Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell dismissed calls from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats this week to remove nearly a dozen Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
While speaking to reporters, McConnell was asked about Pelosi recently calling for the Confederate statutes to be removed, contending that they “pay homage to hate, not heritage.”
McConnell pushed back against her request.
“What I do think is clearly a bridge too far is this nonsense that we need to airbrush the Capitol and scrub out everybody from years ago who had any connection to slavery,” McConnell, reported The Hill.
“You know, there were eight presidents who owned slaves. Washington did. Jefferson did. Madison did. Monroe did. Look, as far as the statues are concerned, every state gets two [statues]. Any state can trade out, as Sen. [Roy] Blunt (R-Mo.) pointed out, if they choose to. And some actually are choosing to,” he added.
Here’s more from the Epoch Times:
Each of the 50 U.S. states contributes two statues to a collection of statues throughout the various quarters of the Capitol complex, which can be switched out if approved by the given state’s legislature and governor.
Among the statues are 11 that show Confederate figures—soldiers and officers who served in the Confederate Army—which lost in the U.S. Civil War. They include statues of Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens, who were president and vice president of the Confederacy.
Blunt, who chairs the Senate Rules Committee and the Joint Committee on the Library, said that seven states are removing certain statues from the Capitol, according to Politico.
Last week, failed 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren introduced a measure this week to strip U.S. military bases of confederate names.
Warren introduced an amendment in the Senate Armed Services Committee to make the Pentagon rename bases named for Confederate leaders — and Republicans passed it.
“The American people know these names have to go,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a news conference, claiming that President Donald Trump “seems to be the only person left who doesn’t get it.”
Missouri Republican Josh Hawley was one of the only Republicans on the committee who voted against the measure.
“I opposed this amendment, spoke against it, and voted no in the committee,” Hawley said. “Congress should not be mandating renaming of our bases and military installations.”
From The Hill:
The amendment, offered by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), was approved by voice vote Wednesday during the committee’s closed-door markup of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the source familiar with the situation said. The amendment would give the Pentagon three years to remove the Confederate names.
[…]
Just two days before Trump’s tweets, an Army spokesperson said Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Defense Secretary Mark Esper were “open” to renaming the 10 bases that are named after Confederate military officers.
The bases, which are in Southern states, are Fort Lee, Fort Hood, Fort Benning, Fort Gordon, Fort Bragg, Fort Polk, Fort Pickett, Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Rucker and Camp Beauregard.
The Army’s Monday position was a reversal from as recently as February, when the service said it had no plans to change the name of any base, including those named after Confederate officers.
You can read more over at Trending Politics.
Pelosi has been in the Capitol building almost daily for 40+ years and only just now it is that she wants these statues gone?? Me thinks Ms. Pelosi has been there too long herself and needs to be gone!!!