Nancy Pelosi demands removal of Confederate statues in Capitol hours after Trump refuses to rename army bases
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has taken on President Donald Trump over the statue-removing and history-erasing games that have overwhelmed American politics in recent times. The veteran California representative spoke out in favor of removing the Confederate statues in the US Capitol on Wednesday, June 10, hours after Trump refused to rename military bases that have been named after the Confederate leaders.
In a letter sent to Missouri Senator Roy Blunt and California Representative Zoe Lofgren, who led the Joint Committee on the Library that oversees the National Statuary Hall Collection, Pelosi said: “The statues in the Capitol should embody our highest ideals as Americans, expressing who we are and who we aspire to be as a nation. Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals.” The statuary hall collection features 100 sculptures contributed by states that are on display in the hall and other places in the US Capitol complex. Each state can contribute two statues and there are 11 Confederate figures that are on display currently. Pelosi, 80, wanted all of them removed. Some of the Confederate leaders whose statues are present on the Capitol Hill are Jefferson Davis, James Jachariah George, Robert E Lee, Joseph Wheeler and Wade Hampton.
Statues of Confederate leaders, who are often identified with racism, have become targets in the wake of the brutal death of a black American, George Floyd, at the hands of the police in Minneapolis last month. Statues of leaders with a murky past have been brought down not only in the US but also in Europe as a part of the anti-racism protests.
Army leaders mull changing names of forts honoring Confederate leaders
Even the US Army has considered dissociating names of forts across the country from Confederate leaders. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy hinted at scrapping Confederate names on forts, Army Col Sunset Belinsky said on Monday, June 8, according to a USA Today report. It also added that the army leadership was open to conduct a bipartisan dialogue on renaming the bases. The army has as many as 10 posts that are named after Confederate generals across the South, including Fort Bragg (after Braxton Bragg) in North Carolina, Fort Benning (after Henry Benning) in Georgia and Fort Hood (John Bell Hood) in Texas.
On Wednesday, Trump said he would “not even consider” renaming army bases that honor the Confederate leaders as he did not encourage the idea of tampering with history. In a series of tweets, the president said: “The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars. Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations.”
“Our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will not be tampered with. Respect our Military!” he continued, calling the bases “part of a Great American Heritage.”
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany confirmed the same later in the day in a press conference. But Pelosi was little convinced with Trump’s feelings for history. In her letter, Pelosi quoted the infamous Cornerstone Speech of Confederate vice president and former Georgia governor Alexander Hamilton Stephens in which he said the “assumption of the equality of the races” was something that was made “in error”.
“Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the n***o is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition,” Stephens had said in the speech of 1861, Pelosi reminded the lawmakers.
Pelosi argued in favor of statues on Capitol Hill that should embody Americans’ highest ideals. “Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals,” Pelosi said. “Their statues pay homage to hate, not heritage,” she added and said the statues of the controversial past leaders must be removed.
A number of Confederate statues have been pulled down by the protesters in recent times amid the protests. Even 15th-century explorer Christopher Columbus was not spared.
Dems wanted statues removed after Charlottesville violence
Democrats tried to remove the statuary hall statues after the Charlottesville violence in August 2017 (over the removal of yet another Confederate general Robert E Lee's statue) that saw neo-Nazis, white supremacists and KKK members clashing with counter-protesters in which one person was killed. Pelosi was vocal at that time as well, urging the then-House Speaker Paul Ryan to remove the statues in the wake of the violence. The GOP said at the time that the selection of statues depended on each state.
Lofgren said in her response that she agreed with Pelosi that the Joint Committee and the Architect of the Capitol “should not expediently remove these symbols of cruelty and bigotry from the halls of the Capitol”. “The Capitol building belongs to the American people and cannot serve as a place of honor for the hatred and racism that tears at the fabric of our nation, the very poison that these statues embody,” Lofgren said.