Senior GOP senator warns Trump the Senate would 'probably override' his veto on Confederate base names

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

published 7 July 2020

President Trump has threatened to veto a must-pass defense authorization bill that would remove the names of Confederate military leaders from U.S. bases within three years, but Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) warned Monday the president is fighting for a lost cause. "If it came to overriding a veto, we'd probably override the veto," he said. "I would hope he wouldn't veto it just based on that." Four Republican senators on the Armed Services Committee voted in favor of the amendment, proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), lodging it firmly in the bill.

A Pentagon official told The Washington Post on Monday that the highest levels of Defense Department leadership are considering a ban on Confederate flags at all bases, building on less absolute bans put in place by the Marine Corps and Navy. NASCAR and Mississippi have recently retired the Confederate battle flag and House Democrats included a clause in a separate funding bill Monday that would remove the statues of Confederate figures from the U.S. Capitol.

Trump's insistence on keeping the Confederate names on military bases is "part of a pattern" in which he "has sought to stoke white fear and resentment" just about every day for the last two weeks, "portraying himself as a protector of an old order that polls show much of America believes perpetuates entrenched racism and wants to move beyond," Maggie Haberman reports at The New York Times. "For many Republicans who are watching the president's impact on Senate races with alarm, his focus on racial and cultural flash points — and not on the surge of the coronavirus in many states — is distressing."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.