Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Monday called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to bring charges against people who have been destroying statues and monuments across the United States.
“For weeks violent mobs have roamed our streets destroying property, in most cases with neither resistance from police nor legal consequences,” Cotton announced. “I call upon the Department of Justice to bring charges against these mob vigilantes, prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law.”
“There must be consequences for mob violence,” Cotton reiterated. “Because if you give the mob an inch, they will take a mile.”
He noted that over the recent days, mobs have torn down a George Washington statue in Portland, Oregon, as well as a statue of former President Ulysses S. Grant in San Francisco, California.
“They aren’t exactly criminal masterminds, typically filming their crimes and posting the videos on social media,” he added later in the letter.
President Donald Trump explicitly denounced the recent wave of statue-toppling at his first reelection campaign rally in months at Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20.
“This cruel campaign of censorship and exclusion violates everything we hold dear as Americans,” he said at the rally. “They want to demolish our heritage so they can impose their new oppressive regime in its place.”
Trump added that an “unhinged left-wing mob” is attempting “to vandalize our history … tear down our statues, and punish, cancel, and persecute anyone who does not conform to their demands for absolute and total control.”
“We’re not conforming,” he said.
