Slavery is "good history." Wait. What?
Former Trump campaign spokesperson Katrina Pierson is facing ridicule after an apparently tonedeaf attempt at defending confederate statues from being torn down.
Pierson appeared in a segment on Fox News' Fox & Friends Monday to debate Minority House Leader Nancy Pelosi's plea to Congress to remove likenesses of confederate leaders from the Capitol.
"Americans love their history, their culture, good and bad, because it helps them learn and keep them educated about why America is so great to begin with," Pierson said.
But Trump's former aide appeared to lose her way in the debate with Johns Hopkins University professor Wendy Osefo, who said the confederate statues were erected as a symbol of defiance against "black local power." Osefo added, "This is not a symbol of patriotism. This is a symbol of hatred and division. It doesn't deserve a place on state grounds."
"It absolutely deserves a place," Pierson responded, "because bad history is still good history for this country."
Osefo challenged her, saying: "Slavery is good history? Really? Oh wow."
But Pierson wasn't finished. "Considering where we are today… where we are today… absolutely.
"Think about this for a second. Where would we be today if not for that civil war? How would our children even know how special and wonderful this country is?"
"Where would we be without slavery? How special slavery is?" Osefo questioned incredulously.
Pierson did not stop, however, even when Fox News anchor Ainsley Earhardt tried to defuse the tension between his guests. Pierson continued to talk over Osefo and Earhardt making her point that the U.S. "was founded on slave owners who actually put into place to change the law."
She insisted she was not condoning slavery when questioned by Osefo. "Nobody said slavery was OK," Pierson said.
What Pierson was seemingly getting at, in a rather ineloquent way, is the argument that statues of confederate leaders serve as a reminder of America's history, both good and bad.
Perhaps she should have just read out this tweet?
A statue never signed my paycheck. A dead person never offered me a job. I was never a slave. A monument, however, reminds me why. #MAGA 🇺🇸
— Katrina Pierson (@KatrinaPierson) August 17, 2017
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