In his first news conference in almost three months, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden broke his silence on whether historical statues should be torn down or not, saying he preferred Confederate statues be removed and those of founding fathers left standing.
“The idea of comparing whether or not George Washington owned slaves, or Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, and somebody who was in rebellion, committing treason, running, trying to take down a union to keep slavery, I think there’s a distinction there,” Biden said at a Tuesday news conference.
Just last week, the Biden campaign refused to answer a question from the Daily Caller as to whether he supported taking down statues of Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt and others.
Biden then moved on to the proper place of Confederate monuments.
“So I think the idea of bringing down I think all those Confederate monuments to Confederate soldiers and generals, etc., who strongly supported secession and the maintenance of slavery and going to war to do it, I think those statues belong in museums,” Biden said, adding that those monuments “don’t belong in public places.”
Protesters attempt to pull down the statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square near the White House on June 22, 2020 in Washington, DC. Protests continue around the country over police brutality, racial injustice and the deaths of African Americans while in police custody. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Biden also expressed his regret over damage done to statues that have nothing do to with the American Civil War, such as statues of Christopher Columbus. “I think that is something that the government has an opportunity and responsibility to protect from happening.”
Biden as a senator from Delaware supported motions in Congress to support the restoration of the citizenship of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and called segregation a source of “black pride.”