LA Times Reporter Says Maxine Waters Issued Warning Ahead of Damaging Article: ‘You’ll Hurt Yourself and the Community’

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) tried to prevent the publication of an unflattering story about a chaotic event in Los Angeles in which she clashed with homeless residents dropped an F-bomb on an activist.

The story in question, from the LA Times, centered on a March 25 incident in Los Angeles where hundreds of homeless people showed up to an event held by the nonprofit group Fathers and Mothers Who Care. Many of those who showed up said they had been given information on social media that housing vouchers were being given out at the event, something that was not true.

Waters at one point told the crowd to “go home,” to which someone in the crowd replied “we ain’t got no home.” The California representative told one woman to come back with the proper paperwork to apply for housing assistance filled out, which the woman told the LA Times she already had.

“I have it, everything they asked for. But every time we get near the front of the line, they shut the door. They opened the door about 20 minutes ago and said they’re not servicing anyone else today,” the 77-year-old woman, named Joyce Burnett, told the paper.

During Waters’ testy exchanges with the crowd, she also snapped at a comment from an advocate.

“Excuse me, there’s nobody in Washington who works for their people any f*cking harder than I do,” she said. “I don’t want to hear this. No, no, no.”

During a later chat with the LA Times, Waters would not provide further details on her comments and chalked up questions about the confusion at the event as “a bunch of rumors.” Waters also issued a warning to the journalist covering the story.

“You’ll hurt yourself and the community trying to put this together without background,” the Democrat said. “I don’t want you to start trying to write it, you won’t understand it.”

Waters’ district director, Blanca Jiminez, similarly stonewalled questions about the event, instead sending the LA Times “a TV station’s glowing coverage of Waters’ appearance at the Friday event along with an image of Waters addressing the crush of people in the heart of her congressional district,” according to the paper.

“Someone shared this photo with the office,” Jimenez said. “Isn’t she brave?”

Local news stations covered the chaos, including Rep. Waters speaking to the crowd using a police vehicle’s mic.

Watch above, via ABC.