Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stated Tuesday that he is “okay” with removing the names of Confederate leaders from U.S. military bases, breaking with President Donald Trump on the issue.
“I can only speak for myself on this issue. If it’s appropriate to take another look at these names I’m OK with that,” said McConnell. “Whatever is ultimately decided I don’t have a problem with.”
McConnell’s remarks come after a Republican-controlled Senate committee voted to require bases like Ft. Bragg and Ft. Hood to be renamed within a three year time period.
Last Wednesday, President Donald Trump dismissed calls to renaming military bases honoring Confederate figures, saying: “Our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will not be tampered with.”
“It has been suggested that we should rename as many as 10 of our Legendary Military Bases, such as Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Benning in Georgia, etc,” he wrote on Twitter at the time. “These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage, and a history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom. The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars.”
Shortly after President Trump’s remarks, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called for the removal of several Confederate statues from Capitol Hill.
Writing to the Joint Committee on the Library, Pelosi requested Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) to order the Architect of the Capitol to “immediately” remove 11 Confederacy statues from the halls of Congress.
“While I believe it is imperative that we never forget our history lest we repeat it, I also believe that there is no room for celebrating the violent bigotry of the men of the Confederacy in the hallowed halls of the United States Capitol or places of honor across the country,” the speaker wrote in a letter first obtained by ABC News.
“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,” she added. “Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals.”
McConnell slammed Pelosi’s call to remove the Confederate statues, calling it “nonsense” and saying it would “airbrush the Capitol.”
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