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Maxine Waters Has Has Called for Impeachment Since 2017. Fellow Democrats, Welcome to the Party.


Maxine Waters knew it would come to this. Since 1990, she has represented California in the United States House of Representatives. In that time, she has seen President Bill Clinton weather impeachment, President George Bush drag us into endless war, and President Barack Obama survive the scandal of his tan suit. In other words, she can distinguish between real and partisan horror. And she has sounded the alarm on this president for months.

In September 2017, at comedian Dick Gregory’s funeral, Waters said, “when I get through with Donald Trump, he’s going to wish he had been impeached.” In May 2017, she asked, “Why would we let…Trump, a con man, come in here and turn it all upside down with his lies and his disrespect?” She would keep at it, she promised, “until he’s impeached.” In November 2017, she led thousands of people in an “Impeach 45!” chant at Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards. It took some time, but the House of Representatives has now heeded her call.

But as much as Waters is vindicated, she is also under fire. The representative is a frequent target for such right-wing conservatives as Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck, and the hordes of internet trolls who follow them. In October 2018, Waters was one of over a dozen Trump critics who was sent a bomb—in fact she received two—in the mail. She tells Glamour she still gets death threats. But Waters is as resolute as ever: Now is no time to back down. Here, she talks impeachment, Republicans, and what’s next for America.

Glamour: From the beginning, you have been a voice in the wilderness, warning America about this president.

Rep. Maxine Waters I watched this president all during the primaries and the way that he treated his peers. I watched him talk about grabbing women by their private parts. I’ve watched him name-call—he name-called me. I watched him promote violence at his rallies. I watched him embrace [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and refuse to denounce him even after our intelligence committee basically confirmed that the Russians had hacked into our election system.
And now I’m watching him, with this telephone call that really has gotten a lot more people into understanding and believing how dangerous he is, how corrupt he is. A tough call where he tried to talk the Ukrainian president into getting involved in some kind of phony investigation so that he could get dirt on [former Vice President Joe] Biden.



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Hello Hope, My Old Friend: As Donald Trump Faces Impeachment and Elizabeth Warren Rises in the Polls, Can Democrats Learn to Hope Again


But last month, I registered a shift. In me. In the people I know. Even on Twitter. An odd thing has happened. For the first time since the presidential election, some of us have started to feel…hopeful?

The sensation is so novel, I didn’t recognize it at first. But it began with that old nemesis of mine—polls. After months of ambitious plans, hundreds of photo lines, and countless appearances, Elizabeth Warren surged ahead in them. At last a woman whose hard work seemed to be noted and appreciated. The first primaries are still months from now, but for a lot of women, Warren presents a chance to finish what Geraldine Ferraro, Margaret Chase Smith, and Shirley Chisholm started. For a lot of us, the fact that we’ve never had a female president still stings. Even prim-and-proper England had Margaret Thatcher. (Yes, I know.)

Sure, Clinton had her problems, but those issues paled compared to her opponent’s deficiencies; the harassment and assault allegations, his numerous bankruptcies, the grift. I’m not here to re-litigate 2016, but the stark fact was that one candidate was qualified and the other didn’t know who Fredrick Douglass was.

Then, the Ukraine news broke. As reports trickled out, we learned that Trump has been pushing Ukraine for dirt on Joe Biden. Even moderate Democrats backed impeachment proceedings. And in the time since, I have sometimes wondered: What would happen if we didn’t all get dark and doubtful again? What would happen if we decided to hold the Trump administration accountable for once? Stranger things have happened.

There’s an expression in politics that “Republicans fall in line and Democrats fall in love.” As much as I hate the idea, I think there’s some truth to it. But I’ve held off on following my heart. I’ve been burned, and it’s so much easier to just assume the worst than hope for the best. At least that’s how I felt until now.

For the next few weeks, the Trump administration will have to answer for their actions. And in the meantime, women continue to run rings around him. Harris is on the cover of TIME Magazine! Warren, with her focus on childcare and student debt, makes me feel warm inside! I can’t help it. I feel…almost optimistic.

