``It's unconscionable that they would use that child that way,'' Representative Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, said, adding that Elian had been ``brainwashed.''
``Speaking to his father in that manner, no 6-year-old child would initiate that on his own,'' Waters said. ``They put those words in that young boy's mouth, and that is the worst kind of exploitation of a child that you could ever see.''