Virginia Republican politician Corey Stewart, the former chairman of Donald Trump’s Virginia campaign who is currently running for governor, took to Twitter this morning to denounce the removal of a Confederate monument in New Orleans, likening the move to actions committed by the terrorist group ISIS:
It appears ISIS has won. They are tearing down historical monuments in New Orleans now too. It must end. Despicable!https://t.co/hrO0cLozos
— Corey Stewart (@CoreyStewartVA) April 24, 2017
Stewart has become an outspoken defender of Confederate monuments, including one in Charlottesville, Virginia, where, according to the Washington Post, he compared “those who wanted to remove the statue to tyrants and Nazis.”
Without Confederate symbols, he said at another recent event, “we lose our identity.”
At a rally in Roanoke, Stewart posed alongside the Confederate battle flag, saying: “Folks, this is a symbol of heritage. It is not a symbol of racism. It is not a symbol of slavery.” The Richmond Times-Dispatch adds:
He has vowed to defend Confederate monuments from liberals who want them gone, promised to bring back Confederate emblems on state-issued specialty license plates, and said he would “absolutely not” mention slavery in symbolic proclamations about Confederate history.
Stewart, the chairman at-large of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, also has a long history of anti-immigrant activism.
