https://thehill.com/policy/defense/...ming-army-bases-named-for-confederate-leaders Trump 'will not even consider' renaming Army bases named for Confederate leaders President Trump said Wednesday he "will not even consider" renaming Army bases that were named for Confederate military leaders after top Pentagon officials indicated recently they are open to the idea. In a series of tweets, Trump argued the bases have become part of U.S. history and should not be "tampered with." "These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage, and a history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom," he tweeted, adding that "HEROES" who won two world wars were trained on the "Hallowed Grounds" of the bases. "Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations," Trump continued. Minutes after Trump posted his comments, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany began Wednesday’s briefing by distributing them to reporters and reading them in their entirety from the podium. "That was directly from the president. We spent some time working on that, and I wanted to deliver that to you," she said. Trump’s tweets come two days after an Army spokesman said Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Defense Secretary Mark Esper are "open" to renaming the bases. The authority for naming and renaming bases rests with the Army, but it's unlikely officials would proceed without Trump’s approval. The Army said Wednesday it had no comment on Trump's tweets. There are 10 Army bases around the country named for Confederate military officers: Fort Lee, Fort Hood, Fort Benning, Fort Gordon, Fort Bragg, Fort Polk, Fort Pickett, Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Rucker and Camp Beauregard. All are located in Southern states. The stance the Army announced Monday marked a reversal from as recently as February, when the service told Task & Purpose it had no plans to change the name of any base, including those named after Confederate military officers. At the time, as in years prior, the Army argued the bases were named in the "spirit of reconciliation." The about-face came amid nationwide protests over police brutality and racial injustice sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died when a police officer who has since been fired and charged with second-degree murder knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. Protesters and state and local governments have moved to bring down multiple Confederate statues and monuments since Floyd's death on May 25, and on Wednesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reiterated her call for nearly a dozen Confederate statues to be removed from the halls of Congress. Trump has repeatedly defended the statues as an integral part of American history. "They’re trying to take away our culture. They’re trying to take away our history," he said at a rally in 2017. "And our weak leaders, they do it overnight. These things have been there for 150 years, for a hundred years. You go back to a university and it's gone. Weak, weak people." Trump’s tweets came the same day that Floyd’s brother Philonise Floyd delivered emotional testimony during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on police reform. "George called for help and he was ignored. Please listen to the call I’m making to you now, to the calls of our family, and the calls ringing out in the streets across the world," he testified. The split on changing the base names also marks the second time in as many weeks that Trump and the Pentagon were on opposite sides of an issue amid the protests. Last week, after the president threatened to deploy active-duty troops to quell the demonstrations, Esper announced at a press briefing his opposition to doing so, reportedly infuriating Trump so much he had to be talked out of firing the Pentagon chief. The Army has been under increasing pressure to rename the bases, with advocates arguing it is not appropriate to honor those who took up arms against the United States and fought to preserve slavery. Retired Army Gen. David Petraeus recently argued in The Atlantic that "Lee, Bragg and the rest committed treason" and that the Army "should not brook any celebration of those who betrayed their country." "These bases are, after all, federal installations, home to soldiers who swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States," Petraeus wrote. "The irony of training at bases named for those who took up arms against the United States, and for the right to enslave others, is inescapable to anyone paying attention. Now, belatedly, is the moment for us to pay such attention." Asked about Petraeus's op-ed, McEnany argued it would be insulting to soldiers based at the installations to rename them. "Fort Bragg is known for the heroes within it that trained there, that deployed from there," she said. "And it’s an insult to say to the men and women who left there, the last thing they saw on American soil before going overseas and in some cases losing their lives, to tell them that what they left was inherently a racist institution because of a name. That’s unacceptable to the president, and rightfully so." McEnany said Trump would veto the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) if the massive policy bill mandated changing the names of the bases. Congress is beginning to consider this year’s NDAA this month. McEnany also questioned where to "draw the line" against parts of American history some people find offensive, citing streaming service HBO Max’s decision to temporarily pull the Civil War drama "Gone with the Wind" from its platform while it works on adding historical context. She also raised presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s past opposition to school busing and remarks the former vice president made defending his work with segregationists. “I’ll leave you with the question, should we then rename the Biden Welcome Center?” she said, reading from a paper on the lectern in her last comments of the briefing. Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.), an Army veteran who is black, called Trump’s decision a "slap in the face" to black soldiers. "Bases that continue to bear the names of Confederate soldiers and officers — persons who wrongly fought to protect the institution of slavery and would have denied Black Americans from serving in the military — are a reminder of that systemic oppression we continue to confront and damages the culture of inclusivity needed to accomplish the mission," Brown said in a statement. "The Commander in Chief’s defense of racists, who betrayed their country and stood for disunion and oppression, is a slap in the face to the Black soldiers he leads and shows — yet again — his unfitness for duty," he added. The news release from Brown’s office also notes the battlefield failures of several of the men the bases are named after, including that Braxton Bragg "was considered one of the worst generals in the Civil War" and that the Confederacy lost the war. Amid discussions about the Army bases, other military services have in the past week banned the display of the Confederate battle flag. Overnight Defense: Trump rejects scrapping Confederate names from... NASCAR bans display of Confederate flag from events and properties On Friday, the Marine Corps issued guidance banning public displays of the flag, including on clothing, mugs, posters and bumper stickers, following up on Commandant Gen. David Berger’s February commitment to do so. On Tuesday, the Navy followed suit by announcing it too would ban the flag on bases and ships. Brett Samuels and Morgan Chalfant contributed. Updated at 5:23 p.m
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is calling for the removal of Confederate statues from Capitol’s campus, arguing the figures should not be glorified in the halls of Congress. Pelosi made the request in a letter Wednesday to Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), the chairman and vice chairwoman of the Joint Committee on the Library, the panel that oversees the placement of statues. “As I have said before, the halls of Congress are the very heart of our democracy. 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 wrote. Pelosi previously called for removal of the statues in 2017, when she was House minority leader in 2017. “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,” she wrote Wednesday. Pelosi's effort comes in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was died in Minneapolis police custody, sparking protests around the country and calls for reforms to the criminal justice system, including police funding. Critics argue that removing statues of Confederates and other figures like Christopher Columbus is an attempt to rewrite history. Pelosi said she doesn’t want to erase history, but added that leaving the statues in place dignifying the actions of the individuals. “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 in places of honor across the country,” she wrote. “Among these 11 are Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens, President and Vice President of the Confederate States of America, respectively, both of whom were charged with treason against the United States," Pelosi wrote, citing Stephens's remarks that the foundations of the Confederacy are laid "upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.” The Capitol’s Statuary Hall consists of 100 statues; each state commissions two to be displayed in the Capitol. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif) is expected to reintroduce a bill to have Confederate statues removed, ABC News reported Tuesday. NASCAR bans display of Confederate flag from events and properties Trump 'will not even consider' renaming Army bases named for... Lofgren said she agreed with Pelosi's request. “I agree that the Joint Committee and Architect of the Capitol should expediently remove these symbols of cruelty and bigotry from the halls of the Capitol. I stand ready, and call on the Chair of the Joint Committee to swiftly approve the removal of these statues,” she said in a statement. “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.”
Where does it end? It starts with confederate leaders next thing you know they will come after George Washington and the Founding Fathers. Oh wait...
But it's totally okay for Pelosi to wear Kente Cloth? Don't her people call that "cultural appropriation"? Or is that only reserved for white people they deem "racist". Rules for thee and not for me - Biden's 2020 campaign slogan.
Im not to versed in the cultural appropriation thing.Black women getting mad about white women wearing braids confuses me
How about fictional cop characters? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/arts/television/protests-fictional-cops.html
I see where they are going with this. First Confederate Civil War figures. Then Civil War figures on both sides. Then the Founders. Then they will trash the Constitution itself because... racist document written by racists. Ok so the left wants to go full revolutionary. That makes the choice in November somewhat easier for those who are on the fence. It turns into the law and order party vs. the anarchy party. You don't have to like Donald Trump to know what you have to do.