https://www.facebook.com/CuomoPrimeTime/videos/2293417277560894/
A GOP congressional hopeful said he wants to see Congresswoman Maxine Waters arrested and jailed for her comments encouraging folks to shame and harass members of President Donald Trump’s administration.
In an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Monday, candidate Antonio Sabato Jr. dubbed the longtime lawmaker a “hustler of hate” and accused her of promoting division among the American people with her remarks this past weekend. Waters called on the public to “push back” against Trump officials by letting them know “they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
“I call her the hustler of hate,” said Sabato, a soap opera actor turned politician seeking a House seat in one of California’s largely Democratic districts. “[She’s] promoting hate and division and actually attacking the administration or anybody who’s involved with this administration.”
“That’s unheard of. She should be put behind bars and throw away the key,” he continued.
A shocked Cuomo asked the candidate to explain, saying, “You think Maxine Waters should be arrested? For what?”
Sabato claimed Waters’ “crime” was leaving her constituents poor and destitute while she lived a cushy life making millions in Beverly Hills. He argued that she should instead be out surrounding herself with her community “100 percent.”
“That’s what people in Congress should be like,” Sabato charged. “She is not. How do you make millions of dollars by you making what, $200,250 a year? Where’s she making all this money? It’s corruption to the max. It’s corruption to the max.”
A 2015 article from The Los Angeles Times states that Waters lives in the South Los Angeles community of Vermont Knolls, not in Beverly Hills. Her home is now one-tenth of a mile outside the state’s 43rd District, which she represents, thanks to redistricting.
Sabato’s comments have since drawn a variety of reactions from critics who disagreed with his verbal attack against the congresswoman and supporters who sided with him in condemning Waters.
Watch more in the video above.
