RFK Jr. says he had ‘visceral reaction against’ removal of Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville
CNN
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he had a “visceral reaction against” the removal of the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that was once the focal point of the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he had a “visceral reaction against” the removal of the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that was once the focal point of the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Kennedy said in an interview with podcast host Tim Pool on Friday that he opposes “destroying history” when asked about the Charlottesville City Council’s decision in 2021 to remove the town’s statute of Lee and melt it down to create new public art. Kennedy, who went to law school at the University of Virginia, said he had a personal reaction to seeing the statue removed. “I have a visceral reaction against the attacks on those statues,” Kennedy said. “There were heroes in the Confederacy who didn’t have slaves, and you know, I just have a visceral reaction against destroying history. I don’t like it.” “I think we should celebrate who we are,” Kennedy added. “We should celebrate the good qualities of everybody.” The 2017 decision to remove the statute of Lee from a park in Charlottesville sparked outrage, including from White nationalist sympathizers who gathered at the “Unite the Right” protest that August and violently clashed with counter-protesters. Heather Heyer, a counter-protester, was killed when a man drove his car into a crowd. Kennedy said he doesn’t “think it’s a good, a healthy thing for any culture to erase its history,” and suggested historical figures like Lee should be celebrated for their positive qualities even if they also took actions that are now “regarded as immoral … or wrong.”
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