In Washington D.C., a committee created by Mayor Muriel Bowser (D-D.C.) has issued a demand that many of the city’s historic monuments, statues, buildings, street names, and other sites that bear the names of Founding Fathers should be renamed or removed, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
The group is called the District of Columbia Facilities and Commemorative Expressions Working Group, or D.C. FACES. Bowser created the group with the intent of eventually producing such a report on over 1,300 “named assets” throughout the city that are named after alleged “persons of concern.”
Among the locations that the committee demanded be renamed are public schools named after Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, and former President Thomas Jefferson. It also said that the Key Bridge, named after author of the Star-Spangled Banner Francis Scott Key, should also be renamed, along with the Bruce-Monroe Community Garden and the Harrison Playground, both named after former Presidents James Monroe and William Henry Harrison.
Nevertheless, despite the multiple absurd demands, Bowser tweeted her support for the group, saying that she “looked forward to reviewing and advancing their recommendations.” She received widespread backlash on social media, with Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) saying “Hey D.C. – they’re not your monuments to rename or remove. They’re America’s monuments.” In his tweet, he included a screenshot from the committee’s report that also demanded the renaming of such iconic landmarks as the statues of Christopher Columbus, Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Jackson, and Thomas Jefferson, as well as the Washington Monument itself, arguably the most iconic landmark in all of D.C.
In response to the D.C. committee’s report, the office of the White House Press Secretary issued a statement condemning the plan and its “many other ludicrous recommendations,” saying that “the radically liberal mayor of Washington D.C. is repeating the same left-wing narrative used to incite dangerous riots: Demolishing our history and destroying our great heritage….President Donald J. Trump believes that these places should be preserved, not torn down; respected, not hated; and passed on for generations to come.”