Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts proposed that the bases be renamed as part of the annual defense authorization bill. Legislation funds the Pentagon and is often one of the few laws that Congress can pass each year to finance the country’s military operations.
However, Trump, using an offensive nickname for Warren, has made the bill the latest tipping point in his defense of monuments to the Confederacy and other racist leaders from the country’s past as he tries to distract himself from a new national spike in cases. of coronavirus. and their own poll numbers in a tailspin.
“I will veto the Defense Authorization Bill if the Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren Amendment (of all people!), Which will lead to the name change (plus other bad things!) From Fort Bragg, Fort Robert E Lee and many other military personnel The bases from which we won two world wars are in the bill! “Trump said in his tweet, not specifying what” other bad things “were included in the proposal.
Warren’s amendment to the legislation requires the names of the Confederate leaders to be removed from all military assets (base, installation, facility, aircraft, ship, aircraft, or other type of equipment) within three years. The amendment was added to the bill in a closed-door vote of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is controlled by Republicans. Some Republican lawmakers supported the measure.
While Trump has often said in his base remarks that he opposes renaming the places where troops were trained during World War I and II, the momentum coincides with his desire to see statues at Confederate leaders continue to stand despite the shift in popular sentiment in the opposite direction.
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