U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a statement on the deadly protests in Charlottesville, at the White House in Washingt...

In 3 tweets, Trump defends ‘beautiful’ Confederate monuments

President Donald Trump has faced mounting criticism over Tuesday’s combative news conference and his varied responses to the Charlottesville, Virginia, protests. He asked why the outcry over Confederate monuments in various U.S. cities didn’t extend to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, founding fathers who also owned slaves.

“You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?” the president asked.

On Thursday, President Trump posted three tweets that continued that line of thinking: “Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” his tweet triptych began.

After a white nationalist rally centered around a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville turned deadly, some officials across the country have renewed efforts to remove or relocate Confederate statues from public spaces.

A 2016 Southern Poverty Law Center report documented more than 700 Confederate monuments and statues on public lands in the U.S.

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