I want to thank representative gerald connollys office for aranging the room, the 11th district of virginia for electing representative mcconnolly since hes been generous enough to be doing this and i want to thank the History Center for doing are had the work. The national History Center offers these briefings because everything has a history and when some of those everythings are within the realm of public policy, then its our obligation as historians to provide the Historical Context essential to inform, debate and decision making. That obligation forms the sole position in these briefings. Were not here to convince anybody of any particular legislation. Were here because understanding the implications of change and hence shaping its direction requires understanding it changes that have brought us to this juncture in the first place. And weve discussed in these meeting rooms the histories of immigration, Civil Military relations, executive orders, social security, commerce in outer
Something very important that has now been its in the New York Times reporting in this story tonight. And he tweeted this before the announcement came that the president was commuting roger stones sentence. And howards tweet says just had a long talk with roger stone. He says he doesnt want a pardon, which implies guilt or commutation and says he thinks trump will give it to him. And then this part is in quotation marks from roger stone directly to howard fineman. He knows i was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably, but i didnt. Now, the only way roger stone could have turned on donald trump and eased his situation considerably would be by giving prosecutors criminal information about donald trump. There is nothing else that that can be referring to. And, so, there you have on the day that he gets this commutation from the president roger stone saying to a reporter that he had, in effect, saying to him that he had criminal information on
He knows i was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably, but i didnt. Now, the only way roger stone could have turned on donald trump and eased his situation considerably would be by giving prosecutors criminal information about donald trump. There is nothing else that that can be referring to. And, so, there you have on the day that he gets this commutation from the president roger stone saying to a reporter that he had, in effect, saying to him that he had criminal information on donald trump and he refused to give it to prosecutors, and therefore he deserves the commutation. This takes this case into a place where we have never been before. No. And this is this is like the case study, like the third grade case study for like how public corruption works. Like, yeah, in our republic, in our constitutional republic, the executive in our government has the ability to pardon people and that makes sense for some reasons. But there is a risk of
Injustice that weve been getting because of the color of my skin. The killing sparked a reckoning with centuries of history. It is a racist confederate statue. Should be knocked down. There is an overt effort here to erase all the white history. A political debate that at times pits americans against each other. They want to destroy america as we know it. They hate america. There are painful injuries to so Many American citizens. The unhinged leftwing mob is trying to vandal ice our history. I think those statues belong in museums. They dont belong in public places. Tonight tramaine lee takes us on a powerful journey through the south. A trip to listen and learn as we struggle to come to terms with our past. Here now is a special presentation of stone ghosts in the south americas legacy of heritage and hate. In the month after george floyd was killed by minneapolis police, 30 Confederate Monuments were taken down in this country. When Tragedy Strikes now, the monuments fall. Thats what
Us on a powerful journey through the south, a trip to listen and learn as we struggle to come to terms with our past. Here now is a special presentation of stone ghosts in the south americas legacy of heritage and hate. In the month after george floyd was killed by minneapolis police, 30 Confederate Monuments were taken down in this country. When Tragedy Strikes now, the monuments fall. Thats what happened in 2017 after Heather Heyer was murdered in charlottesville, virginia, when she was protesting a white supremacist demonstration in charlottesville. 36 Confederate Monuments came down that year. Thats the year trymaine lee began studying our stone ghosts and what they mean to the people who built them and what they mean to the people who have torn them down. Joining us now is trymaine lee, msnbc national correspondent. Trymaine, when did you get interested in, began focusing your reporting on the Confederate Monuments and why . You know, it was long before we took this journey in 201