Texas Sen. Ted Cruz reacted to news that a statue of President George Washington had been defaced by referring to the perpetrators as “vandals” who “hate America.”
“Father of our country,” Cruz tweeted in response to a post from Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer. “These leftist vandals hate America.”
Father of our country. These leftist vandals hate America. https://t.co/ow2NR33rzw
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 30, 2020
Vandals can be seen on camera entering New York City’s Washington Square Park and hurling paint-filled balloons at two statues of the first president of the United States, according to the New York Post.
The push to remove statues deemed offensive from the public square has intensified following the death of George Floyd on May 25. The movement was initially focused on toppling statues associated with the Confederacy but has shifted toward mainstream figures such as Presidents Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.
Earlier this month, Black Lives Matter activists in Wisconsin beheaded a statue of Col. Hans Christian Heg, an abolitionist who died fighting for the Union in the Civil War, and dumped his head in a lake.
“If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it,” president of the greater New York Black Lives Matter chapter, Hawk Newsome, said earlier this month on Fox News. “All right? And I could be speaking figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation.”
President Trump has vowed to crack down on the destruction of statues, signing a “very strong” executive order that is aimed at protecting them.
I just had the privilege of signing a very strong Executive Order protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues – and combatting recent Criminal Violence. Long prison terms for these lawless acts against our Great Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2020
