Dershowitz Disputes Maxine Waters’ Racism Allegations

Alan Dershowitz laced into Rep. Maxine Waters after the California Democrat accused the retired Harvard Law School professor of being racist for his comments on the Russia investigation.

“She tosses around that term so promiscuously that it dilutes the term. She hurts her own cause because she’s crying wolf,” Dershowitz said on Fox News Monday night. “Being black does not give you a license to call someone a racist.”

Waters, who represents Los Angeles, had characterized a comment from Dershowitz about special counsel Robert Mueller empaneling a grand jury in Washington, D.C. as racist. Dershowitz had said Mueller’s decision to call the jury in D.C. was strategic because the district was heavily Democratic and minority.

“What he is saying is ‘all of those black people are there and they don’t like Trump and so he’s not going to get a fair trial and so they should take it out of that jurisdiction,’” Waters said on MSNBC Friday night. “We will push back against that because that is absolutely racist.”

Waters has emerged as a major critic of the Trump administration, speaking out against its personnel and policies in bold fashion. She has been dubbed by some fans as “Auntie Maxine.”

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon