Sen. Tim Scott Responds To John Kelly: 'No Compromise To Make' On Civil War

WASHINGTON Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) seemingly chided White House chief of staff John Kelly on Tuesday after the former Marine Corps general claimed that the Civil War was caused by the inability to compromise.

“We need to stop relitigating and referencing the Civil War as if there was some moral conundrum,” Scott, the sole black Senate Republican, said in a statement. “There was no compromise to make – only a choice between continuing slavery and ending it. We need to move forward together, instead of letting the divisions of the past continue to force us apart.” 

Kelly on Monday said a “lack of ability to compromise led to the Civil War ” and called the removal of Confederate monuments a “dangerous” scrubbing of history. The senior Donald Trump aide made the comments during an interview with Fox News ’ Laura Ingraham, who asked his thoughts about the removal of two plaques  honoring President George Washington and Gen. Robert E. Lee at a church in Alexandria, Virginia. 

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders , however, defended her boss on Tuesday, accusing reporters of creating a false narrative.

“Because you don’t like history doesn’t mean that you can erase it and pretend that it didn’t happen,” Sanders said  during a daily press briefing. “I think that’s the point that Gen. Kelly was trying to make.”

“All of our leaders have flaws,” Sanders added, citing George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy. “That doesn’t diminish their contributions to our country.”

Scott has been particularly vocal about the issue of racism in America. After white supremacists rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the summer, Scott met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office to discuss the president’s controversial response in which he said there was “blame on both sides.”