Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe: Leave Our Confederate Statues Alone (VIDEO)

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that banning the Confederate flag from state license plates was fine but Confederate statues should be left alone.

McAuliffe told host Andrea Mitchell that he was having the Sons of the Confederacy redesign its Virginia license plate to remove the flag after the mass shooting last week at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C.

The alleged shooter had apparent white supremacist leanings and was shown holding the Confederate flag in photos. The killings spurred debate over the presence of Confederate symbolism throughout the South.

“I am sticking just with the license plates because I do think that is a message that is so hurtful, that flag, to folks,” McAuliffe said.

“But not statues. I mean, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, these are all parts of our heritage,” McAuliffe continued. “And the people that were in that battle, the Civil War, many of them were in it obviously for their own reasons that they had for that. But leave the statues and those things alone.”

Watch the video below, from MSNBC. McAuliffe’s comments come at around the 4:20 mark.

h/t The Hill

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. The alleged shooter had apparent white supremacist leanings

    Leanings? He was full on submerged in white supremacy.

  2. He brandished an axe while he spoke.

  3. Ah, c’mon now, Terry, you shill. Isn’t it a little early for you to be CYA’ing in advance of next election?

  4. But not statues. I mean, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis,

    Heros all! If they are in a museum who will the children look up to??? THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!! Leave our statures AAAALLLOOOOONNNEEEEEEE!!!

  5. “Leave General Lee aloooone!!”

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

38 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for doremus_jessup Avatar for lestatdelc Avatar for stlounick Avatar for ajm Avatar for dr_coyote Avatar for richardinjax Avatar for srfromgr Avatar for meri Avatar for mrdependable Avatar for imkmu3 Avatar for fargo116 Avatar for eggrollian Avatar for trippin Avatar for anouthouse Avatar for luckybastard77 Avatar for daveyjones64 Avatar for impolitics Avatar for go2goal Avatar for hjs62 Avatar for dickweed Avatar for seedoubleyou Avatar for occamsrazor2 Avatar for rawr

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: