Maxine Waters Gets Caught off Guard by Rep. Chip Roy’s Questions: ‘I Am Not a Socialist!’

ROY: Now we can go around and around in circles about trying to talk about and defining Socialism but at at its core I was intrigued by op-ed that I saw not too long ago by a Democrat from Cuba commenting on one of our colleagues, an avowed Socialist, um and and essentially pointing out the extent to which Democratic socialism is 'a lot like the system my family fled except its proponents promised to be nicer when seizing your business.'
That’s the truth that’s the truth here and so we can talk about these terms as if they don’t matter but they do they do matter they’re they’re actually at the core of who we are. I’ve got one question for for the ranking member uh ranking member Waters in a 2008 hearing you said quote 'and guess what this liberal will be all about this liberal will be all about socializing would be about basically taking over the government and the government running all of your companies.' end quote. Simple question do you stand by that statement?

WATERS: Simple answer I am here today in this Rules Committee because we’re taking up time with basically a non-issue. First of all you claim that socialism has engulfed this country that it keeps creeping it’s going to take over private businesses etc etc. That is not happening. We’re in a Democracy that we’re trying very much to save and to not have disrupted undermined in the way that

ROY: Reclaiming my time. The general lady denounces your previous statement then and do not accept that previous statement that you think you would take over these.

WATERS: I’m not socialists I’m a capitalist and I commit to you that I am here to save Social Security to save Medicare to save seniors and Veterans and for some of you who have adopted certain kind of ways that you support what you now claim is socialism I’m here to say to you come on.

ROY: So so 'this so This liberal will be all about socializing will be all about basically taking over and the government running all of your companies' you you you disagree with that? You now denounce that statement?

WATERS: I am not a socialist.

ROY: Okay all right so I appreciate um the response I I think that to the extent that one has a concern as a member of this body or as an American watching this one has concerns when we hear statements like this and that’s not the only one um in statements by some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle extolling the virtues of socialism as I just pointed out um a a nicer way of compensating businesses a nicer way of confiscating the assets and the means of production.