Filed under: News, Interviews, Politics, Race and Civil Rights
Congresswoman Maxine Waters says she won't be taking a deal in response to charges that she violated ethics rules by helping a bank in which her husband owned stock gain federal bailout funds:
"No deals! I'm not going to the back room. Bring it out," Waters said in an interview with The Grio.
Waters has maintained her innocence, saying that she did not benefit financially when the bank received federal money and that she is an advocate for minority-owned businesses.
Waters is the second member of the Congressional Black Caucus to be brought up on serious ethics charges ahead of midterm elections. Charlie Rangel, a 20-term member of Congress, was charged with several ethics violations last week. He is scheduled for a September trial after failing to make a deal.
Waters, known for her toughness, publicly says she doesn't want a deal. She questioned why the official charges have taken so long to come out of the Office of Congressional Ethics and said that many of her constituents have remained supportive.
"(T)here was no benefit, and I know that there's nothing in the report that shows it. OneUnitedBank did not get any immediate help from the Treasury. The bank then went to the private market and got $20 million in loans to help them stabilize their lending. The bank's investors did not lose anything," Waters said.
"The way I see it, the committee took bits from conversation and information between staff members about the economic crisis and the Treasury's role in it and then pieced them together to try to make something out of it," she added.
Waters said she believes charges were filed against her by a Treasury employee who is a former mentee of top Republican and Bush strategist Karl Rove.
"He remembered that I had disclosed that my husband sat on the board of directors of OneUnitedBank at one time. He took this public information to the OCE to make it look as if there was a conflict of interest. The committee looked at it and said, 'Aha maybe there is a conflict here.' And because their investigation is so limited, they came up with the idea that I received some benefit from the meeting that I requested," Waters added.
"We have asked the ethics committee the same question. Why has it taken so long to bring the charges? The OCE report was made public just as the House was going into a six-week summer break. That hurt, because there's no real opportunity to contest the charges, and that's not fair. So that's why we have publicly demanded that the committee release the full report that contains the specifics," Waters said.
Waters says she doesn't know if members of the Congressional Black Caucus are being targeted, but the charges certainly don't help Democrats.
"I have no idea whether that is the case. True, there's much speculation about that. I can say that in my case, we challenge the committee that if you have a real case, lay it out and let's see what happens," Waters said.
"The Democrats don't benefit from this, this close to the election. It puts them on the defensive. Even if you argue that it seems that the ethics investigation process is working, the Democrats having to defend the process at this time doesn't help the party. It's hurtful because it gives the Republicans a chance to say, 'See, the Democrats have all those problems over there.' I don't know if they'll do that because they're a lot of Republicans that have been investigated. But there's nothing positive in this for the Democrats," she added.
Despite the charges, Waters said her constituents remain supportive:
"My constituents know that I'm a strong advocate for small and minority business, and for those who don't have access. Bank of America, Chase, Citibank, and the Wall Street financial houses all have access to the Treasury. They can pick up the telephone on a first-name basis and walk into their offices as they please. The day the meeting with the NBA occurred, Treasury officials met with the big boys from the banks. My responsibility is to make sure that minority businesses have that same access. My constituents know that I'm always going to be under fire, whether from challenging the CIA on drugs, police brutality or minority businesses and they understand that," Waters concluded.