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Sen. Ted Cruz accused Rep. Maxine Waters of 'actively encouraging riots and violence' after she protested the police killing of Daunte Wright

Ted Cruz
Sen. Ted Cruz asks a question during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on March 9, 2021. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
  • Sen. Ted Cruz accused Rep. Maxine Waters of inciting violence at protests against police brutality.

  • Waters rallied against recent police killings of Black men, telling demonstrators to remain in place.

  • "Democrats actively encouraging riots & violence," Cruz tweeted in response to Waters' remarks.

  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

Sen. Ted Cruz on Sunday suggested that Rep. Maxine Waters was inciting violence by encouraging demonstrators in Minnesota to continue protesting against police brutality.

Waters, a California Democrat, attended on Sunday one of the protests against the police killing of 20-year-old Daunte Wright.

The protests have been set against the backdrop of the trial against Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis officer who killed George Floyd by kneeling on his neck. The courthouse where the trial takes place is only miles away from where an officer shot and killed Wright last week.

At the protest, Waters said she and the crowd are "looking for a guilty verdict" for Chauvin.

"We've got to stay in the streets, and we've got to demand justice," she said, according to a video posted on Twitter from the event.

"I am hopeful that we will get a verdict that says, 'guilty, guilty, guilty,' and if we don't, we cannot go away," she added. "We've got to get more confrontational."

Cruz, a Republican from Texas, blasted those remarks from Waters.

"Democrats actively encouraging riots & violence," he tweeted in response, along with a Daily Mail article reporting Waters' comments.

"They want to tear us apart," he added.

Wright was fatally shot by Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, officer Kimberly Potter, who had 26 years of experience on the force. The department's police chief said earlier this week that she intended to shoot Wright with her Taser, not her gun. Potter has since resigned and is facing a second-degree manslaughter charge.

After Wright was killed, protests erupted in the streets of Brooklyn Center and the surrounding Minneapolis area.

Starting from day one of the protests, officials called in the National Guard and imposed a curfew. Protesters have since broken that curfew to demonstrate against police brutality.

At some of these protests, police clashed with demonstrators and fired tear gas and nonlethal rounds to disperse the crowds. Among the protesters who were tear-gassed was Wright's aunt, Kelly Bryant.

She told Insider she watched people throw garbage at the police.

"I have never seen anything like that in my life. I was tear-gassed," she said. "It was not a pretty sight. I was watching people loot and break windows, stealing stuff out of stores, burning stuff. It was bad. It was really bad."

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