House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday called for the statues of Confederate leaders be removed from the US Capitol following the violence at a white supremacist rally in Virginia.
“The Confederate statues in the halls of Congress have always been reprehensible,” Pelosi said in a statement posted on Twitter. ”If Republicans are serious about rejecting white supremacy, I call upon Speaker Ryan to join Democrats to remove the Confederate statues from the Capitol immediately.”
Her comments come after President Trump tweeted that “the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments.”
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus also called for their removal after the hate groups said they had gathered in Charlottesville to protest the taking down of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s statue in a city park.
“We will never solve America’s race problem if we continue to honor traitors who fought against the United States in order to keep African-Americans in chains. By the way, thank god, they lost,” Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond (D-La.) told ABC News on Wednesday.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) also said on Thursday that he would seek to have the statues removed.
There are 12 statues commemorating Confederate leaders in the National Statuary Hall Collection on Captiol Hill, including those of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Lee.