Sen. Ted Cruz argued Thursday that although he thinks it would not be “beneficial” to “sanitize history” by ripping down Confederate statues around the country, communities should be able to decide for themselves “how to appropriately acknowledge” history.

“I don’t think it’s beneficial to go through and try to sanitize history and try to erase the Civil War. We have a history that needs to be presented fairly, needs to be presented in context. It needs to clearly enunciate the evils of slavery,” Cruz told reporters at the Mary Kay Headquarters in Dallas, Texas, according to CNN.