‘I was angry at first’: Maxine Waters on Biden's withdrawal and her support for Harris

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), one of the strongest voices arguing for the president to stay in the race after his dismal debate performance, was angry when she learned on television Sunday that President Joe Biden was bowing out.

“We had been told up to the last minute that he was going to stay,” Waters told POLITICO Monday in a frank interview about how she is processing this seismic shift in the nation’s political landscape.

Just two weeks earlier, Waters had proclaimed: “It ain’t going to be no other Democratic candidate — it’s going to be Biden.” Despite a chorus of statements from colleagues pushing Biden to step aside, Waters believed his “grassroots support” persisted. Plus, the 85-year-old congressmember noted to wild applause at Essence Fest in early July, “People are talking about, Biden’s too old. Hell, I’m older than Biden!”

And while the Congressional Black Caucus member quickly threw her full support behind Vice President Kamala Harris after Biden endorsed his No. 2, Waters is still pondering why other Democratic leaders didn’t do the same.

Waters didn’t need a phone call from Harris to make an endorsement. They’ve been friends since the then-California attorney general ran for the U.S. Senate in 2017. They also share a status as barrier-breaking politicians — decades before the vice president became the first woman of color to hold the job, Waters was the first Black and female chair to the House Financial Services Committee.

She expects former President Donald Trump to hit Harris “hard” with intimidation, racism and sexism — but she also said the former prosecutor has the strength and confidence to punch back.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

To start off, how did you learn that Biden would not be running for reelection? 

I actually woke up to it on the television. At the same time, my telephone was ringing off the hook. So it was actually by what was presented on TV that I saw first, and then the telephone calls followed right after that.

What was your reaction? 

Oh, I was angry at first, because we'd worked so hard to give him the kind of support that would cause him to stay. We had been told up to the last minute that he was going to stay.

You were upset with the people who were calling for him to be replaced?

Yeah, that was the talking points that they had. That's how it goes when those kinds of decisions are being made — you have your people all, you know, saying the same thing, until the absolute decision is made and they learn as you learn. So I get that. And after I calmed down, I was alright, because in doing that, he endorsed Kamala. And I thought, well, that's great.

What have your conversations with Biden or Harris consisted of since his announcement yesterday?

I have not had conversations with either one of them.

Can you walk me through your Sunday. After his announcement, how did you decide to endorse Harris? Who did you talk to?

I see her as a friend, someone I've known for years. She ran for Senate, and I worked with her on that. And so I didn't need to call them to tell them that when I was endorsing them — I just did it.

You’ve been a longtime adviser and source of guidance to Harris in the past. What do you see as her biggest challenges going forward?

Listen, I tell you that Trump, the MAGA crowd, racists — I think that they're going to hit and they're going to hit hard. They're going to do everything that they can do to try and convince their crowd and others that she should not be the president and he will be dog whistling about a woman and a Black in ways that he knows how to do.

What advice do you have for her and her team to overcome that?

Well, first of all, I know that she has the confidence, and I want to reinforce that and say: You could not have gotten where you've gotten unless you had confidence and belief in yourself.

Secondly, you're smart, you're educated, you're articulate, and you know not only the state of California, but now having been the vice president, you've been all over this country. You know what the domestic agenda should be and what it has been. You are with the president, who is the well-known and best-known expert on the international agenda, and I know that you've learned a lot from him and your travels. So you're fine.

You are a prosecutor, and you know what to do with Trump. You know how to talk about the successes of the White House, and about Biden and what you two as a team have accomplished. You know about international affairs, and you know how to deal with him when he is out of line, when he's out of step, when he's trying to intimidate, when he's being racist.

The fact that he and his father refused to rent and lease to minorities with all of the properties that they own, the fact that he disrespected women talking about grabbing them by their private parts, the fact that he solicited and had an affair when his wife was pregnant before trial, and the 28 lies that were documented that he told in the debate, it goes on and on and on.

All of that. I put it in my own language, but the way she would do it, she knows what to do.

A lot of Democrats were calling for Biden to withdraw, yet you maintained your support of him. Can you explain why?

Absolutely, because I've seen him at his best. Don't forget, when he did the State of the Union, he was really good. All of the same members were applauding and talking about how well he had done. So I know he was capable. I know that he had a bad day. It seems that he got caught off guard. He said he'd been traveling, what have you.

They have a right to their opinion. I didn't see it that way. I believed that he could do a lot better. And after, when he's met with some of the rallies and places that he'd been since he had that bad debate, whether it was in Michigan, other states, he's done very well. I've seen him do well. I trusted him, and I believed he would get up to speed on it.

So you weren't concerned with his ability to win the election, given the doubts from voters and many Democratic leaders?

No. Because he has really strong grassroots support. Do I look and feel and think about grassroots as opposed to eight or nine or 10 members of Congress? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. They are but an opinion. They are not experts. While I respect them and their opinion, I was paying attention to what was happening with grassroots. They love Biden. He had a lot of love and support all over this country.

What do you make of the fact that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former President Barack Obama have not endorsed Harris yet? (This interview took place prior to Schumer and Jeffries endorsing Harris on Tuesday.)

Well, of course I wonder why. I wonder what’s taking them so long. I know they were part of the little group with Nancy Pelosi that was telling him he had to step aside. And I guess I wondered, do they have a mystery candidate around? Why are they so interested in an open convention? I wondered what was propelling that.

But I think Nancy saw the handwriting on the wall, and she saw all these women who were coming out. I don't know this, I didn’t talk to her about it, but I think she saw that she really did have that kind of support and that his endorsement made a big difference.

I understand they may be waiting for some polls, but you know, what do I think about polls? You know, for months now it has been a one, two, three percentage point difference, and I haven't seen much more than that. I think after the attempted assassination they went up in the polls, but it's always been, you know, closely polled, and so that doesn't bother me. Don't forget, I was a big supporter of Hillary Clinton. And I know what the polls did — they gave me a heart attack.

Are you concerned that without an open nomination for Harris, it would seem more like a “coronation” to voters?

Look, don't use that word. That's Nancy Pelosi’s word, “coronation.” I don't like them saying that. I think that she's earned the right to be president. She's a vice president of the United States. She's got delegates coming from states who have at least six of them at last night, all of the delegates have signed on and confirmed. And this word about, you know, coronation, whatever, I don't like that kind of language. I think it was useless, and I think that it sent the wrong signals.

Harris's task of managing the U.S.-Mexico border is going to be a big target for Trump and the Republican Party, and it's become a greater concern for voters too. To what extent will that affect her chance at winning?

Well, here's what I believe. I believe that Trump will continue to use the border problem as one of their central points of trying to persuade the people.

I do think that Democrats, and Kamala, will have to talk about how we deal with the desire for so many people to come into this country from all over the world, and how we help, for example, people stay in Mexico — by working with Mexico, manufacturing, our trading partners down there. We've got to do a lot of educating, a lot of fighting, and do the best job that we can do, because we do know that they will use that to try and continue to scare people, calling all of them rapists and murderers and people coming out of insane asylums.

Who, in your opinion, would make a strong vice president pick for Harris?

I don't know but I tell you, I am delighted to hear about some of those governors. When I heard the governor of Kentucky talking and I heard the governor from North Carolina talking, I thought, ‘My goodness, look what they're saying.’ They want to work with Kamala. They're about diversity and inclusion. They're about unifying this country. I'm very impressed, and so I think she's going to have a good lineup to choose from.