Meghan McCain says removing historic statues is problematic: 'We're a week away from blowing up Mount Rushmore'
'The View' co-host Meghan McCain, on Monday, June 22, complained about offensive status in the country coming down, and said that the United States is "one week away from blowing up Mount Rushmore." McCain made the statement in the wake of multiple controversial statues and monuments being taken down across the country, and the world, in the wake of George Floyd and racial injustice protests.
The Republican made the statement during a segment on 'The View' on Monday morning, discussing how the American Museum of Natural History asked the City of New York for permission to take down a statue of former President Theodore Roosevelt which "depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior." The museum announced its decision to remove the controversial statue on Sunday, June 21, jointly by city officials and the museum staff. The authorities made the move in the wake of recent widespread protests over the death of George Floyd and systemic racism in the United States. They said that the recent protests were the reason they reflected on the statue's controversial depiction of Black and Indigenous people.
The daughter of late Senator John McCain, reiterated the sentiment later on Twitter, writing: "We're like one week removed from entire cable news panels debating whether or not we should blow up Mount Rushmore." Roosevelt's face is depicted on Mount Rushmore alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.
'The View' co-host, on the show, stated: "I think the question I have is how far does this go? Are we talking about removing Mount Rushmore if we don't like our founding fathers? Are we talking about removing Robin Williams' character from 'Night at the Museum', the children's movie where he portrays Teddy Roosevelt?"
McCain had posed the question to her co-hosts on the show, Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg and Sunny Hostin, asking about their personal feelings on the removal of statues glorifying oppression and racism. Goldberg, in response, tried to explain that the American Museum of Natural History is not protesting Roosevelt, instead it is about the two people depicted behind him in the statue.
"They're protesting the fact that he's sitting on a horse with the other two folks behind him," Goldberg said. Shortly after the NYC museum's decision, Roosevelt's great-grandson also agreed with the move. McCain, however, instead wanted the museum to remove parts of the statue that show black and Native American men behind him.
"I love the museum of natural history. Children learn about animals, hunted by him. I'm confused," she told her co-hosts. "We're entering a phase I'm not entirely comfortable with if we're going to eliminate all people who had anything to do in American history with something that's problematic because we should start with the naming of Yale and New York City if we're going to do that."
Golberg instead argued that it was time to replace the monuments which had been there for over 100 years because people in America's violent history against people color the oppressed have had their history erased too.
"It is problematic because these statues have been put up and no one's talked about them," Goldberg told McCain. "So this is the first conversation, and again, no one is faulting Teddy Roosevelt for anything. They just want to remove that particular statue because of the way that it is sitting. I don't think they can take the Native American and the African away from there. I don't think they can separate it."
"All of these were put out by folks who were not affected really by it," Goldberg added. "It looked really heroic, and now folks who are affected say, we want some of our heroes to participate in this. I think that's what this is really all about, and so I want more people to do their homework because to, you know, they're all flawed people."
President Donal Trump on Monday, June 22, denounced the decision to remove a statue of former President Theodore Roosevelt from the front steps of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, calling it "ridiculous."