Joe Biden supports removing the names of Confederate leaders on military assets, he said in a statement Friday.
“The names affixed to our military installations must honor the diverse heritage of leadership and sacrifice in our country’s history,” Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said. “I fully support Senator Warren’s bipartisan effort to form a commission to rename Defense Department facilities named after Confederate leaders in the next three years, and look forward to implementing the commission’s work as president.”
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A Biden campaign adviser also confirmed to CNN that Confederate flags “are absolutely unwelcome at our campaign’s events.”
The former vice president’s support of the Senate panel’s move to remove Confederate names on military assets is yet another stark contrast he is drawing on racial issues with President Donald Trump, who said Wednesday he opposes any effort by the US military to rename the nearly one dozen major bases and installations that bear the names of Confederate military commanders.
Politico was first to report Biden’s statement and the adviser’s statement about Confederate flags at campaign events.
Peaceful protests calling for justice and a reckoning with racial inequality have dominated the US in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, prompting many to reconsider the status quo.
CNN reported earlier this week that US Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper are said to be open to holding a “bipartisan conversation” about renaming nearly a dozen major bases and installations that bear the names of Confederate military commanders, according to an Army official.