President Trump tweets support for preserving Confederate statues

Thursday, August 17, 2017

President Trump tweets support for preserving Confederate statues: ABC's Janai Normal reports during Action News at 12:30 p.m. on August 17, 2017.

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump says it's "Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart" with the removal of Confederate statues and monuments around the country.

Local and state officials have renewed pushes to remove Confederate imagery from public property since the violence and death of a woman in Charlottesville, Virginia, during a white nationalist rally over the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue.

Baltimore and other cities have already removed or covered up Confederate statues.

Trump in a Thursday tweet called them "our beautiful statues and monuments" and said "you can't change history, but you can learn from it."

"Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson - who's next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish!" Trump continued. "The beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!"