Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he’s “OK” with renaming military bases such as Fort Bragg that are named after Confederate Army officers, declining to side with President Trump and other Republicans opposed to the move.
The Kentucky senator said he’ll live with whatever lawmakers decide as they debate an annual defense policy bill for the military in the coming weeks.
Trump has blasted the calls to rename the military bases.
“Hopefully our great Republican Senators won’t fall for this!” he said in a tweet last week.
A GOP-controlled Senate panel voted last week to require bases such as Fort Bragg and Fort Hood to be renamed within three years.
McConnell, himself the descendant of a Confederate veteran, didn’t endorse the idea but said he wouldn’t oppose it.
Similarly, top House Republican Kevin McCarthy of California said last week — after repeated prodding — that he doesn’t oppose the idea.
“I can only speak for myself on this issue. If it’s appropriate to take another look at these names I’m OK with that,” McConnell said. “Whatever is ultimately decided I don’t have a problem with.”
The debate over the Confederate flag and other symbols of slavery and black oppression has burst open in the wake of widespread protests over police abuse of African Americans and specifically the choking death of George Floyd.
Public opinion has shifted dramatically since Floyd’s killing.
The Democratic-controlled House is sure to include legislation to rename bases and it’s plain that Republicans in the Senate who are opposed to the idea, such as Josh Hawley of Missouri, don’t have the votes to remove it during floor debate.
Despite being okay with renaming military bases, McConnell today rebuffed Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s calls for nearly a dozen Confederate statues to be removed from the Capitol, saying it was an attempt to “airbrush” history.
“What I do think is clearly a bridge too far is this nonsense that we need to airbrush the Capitol and scrub out everybody from years ago who had any connection to slavery,” said McConnell.
Each U.S. state sends two statues to the Capitol building, and they can be switched out at any time.
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who chairs the Senate Rules Committee, said seven states are in the process of removing certain statues from the Capitol.
But last week, amid a nationwide reckoning over continued racial injustices highlighted by police killings of unarmed African Americans, Pelosi demanded that 11 Confederate statues be immediately removed.
“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,” Pelosi wrote.