Cuomo: Toppling statues is a ‘healthy expression of rage’

FPI / June 25, 2020

Tearing down, lighting afire, and spray painting obscenities on America's historic statues and monuments is merely a "healthy expression of rage" from the rioters rampaging across the United States, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

He appeared to be serious.

In an interview on Tuesday on NBC's "Today Show" Cuomo said “People are making a statement about equality, about community to be against racism, against slavery.”

“I think those are good statements,” Cuomo said, adding that it was possible to “overdo it” but that he didn’t think that was the case in New York. “And I think it’s a healthy expression of people saying, 'Let’s get some priorities here and let’s remember the sin and mistake that this nation made and let’s not celebrate it.' ”

When asked if he agreed with President Donald Trump’s guidance that cities and officials should be doing “more to protect monuments,” Cuomo said municipal leaders are already “making decisions.”

Those "decisions" include New York City's move to remove the statute of President Theodore Roosevelt Museum of Natural History. "The Teddy Roosevelt statue I think was less about Teddy Roosevelt but the other parts of that statue," Cuomo said. The "other parts" of the statue were depictions of a Native American and African American.

Trump was "roundly mocked and derided for worrying in August 2017 that statue destroyers would move on from statues of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to statues of former presidents and founding fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Major media accused Trump of making inappropriate and even ridiculous comments," The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway noted on June 23.

"President Trump worried that statue removers wouldn’t stop with Confederate figures. The media roundly mocked and derided him. Yet all their experts, fact checks, and smug assurances were completely wrong and Trump was right. It will be interesting to note whether any of these media outlets acknowledge that they were wrong."

The White House, meanwhile, responded in to Cuomo’s comments in a tweet on Tuesday: “Governor Cuomo alone is to blame for refusing to shut down New York and forcing seniors who tested positive for coronavirus back into his state’s nursing homes.”

Free Press International