Donald Trump demands Republicans REJECT stripping Confederates' names from Army bases - despite his party ALREADY voting for move pushed by Elizabeth Warren
President Trump demanded that Republicans in Congress reject stripping Confederates' names off of Army bases despite Senate Republicans already voting in favor of an amendment pushed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
'Seriously failed presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth "Pocahontas" Warren, just introduced an Amendment on the renaming of many of our legendary Military Bases from which we trained to WIN two World Wars,' Trump wrote. 'Hopefully our great Republican Senators won’t fall for this!'
The president was late by nearly a day, as Republican senators in the Armed Service Committee voted Wedensday night in the affirmative for the amendment, according to Roll Call. It gives the military three years to rename bases and other entities currently using names related to the Confederacy.
The vote was taken behind closed doors and was a voice vote, adding the measure to the annual Pentagon policy bill - the Defense Authorization Act. The act must still be approved by the full Senate and also by the House.
President Trump lashed out at Sen. Elizabeth Warren for pitching an amendment that would rename military bases named after Confederate figures. The president then demanded that Republican senators follow his lead, after a number of them already voted in favor of Warren's proposal
In committee, just one Republican would have needed to vote with Democrats to approve the amendment - the panel is 14 Republicans and 13 Democrats - but the absence of a roll call vote suggests many more did.
The vote came hours after Trump tweeted furiously that he will 'not even consider' renaming Forts Bragg, Hood, Lee and others.
The move puts the Republican senators on a collision course with Trump, who White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany suggested would veto any legislation that renamed the bases. She claimed it was an insult to people who had served abroad to rename bases that they left from.
Settting up a White House-versus-Congress showdown, the top House Republican, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, said he Thursday he was 'not opposed' to renaming the bases.
Trump has put a battle of the bases at the center of an escalating culture war.
He is facing accusations of insensitivity by planning his first comeback rally on Friday 19, date of the Juneteenth commemoration of the end of slavery, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, scene of a horrific racist massacre in 1921.
The 10 bases are named for a group that includes slave owners, officers who left the U.S. Army to join the rebels, and at least one general who ordered the execution of unarmed prisoners.
The president made his stance known in a tweet, again calling Elizabeth Warren 'Pocahontas' a controversial nickname he gave her when she was running for president
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (left) proposed an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act that would give the military three years to rename bases, ships, planes and other entities that were named after figures who fought against the United States in the Civil War
President Trump sent out a trio of tweets just before Wednesday's White House briefing saying he was against renaming 10 Army bases that are currently named for Confederate leaders
Vote: Elizabeth Warren pushed the move to remove the Confederate generals' names in the Armed Services Committee, whose Republican majority includes Trump ultra-loyalist Tom Cotton, a former soldier who suggested sending in troops with illegal orders to quell protests
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said Thursday that he's 'not opposed' to a line in a defense appropriations bill making its way through Congress that would compel the military to rename bases and other entities currently named for Confederates
President Trump also tweeted this Thursday, likely referring to the push to take down Confederate monuments and rename bases currently named for Confederate figures
It has been suggested that we should rename as many as 10 of our Legendary Military Bases, such as Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Benning in Georgia, etc.,' Trump tweeted Wednesday, minutes before the White House briefing.
'These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage, and a history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom,' Trump tweeted. 'The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars,' the president continued.
'Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations,' Trump said.
But later on Wednesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is Republican-controlled, voted the opposite way.
Its Republican members include Tom Cotton, the Arkansas senator and former Army officer who caused outrage by demanding 'sending in the troops' with illegal 'no quarter' orders to quell protests.
But they also include a series of senators facing strong Democratic challenges, including Iowa's Joni Ernst, Arizona's Martha McSally, North Carolina's Thom Tillis and Georgia's David Perdue.
A voice vote indicates that the amendment passed without objection, but it also means there's no accounting for who on the committee voted aye and who voted nay, if anyone.
If all the Democrats voted in the affirmative, they'd need just one Republican for the amendment to pass, however passage via a voice vote indicates a larger group of senators said yes.
