CNN's Brianna Keilar challenged Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) on Wednesday about her actions toward the National Guard outside the Los Angeles Detention Center this week.
Waters was denied entry into the federal building by the National Guard when she tried to check on David Huerta, president of the Service Employees International Union, who was arrested by ICE during the anti-deportation protests.
Afterwards, Waters posted to social media, “Today, I came to the Metropolitan Detention Center to exercise my constitutional rights as a Member of Congress to check on the safety and conditions of SEIU California President David Huerta, who was arrested by ICE. I pled with the National Guard, which was heavily armed, not to use their weapons against peaceful demonstrators who were simply exercising their rights to freedom of speech and protest."
Keilar played a video of Waters shouting at the troops, "What are you gonna do? You gonna shoot some kid who's afraid of you and runs? You gonna shoot an elected official? If you shoot me, you better shoot straight."
Keilar asked if "yelling at them was the right way to show" concern over what could happen with armed service members in the streets.
"What I was really trying to do was to get the attention to the seriousness of what was going on," Waters answered. "And, so I thought, as an elected official, if I talk about, so that it would be in earshot of all the media and everybody else that was there and people were listening, that we were raising concerns about armed guards being in Los Angeles and what they are ordered to do."
Keilar then asked, "I think many people share your concerns that this is a dangerous situation in Los Angeles. Would you want your constituents and other Angelenos to be yelling at guardsmen like that?"
Waters took issue with Keilar's assertion that she was "yelling" at the guardsmen.
"It is not a matter of yelling; it's projecting so that you will be heard," Waters answered.
