Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg laughed in Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ face as the chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee attempted to belittle and insult the self-made billionaire.

But Waters recalled a much different experience during a speech in Africa over the weekend, when she explained how she “stared down” one of the most powerful rich white men in the world and flexed her political muscles.

The remarks, delivered at the 6th Oliver Tambo Memorial Lecture in Ekurhuleni, South Africa, ended with a little story about Waters’ poor single mother with a 13 kids.

“I came from a family where there were 13 children born to a mother who had a third grade education and a father who left soon after I was born,” Waters said.

“I lived in a community of poor people who worked every day, who believed that there was something better in life for them. They prayed to their God and they got up every morning and they worked hard for every penny that they earned,” she continued.

Waters then attempted to tie that background to the hearing with Zuckerberg last week.

“And so, as you were told … just a few minutes ago, that there was a confrontation with Facebook and Zuckerberg, and as I worked to get him to come before my committee to tell us what he was doing in establishing a new cryptocurrency called Libra, that he was going to house in Switzerland, that was going to take over monies of the world, and compete with the American dollar, this young very rich and very capable young man, who is one of the richest in the world, who has power, who has the biggest database, for the peoples of the world, not just in America,” Waters said.

“As I talked with him even after the hearing and I thought about from whist I had come and I remembered my mother and what she had gone through, and the hard work that she had done just to feed us and to keep us in school, and I thought to myself, ‘even though she has gone to heaven, she’s no longer with us, that her daughter, Maxine Waters, one of 13 children, was staring down one of the richest men in the world,’” the congresswoman continued.

“Staring him down with no fear, understanding that she had raised me and the people in our communities always believed no matter our station in life that we were just as good as anybody else,” she said. “And so, despite the riches of that young man and despite the power and the big database and this big thought about creating this cryptocurrency, I let him know that now I’m in the congress of the United States, and I’ve earned the right to chair one of the most powerful committees, the Financial Services Committee.

“And I let him know, I have the gavel and I’m not afraid to use it,” Waters said, closing her remarks on one of her favorite catchphrases.

The dramatization of the hearing wasn’t exactly how the proceeding unfolded, though Waters did give the CEO a piece of her mind.

As Waters alleged “it’s clear to me, and anyone who hears this list, that perhaps you believe you’re above the law. And it appears that you’re aggressively increasing the size of your company, and are willing to step on or over anyone, including your competitors, women, people of color, your own users, and even our democracy to get what you want.”

The ridiculous rhetoric prompted a smirk and laugh from Zuckerberg, who defended his company’s practices from the congresswoman’s outlandish claims.