Attempting to put President Donald Trump in a box where he has to either betray U.S. history and his base, or be accused of being a Confederate, the Senate on July 23 passed a $740 billion defense spending bill with a poison pill inserted: a provision to rename military bases bearing the names of Confederate officers in the Civil War.
Failed Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts introduced the provision, which requires the Pentagon to set up a commission to rename within the next three years all military assets named after people who fought against the Union 155 years ago.
That’s right … 155 years ago.
According to the New York Post, the GOP-controlled chamber surrendered with astonishing speed, overwhelmingly passing the legislation. They voted 81 to 14 — well over the number required to defeat the presidential veto Trump threatened last month in a bid to stop the bill.
The National Defense Authorization Act includes a plan to remove the names of army bases named after Confederate soldiers, such as Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Benning in Georgia, which are named after Confederate Generals Braxton Bragg and Henry Lewis Benning.
The sprawling piece of legislation includes a 3 percent pay hike for members of the military. The House on Tuesday passed the bill with a similar veto-defying vote of 295 to 125.
Trump has vocally opposed renaming bases, saying they reflect American history and that renaming them would be a disservice to the military personnel who trained and served at them. He threatened again to veto the bill during an interview on “Fox News Sunday” over the weekend.
