WASHINGTON — Representative Don Bacon, a Republican, had a blunt message for President Trump when a White House aide called him personally early this month and asked that he abandon legislation to strip the names of Confederate leaders from military bases. “You’re wrong — you need to change,” Mr. Bacon, a second-term Nebraskan and former Air Force brigadier general, told the official, he said in an interview. “We’re the party of Lincoln, the party of emancipation; we’re not the party of Jim Crow. It will take center stage on Capitol Hill this week, when the House and Senate each consider sweeping annual military bills that contain bipartisan measures mandating that the Pentagon remove Confederate names from military assets. Mr. Trump, who has sought to stoke cultural and political divisions over symbols of the Confederacy, has said he would veto any bill with such a requirement.

Source: New York Times July 20, 2020 22:52 UTC