Maryland governor Larry Hogan (R.) on Thursday said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) has "lost touch" with her childhood city of Baltimore after she expressed indifference about the toppling of a statue of Christopher Columbus.
"It’s disappointing that Speaker Pelosi has lost touch with the Baltimore community that her family served," Hogan wrote on Twitter. "While efforts towards peaceful change are welcome, there is no place in Maryland for lawlessness, vandalism, and destruction of public property."
While efforts towards peaceful change are welcome, there is no place in Maryland for lawlessness, vandalism, and destruction of public property. pic.twitter.com/eXNv5qsCUP
— Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) July 9, 2020
Pelosi said Thursday that "people will do what they do" after a reporter asked about the statue being brought down from its perch in Little Italy and tossed into the harbor. The statue had to be recovered piecemeal by divers organized in part by Baltimore's Italian-American community—Pelosi's own community from her childhood. Both her parents held public office in the city, and she helped her father, Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., with his campaign for mayor.
"We will not let mobs 'do what they do.' They do not represent Baltimore," Hogan said.
Pelosi had tried to pass the vandalism off as a community decision during her press conference.
"If the community doesn’t want the statue there, the statue shouldn’t be there," Pelosi said. "I don’t care that much about the statues."
Her comments drew an interjection from another reporter who explained how a mob had carried out the statue's chaotic removal, but she shrugged the issue off.
Left-wing protesters have moved beyond Confederate statues in recent weeks to take aim at statues of Columbus and other key figures from American history, including the Founding Fathers.