PBS Reporter Wants White House To Support Maxine Waters’ Call For Activists To ‘Get More Confrontational’

On Tuesday, PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki why the Biden administration was not defending Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ call for activists to “get more confrontational.” 

Waters created controversy over the weekend when the Democrat urged protesters in Minnesota to “stay on the street,” “get more confrontational” and “make sure that they know that we mean business.”

“I wonder why the White House isn’t coming to the defense of Maxine Waters,” asks (ponders? demands?) PBS “reporter” Yamiche Alcindor during today’s White House press briefing.

— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) April 20, 2021

RELATED: Don Lemon Declares ‘People With Half A Brain’ Know Maxine Waters Didn’t Incite Violence

PBS Reporter Alcindor Wants White House To Defend Waters

Waters said this as the country waited to hear if former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin would be found not guilty of murdering George Floyd. Later Tuesday, Chauvin was found guilty on all counts.

Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy drew up a resolution to censure Water, but Democrats put a stop to that measure. 

Alcindor asked Psaki during a press briefing, “I wonder why the White House isn’t coming to the defense of Rep. Waters given the fact that she is facing an onslaught of attacks by, I would say Republicans.”

“I wonder why the White House isn’t saying, ‘We back what she said about being confrontational,’” Alcindor continued, claiming that Waters, “was obviously not threatening violence.”

The PBS White House correspondent continued, “There are civil rights leaders saying that’s what civil rights is, to be confrontational, to be active.”

In response, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “Well she also clarified her own remarks, Yamiche. And I think that’s the most powerful piece to point to.”

DEFUND PBS, part two of two:

After having tweeted her defense of Maxine Waters by saying she wasn’t threatening or violent, Yamiche Alcindor demands to know why the WH isn’t defending Waters “given the fact that she’s now facing an onslaught of attacks especially by Republicans” pic.twitter.com/oCHjIvZWZD

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 20, 2021

Critics React

Alcindor’s defense of Waters drew immediate criticism on social media.  

Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted, “When PBS is even MORE of a partisan shill than the DEMOCRATIC White House….”

When PBS is even MORE of a partisan shill than the DEMOCRATIC White House…. https://t.co/E3vVmpvdZN

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 20, 2021

Progressive journalist Glenn Greenwald argued that it’s a positive development when journalists drop any pretense that they are not biased. 

I honestly and unironically think it’s a positive development when journalists stop pretending that they’re objective and politically neutral and make clear exactly what their partiasn loyalties and ideology are. I & others have been advocating that for years. Kudos to @Yamiche. https://t.co/LgFTkB4teR

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 20, 2021

The Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Caller had his own bone to pick with Alcindor:

Folks in the news business really shouldn’t use “fact check” as a rhetorical device, especially when they’re obviously wrong.

Waters, as she has done before, encouraged activists to act out. The implication was pretty clear. pic.twitter.com/Y7CgOomBLN

— Geoffrey Ingersoll (@GPIngersoll) April 19, 2021

This is not the first time Alcindor has been criticized for bias.

She was widely criticized after tossing softball questions to the new president after his first official press conference. 

After their exchange, former Trump aide Mercedes Schlapp said of Alcindor, “Yamiche should be hired as the DNC press Secretary. Compare her questioning of Trump and Biden.”

Yamiche should be hired as the DNC press Secretary. Compare her questioning of Trump and Biden.

— Mercedes Schlapp (@mercedesschlapp) March 25, 2021

RELATED: Whoopi Goldberg Defends Maxine Waters – ‘After Four Years of Real Race-Baiting,’ Republicans Want To Expel Her