Rep. Maxine Waters: ‘The tea party can go straight to hell’

Chris Moody
·Political Reporter

California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, who had some tough words for the leaders of her own party last week, took aim at the other side on Saturday, saying that the tea party could "go straight to hell."

"I'm not afraid of anybody," Waters said at a weekend community meeting in Inglewood, California. "This is a tough game. You can't be intimidated. You can't be frightened. And as far as I'm concerned, the tea party can go straight to hell."

Waters' comments begin at 1:55 in the video from the ABC News affiliate in Los Angeles, KABC:

At a job fair in Detroit last week, the 11-term congresswoman said that black members of Congress were growing "tired" of defending President Barack Obama in the face of high unemployment rates.

"We do not put pressure on the president because y'all love the president," Waters said. "You are very proud to have a black man as president for the very first time in the history of the United States of America. ... The Congressional Black Caucus loves the president, too. We're supportive of the president, but we're getting tired. We're getting tired. The unemployment is unconscionable. We don't know what the strategy is."