Trump bemoans removal of confederate monuments

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - President Donald Trump on Thursday lamented the "so foolish!" removal of confederate monuments.

"Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments," Trump said in a series of tweets.

"The beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced.”

For many, the monuments to which Trump is referring serve as a somber reminder of America's racist past.

Earlier this week Trump appeared to equivocate between a hate rally and those protesting it, saying there were "some very fine people" among those who championed hate in Virginia.

Hundreds of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and white nationalists flocked to Charlottesville, Virginia, lsst weekend to protest the removal of a confederate statue from one of the city's public parks.

The hate rally erupted into a number of violent clashes with counter-protests and hit an apex when a car plowed into a group of anti-racist demonstrators, killing a 32 year-old woman and injuring nearly 20 other victims.

Following the rally roughly a dozen confederate monuments have either come down or are planned for removal.

Thousands of demonstrators congregated Wednesday night in the southern city to rejected the hate rally.

Momentum to remove the symbols of America's confederacy, which fought to retain slavery during the Civil War, has been building since 2015 when a lone gunman fatally shot nine black parishioners inside a South Carolina church, hoping to incite a race war.

Dylann Roof, who is currently awaiting the death penalty, prominently championed confederate symbols, as many white nationalists and white supremacists, including those who went to Charlottesville.

In the time since Roof carried out his grisly crimes, at least 60 monuments have been removed or renamed, the Southern Poverty Law Center, that tracks hate crimes.