Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced on Monday that the DC Facilities and Commemorative Expressions (DCFACES) Working Group had submitted a final report and recommendations for the possible removal or relocation of historical monuments in the city.
DCFACES’ report urged Bowser to use her position on the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission to “recommend the Federal government remove, relocate, or contextualize” nine federal monuments. The monuments include the Christopher Columbus Fountain, Benjamin Franklin Statue, Andrew Jackson Statue, Jefferson Memorial, George Mason Memorial, Newlands Memorial Fountain, Albert Pike Statue, George Washington Statue, and Washington Monument.
The group also said three federally-owned monuments in the city are categorized as “a person of concern” warranting further review and decisions. Such a descriptor is given to legacy monuments named for figures “whose life stories may have conflicted with the values of the residents of the District of Columbia today,” the group’s report said.
The report also identified 150 other city-owned assets, from schools to buildings, parks, roads, neighborhoods, and more.
DCFACES was tasked with assessing city-owned facilities and recommending any actions that “need to be taken if the person the facility is named for is inconsistent with DC values and in some way encouraged the oppression of African Americans and other communities of color or contributed to our long history of systemic racism.”
Bowser has previously said she would use the recommendations to guide her decisions.
On Tuesday night, the White House condemned Muriel and the DCFACES plan.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “By publishing a plan that recommends potentially removing the Washington Monument, Christopher Columbus Statue, Andrew Jackson Statue, and Jefferson Memorial — among many other ludicrous recommendations — the radically liberal mayor of Washington, D.C., is repeating the same left-wing narrative used to incite dangerous riots: demolishing our history and destroying our great heritage.”
“President Donald J. Trump believes these places should be preserved, not torn down; respected, not hated; and passed on for generations to come,” McEnany added.
“As long as President Trump is in the White House, the mayor’s irresponsible recommendations will go absolutely nowhere, and as the mayor of our Nation’s capital city — a city that belongs to the American people — she ought to be ashamed for even suggesting them for consideration,” McEnany said.
