French Official Who Suggested Taking Back Statue of Liberty Fires Back at Karoline Leavitt, Slams ‘Shameful’ Trump Administration
Pamela Smith/AP
The French official who floated the idea of taking back the Statue of Liberty responded on Tuesday to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s shot at him.
During Monday’s White House briefing, Leavitt was asked about French MEP Raphael Glucksmann’s comments regarding the monument. He claimed in a Politico report that some in the United States have “chosen to side with the tyrants” and “fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom.” Then, he jokingly demanded that the country give back the statue that was gifted to them in 1886.
In response, Leavitt said that the French should be “very grateful” that they’re “not speaking German right now.”
Hours after Leavitt’s briefing, Glucksmann expanded on his criticisms of the U.S. in a lengthy thread on X/Twitter.
“Dear Americans,” Glucksmann said. “Since the White House press secretary is attacking me today, I wanted to tell you this.”
He continued:
Our two people are intimately linked by History, the blood we shed and the passion for freedom we share, a passion symbolized by this Statue that was offered to the United States by France to honor your glorious Revolution.
As the press secretary for this shameful Administration said: without your nation, France would have ‘spoken German.’ In my case, it goes further: I would simply not be here if hundreds of thousands of young Americans had not landed on our beaches in Normandy. Our gratitude to these heroes and their sacrifices is therefore eternal.
But the America of these heroes fought against tyrants, it did not flatter them. It was the enemy of fascism, not the friend of Putin. It helped the resistance and didn’t attack Zelensky. It celebrated science and didn’t fire researchers for using banned words. It welcomed the persecuted and didn’t target them.
“It was far, so far from what your current President does, says, and embodies,” added Glucksmann.
—
