Waters Speaks on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” ~

Waters to Obama: Pay attention to us

President Barack Obama needs to pay more attention to black Americans to keep them “on board,” Rep. Maxine Waters said Thursday.

After voicing criticism earlier this week about the president’s inattention to black Americans, the California Democrat said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that she and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus are “not just frustrated with the president — communities are hurting.” “It’s not personal. We’re not even pointing fingers,” she said. “We’re saying it’s our responsibility too. We represent areas that expect us to represent. That’s why they sent us to Congress. And so that’s what we’re doing.”

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On Thursday, mentioning the tour on MSNBC, Waters picked up a newspaper. “Take a look at this headline in The Wall Street Journal: ‘Obama aims to keep white voters on board.’ Well we want to be on board, too.”

Waters also tried to explain her Tuesday remarks, which had cable news and the blogosphere alight on Wednesday. “The economy, the loss of jobs, the pain is real. We’re talking about indisputable facts,” she said. “We’ve got to be in the discussion. We want to be part of the solution. We cannot continue to go on watching everybody talk about what the solutions are without us being included in it.”

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“It’s time for us to step up and note that our communities are not being dealt with and to make sure that this administration understands that we cannot continue to go on this way,” she said. “Whatever the plan is that’s going to be unveiled in September, we intend to be a part of that. We have ideas. We want to include those in the plan that the president unveils. Here we are.”