Overview
- Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade said he does not support returning a Robert E. Lee statue because Lee “made a choice, and it was the wrong choice,” and he cited historians and Lee’s own statements about not wanting a statue.
- Kilmeade’s remarks surprised co-hosts and prompted pushback from Ainsley Earhardt, who warned against erasing history, while Lawrence Jones called for contextual plaques rather than celebration.
- The exchange followed reporting that a Lee monument removed from a Charleston school campus in 2021 has been put back on public display, making the debate immediate and local.
- Italian American groups have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to restore a Christopher Columbus statue removed from Columbus, Ohio’s city hall in 2020, adding legal pressure to restoration efforts.
- A March 2025 executive order from President Trump directed the Interior Department to review monuments removed since 2020, a federal process that now shapes disputes over whether removed memorials should be returned, removed permanently, or reinterpreted.