A statue of African American tennis champion Arthur Ashe took its place among Confederate geneerals on Richmond's Monument Avenue in July 1996. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Ron Cogswell)

(CNSNews.com) – The discussion about Confederate statues is about addition as well as subtraction, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said on Sunday.

He told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he favors removing the statue of Robert E. Lee in the U.S. Capitol and replacing it with one of Pocahontas, for example. He also mentioned several other names.

There’s -- every state gets two statues to put in statuary hall or throughout the Capitol. And just using Virginia as an example. The state gets to choose two people to represent the entire scope of the state`s history. Virginia obviously chose George Washington, the father of the country. But the second choice that was made in 1909 and has never been changed is Robert E. Lee. I think, as you look at the scope of Virginia history, here in 2017, and if you want there to be two people to really stand for who Virginia is, why wouldn`t you think about Pocahontas, who, had she not saved John Smith`s life, we wouldn`t even be here, possibly? Why wouldn’t you think about a Barbara Johns who led a school walkout in Prince Edward County that ultimately became part of the Brown versus Board desegregation decision? Why wouldn`t you think about Governor Wilder, the grandson of a slave, a decorated Korean war combat veteran, who became the first elected African-American governor in the history of the country? I think, from 2017 looking backward, I think Virginia could probably do better in the two people that we choose to stand for us in statuary hall. And I think a number of the other states can do better as well.

Kaine, a former mayor of Richmond and former governor of Virginia, noted that he has worked on the issue of Confederate statues, names and symbols for many years. He noted that under his watch, two Virginia bridges have been renamed for civil rights heroes and new statues have gone up on Richmond’s Monument Avenue -- one of Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves and one of black tennis great Arthur Ashe.

“The way we sort of looked at this issue, and I think it`s important that we look at it this way – it's not just about subtraction. It also has to be about addition," Kaine said. "So our mayor, Levar Stoney, has convened a commission in Richmond to look at all of those statues and decide whether they should stay or be removed or be reinterpreted."

Kaine said it’s important to talk about people “whose stories haven't been told.”

“It's interesting, we’re a history-obsessed Commonwealth, but why do the four years of the Civil War merit so much more attention in Virginia than 250 years of blood sacrifice by hundreds of thousands of slaves who lived here, who built up our state, who were sold to our state?”