Trump campaign adviser says Boston Tea Party was the 'right way' to protest
Corey Lewandowski criticized property destruction and protesters removing Confederate statues, but praised the Boston Tea Party as patriotic.
Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski on Tuesday said the scores of civil rights protests taking place across the country were destructive and suggested the Boston Tea Party was the “right way” to protest. Americans should learn the correct way to protest, like the patriots of the Boston Tea Party.
“There is a right way to protest and there’s always been that since the history of our country,” Lewandowski, who served on Trump’s 2016 campaign and is currently an unpaid adviser to his reelection bid, said on Fox Business. “From the time that the patriots took the tea and threw it into the Boston Harbor [in December 1773], there’s been a way to protest.”
Lewandowski then shifted focus to the property destruction that occurred during some of the recent protests against racism and police brutality as images of protesters tearing down statues flashed across the screen.
“No one is denying people’s rights to protest,” he said. “We are denying people’s right to be killed during protests and the looting and the destruction that’s transpiring. The destruction of private businesses.”
Historians believe the Boston Tea Party destroyed an estimated $1 million worth of personal property, based on present day value.
According to the History Channel, many of the participants kept their identities secret out of fear of “condemnation from elites for engaging in mob behavior and the wanton destruction of private property.”
The nation’s eventual first president, George Washington, while he supported the “cause of Boston,” condemned “their conduct in destroying the Tea” at the time in a letter to friend George William Fairfax in June 1774.
The recent protests Lewandowski criticized have in fact been largely peaceful, and in many cases right-wing activists were responsible for some of the violence and destruction that occurred.
Lewandowski’s comments come as the nation begins to reckon with its racist past. In several cities, protesters have taken down statues glorifying pro-slavery Confederate soldiers and other racist figures.
Republicans, including Donald Trump, have taken a strong stand against the statues’ removal.
“We pay tribute to generations of American heroes whose names are etched on our monuments and memorials,” Trump said on July 4 during a White House celebration. “We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children, or trample on our freedoms.”
A Quinnipiac University poll released on June 17 showed that 52% of Americans support the removal of confederate statues from public land, while only 44% disapprove.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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