Crenshaw explains his vote on statue removal
When it came time to vote on removing statues of Confederates in the U.S. Capitol this week, U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw was one of 72 Republicans to side with every Democrat in the House of Representatives in approving the measure.
While the Houston Republican has taken criticism for the vote from some conservatives on social media who say he is helping to erase the nation’s history, Crenshaw defended himself by pointing out that many of the statues Democrats are pulling down were of Confederates who also happened to be members of the Democratic Party.
“I’m glad to help them confront that racist past & voted to remove these Democrat statues from positions of prominence,” Crenshaw wrote on Twitter and Facebook.
Crenshaw, who represents the 2nd Congressional District in Houston, was one of just six Republicans from Texas to vote for removing the statues. He joined U.S. Reps. Michael Burgess, RLewisville; Will Hurd, R-Helotes; Michael McCaul, R-Austin; Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land; and Van
Taylor, R-Plano.
The House voted to remove 11 statues located in an area near the House Chamber called Statuary Hall, in the Capitol Visitor Center and elsewhere around the complex. The statues include those of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. One statue with Texas ties is that of Edmund Kirby Smith, a Confederate general who didn’t give up until eight weeks after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. Smith surrendered the last military force of the Confederacy in Galveston on June 2, 1865. Florida was already in the process of removing that statue from the U.S. Capitol.
Crenshaw pointed out that
nine of the 11 statues removed were of Confederates who were early Democrats.
“Republicans won the Civil War. That’s our history,” Crenshaw wrote. “Democrats have a long list of segregationists & KKK members. That’s their history.”
After his vote, Hurd, who represents the 23rd Congressional District from San Antonio to El Paso, explained why he wanted the statues removed.
“Confederate statues don’t belong in the U.S. Capitol,” he said on Twitter. “Anyone committing treason against this great experiment we call America in order to keep slavery alive doesn't deserve a place in a building that represents freedom and unity.”
While Crenshaw voted for the removal of the Confederate statues, he’s been a regular critic of Democrats going too far in supporting
the removal of other statues. He’s written pieces for conservative media and has been on Fox News recently pushing back against those who wish to tear down statues of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.
“Though there is a legitimate debate to be had about confederate symbols and statues, the mob never intended to stop there,” Crenshaw wrote in a piece for the National Review, a conservative publication.
On Fox News he later said he supported having an “honest and good debate” about Confederate monuments but warned the left is taking aim at statues of Union General and former President Ulysses Grant, Lincoln and former President Theodore Roosevelt.
“The cancel culture has no end,” he said.