Trump Doubles Down on 'Heritage' Defense of Confederate Statues

Across the United States, statues of Confederate figures and former slave owners are coming down as Black Americans demand justice after the police killing of George Floyd. The hundreds that still remain seem to be waiting in line for removal, but many Americans are still defending their existence in the name of heritage. 

President Trump echoed those arguments during an interview on Fox News on Sunday when he was asked about efforts to remove these statues and monuments. 

"You don’t want to take away our heritage and history and the beauty, in many cases, the beauty, the artistic beauty. Some of the sculptures and some of this work is some of the great — you can go to France, you can go anywhere in the world and you will never see more magnificent work. And that’s a factor. It’s not the biggest factor but it’s a factor," said the president. 

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Fox's Brian Kilmeade asked President Trump to address the Black community directly, saying, "you have done a lot for the African-American community." The president has previously claimed that he’s done more for the Black community than any president since Lincoln, in a Tweet that has since been debunked by the New York Times and the Washington Post, which point out major contributions of other presidents, including Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.