Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex-officio board member, accused the White House of lying about having unanimous support to rename the Kennedy Center after Trump, saying she was “not allowed to speak or voice my opposition”
Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty is accusing White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt of misleading the public about the level of support behind renaming the Kennedy Center after Donald Trump.
Beatty, who has an automatic seat on the Kennedy Center board as a congressional leader, spoke out after Leavitt announced on Thursday, Dec. 18, that the board had just voted “unanimously” to change the name of the John F. Kennedy Memorial for the Performing Arts to the “Trump-Kennedy Center.”
“Be clear: I was on that call, and as I tried to push my button to voice my concern, to ask questions and certainly not to vote in support of this, I was muted. Each time I tried to speak, I was muted. Participants were not allowed to voice their concerns who were online, yet it was said at the end it was a unanimous vote,” she continued.
It’s the feeling I get too. I read the news about Bulgarian government going down from protests, mainly led by young people. Serbs have been protesting against corruption in their government for a year straight and their country is basically a police state. Indonesians protested for months against their government trying to raise benefits for the House of Representative members. And many other protests around the world that last for months on end. Meanwhile Americans protest one day in summer when it’s nice outside, brag about the numbers of people that attended (very American thing to do I guess) then go home and act appalled online when Trump breaks another law.
Because despite the fascism, we are, at home, still perfectly comfortable. Most of us can still go out to the movies, hang out in the park, have dinner with any number of friends, all without a second thought. That’s why most of us haven’t taken action.