Country music hall of famer Charlie Daniels is speaking out about the removal of the statues of Confederate leaders in the United States.
Daniels is likening the statues coming down to ISIS’ demolition of historical sites in the Middle East.
“That’s what ISIS is doing,” the 80-year-old country singer explained during an interview with Newsmax TV on Wednesday. “There were pieces of history over there they didn’t like and they were taking them down.”
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Trump defends Confederate monuments as more come down -
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Trump calls removal of Confederate statues “foolish” -
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All of Baltimore’s Confederate monuments removed overnight by city workers -
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Confederate statues in Baltimore quietly removed overnight -
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City workers erect barriers around Confederate monuments in Birmingham, Alabama -
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Protesters in North Carolina topple Confederate monument -
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Counter-protest held in support of efforts to remove Confederate monuments -
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Demonstrators carrying torches protest Confederate statue removal -
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He went on to echo U.S. President Donald Trump’s tweets from Thursday on the subject.
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Daniels argued that Americans didn’t need to agree with the politics of the figures involved.
“You don’t have to condone what happened in the Civil War. We all know what it was fought for. But they are statues of people that are a part of our history,” he said. “There are people who were part of our history who were not very savoury characters. But Robert E. Lee, for instance, was one of the most honourable people in our history.”
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He continued: “If you don’t like it, don’t look at it. I walk past movie posters I don’t like. …There’s all kinds of symbolism in this country that I don’t like, but I’m not going to go tear them down.”
Daniels said that “these statues aren’t preaching or shouting out some kind of crazy epithets or something. They’re just sitting there.”
“So just turn around and don’t look at them,” Daniels concluded.
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Daniels, who was promoting his autobiography Don’t Look At The Empty Seats, has been sharing his political views on Twitter.
On Thursday he tweeted about Saturday’s protests by the white-supremacists groups in Charlottesville, Va. “The media and opportunists act as if the two factions in Charlottesville represent the attitudes of the whole country. Believe me, it doesn’t.”
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After Thursday’s attack in Barcelona, Spain — where the driver of van that plowed through a tourist district in Barcelona and left at least 13 dead, injuring 100 more — Daniels tweeted, “Did a hell of a lot of good for Spain to cave into the terrorists when they blew up that train a few years ago.”
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