Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is voicing his opposition to a push to remove statues of Confederate leaders from the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.
McConnell signalled that he was open to a provision of a defense bill that would rename military bases named after Confederate generals.
However, he said, “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.”
“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. Any state can trade out, as Sen. Blunt pointed out, if they choose to. And some actually are choosing to,” he added.
There are 11 Confederate statues in the Capitol, part of the National Statuary Hall collection. Every state contribues two statues to the Capitol which they can replace if they choose.
McConnell said it should be up to the states to decide whether or not to replace the statues.
McConnell’s comments come after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called on lawmakers to “immediately take steps” to remove the statues as IJR reported.
In a letter to lawmakers, 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. Their statues pay homage to hate, not heritage. They must be removed.”
“Let us lead by example. To this end, I request the Joint Committee on the Library direct the Architect of the Capitol to immediately take steps to remove these 11 statues from display in the United States Capitol,” she added.