Thread by @ashtonpittman

NEW: Two white Mississippi Republicans voted to keep statues of white supremacists on display in the U.S. Capitol, including Mississippi's statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Jim Crow architect J.Z. George.

Both were slave owners. #HR3005 mississippifreepress.org/13398/two-miss…

“Statues of those who served in the Confederacy or supported slavery or segregation should not have a place of honor in the Capitol—that’s why I voted to #RemoveHate today."
—Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, the only Mississippi member to vote for #HR3005 mississippifreepress.org/13398/two-miss…

Republican U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy claimed today that Democrats were trying to "hide their shameful history" of southern Democrats supporting slavery with #HR3005 which all Democrats voted for and most Republicans voted against. mississippifreepress.org/13398/two-miss…

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy: “The bill we’re voting on today we’ve voted on before. I supported it (then), and I support it now. But let me state a simple fact: All of the statues being removed by this bill are statues of Democrats.” mississippifreepress.org/13398/two-miss…

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “Monuments to men or people who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to those ideals. They’re homage to hate, not heritage. They must be removed.” mississippifreepress.org/13398/two-miss…

One of the men Mississippi honors with a statue in the Capitol, J.Z. George, led the effort to enshrine white supremacy into state law after Reconstruction, helping draft a Jim Crow constitution with poll taxes, literacy tests & felony disenfranchisement.
mississippifreepress.org/13398/two-miss…

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith said she opposes legislation banning white supremacist statues:

"How to best depict the history of our nation is always up for debate, but it is not the role of Congress to dictate to states which statues should be in the Capitol.”mississippifreepress.org/13398/two-miss…

Before Hyde-Smith became a Republican, she served as a Democratic senator in the Mississippi Legislature where, in 2001, she introduced a bill that would have named a section of highway the “Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway.”
mississippifreepress.org/13398/two-miss…

Sen. Roger Wicker also opposes #HR3005's removal of white supremacist monuments from the Capitol.

“It would be a mistake for Congress to remove statues placed in the U.S. Capitol by Mississippi or any state,” he's said, calling it "an overreach." mississippifreepress.org/13398/two-miss…

At the 2017 opening of the MS Civil Rights Museum, Wicker called Confederate President Jefferson Davis a "hero" for his pre-Civil War support for renovating and enlarging the U.S. Capitol. (Jefferson later, of course, led the insurrection against the U.S.).mississippifreepress.org/13398/two-miss…

Will you help us doing non-profit journalism that trusts readers enough to tell today's stories in the context of real, whitewashing-free history?

We're under $6k away from our July 1 goal of $100k donations. Please consider a donation of any size: mfp.ms/donate

Here's how Mississippi U.S. House members each voted on #HR3005 (removing white supremacist/Confederate statues from the Capitol):

FOR
@BennieGThompson (D)

AGAINST
@RepTrentKelly (R)
@CongPalazzo (R)

NOT VOTING
@RepMichaelGuest (R)
mississippifreepress.org/13398/two-miss…

Rep. Michael Guest now says he would have voted to KEEP the white supremacist statues in the U.S. Capitol, but was delayed and could not vote.

"I would be against the federal government ordering or dictating Mississippi to remove those statues," he said.
mississippifreepress.org/13398/two-miss…