The issue of how to handle Confederate monuments became a point of contention during Tuesday’s Virginia gubernatorial debate between Democrat Ralph Northam and Republican Ed Gillespie.
Gillespie has previously advocated that the monuments should stay with proper historical context added while Northam has called for their removal, suggesting they be placed in museums.
“We don’t have to glorify the objects of the statues; we can educate about them.” Gillespie said. “We have to learn from history, and that is a difference.”
Northam, the state’s lieutenant governor, responded by noting how a statue of Robert E. Lee sparked deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va., last month.
“If these statues give individuals, white supremacists like that, an excuse to do what they did then we need to have a discussion about the statues,” Northam said.
He added that he would prefer to see the statues in museums but added that the matter would best be decided on the local level.
Gillespie, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, went on to decry racism and white supremacy, calling white supremacy a “twisted mindset.”
“If that’s your view, that is worse than immoral, that is the presence of evil in our world, and we must confront it and reject, and as governor I will always do so,” Gillespie responded.
Tuesday’s debate at George Mason University was the pair’s second matchup ahead of the Nov. 7 election. Polls going into the debate showed a tight race, with nearly 18 percent of voters still undecided in one survey.
