'We're not afraid of the mob': Young Republicans defend Roosevelt statue at NYC Museum of Natural History

The New York Young Republican Club plans to hold a rally in New York City on Sunday in defense of the statue of Theodore Roosevelt at the entrance of The American Museum of Natural History.

“We're not afraid of the mob,” Gavin Wax, the president of club told “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday.

Officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, announced last week that the statue will be removed after years of objections that it symbolizes colonial expansion and racial discrimination.

The move comes amid a growing push to remove statues and monuments and other images honoring Confederate soldiers, slave owners and other controversial historical figures, which have been torn down in states, including Virginia and California – either officially or by the protesters themselves.

Wax explained on Sunday that his club “will be leading a rally along with activists from across the five boroughs to demonstrate in defense of the equestrian statue of Teddy Roosevelt, which greets millions every year as they enter into the American Museum of Natural History, which is an institution that would not even be there today if not for the great work of our 26th president, who was an American patriot and icon.”

The bronze statue that has stood at the museum’s Central Park West entrance since 1940, as the New York Times reported, depicts Roosevelt on horseback with a Native American man and an African man standing next to the horse.

“The American Museum of Natural History has asked to remove the Theodore Roosevelt statue because it explicitly depicts black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior,” de Blasio announced last Sunday in a written statement. “It is the right decision and the right time to remove this problematic statue.”

De Blasio’s statement came as anti-racism demonstrations have continued in major cities, with some turning violent, after the May 25 killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd, the African-American man who died after a white police officer was seen pressing his knee on his neck.

“Make no mistake about it, this is about much more than just one statue, this is about a c... (Read more)

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