Jun 27, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Trump denounces protesters tearing down statues, as Confederate monuments are targeted

President Trump signed an executive order on Friday to denounce protesters that have vandalized Civil War and World War II monuments, although most statues that have been torn down in recent weeks have been symbols of the Confederacy.

The big picture: Black Lives Matter protests against police violence and racism have exacerbated a long-standing debate about the place for and relevancy of Confederate-era monuments and iconography.

Driving the news: At least 29 Confederate monuments have been yanked down or removed by protesters and state or city officials since Memorial Day, according to the Washington Post.

  • Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced that the state will get rid of the famous statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from Richmond's historic Monument Avenue.
  • City officials in Mobile, Alabama, removed the statue of Confederate Adm. Raphael Semmes, Mayor Sandy Stimpson tweeted.
  • In Boston, protester vandalized the Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment Memorial earlier this month. The monument is dedicated to Black soldiers who fought in the Civil War, as Trump's executive order points out.
  • In San Francisco, a statue of former President Ulysses S. Grant, a Union general, was toppled last week, which the executive order references. Grant was the last U.S. president to own a slave.
  • The U.S. Navy and Marines, as well as corporations and organizations like Walmart, the NCAA and NASCAR, have all issued policies this month to ban Confederate symbols on their properties, in response to protests.
  • A spokesperson for Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said he's open to a "bipartisan discussion" about renaming the military bases and facilities that are named after Confederate leaders, including Fort Bragg and Fort Benning.

Details: The executive order stresses that, under the Veterans’ Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act, defacing monuments that commemorate the service of anyone in the U.S. armed forces can be imprisoned for at least 10 years and fined.

What he's saying:

"They’re tearing down statues, desecrating monuments, and purging dissenters. It’s not the behavior of a peaceful political movement; it’s the behavior of totalitarians and tyrants and people that don’t love our country."
— Trump said in a statement on Friday

Go deeper: Trump says he will "not even consider" renaming bases named for Confederate leaders

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Fadel Allassan
Sep 6, 2020 - Politics & Policy

VA secretary defends Trump's McCain war hero attacks as "heat of a campaign"

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie defended then-candidate Donald Trump's 2015 comments disparaging John McCain's service in the Vietnam War, telling CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that the comments were made "in the heat of the campaign."

Flashback: Trump publicly rejected the notion that McCain, who was held as a prisoner of war for more than five years while serving in the Navy during the Vietnam War, was a war hero. “He’s not a war hero," Trump said. "He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured."

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Axios
Updated 2 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 12 p.m. ET: 30,241,377 — Total deaths: 947,266— Total recoveries: 20,575,416 — Map.
  2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 12 p.m. ET: 6,681,251 — Total deaths: 197,763 — Total recoveries: 2,540,334 — Total tests: 91,546,598 — Map.
  3. Politics: Trump vs. his own administration on virus response.
  4. Health: Massive USPS face mask operation called off — The risks of moving too fast on a vaccine.
  5. Business: Unemployment drop-off reverses course — 1 million mortgage-holders fall through safety net — How the pandemic has deepened Boeing's 737 MAX crunch.
  6. Education: At least 42% of school employees are vulnerable.
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Joann Muller, author of Navigate
2 hours ago - Economy & Business

Anxious days for airline workers as mass layoffs loom

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, during a Sept. 9 protest outside the Capitol. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

The clock is ticking for tens of thousands of anxious airline employees, who face mass reductions when the government's current payroll support program expires on Sept. 30.

Where it stands: Airline CEOs met Thursday with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who said President Trump would support an additional $25 billion from Congress to extend the current aid package through next March.

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