Trump Admin Fires Back at DC Mayor's Attempt To Alter Washington Monument, Other Historic Landmarks
The Trump administration rejected calls Tuesday by a Washington, D.C., committee to “remove, relocate or contextualize” historical statues and memorials in the city.
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser tasked the District of Columbia Facilities and Commemorative Expressions Working Group to identify schools, parks, monuments, statues and buildings named in honor of historical figures that the committee believes represent the country’s “racist history,” Fox News reported.
“By publishing a plan that recommends potentially removing the Washington Monument, Christopher Columbus Statue, Andrew Jackson Statue, and Jefferson Memorial — among many other ludicrous recommendations — the radically liberal mayor of Washington, D.C., is repeating the same left-wing narrative used to incite dangerous riots: demolishing our history and destroying our great heritage,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement.
“Our Nation’s capital is rightly filled with countless markers, memorials, and statues to honor and respect the men and women who built this country.”
Former presidents James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Woodrow Wilson were also included on the list of problematic historical figures.
Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin and George Mason, telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell, and Francis Scott Key, who wrote the lyrics for the national anthem, were on the list as well.
According to the committee’s report, they evaluated D.C. area facilities to see if their namesake was “inconsistent with DC values and in some way encouraged the oppression of African Americans and other communities of color or contributed to our long history of systemic racism.”
Bowser will be reviewing the report and advancing the committee’s recommendations.
Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt scoffed at the recommendations and tweeted his displeasure.
“Not on my watch. Never going to happen,” he wrote.
Not on my watch. Never going to happen. https://t.co/WdSQx3ZCes pic.twitter.com/xHKekThBAA
— Secretary David Bernhardt (@SecBernhardt) September 1, 2020
In her statement, McEnany said President Donald Trump felt similarly and believes “these places should be preserved, not torn down; respected, not hated; and passed on for generations to come.
“As long as President Trump is in the White House, the mayor’s irresponsible recommendations will go absolutely nowhere.”
She added that Mayor Bowser “ought to be ashamed for even suggesting them for consideration.”
White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah tweeted that she was “not even sure what relocating the Washington Monument would entail.”
I’m not even sure what relocating the Washington Monument would entail..
— Alyssa Farah (@Alyssafarah) September 1, 2020
The Bowser administration took down the recommendations regarding federal monuments on Tuesday night, according to The Washington Post.
Statues of historical figures have become targets for Black Lives Matter protesters in recent months, including a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Boston’s Park Square.
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