Republican Senate nominee Corey Stewart said that he doesn't believe that the Civil War was fought over the issue of slavery, arguing that it was mostly about states' rights.
In a Monday interview with Hill.TV's "Rising," Stewart, who recently won the GOP nomination in the Virginia Senate race, said that not all parts of Virginia's history are "pretty."
But he said he doesn't associate slavery with the war.
"I don't at all. If you look at the history, that's not what it meant at all, and I don't believe that the Civil War was ultimately fought over the issue of slavery," Stewart said.
When "Rising" co-host Krystal Ball pressed him again if the Civil War was "significantly" fought over slavery, Stewart said some of them talked about slavery, but added that most soldiers never owned slaves and "they didn't fight to preserve the institution of slavery."
"We have to put ourselves in the shoes of the people who were fighting at that time and from their perspective, they saw it as a federal intrusion of the state," he said.
In a speech before Fairfax County voters earlier this month, for example, Stewart said he would “Make Fairfax Safe Again,” falsely claiming that the county had declared itself a “sanctuary city” and pledging to wipe out the MS-13 gang in the state’s most populous jurisdiction.
But Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors since 2006, also has left more moderate Republicans troubled. He has come under fire for associating with white supremacists, then distancing himself from them by saying he was not aware of how extreme their views were.
He has defended Confederate symbols, was photographed standing before the Confederate battle flag and ran unsuccessfully for governor last year on a platform he called “Confederate heritage.”
“They can’t attack me on my record, so they attack me with false allegations of racism, bigotry and anti-Semitism,” Stewart said Sunday. “Let me tell you something, folks: I completely disavow all those ideologies 100 percent.”
Stewart has called Republican congressional candidate Paul Nehlen his “personal hero.” Nehlen’s campaign has posted anti-Semitic memes, tweeted out a list of Jewish journalists, and promoted a book by neo-Nazi Kevin MacDonald.
“Corey Stewart was an outspoken supporter of the white supremacist ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville last August, has appeared publicly several times with the rally’s organizer Jason Kessler, and was a featured speaker at an alt-lite rally in Washington, D.C., last June,” an Anti-Defamation League spokesperson told Newsweek. “In campaign photographs, Stewart has appeared with members of the League of the South, a white supremacist group that advocates for southern secession and an independent, white-dominated South.”
A number of white nationalists are running for Republican party bids across the country, but most of them have little to no chance at the actual nomination. Republican strategist Ford O’Connell says that Stewart’s win doesn’t suggest a change in that trend.
“The number one thing when running in a primary is name identification, and Stewart has that from running for governor,” he explained. “In terms of setting a national precedent, you’ve got battles all over the country and people aren’t paying that much attention to the Virginia race.”
And of course he can’t stand this:
Corey Stewart, the Virginia Republican Party's nominee for Senate, said he disagrees with the decision to rename a Richmond elementary school after former President Obama.
Stewart has long courted controversy with his ardent support of Confederate monuments. During a Monday morning interview with Hill.TV's "Rising," Stewart said the school erred by removing the name of a Confederate general in favor of Obama's.
"I'm not opposed to somebody naming a school after a president of the United States, in this case Barack Obama, even though I don't like Barack Obama," Stewart said.
"If a school district wants to name their school after Barack Obama, that's fine. But don't take the name of a historic figure off a school. That is political correctness run amuck," he said.
But the Republican Party deserves Stewart because they were embracing his type for years:
Southern white voters who abandoned the Democratic Party in droves after President Lyndon B. Johnson secured passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960s eventually found a home in the GOP.
Republican leaders in Virginia and across much of the nation openly appealed to whites who were skeptical about advancing rights for minorities, gays and immigrants, and who opposed feminism and social safety net programs.
In the 1990s, the pro-business, budget-conscious Virginia GOP establishment built a winning coalition of Main Street conservatives who were able to mobilize a reliable cadre of culture warrior voters with “dog whistle” law-and-order ad campaigns that warned of parolees, drug gangs and immigrants.
Landslide GOP gubernatorial victories in 1993 and 1997 emboldened those who believed that a hard turn to the right was a winning formula in Virginia. Ultimately, the narrowing of its electoral appeal weakened the party in state elections but left a committed core of archconservatives directing its path forward.
So, while Stewart and his role model Trump will continue to receive attention for their brazen nativism and outlandish behaviors, it’s worth remembering they’re not really leading the Republican Party anywhere many present-day Republican voters don’t want to go.
Stewart and Trump are not so much the cause of the transformation of the GOP as they are a reflection of a long-brewing metamorphosis.
And of course, Stewart is an awful monster on this issue:
Virginia Republican Senate nominee Corey Stewart on Monday stumbled over a question about what mandated the separation of children and parents at the southern border.
In an interview with Hill.TV's “Rising,” Stewart, who is squaring off with incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) in November, blamed Democrats for a law that required family separations at the border.
President Trump also repeatedly blamed Democrats for the issue, but it was his administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which expedited the prosecution of people caught crossing the border illegally, that led to families being separated. Under pressure, Trump signed an executive order last week to would keep families together through the detention process.
“I think that it was an unnecessary requirement based upon the law that the Democrats passed that required the separation,” Stewart said.
When pressed by “Rising” co-host Krystal Ball on what law required separations, Stewart stumbled over his answer that it was a law required by the Department of Health and Human Services “to take care of the children” while border agents arrest and incarcerate the parents.
When asked if he was referring to the Flores settlement, a 1997 consent decree that doesn’t allow the government to keep children detained for more than 20 days, Stewart attempted to recover, pointing to the president “actually enforcing the law at the border.”
“What I’m talking about is the existing federal law which the president has now been able to set aside which now allows the children to stay with their parents,” Stewart said. “The most important thing you have is a president who’s actually enforcing the law at the border.”
“That was absolutely necessary to prevent an even bigger humanitarian crisis.”
While we’re on this issue:
About 15 migrant children recently separated from their parents near the southwestern U.S. border are staying at a shelter in Northern Virginia, according to the shelter’s leadership.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) toured the Youth for Tomorrow facility Friday in the Prince William County community of Bristow, aides said, speaking with some of the migrant children and learning from the staff that many of the youngsters arrived there “traumatized.”
The children — girls from 10 to 17 years old — were taken to the shelter, according to Gary Jones, chief executive of Youth for Tomorrow, after the Trump administration began a recent, highly publicized immigration enforcement crackdown.
Jones said two of the girls are expected to be reunited with their parents soon. He said he did not have additional details.
The administration’s “zero tolerance” approach emphasized prosecution of adults who cross the border illegally, which led to children being taken from their parents and housed in shelters, while the parents were placed in criminal detention.
President Trump signed an order this week meant to end family separations at the border, although the details of implementing it remain unclear.
“The Trump administration needs to assure us that every single one of the children they separated from their parents is quickly and safely returned to their families,” Kaine said in a statement. “The first step toward that goal is identifying where every child is being held, releasing a list of those facilities, and letting members of Congress visit all of those locations.”
Kaine said he was thankful that Youth for Tomorrow allowed him to visit and appreciated the organization’s efforts to reunify families. He contended that federal authorities are not being transparent about the locations where children are being kept.
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