Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said Sunday she wants to see President Donald Trump sign a must-pass military spending bill that include renaming bases that currently memorialize Confederate figures.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Ernst declared “I would love that he sign the bill and move forward.”
“I do believe we should talk about these military bases that were named for generals that took up arms against the United States,” she said. “I welcome that discussion. … but I don't believe in the destruction of property. If we're talking about statues that belong to other jurisdictions, those decisions should be made at that local level, not by those that are out there vandalizing that property.”
Ernst said she believes racial justice and anti-police brutality protests have been peaceful for the most part, but said the nation now needs to “come together.”
“I do think that there are so many peaceful protests,” she said. “And that's exactly the kind of discussion and exhibition that we want to see, peaceful protests and I support those peaceful protesters.
“But what we can't allow is violence and that type of disruption and destruction of whether it's personal or private property, public property. We can't allow that to happen. …we all need to come together, we need to sit down and we need to have some very real, hard discussions. If we want to improve our country, we need to come together.”
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