Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has “lost touch” with her hometown of Baltimore after she downplayed the toppling of a Christopher Columbus statue there.
Pelosi on Thursday shrugged off the destruction of a 14-foot marble statue of Columbus over the weekend saying, “People will do what they do.” Hogan, a centrist Republican, hit back at the speaker who grew up in Baltimore and whose father once served as the city’s mayor.
“It’s disappointing that Speaker Pelosi has lost touch with the Baltimore community that her family served,” Hogan responded in a statement posted to Twitter. “While efforts towards peaceful change are welcome, there is no place in Maryland for lawlessness, vandalism, and destruction of public property.”
“Our state and our nation need room for more constructive dialogue, not destruction. We will not let mobs ‘do what they do.’ They do not represent Baltimore,” the governor added.
While efforts towards peaceful change are welcome, there is no place in Maryland for lawlessness, vandalism, and destruction of public property. pic.twitter.com/eXNv5qsCUP
— Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) July 9, 2020
Pelosi, who is Italian American, drew criticism for her comments about the statue, which was erected in Baltimore’s Little Italy neighborhood in 1984. The monument was removed and thrown into the Inner Harbor on Independence Day.
“It could just be a community view,” Pelosi said. “If the community doesn’t want the statue, the statue shouldn’t be there.”
Columbus monuments have become targets for removal during the ongoing protests. Columbus, Ohio, removed a statue of the city’s namesake from in front of City Hall, and in Richmond, Virginia, a statue of Columbus was destroyed and thrown in a lake. A Columbus memorial met a similar fate in Minneapolis, and a statue of him in Boston was removed after it was beheaded by demonstrators.
While Columbus holds a fraught historical legacy that includes enslavement, the Genovese explorer represents heritage to many Italian Americans. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has rebuffed calls to remove his likeness from New York City, given its significance among Italian Americans in the city.
