CNN anchor Jake Tapper said Sunday on his show “State of the Union” that the statues of Confederate leaders in Congress are “tributes to traders” that honor political violence like the events of January 6, 2021.
Tapper said, “On Thursday night, the one-year anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, CNN hosted an event at the Capitol to talk about that horrible day.”
He continued, “Thursday night in Statuary Hall, I could not stop looking at this statue, donated in 1931 by the state of Mississippi — it’s a statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. And there’s also this statue, donated in 1927 by the state of Georgia, Alexander Stephens, the vice president of the Confederacy. Two leaders of the fight for states to have the legal rights to own and enslave black Americans. Two individuals who committed treason, honored right now as this nation honors so many of its traitors who fought for that disgusting cause. We literally have military bases right now named after losing generals who fought for the wrong, immoral, losing side. So Thursday night, as I sat in Statuary Hall, looking at these two tributes to traitors, I thought about this since last January 6, this is not who we are. Actually, the advocacy of political violence to achieve a warped ends that treasonously betray the ideals of this country democracy, equality that is sadly who some of us are.”
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