Story at a glance
- Former President Trump on Wednesday criticized the removal of a towering statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Va.
- “It has long been recognized as a beautiful piece of bronze sculpture,” Trump wrote.
- “To add insult to injury, those who support this ‘taking’ now plan to cut it into three pieces, and throw this work of art into storage prior to its complete desecration,” he added.
Former President Trump on Wednesday issued a statement criticizing the removal of a towering statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Va., calling it a symbol of cultural destruction by the “Radical Left.”
“It has long been recognized as a beautiful piece of bronze sculpture,” Trump wrote in a statement released by the Save America PAC. “To add insult to injury, those who support this ‘taking’ now plan to cut it into three pieces, and throw this work of art into storage prior to its complete desecration.”
The iconic 21-foot-tall bronze statue of Lee on a horse in the center of a traffic circle along Monument Avenue in Richmond came down Wednesday, more than a year after Gov. Ralph Northam (D) announced his plans to remove the monument.
“Virginia’s largest monument to the Confederate insurrection will come down this week,” Northam said in a release on Monday. “This is an important step in showing who we are and what we value as a commonwealth.”
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The 45th president on Wednesday paid tribute to the perceived greatness of the Confederate leader and attempted to clarify Lee’s decision to command Southern troops, saying Lee chose the south “because of his great love of Virginia, and except for Gettysburg, would have won the war.”
“He should be remembered as perhaps the greatest unifying force after the war was over, ardent in his resolve to bring the North and South together through many means of reconciliation and imploring his soldiers to do their duty in becoming good citizens of this Country,” Trump continued.
Trump then decried elements of the ongoing racial reckoning across the U.S., which led to the statue’s removal — before pivoting to take a shot at military leadership in Afghanistan amid the Taliban’s swift takeover.
“If only we had Robert E. Lee to command our troops in Afghanistan, that disaster would have ended in a complete and total victory many years ago. What an embarrassment we are suffering because we don’t have the genius of a Robert E. Lee,” Trump concluded.
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Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said on Twitter that the statue’s removal marked a “historic day” in the Commonwealth.
“We can now turn the page to a new chapter in our Commonwealth’s history and continue the process of making Virginia a more open, welcoming, fair, and just place for everyone,” Herring wrote.
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