In an interview with Fox News host Chris Wallace, US President Donald Trump defended people who fly the flag of the Confederate States of America saying:
“When people proudly had their Confederate flags, they’re not talking about racism. They love their flag; it represents the South. They like the South … I say it’s freedom of many things, but it’s freedom of speech,”
The President also made light of calls for US military bases named after Confederate generals joking that he would rename Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which houses 57,000 troops after civil rights activist and talk show host Al Sharpton, a vocal critic of Donald Trump.
In recent months and years there have been increasing calls to ban symbols of the Confederacy with numerous statues of Confederate leaders being toppled in the recent Black Lives Matter and protests.
President Trump, however, has defended these symbols and statues as being markers of Southern heritage and pride rather racism or condoning of slavery.
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