This election will take place 13 or so months and several million news alerts from now. And I am not blind to the realities of our current moment. Abortion is on the chopping block. Immigrants rights’ have been trampled. Our president just asked China to interfere in our elections from the White House lawn. I’m not delusional, but I am hopeful. Because for the first time in a long time, some determined part of me feels like we’re at the beginning of something.

Molly Jong-Fast is the author of three novels. Follow her on Twitter @mollyjongfast.





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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Will Teach Democrats How to Do Twitter


With great engagement comes great responsibility.

Just over two weeks after she was sworn in, freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is slated to hold a session for her fellow representatives to teach them how to tweet this week. The House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee has extended an invitation to AOC—as she’s known to her 2.42 million Twitter followers—to show her new peers how social media can be used “as an effective and authentic…tool” to connect with Americans in their districts and nationwide, as first reported on CNN.

Of course, Ocasio-Cortez took to (what else) Twitter to confirm the news and added that the seminar would be held ASAP.

Earlier this week Axios reported that Ocasio-Cortez has generated more interactions online (which it defined as retweets plus likes) than CNN, ABC, MSNBC, NBC, and the New York Times combined in the previous month. She also outstripped former President Barack Obama, who scored 4.4 million interactions compared to her 11.8 million.

So formidable is her social media prowess that Politico reported earlier this month that some Democrats have kept their criticism of her private, “fearful that she’ll sic her massive following on them by firing off a tweet.” Perhaps Democrats could stand to be more afraid of, for example, climate change than a mean tweet. But! That’s a conversation for another time.

For now it seems her fellow Democrats have come to the correct conclusion: If you can’t beat ’em, RT ’em.

Ever since she defeated a 10-term incumbent over the summer to win the Democratic nomination in her district, Ocasio-Cortez has used Twitter to respond to controversies and criticisms, like an op-ed from former Senator Joe Lieberman in which he said he hoped she was not the future of the Democrats. (That is the same Joe Lieberman who spoke at the 2008 Republican National Convention, so.) In a tweet, Ocasio-Cortez fired back.

And when a video of Ocasio-Cortez dancing while she was still an undergraduate went viral (and was met with criticism from conservatives who claimed it showed her to be unserious), she responded with a fresh clip of her…dancing in front of her new office. “I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous,” she tweeted. “Wait till they find out Congresswomen dance too!” The 11-second video was rewarded with over 20.5 million views.

Ocasio-Cortez has also amassed close to 2 million Instagram followers and now uses the platform to discuss policies over livestreamed Instant Pot mac-and-cheese prep and to take users inside the congressional process, explaining how offices are chosen, bills are passed, and where all the tunnels under the congressional floor lead.

But hours before Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s lesson (which representatives from Twitter will attend), some anecdotal evidence seemed to suggest that even her counterparts in the Senate had started to learn from her example, no formal curriculum required. After rapper and political pundit Cardi B took to Instagram to denounce the government shutdown with excellent context and her own particular spin, Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) gave followers a peek inside their debate over whether or not to share Cardi’s comments.

Users noted AOC’s evident influence, but weren’t quite sure how to process its impact.

Class dissed and dismissed.





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Democrats Won Back the House. They Have Women to Thank For That.


Women played a major role—both as candidates and voters—when Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives from Republicans in Tuesday’s tumultuous midterm elections. And even with some races yet to be called in an already record-breaking election year for female office-seekers, the non-partisan Gender Watch project noted that more women—and more women of color—will serve in Congress than ever before.

Not only did diversity take a front seat in Tuesday’s results, something else became crystal clear: Democrats could not have flipped the House blue without women. And in a midterm election cycle that was seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump—who has come under fire for his comments about women and accusations of sexual assault—the wave of women coming into Congress sends a major message.

As of early Wednesday, 92 women had been elected to the House, according to the Center for American Women and Politics, which calculated at that hour that “with 10 holdover Senators, the 116th Congress will have at least 112 congresswomen serving.”

“This resistance began with women and it’s being led by women tonight,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a perennial Trump foe who hasn’t ruled out running against him, told supporters Tuesday. A Reuters/Ipsos poll lent that theory some weight: It reported 55 percent of women said they supported a Democrat for the House this year, up from 49 percent who said they did so in 2014.

