‘Erasing America herself’: Dan Crenshaw angered by demonstrators promising to topple Emancipation Memorial

A crowd of demonstrators then erupted in cheers.

“Tomorrow night. I better see a lot of police ready to stop this,” Crenshaw tweeted Wednesday morning. “Once again, this isn’t about “offensive” history. Never has been. The Emancipation Memorial was paid for by freed slaves, to honor Lincoln.”

After tense clashes between protesters and police near the White House earlier this week, President Trump threatened to arrest “anyone who vandalizes or destroys any monument, statue or other such Federal property in the U.S.”

Protesters attempted but failed to topple a statue of Andrew Jackson on Monday.

Since the death of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks, demonstrators have taken to the streets to demand criminal justice reform and the removal of monuments or other symbols they say glorify America’s historical oppression of minorities.

Democrats in cities and states across the country, especially in the South, have vowed to take down statues of generals or other leaders who owned slaves or fought to keep them in chains.

Trump has been an outspoken critic of efforts to remove Confederate and other historic monuments.

“We are looking at long-term jail sentences for these vandals, hoodlums, anarchists, and agitators. Some people don’t like that language, but that’s what they are: Bad people. They don’t love our country, and they’re not taking down our monuments,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. “I just want that to be clear.”

Crenshaw, a Navy Seal who lost an eye in combat, said the removal of statues had nothing to do with fixing systemic racism in America.

“This is, and always has been, about erasing America herself,” he said.