A South Dakota Republican Sen, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee. When asked about the plan he supports, Mike Rounds said, “There’s a date we don’t always want to forget.” Said. “Regarding this, I agree with the President that we do not want to forget our history. … But this also does not mean that we should continue with the names of individuals fighting against these bases.”
The change brought the GOP leaders to a strange point – in a high-stakes election year, it was squeezed between court efforts by black voters demanding that the Republicans pull the line and fight the change.
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN whether he would support the plan, saying: “Deciding will depend on the committee.”
The amendment has been added to the annual defense delegation draft and can still be removed as it continues its path in the legislative process. If Trump vetoed such a bill, it would be a big risk for the Pentagon given the popular defense measure policy.
When asked if the confederation change would be politically problematic for a public relationship, the Senate Majority Whip John Thune admitted it would be difficult on Thursday.
“Well, yes, then, on the basic invoice from the committee,” South Dakota told Republican journalists. “Obviously, if we extract something from the bill, there is a heavy increase … so we will see where this discussion goes. As I said, I saw what the President said. I wasn’t aware of that there. “
What creates more complexity for the Republicans is that the defense draft bill has been approved by Congress annually for the past 59 years – so undoubtedly the lawmakers, the 60th straight year.
Over the past two days, Trump added to Twitter on Thursday, referring to the legacy of America, saying that he opposes such efforts: “Hopefully, our great Republican Senators will not fall for this.”
However, Republican senators were divided into plans to be re-elected, and Iowa Senate Joni Ernst supported the measure, while North Carolina Senate Thom Tillis opposed it. Others, including Georgia Year David Perdue, did not respond to the request for comment through a spokesperson.
“You. Tillis Sen. Opposed Warren’s change and opposes renaming Fort Bragg,” said Tillis spokesman Daniel Keylin, accusing the “liberal Democrats” of trying to overshadow the “draft bill” with the political theater.
Some Republican senators, including Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, who opposed the Warren plan, were in line with Trump.
“I don’t think Congress made it necessary to rename them and tried to delete this part of our history,” Hawley said. Said. “I don’t think how turning your back on you coped with it, faced it, and then continued.”
Hawley added: “I heard from many soldiers from these bases and they said these bases mean a lot to me, I have my own history with them, please don’t rename them.”
Arkansas Sen.Tam Cotton also opposed the amendment with a change saying that the GOP senator failed to plan an exception for monuments in military cemeteries for Confederate soldiers.
However, it was clear that the change brought some Republicans to an uncomfortable point.
Tennessee Senar Marsha Blackburn, who also served on the Armed Services Committee, did not say whether she supported the change in the committee. “It’s a subject we’re reviewing,” he said.
You from Nebraska. While Deb Fischer does not discuss his view on the matter, Senator Roger Wicker from Mississippi: “I think the commission deserves the idea.”
Wicker did not respond if he voted on the committee, but the change would create an independent commission to review and develop a detailed plan to remove names.
Some of them are Alaska Sen. He explained that they support the change, including Dan Sullivan.
Other Republican senators did not want to make this issue public. GOP Sen from Louisiana, which has military facilities under the names of its hometown Confederation. “I have nothing for you on this,” John Kennedy answered the questions about the change.
And only when the black Senate Republican Tim Scott asked CNN if he supported the removal of the Confederate leaders’ names from military bases, he said he was “not thought much”. Scott added, “he’s focused on police reform.”
If the confederation is open to protecting their names, Scott said that he should “take time to think about the issue first”.
Army placements named by confederate leaders include Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Hood in Texas and Fort A.P. in Virginia. Located in the hill. Nationwide army bases continued to carry the names of the Confederate military commanders, even under intense external pressure to rename them.
Taking into account the peaceful protests and racial inequality that demanded justice, the United States became dominant over Floyd’s death in the hands of a Minneapolis police officer and made many rethink the status quo, including the widespread use of Confederate military leader names and symbols.
Some top Republicans, however, have resisted any change.
“In the local communities, cities, towns, states, states, they do not want to do this” and the inclusion of the change is “the first step” .
“We have a long way to go about this,” Inhofe said. Said.
Demokrat, who is on the committee, is from Rhode Island, who is in the same conference meeting with Inhofe. Jack Reed acknowledged that the change was the “first step”.
“I think what we saw yesterday was a very thoughtful process and a two-sided process to take on a very complex and difficult issue and to create a commission with a three-year working time.” Said. “This will look carefully at all aspects of this problem and also find a way to rename these facilities so that they can interact with local communities interested in the names of these facilities and rename them after this process. do our best for you. “
This story was updated on Thursday with additional improvements.
CNN’s Nikki Carvajal, Ali Zaslav and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.
