The Political Insider

Back in 2017, “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver mocked President Donald Trump for predicting that statues of U.S. Founding Fathers such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would be removed. Three years later, it turns out that Trump was right in making this prediction.

“So this week it’s Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down,” Trump said back in August of 2017, according to Fox News. At the time, protests had broken out in Charlottesville, Virginia over plans to remove various confederate statues.

“I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?” Trump continued. “You really have to ask yourself, where does it stop?”

I’ll tell you where it stops,” Oliver fired back on his show that week. “Somewhere! Any time someone asks, where does it stop, the answer’s always … somewhere. You might let your kid have Twizzlers, but not inject black tar heroin. You don’t just go, ‘Well, after the Twizzlers, where does it stop?'”

Despite Oliver’s mockery, Trump has since unfortunately been proven right. Last Sunday, a statue of Jefferson was knocked down in Portland, Oregon, and a similar attack on a Washington statue occurred days later in the same city. Meanwhile, in New York City, a “Commission on Racial Justice and Reconciliation” will be looking over historical statues in the city, including ones of Washington and Jefferson, and deciding whether or not they should be removed.

Dr. Douglas Bradburn, president and CEO of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, the former president’s home in Virginia, released a statement this week saying, “Without George Washington, there would be no United States of America; there would be no Constitution, which allows the freedom of speech, assembly, and protest, as well as the separation of church from state — and without Washington we would not have civilian-led military.”

“If we fail to honor George Washington, because we understand him only as a slave owner, we will lose the story of the United States, for it will have no beginning and very little direction,” he added.

“Where does it stop” indeed.

This piece was written by PopZette Staff on June 21, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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