In a statement, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez praised “all of the Democratic leaders, organizers, volunteers, and voters – especially women” who contributed to the win.

As the final races are fought to the finish—including a cliffhanger Georgia governor battle—and turnout numbers are being crunched, here’s a rundown of some of the big wins and losses for women in an election that’s truly one for the history books:

HOUSE

It was a night of firsts for women looking to shake up Congress, including New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who just became the youngest woman ever elected to the House.

Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib is now set to become the first Palestinian-American Muslim woman in Congress. She’ll be joined by Ilhan Omar, who will be both the first Somali-American Muslim congresswoman and the first woman of color to represent Minnesota in D.C.

Jahana Hayes of Connecticut and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts will be the first women of color to represent their states, while Deb Haaland of New Mexico and Sharice Davids of Kansas go to Washington as the first Native American congresswomen.

In Virginia, Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton defeated Republican incumbents in high-profile races, while Florida’s Donna Shalala and New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill also claimed victories in districts held by Republicans, as did Lauren Underwood of Illinois. Pennsylvania, which now has an all-male Congressional delegation, will send four women (all Democrats) to the Capitol. Iowa elected its first women—Democrats Abby Finkenauer and Cindy Axne—to the House.

Not every closely watched female House candidate carried the day, of course: Two Democrats who made their military service a centerpiece of their campaigns, Amy McGrath of Kentucky and MJ Hegar of Texas, both fell short. (In another nationally compelling Texas race, incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz managed to eke out a win over Democratic challenger Rep. Beto O’Rourke.)

SENATE

The Senate came into Election Day with a 51-seat GOP majority. That’s a tiny advantage—but it was enough to get conservative Judge Brett Kavanaugh onto the Supreme Court after a turbulent confirmation process during which he defended himself against allegations of sexual assault dating back to his student years.

In one of the tightest and most closely watched battles in the nation, freshman Rep. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) beat Dean Heller, the only Republican defending his Senate seat in a state Hillary Clinton carried in 2016. The Nevada brawl pulled in support for Heller from both Trump (who denigrated Rosen as “Wacky Jacky”) and Vice President Mike Pence, while Rosen had the backing of their predecessors, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

“This is a historic night for us,” Rosen said in her victory speech, noting that Nevada joins the handful of states represented by two female senators.

Democrats suffered Senate setbacks in North Dakota and Missouri, where incumbents Heidi Heitkamp and Claire McCaskill both fell to GOP opponents.

In Tennessee, Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn clinched her bid to be the state’s first woman to go to the Senate, soundly defeating Democratic former Gov. Phil Breseden in a faceoff in which she had the endorsement of Trump and her opponent had a major social influencer, Taylor Swift, on his side.

Arizona will also send its first woman to the Senate — but as of Wednesday morning, the headline-grabbing showdown between Republican Rep. Martha McSally and Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema remained too close to call.

GOVERNOR

South Dakota elected its first woman governor, Republican Kristi Noem, while Democrat Janet Mills will be the first female governor of Maine. New Mexico voters chose their first female Democratic Latina governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, to succeed outgoing Republican Gov. Susana Martinez.

In Vermont, Democrat Christine Hallquist, the first openly transgender woman to win a major-party governor nomination, lost her underdog challenge to Republican Gov. Phil Scott, but in an upset, Kansas went with a Democratic woman, Laura Kelly, for governor over the GOP’s Kris Kobach.

Locked in a tight struggle rocked by racial overtones and charges of voter suppression, Georgia’s Stacey Abrams is vowing to fight for every vote in her quest to become the nation’s first African-American woman governor.

Abrams is the country’s last hope of seeing a black governor elected this year: Florida’s Andrew Gillum and Maryland’s Ben Jealous, both Democrats, lost their races. There are currently no African-American governors in office anywhere in the United States.

In the end, Tuesday’s news that the House would flip blue wasn’t directly addressed by the President, who called Election Night a “tremendous success” on Twitter and patted himself on the back for GOP wins in the Senate. But however he chooses to frame these midterms, a Democrat-led House may spell trouble for the president: It could make it harder for him to deliver on signature promises ahead of a 2020 re-election bid—and empowers critics who want to investigate his public policy and personal business dealings.

