Missouri Sen. Hawley opposes measure to drop Confederate names from military bases
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said Thursday he voted against an amendment to require the U.S. military to rename 10 bases named for Confederate officers
“I opposed this amendment, spoke against it, and voted no in the committee. Congress should not be mandating renaming of our bases and military installations,” Hawley, a Missouri Republican who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on Twitter Thursday morning after the committee approved the measure by voice vote the previous day.
The amendment was crafted by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, who said earlier this week that it was “long past time to end the tribute to white supremacy on our military installations.”
The committee added it to the annual defense authorization bill, a piece of must-pass legislation that enables the Pentagon to spend the military budget. Proponents of changing the names point out that the Confederate Army fought a war against the U.S. military for the purpose of preserving the racist institution of slavery.
Hawley said he would offer an amendment to strip out Warren’s provision from the bill before it passes the full Senate, contending in a speech on the Senate floor that the change would not heal racial division in the country.
“The purpose was to erase from history—erase—every person and name and event not righteous enough and to cast those who would object as defenders of the cause of slavery,” Hawley said. “To reenact in our current politics that Civil War that tore brother from brother and divided this nation against itself.”
The bases that would be renamed under the measure include Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the Army’s largest installation, which is named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg. He was defeated by Union General Ulysses S. Grant at the Battles of Chattanooga in 1863.
President Donald Trump has been vocal in his opposition to the renaming effort, tweeting that the bases are part of the country’s “history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom.”
Trump’s tweets came after Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy signaled earlier this week that they were open to discussions about name changes.
Hawley’s office did not immediately answer a question about whether the Missouri senator would support the military changing the names on its own, but speaking to reporters he emphasized that he did not think Congress should mandate the change.
“I’ve heard from a lot of soldiers who’ve come through those bases, and they’ve said that, ‘Those bases mean something to me. I have my own history with those. Please don’t rename those,’” Hawley said according to a transcript provided by his office.
“I mean, we need to deal with our past. We need to deal with all of its implications, and those are difficult. But I don’t think that erasing it is the right way to do it. And I certainly don’t think Congress should mandate it.”
Missouri’s other Republican senator, Roy Blunt, told CNN he did not have a problem with renaming the bases.
“If you want to name them after soldiers, there’s been lots of great soldiers since the Civil War,” Blunt said, noting that Bragg was one of the worst generals in the Civil War.
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 11:23 AM.
