Should George Washington and Thomas Jefferson be erased from history?

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President Donald Trump ruled out renaming U.S. military bases that are named for Confederate leaders on Wednesday even as NASCAR banned the Confederate flag from its races and Democrats sought the removal from Capitol Hill of statues of people representing the pro-slavery South in the 1860s Civil War.

With Americans more conscious about race issues in the wake of the death of African American George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody, Trump drew a line in favor of keeping the names of 10 military bases from Virginia to Texas that are named for Confederate military leaders.

Trump’s announcement via tweet basically slapped down those Pentagon officials open to discussing the issue, which has emerged as a way of achieving racial reconciliation.

In the past few days, officials have said that the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, was open to having a bipartisan conversation about renaming the Army bases named for Confederate leaders.

In a series of tweets, Trump argued the bases have become part of a “Great American Heritage.”

“The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars. Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations…,” Trump wrote in a tweet.

The issue of the enslavement of African Americans tore the United States apart when Southern states broke away to form the Confederate States of America to protect slavery. Northern states defeated the South in the Civil War to restore the Union.

But slavery’s legacy continues to haunt race relations in America. In recent history, controversies over symbols of the Confederacy, such as statues of its leaders and its battle flag, have erupted. Those arguing for their removal say they symbolize racism and oppression, while those opposing such action call them signifiers of Southern heritage and pride.

NASCAR, whose races frequently feature fans waving the Confederate battle flag, said on Wednesday it would ban the “stars and bars” flag from its events.

On Capitol Hill, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged Congress to immediately take steps to remove from the U.S. Capitol 11 statues representing Confederate leaders and soldiers. Among the statues is one of Confederate military commander Robert E. Lee.

“Their statues pay homage to hate, not heritage. They must be removed,” Pelosi, a Democrat, said in a letter to leaders of a congressional committee in charge of managing the statues on display at the Capitol.

U.S. military bases named for Confederate military leaders are all located in former Confederate states. Many of those states helped elect Trump in 2016, and he is counting on them again for the Nov. 3 election.

In an article published Tuesday in The Atlantic, retired General and former CIA chief David Petraeus called for renaming the bases, pointing out that the men they are named for “committed treason, however much they may have agonized over it” by fighting for the Confederacy.

At a news briefing Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany noted that the HBO Max streaming service had withdrawn the Civil War movie “Gone with the Wind” and asked “Where do you draw the line?”

“Should George Washington and Thomas Jefferson be erased from history?” she said of the first and third American presidents, both of whom owned slaves.

Oscar-winning Civil War epic “Gone with the Wind” was pulled from the HBO Max streaming service and reality TV show “Cops” was canceled.

AT&T Inc’s WarnerMedia, which runs HBO Max, said it removed “Gone with the Wind.” The company acknowledged the film is a product of its time but added that it “depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society.”

“We felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible,” an HBO Max spokesperson said.

The 1939 film will return to HBO Max with “a discussion of its historical context” and a denouncement of racist depictions, the spokesperson added.

The movie, set on a Georgia plantation, won eight Academy Awards including best picture and set a milestone in Hollywood when supporting actress Hattie McDaniel, who played a black maid, became the first African American actor to win an Oscar.

The Paramount Network, a cable TV channel owned by ViacomCBS Inc, removed “Cops” from its schedule. The show debuted in 1989 on the Fox network and was considered a pioneer of reality television as it followed real-life police on the job. But it came under criticism as glorifying law enforcement without any footage of police brutality.

Spike TV, now the Paramount Network, picked up “Cops” in 2013.

Civil rights group Color of Change applauded the decision to drop “Cops” and called on media companies to end other troubling portrayals of crime and policing.

“Cops led the way, pushing troubling implications for generations of viewers,” the group said in a statement.

REUTERS