The Senate Armed Services Committee has voted to force the Pentagon to change the names of bases and other assets that are named after Confederate military leaders, Roll Call reports.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a member of the panel, offered an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday during the committee’s closed-door markup session, which would require the Pentagon to change the Confederate names within the next three years.
The move came after retired Gen. David Petraeus wrote an opinion piece calling for the removal of all Confederate names from military bases, saying “it is time to remove the names of traitors like Benning and Bragg from our country’s most important military installations.”
“As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I filed an amendment to the annual defense bill last week to rename all bases named for Confederate generals,” Warren tweeted on Tuesday, in response to Petraeus. “It's long past time to end the tribute to white supremacy on our military installations.”
During a press briefing on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that Trump would veto the NDAA if it requires bases to remove Confederate names.
"The president will not be signing legislation that renames America's forts," McEnany said, according to Roll Call. "Fort Bragg, for example, it's one of the largest military installations. It's home to tens of thousands of brave American soldiers, and when you think of Fort Bragg, we think of the brave soldiers that deployed from there."
"The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these hallowed grounds, and won two World Wars," Trump said in a statement. "Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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