Stay tuned for more analysis of the 2018 midterms—and the role women have played in them.

Celeste Katz is senior political reporter for Glamour. Send news tips, questions, and comments to celeste_katz@condenast.com.In a pivotal election year, Glamour is keeping track of the historic number of women running (and voting) in the midterm elections. For more on our latest midterm coverage, visit www.glamour.com/midterms.

MORE: Midterms 2018: Here Are the Historic Firsts for Women From Election Night





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How Melania Trump’s Jacket Inadvertently Raised Money For Democrats


Trends come and go, but in politics, fund-raising off an opponent’s snafu never goes out of style.

Critics pounced last week when First Lady Melania Trump set off for Texas in a military-inspired $39 Zara jacket with “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?” boldly printed on the back. Observers called her choice of dress for the trip—a visit with migrant kids separated from their parents at the border—everything from confusing to tone-deaf or worse.

As Trump detractors saw red, the Democratic National Committee saw a chance to make some green.

Within hours of Thursday’s dustup, the party’s online store was hawking T-shirts with a clapback aimed squarely at FLOTUS: “We Care, We Vote. Do U?” A few days later the olive-drab tees—priced at $20.18 in a nod to this year’s midterm elections—had become “by far” the best-selling DNC store item of all time, a party official told Glamour.

As of Sunday afternoon, the DNC says, visits to its online store had spiked by 2,000 percent, overall sales were up 7,700 percent, and the party had moved around 2,800 “We Care” shirts—or about $56,000 in sales. By Monday morning that was up to 3,200 shirts and more than $65,000.

The promo for the shirt is itself a jab at Team FLOTUS for insisting the jacket was, in fact, just a jacket. “When it comes to the words we put on our clothes, there is ‘no hidden message,’ We like to keep it pretty straightforward,” says the DNC site, adding that the tee is “printed on 100% preshrunk cotton—right here in the USA.”

While a spokeswoman for the First Lady said her attire wasn’t telegraphing any kind of message, the people snapping up the T-shirts want to do exactly that, according to DNC women’s media director Elizabeth Renda: The tees “are selling quickly because voters are disgusted with Trump’s shameful immigration policy and this White House’s blatant disregard for the children who they are using as bargaining chips,” she told Glamour in an email exchange.

The FLOTUS team also tried to tamp down the jacket hubbub by saying the press would do better to focus on the time she spent with kids in Texas than what she wore to get there. The President himself, however, further stirred the pot by tweeting that the message on his wife’s back was meant to show her lack of regard for the “fake news media.”

Asked about the DNC’s latest marketing move, Stephanie Grisham, communications director for Mrs. Trump, who on Sunday made a surprise address at a student leadership conference, told Glamour she’s “glad the First Lady has stirred up conversation through fashion, because she certainly cares about helping people.”

Grisham added via email that “while they are obviously doing this to portray her in a negative light, I hope any money the DNC is making from this will be donated to a good cause.”

The national uproar over the separating of immigrant families at the border, of course, started well before the recent tizzy over FLOTUS’ flight gear. Fueling the public and political furor: Reports describing anguished children crying for their parents and being held en masse in cages of chain-link fencing.

A CBS News poll released Sunday found 53 percent of American adults strongly opposed to breaking up parents and children trying to enter the U.S. illegally. Only 11 percent strongly favored the separations.

The poll underscores why the DNC would want to capitalize on anything that could peg the Trump Administration and its allies as callous on immigration as the GOP fights to keep control of Congress. While just over half of those polled for CBS said the family separation controversy was not changing their views on voting, 28 percent said it makes them more likely to consider backing a Democrat in November, outstripping the 19 percent who said they’d be likelier to look at a Republican.

Melania Trump—an immigrant herself—first publicly expressed dismay about the separations in a carefully worded statement on June 17. On June 20 her husband signed an executive order to keep border families together. The next day FLOTUS was off to Texas.

She was only glimpsed in the now-notorious green jacket, but that was all it took for the former model to inspire a new kind of statement piece: Brands stampeded to roll out items with a “Yes, we care” counter-message, pledging the proceeds to pro-immigrant organizations.

