Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer warned the increasingly aggressive cancel culture that would go after figures such as former President Abraham Lincoln will soon aim its fire at characters in the Bible.
Hemmer made his comments Friday during a segment on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” about the new Chicago Monuments Project, which will catalogue the city’s monuments and appoint an advisory committee “to determine which pieces warrant attention or action.”
Among the historical figures whose monument is being reviewed is Lincoln, whose tomb is in Springfield, Illinois.
Co-host Dana Perino read the project’s mission statement:
The Chicago Monuments Project intends to grapple with the often unacknowledged – or forgotten – history associated with the city’s various municipal art collections and provides a vehicle to address the hard truths of Chicago’s racial history, confront the ways in which that history has and has not been memorialized, and develop a framework for marking public space that elevates new ways to memorialize Chicago’s history more equitably and accurately.
Hemmer and Perino discussed the project and its implications with reporter Carley Shimkus, who said, “Forty-one Chicago monuments are under review. Five of them are of Abraham Lincoln. In Illinois, the land of Lincoln. His statue might be removed from the city.”
Maintaining it was wrong for vandals to rip down and otherwise damage some of the city’s statues last summer, Shimkus said it was “equally troubling” that Chicago’s city government was entertaining the idea of removing even more to placate modern sensibilities. She quoted Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who said “memory and tradition are very, very important. It’s the vehicle of God’s revelation. To do anything to chip away at that tradition is perilous to the human project.”
After reading a statement from Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Hemmer read from the list of other historical figures slated for potential cancellation: “You’re talking Ben Franklin, Ulysses S. Grant, Christopher Columbus, George Washington, and as you mentioned, in the land of Lincoln — Abe Lincoln,” Hemmer said. “Can’t make it up.”
In response, Shimkus asked: “You have to wonder, are we in a transition period in our country right now where our grandchildren, our great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren might not think of these people the way we do? They might not be taught in the same way we know them now. I say more statues, not less, not fewer. More opinions, more ideas, not less.”
“I tell you, if they start cancelling these American presidents, they’re going to come after Bible characters next,” Hemmer added. “Mark my words.”
Shimkus agreed and pinpointed the school system as the ultimate source of cancel culture.
WATCH:
"If they start canceling these American presidents, they're gonna come after Bible characters next. Mark my words" — Fox News "news side" host Bill Hemmer pic.twitter.com/qTPV0NERv8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 19, 2021
“Given the past year and in particular the past summer that made clear history isn’t past, it is essential that residents are a part of this conversation. This project is about more than a single statue or mural. It’s about channeling our city’s dynamic civic energy to permanently memorialize our shared values, history, and heritage as Chicagoans in an open and democratic way,” Lightfoot said in a press release earlier this week.
Related: Boston Removes Statue Of Lincoln Emancipating Slave