Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said Tuesday the decision to remove Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol should be left to the individual states, according to multiple reports.
McConnell explained that each state is allowed to have two statues placed in the U.S. Capitol, and depending on the preference of the state, these statues can be swapped in and out as necessary, according to the Hill. However, whether or not the statues should be removed, that decision would be more appropriate to be left in the hands of the States itself.
“I think the appropriate way to deal with this issue is to stuck with the tradition,” McConnell said.
McConnell’s announcement comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a letter to Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) that statues of Confederate leaders at the U.S. Capitol in Washington should be removed.
“Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals. Their statues pay homage, not heritage. They must be removed,” she wrote.
Blunt said that in order for that to happen, Congress needs to pass a law, reported Politico.
Currently, there are two laws involving the confederate statues in the nation’s capital. One passed in 1864 allows states to have two statues, and another passed in 2000 allows the statues to be moved around in the Capitol itself. However, nowhere in the laws does it say that statues can be moved out of the Capitol without the approval from the state, Politico reported.
Every state is allowed two statues. They can trade them out any time,” McConnell told reporters. “A number of states are trading them out now, but I think that’s the appropriate way to deal with the statue issue. The states make that decision.”
“The Congress could change any law they want to. If they want to change a law and say, ‘No we’re now going to decide what statues states can have,’ they can certainly do that. There’s no authority to move statues out of the Capitol short of that,” Blunt said. “If the speaker think that’s the law, the speaker’s wrong on that.”
