'The law is the law': Va. senator rejects Trump move to rebrand Army posts to former names

Yahoo

6 hours ago

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine is rejecting what he calls the Trump Administration's "whim" to change the names of Fort Gregg-Adams and two other Virginia Army posts back to their original branding, saying he will continue to refer to the installations with their current names because "the law is the law."
In a Zoom session June 11 with Virginia reporters, Kaine said he does not believe President Donald Trump has the authority to overturn congressional litigation that changed the names of Forts Lee, A.P. Hill and Pickett to Fort Gregg-Adams, Fort Walker and Fort Barfoot, respectively. The legislation, part of the unanimously passed 2020 Defense Authorization Bill, was vetoed by Trump in 2020 because of the removal of the names of Civil War Confederate heroes. Congress, however, overrode the veto, and the Biden Administration moved forward with the initiative.
The new names went into effect in 2023 after a Pentagon-appointed Naming Commission vetted new brands that would reflect racial equality and inclusivity.
'The law is the law,' Kaine, D-Virginia, said in response to a question from The Progress-Index during the session. Kaine called the decision strictly partisan because Trump disagreed with the original decision.
Kaine is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which played a role in both the Defense Authorization Bill and the renaming issues.
After Trump regained the White House last January, he vowed to reverse all efforts by his predecessor, Joe Biden, that promoted diversity, equality and inclusion, or DEI. One of those, he said, was the base renamings. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth – who Kaine called Trump's 'court jester' during his response – began the process of reinstalling the former names but insisted that the changes did not memorialize Confederates.
The first two to change were Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Benning in Georgia. But instead of honoring the former Confederate heroes they were originally named for, Hegseth said the new monikers honored U.S. military personnel who happed to have the same last name.
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'The president can't change the law on a whim, and his court jester Pete Hegseth can't do it, either,' Kaine said. 'Pete Hegseth has so disgraced himself by the 'Signalgate' problem and other things that they just kind of put him off in a corner and said, 'Why don't you come up with cute Confederate-adjacent names?' And he's been scouring the record for other people named Lee or other people named Pickett he could change the name after.'
Under the Defense directive, Fort Gregg-Adams would return to Fort Lee. But instead of former Confederate Army Commander Gen. Robert E. Lee, the name would recognize Private Fitz Lee, a 'Buffalo Soldier' from Dinwiddie County who received the Medal of Honor for bravery during the Spanish-American War at the end of the 19th Century.
Fort Barfoot, the Blackstone-based headquarters of the Virginia National Guard, would go back to Fort Pickett in honor of First Lt. Vernon W. Pickett, a Distinguished Service Cross recipient in World War II. Fort Walker, in Caroline County north of Richmond, would go back to Fort A.P. Hill, but this time would be named for three Union soldiers whose last names start with "A" and "P" − Private. Bruce Anderson and First Sgt. Robert A. Pinn − and Lt. Col. Edward Hill.
All three men received the Medal of Honor for bravery during the Civil War.
More: Fort Gregg-Adams to be named Fort Lee once again, but this time honoring a different Lee
'It's an embarrassment for the secretary. It is an effort to devalue the work of the Naming Commission,' the senator said. 'It devalues the contributions of General Gregg and Colonel Adams ... Van Barfoot, the name that was assigned after a great deal of study to Fort Pickett ... Mary Walker, the name that was assigned after a great deal of study to Fort A.P. Hill. It devalues their contributions, but it also flies in the face of a congressional statute that, try though he might, the president was not able to stop.'
Kaine continued to refer to the post as Fort Gregg-Adams, and he will be in town June 13 for two ceremonies reopening the post's drop zone on River Road and the realignment of the post's borders to offer unfettered public access to visitors of its museums.
'I'm going to be at Fort Gregg-Adams on Friday, and I plan to talk about why the name of the fort is still 'Fort Gregg-Adams,'' Kaine said. 'Everybody that has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution cannot just get in line and follow an unlawful declaration by the secretary of Defense which in no way trumps statute.'
Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at [e-mail] or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Kaine dismisses Trump decision to change name of Fort Gregg-Adams