'Is It George Washington Next Week?': Trump Blasts Monument Removals as 'Changing History'

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Tucker Carlson said President Trump mentioned an often-overlooked idea on the left during his press conference Tuesday.

Trump said that if statues of people like Robert E. Lee, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, P.G.T. Beauregard and others are being taken down because they are offensive, who's next?

Carlson echoed Trump's concern that the left's disdain for slave-holding American icons trumps their importance in the country's history.

"Slavery is evil," Carlson said. "But, until 150 years ago... slavery was the rule rather than the exception."

He noted that George Washington, George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, and 41 of 56 Declaration signers held slaves.

"None of this is a defense of the atrocity of human bondage," he said, "But, if these men were simply racist villains... then the society they created was as evil as they were."

He called Jefferson the greatest American political thinker, and in contrast noted how CNN's Ashleigh Banfield once called for the Jefferson Memorial to be taken apart.

Carlson said that in denouncing and tearing down these monuments, the left is objecting to the First Amendment right to free speech.

He said leftist "radicals" want to "tear down" the rights of the individual in this way.

"Is that the country you want to live in? If it's not, now's the time to speak up," Carlson said.

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