Media

Sen. Tammy Duckworth: ‘We Should Listen To The Argument’ For Removing George Washington Statues

Font Size:

Democratic Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth said Americans should “listen to the argument” for removing monuments to George Washington, the first president of the United States.

During a Sunday morning appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Duckworth was asked by guest anchor Dana Bash to react to President Donald Trump’s defense of U.S. monuments during his Thursday night speech at Mount Rushmore.

“I know that you support changing the name of military bases named after Confederate leaders, but there are leaders like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson who were slave owners, and some are demanding their monuments come down too. In your view, where does it end? Should statues of George Washington come down?” Bash asked.

WATCH:

“I’ll say we should start a national dialogue on it at some point, but right now we’re in the middle of a global pandemic,” Duckworth responded before accusing Trump of spending “more time honoring dead Confederates” than speaking about those who have died from coronavirus.

“That may be true, but George Washington, I don’t think anybody would call him a traitor and there are moves by some to remove statues of him,” Bash pressed. “Is that a good idea?”

“I think we should listen to everybody,” the Illinois senator said. “I think we should listen to the argument there, but remember that the president at Mount Rushmore was standing on ground that was stolen from Native Americans who had actually been given that land during a treaty.” (RELATED: New York Times Ripped For Describing Trump’s Mount Rushmore Speech As ‘Dark And Divisive’)

Duckworth again criticized Trump for his coronavirus response, saying she is “more worried about the 130,000 who have lost their lives recently and the thousands and thousands more Americans who are currently sick than I am our historical past.”