MSNBC "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" - Transcript

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Joining me now, from California‘s 35th district, Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Congresswoman, thanks again for your time tonight.

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D), CALIFORNIA: Welcome, welcome. Delighted to be back.

OLBERMANN: Let me start at the end rather than the beginning. Let‘s say this Congresswoman really didn‘t know what that phrase meant, really had never heard of Jack Johnson. What kind of apology would you think would be appropriate here? Is one of these if I offended anybody ones, is that good enough now?

WATERS: Well, she has attempted to take back her words and to apologize. And like you said, it was probably a Freudian slip. But you know, one of the things we can‘t do is we can‘t let them distract from what we are all about, and what we‘re trying to accomplish.

We are trying to keep the focus on comprehensive universal health care reform. And they‘re going all over the place. They‘re desperate. They don‘t have leadership. They don‘t really know what to do. And so I think we‘re going to continue to see a lot of crazy things happening, like all of the outrage that is being demonstrated at these town hall meetings, like the kind of statements that Congresswoman Jenkins made.

And let them define themselves. Let them reveal who they are. The American public needs to see that.

OLBERMANN: The context of the town halls is—is really critical to this, I think, because obviously --

WATERS: Yes.

OLBERMANN: The providence of this phrase, and it‘s not just that and it‘s not just that we‘re seven months into the term of the first African-American president, but also these town halls have not just been witches‘ kitchens of racist sentiment, but this attempt to thinly veil them in basically excuses that permit racist thoughts to be expressed and acted upon, as if there were not going to be any consequences. Shouldn‘t there be some consequence to this Congresswoman, other than being—being exposed as somebody who either doesn‘t care that she sounds racist or doesn‘t know what this very famous phrase really actually means?

WATERS: Well, let me just say this. As you know, the president and the White House are very, very careful not to let arguments and disagreements disintegrate into racist confrontation. And so what we are going to do is, we are going to attempt to allow her to defend her remarks in any way that she wants to. But the truth will come out.

They will define themselves. They can‘t help it. And I think what we should do is sit back and watch them, so that the American people can see what we‘re really up against. And I think the president would like it that way. He would not like to engage them in the discussion about their racist remarks. That‘s not the way he handles things.

OLBERMANN: Do you think politically we‘re going backwards on this issue? Because there‘s so many things in the last seven months that have made me, as a white guy, ashamed, absolutely ashamed of what I‘ve seen. Are we going backwards or forwards now?

WATERS: Well, I‘m concerned. I‘m concerned about some of what I see and some of what I hear. And I hope that they don‘t trigger a response from people who want to, you know, get at them and show them that they can‘t get away with that kind of discussion, that kind of talk. So I‘m concerned. I‘m very much concerned about it.

OLBERMANN: It‘s nice to hear you counseling calm and let them talk their way out of this if they can. A lot of us, I don‘t think, are as calm as you are. Representative Maxine Waters of California, it‘s always a pleasure. Thanks for your time and coming in.

WATERS: You‘re so welcome. Thank you.

OLBERMANN: You wonder if Sarah Palin is relieved she wasn‘t named one of the great white Republican popes or secretly jealous? Whichever, she‘s bailed out of another dinner thrown by people who actually like her.

And of all the crazy ass things Lonesome Roads have ever said, this may be craziest assist. MSNBC is involved in taking over the government somehow. Hey, I‘m beginning to think I‘m underpaid.

When Rachel joins you at the top of the hour, fresh from her sick bed, he special guest, Democratic Congressman Anthony Wiener on how the GOP is strangling itself in its twisted rhetoric against health care reform.

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