President Donald Trump threatened lengthy prison sentences in a Tuesday tweet for anyone caught vandalizing or destroying federal monuments.
"I have authorized the Federal Government to arrest anyone who vandalizes or destroys any monument, statue or other such Federal property in the U.S. with up to 10 years in prison, per the Veteran's Memorial Preservation Act, or such other laws that may be pertinent," he wrote in the early morning post.
His comments come as protestors nationwide have taken to defacing monuments dedicated to historical figures linked to racism, slavery, and colonialism.
What started as a movement targeting symbols of racism against African Americans, like monuments to Confederate soldiers and generals, has since forced the reckoning of other controversial figures in history, like Christopher Columbus, who annihilated indigenous populations in West Indies and kicked off the transatlantic slave trade.
Even obscure figures haven't been spared. The family of Josephus Daniels, a publisher and white supremacist credited with ushering in the Jim Crow era in North Carolina has removed a statue of him in Raleigh, according to the Raleigh News & Observer.
In Richmond, Virginia, police stepped in to thwart the efforts of protestors to topple a statue of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart. Authorities declared the gathering an "unlawful assembly" and arrested several protestors.
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio supported the American Museum of Natural History's decision to remove a statue of President Theodore Roosevelt. The statue depicts him atop a horse while he is flanked by a Black American and a Native American.
"The statue itself communicates a racial hierarchy that the Museum and members of the public have long found disturbing," a statement from the Museum reads.
Despite his recent defense of a statue of Christopher Columbus at Manhattan's Columbus Circle as a tribute not to Columbus' past but to the legacy of Italian Americans in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was also supportive of the Museum's actions. Mayor de Blasio charged his newly formed Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission, which is headed by his wife Chirlane McCray, with determining the fate of other statues, including U.S. founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, in and around the City Council's chambers.
Monday evening in Washington, DC, protesters attempted to topple a statue of President Andrew Jackson, who has been widely panned for his treatment of Native Americans. The move against the statue, located near the White House, precipitated Trump's tweets.
Prior to the early morning tweet, though, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany had outlined the Trump Administration's take on protestors' actions, calling them "quite confusing."
"We're being told that George Washington's statue needs to come down, Thomas Jefferson's statue needs to come down," she said. "Where do you draw the line -- from Gandhi all the way to George Washington?"
Activists have argued the action is as much about creating a more nuanced narrative of history that also includes the experiences of black and indigenous people, as it is about recognizing the flaws of America's past that led up to its still unequal present.
Arguing for the removal of monuments to racist figures and the Confederacy is nothing new.
It tends to re-emerge in the aftermath of racism-fueled tragedies like the death of George Floyd and, previously, the 2015 Charleston Church Shooting. There are signs that slow, but incremental, progress has been made. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that between the years of 2015 -- when a gunman opened fire in a historically Black church in South Carolina, killing nine -- and 2019, about 115 confederate monuments were removed nationwide. At the time, some 1,748 still stood.
Food, paper, and plastic are known to be major factors when it comes to America's trash; but furniture is high on that list, as well. According to the EPA, furniture makes up twelve million tons of waste in landfills every year. It's a problem that one online furniture store is trying to solve. Alpay Koralturk, Founder & CEO of Kaiyo, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Bitcoin surged to its highest level on Monday since January 2nd. The gains also come after a late Sunday rally for the cryptocurrency, when it surpassed the key price of $45,000, and also turned positive for 2022. Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise Asset Fund, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss what is behind the recent rallies for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Founder and CEO of Capital Postal & Mail Box Service, Takisha Clark, joined Cheddar News to talk about being the first black woman to own a postal franchise, the obstacles she faced when launching her business, and how she overcame them. “I ran into just dealing with lack of resources, dealing with just being a black woman, just trying to become this entrepreneur and be inspiring to others, so it's been a journey," she said. "It's been hard, and I've just been maneuvering through the cracks."
Actress, model, author, and entrepreneur Brooke Shields has joined organic CBD company Prospect Farms as its chief brand officer. She joined CEO Brad Tipper to talk to Cheddar News about her coming aboard. Shield’s explained how her involvement with Prospect Farms stemmed from a discussion about her lack of sleep. “I started learning about the positive effects and the different ways that CBD can be introduced to a person's life, and I was just sort of fascinated because it all feels so new to me," she said.
The co-writers and directors of the movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once" Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert joined Cheddar News to discuss their new sci-fi action-comedy starring Michelle Yeoh now in select theaters. The filmmakers talked about bringing the multiverse-traversing plot to life, as well as getting the chance to tell an Asian American story following in the footsteps of successful films like "Crazy Rich Asians." "We like to make films that we want to see on the screen, and even if that means they don't exist or even that means that the world might not be ready for them," said Kwan. "That's what we're chasing. Luckily for us, the movie took so long to make that by the time it was finished or by the time now that it's done, so much has changed."
Paul Mundell, Executive Director of the American Service Dog Access Coalition, joins Cheddar Reveals to discuss why emotional support, therapy, and service dogs are important.
Plastic has become the face of global pollution. To date, humans have produced 8.3 billion metric tons of it. Once discarded, plastic doesn’t biodegrade. Instead, it fragments into microplastics smaller than the size of a sesame seed and further into nanoplastics.
These tiny particles of plastic end up everywhere, deep in the ice of Antarctic glaciers or even inside our bodies.
So how much plastic is inside of us? And what does it mean for our health? Let’s find out.
Catching you up on what you Need to Know on Mar 29, 2022, with updates on the snow squall in Pennsylvania that caused a pileup killing three, the teacher's strike in Sacramento heading into week two, Walmart no longer selling tobacco products in select stores, and what meme stocks are up to this week.
Biden wants the ultra-rich to close the deficit in his new budget proposal, a judge rules Trump's aide must turn over election emails, and Chrome users need to do an update. Here is all the news you Need2Know for Tuesday, March 29, 2022.
