MS NOW’s Rachel Maddow kicked off her Monday night show with a victory lap after a federal court ruled against President Donald Trump’s efforts to censor and remove exhibits about slavery from the site of the first presidential house at Independence Park in Philadelphia.
“That house has a really interesting story,” explained Maddow. “Accidentally, the last remaining walls of that house were, by accident, torn down in the 1950s. That was the last standing portion of the house. It was accidentally demolished in the 1950s. Decades later, once archeologists and historians figured out for sure where that president’s house had been, the city got involved. They bought the land, they preserved everything they could. And ultimately, that site was reopened as a national historic site. Today, it is sort of an open-air pavilion where you can see the shape of the president’s house. You can see the foundations of the original building. They’ve got artifacts there from the time that George Washington and John Adams lived in that house.”
“And while John Adams, who was from Massachusetts — while Adams was not a slaveholder, George Washington was,” said Maddow. “George Washington had eight people who were enslaved to him, who he brought from Virginia to that house in Philadelphia to serve him while he was president. He later brought an enslaved person from Virginia to Philadelphia to that house, making it a total of nine. And that is all part of the history there at this historic site in Philadelphia.”
“Now, you’ve probably heard about the fact that over this past year, President Donald Trump ordered the physical removal of all references to slaves and slavery at that national historic site,” said Maddow. “Well, today, a big change in that case today. Happy Presidents’ Day. A federal judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ordered that the Trump administration must put those references to slaves and slavery back up.”
“The judge in the case is a Republican appointee from the George W. Bush administration, and she starts her remarkable ruling today with a quote from ‘1984’ from George Orwell,” said Maddow. “She then says, quote, ‘As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s ‘1984’ now existed, with its motto ‘ignorance is strength,’ this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims to assemble and disassemble historic truths when it has some domain over historical facts. It does not.’”
This whole thing, Maddow said, “is your Presidents’ Day present this year, this ruling.”
She continued to quote from the judge’s ruling: “President Washington’s house would not merit designation as a historic site if he had not commanded the army that won the Revolutionary War, whose presence presiding over the Constitutional Convention graced it with the gravitas and spirit necessary to the creation of our government’s foundational document, and his restraint and modesty radiated strength and wisdom that defines the ideal chief executive to this day. The government can convey a different message without restraint elsewhere if it so pleases, but it cannot do so to the President’s House until it follows the law and consults with the City. The motion for preliminary injunction will be granted.”
“Happy Presidents’ Day, Philadelphia,” she added. “You are getting your history put back up by court order at the President’s House.”
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