Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen insisted that President Donald Trump’s continued embrace of Confederate memorials and bases named after Lost Cause generals has nothing to do with any “love” for the Confederacy but rather the desire to defend them from “cancel culture.”
Thiessen, a Washington Post columnist who recently held court with Trump for an obsequious interview, appeared Friday on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom to discuss some of the revelations from his friendly chat with the president.
Besides claiming Trump is apparently unconcerned about his plummeting poll numbers because the president “remains confident” due to his own internal polling, Thiessen weighed in on Trump’s rock-steady defense of Confederate statues and monuments.
“You wrote in your piece, ‘The real hate is the hate from the other side,’” anchor Sandra Smith noted. “What struck me in this piece was when you asked the question, ‘Why is the president adamant about defending Confederate memorials?’ You wrote that the president responded ‘I’m not,’ and then he said this, ‘I’m adamant about defending the past. It’s part of our history. They are taking down everything. They are taking down history. They want to cancel everything. They want to cancel the good, the bad.’ Where did that conversation go, Marc?”
Thiessen said that he personally believes that many of these Confederate memorials should be taken down and military bases renamed, adding that is the reason he “pressed” the president on the issue.
“One thing he told me is ‘I have no love for the Confederacy,’” the former G.W. Bush speechwriter stated. “He said, ‘I’m a New Yorker, we were against the Confederacy.’ What he seems to be worried about is a slippery slope.”
Thiessen went on to claim that Trump attempted to warn the country about that “slippery slope” a few years ago when he objected to the removal of Robert E. Lee statues, saying Trump was right that it resulted in George Washington now being targeted. This prompted him to toss out the right’s favorite buzzword of late.
“So he doesn’t want to give an inch to the ‘cancel culture,’” Thiessen declared.
After claiming Trump wants bases to remain named after Confederate leaders because it was “part of reconciliation” between the North and South, Thiessen concluded by once again saying Trump is standing up for American culture and history.
“He doesn’t think he can control who the bases would be named after if he agreed to change it,” the conservative pundit proclaimed. “And he is worried about how the PC culture would demand and Congress might demand names that would be unacceptable. So he is standing firm. He just doesn’t believe in giving in to the cancel culture and the slippery slope.”
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