House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is calling for the removal of 11 statues of Confederate leaders from the Capitol building, nine of which were members of the Democratic Party.
The other two Confederates, Edmund Kirby Smith and Robert E. Lee, did not have a documented political affiliation, according to historical accounts. Lee reportedly joined Democrats in opposition to Republicans who “demanded punitive measures against the South” during reconstruction.
“The American people know, these names have to go. These names are white supremacists that said terrible things about our country,” Pelosi said during a press conference on Thursday.
McCarthy, a California Republican, said the statues that concern Pelosi are a problem within her own party.
“They were voted upon in the legislature and brought here under Democrat majorities from Mississippi to the other states that she speaks about,” he said.
The statues that Pelosi wants removed include:
- Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America and former Democratic U.S. senator from Mississippi
- James Zachariah George, former Democratic U.S. senator from Mississippi and member of the Confederacy as well as the Mississippi Secession Convention
- Wade Hampton, lieutenant general for the Confederacy and former Democratic governor of South Carolina
- John E. Kenna, member of the Confederate States Army, former Democratic congressman and U.S. senator from West Virginia
- Uriah Milton Rose, chairman of the Resolutions Committee of the Arkansas Democratic Party
- Edmund Kirby Smith, general for the Confederate States Army with no recorded political party affiliation
- Alexander Hamilton Stephens, vice president of the Confederate States who served as a Democratic congressman from Georgia and governor of Georgia
- Zebulon Baird Vance, member of the Confederate Army and former Democratic governor of North Carolina
- Joseph Wheeler, commander in the Confederate Army and former Democratic congressman from Alabama
- Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate States Army
- Edward Douglass White, member of Confederate Army, former Louisiana Democratic senator and associate justice of the Supreme Court
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