But the identity of those senators was unclear as of Thursday afternoon as a number declined to say which way they voted on the amendment.
CNN reported that Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee wouldn't say how she voted, neither would Sen. Deb Fischer, nor Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, and Cotton didn't support the amendment, they told CNN.
The 'Black Lives Matter' protests that have taken place all across the nation in the aftermath of George Floyd's death have renewed discussions on the appropriateness of memorializing Confederate figures.
Currently 10 Army bases are named after Confederate leaders.
Southern states that joined the Confederacy during the Civil War-era did so in order to keep their status as slave states.
On Monday, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told Politico that he was 'open' to renaming these 10 facilities.
Politico reported that Defense Secretary Mark Esper - who has been at odds with Trump over how to deal with the 'Black Lives Matter' demonstrations - also supported the discussion.
The Warren amendment, according to CNN, would extend further than renaming the 10 bases and would create an independent commission that would develop a plan to remove the name of Confederates from bases, installations, facilities, ships and planes.
One of the ships in the Navy's fleet, for example, is called the Chancellorsville and was named after the battle of Chancellorsville, a Civil War engagement that was considered Robert E. Lee's greatest victory, according to the Navy Times.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany opened up her Wednesday briefing reading a statement from Trump that mirrored his tweets, which he had pushed out minutes before she took to the podium.
McEnany was asked if the president supported the Navy's move to ban Confederate flags from flying at its bases and on ships.
She said she wasn't sure of his position on that.
'He does, as I noted at the top of the briefing, fervently stand against the renaming of our forts,' McEnany answered.
McEnany said that the 'great American fortresses' were important because they respresented the last places war dead spent time in the U.S. before fighting in battles in 'Europe and Afghanistan and Iraq.'
'And to suggest that these forts are somehow inherently racist and their names need to be changed is a complete disrespect to the men and women,' she argued. 'For the last bit of American land that they saw before they went overseas and lost their lives were these forts.'
McEnany was also asked if the president would veto a bill from Congress that changed the name of a base from a Confederate general to a Union general, the side that won the Civil War, and represents the modern-day United States.
'The president will not be signing legislation that will be renaming American forts,' she said.
A reporter then pointed to an op-ed writtten by Gen. David Petraeus, who had argued that bases shouldn't be named after people who fought against the United States.
Petraeus also pointed out that many of the Confederates honored, like Gen. Braxton Bragg, were notoriously bad at their jobs.
'Fort Bragg is known for the heroes within it,' McEnany responded.
The president has long sided with the 'heritage' argument to keep Confederate monuments and memorials erected.
This is how he got in hot water in August 2017, standing up for demonstrators - made up of neo-Nazis, KKK members and other white supremacists - in Charlottesville, Virginia, who wanted the city's Robert E. Lee statue to remain.
'You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides,' Trump told reporters referencing, first, the Unite To Right protesters, and then the counter-protesters who came out.
One of the counter-protesters, 32-year-old Heather Heyer, had been moved down on the streets of Charlottesville by a neo-Nazi, who is now serving a life-long prison term.
'You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue,' Trump said of the Lee monument.
The president then compared Lee to George Washington, the country's first president who led the Revolutionary War troops - but who was also a slave-owner.
Trump has put a battle of the bases at the center of an escalating culture war.
While the country has been in discord over the death of Floyd, the president has been accused of dog-whistling racists. Beyond his support for the Confederate-named bases he announced Wednesday that campaign rallies would begin again.
The first would be held next Friday - Juneteenth - which marks when the last slaves, in Texas, were read the Emancipation Proclamation, the document that informed them they were free.
The campaign rally will take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a city known for one of the country's most horrific episodes of racial violence.
Donald Trump demands Republicans REJECT stripping Confederates' names from Army bases - despite his party ALREADY voting for move pushed by Elizabeth Warren
![Donald Trump demands Republicans REJECT stripping Confederates' names from Army bases - despite his party ALREADY voting for move pushed by Elizabeth Warren]()
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June 12, 2020
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