By Saturday Portland, Oregon–based clothier Wildfang said sales of its new “I Really Care” line had brought in more than $200,000 to benefit the migrant legal services nonprofit RAICES Texas, pointedly tweeting, “Despite what Melania thinks, people really do care.”

That sum easily blows past what the DNC has so far raised from its FLOTUS-themed tees—and is itself totally eclipsed by the more than $20 million raised for RAICES in a California couple’s viral Facebook campaign.

While those campaigns directly benefit advocacy groups, the DNC, of course, is using its profits “to elect Democrats up and down the ticket in 2018,” Renda said—or in other words, to topple members of the party of Trump, weakening the president ahead of his 2020 reelection run.

Democrats won’t be going it alone financially this fall: Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of Trump’s hometown of New York, has vowed to spend $80 million or more of his own money to help flip control of the House.

Still, going strictly by the latest bottom lines, the Democrats may not be pooh-poohing even a small, unexpected windfall: The DNC raised $5.6 million in May, ending up with $8.7 million in cash on hand—and still, as The Washington Post noted, $5.7 million in debt. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee raised more than $14 million in May and reported $47.4 million in the bank with zero debt.

Cassie Smedile, national press secretary for the RNC, responded to a Glamour question about the DNC’s new item with an implied hat tip to the hundreds of thousands of “Make America Great Again” Trump caps sold to date: “It’s telling that the Democrat Party’s best-selling product is about bashing the First Lady, while ours is about people’s hopes that America succeeds now and in the future,” she said.





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Why Female Democrats Are Planning to Wear Black to Donald Trump's State of the Union Address


At the 2018 Golden Globes, the red carpet was flooded with black dresses and Time’s Up pins, a coordinated protest against sexual abuse and harassment in Hollywood and other industries. Though responses to the blackout (and the efficacy of this type of showing) was mixed, it does appear to have inspired a similar movement in a different field: politics.

NBC News reports that another blackout demonstration against sexual misconduct is in the works—this time, in Washington, D.C., on the occasion of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. On January 30, members of Congress, led by the Democratic Women’s Working Group, are invited to wear black to the address as an act of solidarity. Representative Jackie Speier, a Democrat from California who will be participating, told NBC News: “This is a culture change that is sweeping the country, and Congress is embracing it.”

PHOTO: Christopher Polk/NBC

Activist Rosa Clemente, actresses Susan Sarandon and Michelle Williams, and activist Tarana Burke at the 2018 Golden Globes red carpet.

Last year, female Democrats staged a similar fashion demonstration when President Trump addressed a joint session of Congress for the first time: They wore white as an homage to the women’s suffrage movement, and to make a statement about women’s rights. They documented it with the hashtag #WomenWearWhite.

While lawmakers in Washington are often starkly divided by their political affiliations, Speier and other organizers hope that a call to stand up for victims of sexual harassment and abuse will transcend party lines, with members of both parties showing up in black.

Capitol Hill is no stranger to the rampant sexual abuse that has plagued professional environments, from film to farming. A November New York Times report described sexual harassment as an “occupational hazard” for women entering politics; in the same month, fifty women spoke to CNN about their experiences with harassment while working in Washington. And when it comes to individual politicians (mostly male), accusations of sexual misconduct abound: Most notably, President Trump has dodged and denied accusations of sexual harassment since his 2016 campaign, while Senator Al Franken and Representative John Conyers (both Democrats) stepped down from office following allegations of their misconduct.

The Golden Globes blackout was met with criticism, many notes that seeing a sea of black dresses—and reading the statements of actresses who participated—made for one of the most meaningful red carpets in entertainment history. At this time, few politicians have announced their intentions to wear black alongside the Democratic Women’s Working Group to the State of the Union. On January 30, we’ll see which lawmakers step up—and whether the President responds to the protest.

Related Stories:

Reports: Capitol Hill Has a Huge Sexual Harassment Problem Too

How Designers, Stylists, and Fashion Critics Responded to the 2018 Golden Globes Blackout

Actresses Explain What Wearing Black to the 2018 Golden Globes Means to Them





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