Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is firing back at MSNBC host Joy Reid after a segment in which the host referred Mount Rushmore as "the stone idol to presidential colonizers."
During the segment, which aired on Presidents Day, Reid attacked Noem over a travel probe, as well as her arrangement of a July 3 event last summer with President Donald Trump at Mount Rushmore, located in South Dakota.
The insult of the presidents carved into the mountain — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln — caused Noem to take to Twitter on Tuesday, writing:
"Last night @JoyAnnReid called Mount Rushmore the 'stone idol to presidential colonizers.' On Presidents' Day of all days! The left wants to re-write our history by attacking the leaders who made America the most special country ever. It's our duty to teach our kids the truth."
It is not the first time Noem has defended Mount Rushmore against such attacks. The Democratic National Committee was critical of Trump's July 3 celebration when it happened, tweeting:
"Trump has disrespected Native communities time and again. He's attempted to limit their voting rights and blocked critical pandemic relief. Now he's holding a rally glorifying white supremacy at Mount Rushmore, a region once sacred to tribal communities."
The tweet was later deleted, The Daily Caller reported.
Noem appeared on Fox News at the time to defend the monument, saying, "Washington was the only leader that we've had [who] unanimously was chosen to lead our country at its birth," and Jefferson "gave us 'that all men are created equal.' He wrote the Declaration of Independence, incredibly important to the values we hold in this country."
Lincoln, she said, "put into reality the fact 'that all men are created equal.'" And Roosevelt was the first president to dine with an "African American at the White House."
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