saturday, May 6 before a sold out crowd at the Cuyahoga County Democratic Women's Caucus (CDWC) annual brunch and also that day to a group of Black leaders, elected officials and community activists at G- Lancer restaurant in downtown Cleveland. (Editor's Note: Kathy Wray Coleman, who leads the Imperial Women Coalition, and is editor-in chief at ClevelandUrbanNews.Com and the KathyWrayColemanOnlineNewsBlog.Com ,introduced Congresswoman Waters at Lancer's to a audience that gave the lawmaker a standing ovation as she entered the room).
Her visit to Cleveland May 6, which was not her first, is in addition to the campaign by Waters against Trump's policies, a campaign that she has waged on the floor of the United States House of Representatives, and also to major news outlets such as CNN and MSNBC, not to mention to listeners at public forums in other cities, both large and small, across the nation.
At the women's brunch on Saturday, which was held at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, she labeled the billionaire and former real estate mogul who upset Democrat Hillary Clinton in November to take the presidency an outright "liar." And this was before a capacity crowd of Democrats, mainly women, including three female gubernatorial candidates for the 2018 governor's race in Ohio, at least three state representatives, council persons from across the state, members of the Ohio State Board of Education, former congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar, Toledo Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, and Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish.
Columbus Councilwoman Elizabeth Brown, a daughter of U.S. senator Sherrod Brown, and a Democrat like her father, also spoke.
Brown, like Waters, was recognized by the CDWC for her community service, as were Lana Moresky and Amy Hanauer.
Waters called Trump an enemy to women, the Black community, and the country in general, and she said that the president should be considered for impeachment relative to the fiasco regarding the ongoing investigation around Russian email hacking during the presidential election.
Trump, said Waters, has distanced the nation's allies, and "knows nothing about foreign policy."
The most senior of 12 Black women currently in congress, Waters, 78, took issue with the president's efforts to get the GOP dominated congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and she took objection to his stances on medicaid and medicare, as well as his positions on jobs, education and reproductive rights.
The president's anti-Muslim travel ban is ludicrous at best, Waters said.
She shot down nearly every policy Trump has proposed or has pushed through congress since taking office in January,
And Blacks and women, said Waters, are disregarded by Trump because he subordinates Black people and "just does not respect women."
Though Trump was a focus, Waters also spoke on women's issues to the largely White audience, and she urged women to run for office.
"Representative Waters' speech was so moving," said CDWC Chairwoman Cindy Dempsey, who presented the congresswoman with her organization's courage award. "Women were actually cheering from their seats."
Even suburbanites at the brunch were motivated, some saying they wish they lived in Cleveland, a majority Black major American city where political action is ongoing, including the women's march in January and the science march held last month.
"I think she [Congresswoman Waters] is just fantastic." said Lakewood Councilman Dan O'Malley. "I wish I lived in Cleveland and I am ready to take action now."
At Lancer's in Cleveland's Black community the tone against Trump was nearly the same, the congresswoman entering the room to a standing ovation from Black leaders, elected officials and community activists, and taking the microphone and immediately blasting the president as a detriment to Blacks and to the overall welfare of the country.
She said that Trump is not thinking about the middle class and poor people and is about tax breaks for the rich, and "money, money money."
And when she called for Trump to be impeached if an investigation calls for such as she did earlier that day at the women's brunch, the audience broke into applause,
The Black community must vote, she said, and Black elected officials have got to be more assertive like community activists in getting across a message of resistance and empowerment.
The seasoned lawmaker urged more protests in the streets to address what she says is the president's anti-Black and anti-Democratic agenda, and she said that Black people and other disenfranchised groups must "resist, resist, resist."
The Rev. Dr. E. Theophillus Caviness, likely the city's most influential Black preacher, who is senior pastor at Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church and leads the Cleveland chapters of the National Action Network and Southern Christian Leadership Conference, told ClevelandUrbanNews.Com and the KathyWrayColemanOnlineNewsBlog.Com that Blacks leaders in Cleveland support Congresswoman Waters without reservation.
"We support what Congresswoman Waters stands for and we want people nationwide to know that she has our backing here in Cleveland," said Caviness.
The Black crowd at Lancer's included Cleveland city council persons, state representatives, members of the Cleveland NAACP and Black Women's Political Action Committee, political candidates, and community activists.
"She was wonderful," said East Cleveland Board of Education president and mayoral candidate Una H.R. Kennon of Waters.
Others agreed.
"Congresswoman Waters is fabulous, and we support her," said Cleveland activist Dionne Thomas Carmichael.
State representative Bill Patmon, a Cleveland Democrat, told ClevelandUrbanNews.Com and the KathyWrayColemanOnlineNewsBlog.Com that Waters understands Black people and can be trusted to work in the best interest of the Black community.
"Every Black person in town should have been here to hear her speech," said Patmon.
At both events Waters was escorted by her husband, Sydney Williams, a former United States Ambassador to the Bahamas, and a former Cleveland Browns NFL football player.
, Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers, Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
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