Only days after Texas Republicans made protecting and preserving historical monuments, statues, and other items a legislative priority, six of the individuals they elected to Congress voted to remove them from the U.S. Capitol.
On Wednesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat majority-led House of Representatives voted 305-113 to remove statues of individuals who fought for the South in the War Between the States.
The 305 votes in favor came from a united Democrat caucus as well as 71 Republicans who crossed party lines and voted with Democrats to remove the monuments. Among them were six Texans: U.S. Congressmen Michael Burgess of Flower Mound, Van Taylor of Plano, Dan Crenshaw of Houston, Michael McCaul of Austin, Will Hurd of San Antonio, and Pete Olson of Sugar Land.
Crenshaw said he was “glad” to vote to remove the statues from the nation’s capital.
Republicans won the civil war. That’s our history.
Democrats have a long list of segregationists & KKK members. That’s their history.
I’m glad to help them confront that racist past & voted to remove these Democrat statues from positions of prominence.https://t.co/D9KGH4Kz6b
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) July 22, 2020
Congressman Chip Roy, who represents portions of Austin, San Antonio, and the Hill Country, voted against removing the monuments, saying, “Democrats love to play politics with race while the people they purport to help are suffering at the hands of their ‘caring’ policies.”
Agreed. Democrats love to play politics with race while the people they purport to help are suffering at the hands of their “caring” policies… abortion that kills black babies, welfare that destroys black families, & pro-crime policies that endanger black communities. https://t.co/v780t8rWCH
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) July 22, 2020
Under the terms of the legislation passed by the U.S. House, 11 statues would be donated to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. or returned to the states who originally donated them.
The move comes as Washington lawmakers are also pushing to require the Pentagon to rename 10 U.S. Army installations named after Confederate generals, including Texas’ Fort Hood.
Texas Republican Congressman Mac Thornberry, who represents Amarillo and much of the Texas Panhandle, supported including the mandate that the Pentagon rename the bases in the legislation to fund the nation’s armed services.
“Obviously, I do not agree with everything in the bill,” the retiring Thornberry said at the outset of debate on the legislation. “But, on balance, it’s a good bill; and in some particulars, it’s a very good bill.”
The bill, which was named after him by Congressional Democrats in recognition of his 26 years spent in Congress, is one the White House has threatened to veto, calling it “part of a sustained effort to erase” history.
“President Trump has been clear in his opposition to politically motivated attempts like this to rewrite history and to displace the enduring legacy of the American Revolution with a new left-wing cultural revolution,” a White House spokesman told POLITICO.
