House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Ayman Mohyeldin Reports” that a statue sent by South Carolina of the seventh vice president of the United States John C. Calhoun needs to be removed from Capitol’s National Statuary Hall because it is honoring slavery.
Mohyeldin said, “I know the House is set today, Sir, to vote on a bill to remove Confederate statues from public display in the Capitol. That was a bill actually passed in the previous Congress, as you are well aware, it stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate at the time. Why is this bill so important, especially after what happened on January 6? Do you think it has a better shot this time around in the Senate?”
Clyburn said, “Well, I would hope so. You know, when I see emblems from the Confederacy, I you this, you know, that is not the Confederate flag. It never was the Confederate flag. That is a Battle flag. So much of our history is misrepresented. That flag that you’re showing now was awful to the Confederacy, and they refuse to accept it. The Daughters of the Confederacy would never accept that flag as being their flag. The Stars and Bars is a totally different flag. We don’t oppose that flag. We do oppose a battle flag. We do oppose people who fought to preserve slavery. John C. Calhoun is a statue that is up here sent up by the state of South Carolina. John C. Calhoun died more than a decade before The Civil War ever broke out. His statute is not here because of the confederacy. His statute is here because he was the biggest spokesperson in this country in support of slavery. That is why my state sent him up here. I think the current residents, current citizens of South Carolina, I don’t think they want slavery. They don’t want to honor slavery. That’s what is taking place. I would love to see the state of South Carolina take the statues out of here. If they don’t. I want to see them put the statue so far in the basement until it will not able to gather dust.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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