The White House slammed Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser on Tuesday night for a “ludicrous” plan to remove, relocate or “contextualize” the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial and other monuments in the nation’s capital.
“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,” said White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
She said “as long as President Trump is in the White House, the mayor’s irresponsible recommendations will go absolutely nowhere, and as the mayor of our Nation’s capital city — a city that belongs to the American people — she ought to be ashamed for even suggesting them for consideration.”
President Trump “believes these places should be preserved, not torn down; respected, not hated; and passed on for generations to come,” she said.
The District of Columbia Facilities and Commemorative Expressions working group said it was tasked with evaluating whether statues and memorials in the city should be removed or contextualized if the historical figures they represent participated in “slavery, systemic racism, mistreatment of, or actions that suppressed equality for, persons of color, women and LGBTQ communities and violation of the DC Human Right Act.”
It recommended that Ms. Bowser, a Democrat and a member of the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission, support the removal or “contextualization” of eight statutes or monuments, including the iconic ones on the National Mall.
Ms. Bowser said she would be guided by the recommendations as she moved forward.
The White House said D.C. “is rightly filled with countless markers, memorials, and statues to honor and respect the men and women who built this country.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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