Thursday on SiriusXM’s “The Dean Obeidallah Show,” Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) argued President Donald Trump’s base included “angry white men and women that align somehow with the Confederacy.”
Obeidallah asked, “Donald Trump yesterday and then again today, making it clear that he is opposed to any renaming of military installations that bare the names of Confederate military leaders. What’s your reaction to continuing to name military installations after people who took up arms and killed members of the United States Military?”
Gallego said, “I mean, it’s absolutely disgusting. We don’t have Ho Chi Minh airport. We don’t have Rommel Airfield. These people were traitors. Not only that — they were traitors, and they were outright white supremacists. We certainly shouldn’t be honoring them with bases where our military is extremely diverse. Like, how does it feel if you’re a black man having to go to these slaveholders that tried to overthrow the union, named bases? It’s ridiculous.”
He continued, “Look, it’s just politics the president knows that his base, all he has left at this point are these angry, angry white men and women that align somehow with the Confederacy or the aggrievedness that comes with it. He just can’t get rid of them, and so he’d rather stick with what he knows rather than go do outreach to other people.”
He added, “In no way should we be honoring these people, it’s disgusting. It’s just disgusting to think that we are going to continue to elevate these people that literally tried to tear up this country and killed hundreds of thousands of fellow countrymen.”
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