Cancel culture could “come after Bible characters next,” warned Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer on Friday, during a segment about Chicago putting dozens of its monuments under review.
The initiative was designed to “grapple with the unacknowledged — or often forgotten history” of the city and “develop a framework for marking public space that elevates new ways to memorialize Chicago’s history more equitably and accurately,” said Hemmer’s co-anchor Dana Perino, reading a statement from the city.
“Forty-one Chicago monuments are under review,” said reporter Carley Shimkus. “Five are of Abraham Lincoln in Illinois — the land of Lincoln. His statue might be removed from the city.”
Shimkus continued, commenting that it was “violent,” “wrong,” and “illegal,” that some statues were vandalized or taken down during last summer’s protests, but it was “equally troubling” to have Chicago looking at statues of these historical figures, “at the history of these men and what they represent to our country, and still decide to take these statues down.”
She then mentioned one of Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s recent Fox News appearances, where he said for many religious groups like Catholics and Jews, “memory and tradition are very, very important — it is the vehicle of God’s revelation.”
“You have to wonder,” asked Shimkus, “are we in a transition
“Way, way back in the day when I was first working in local news, I was at a CBS affiliate in Springfield, Illinois, and Lincoln was everything. A part of every aspect of the city and there was even a sandwich named after Abraham Lincoln. I don’t think they’ll take the sandwich name away.”
“If they start canceling American presidents, they’ll come after Bible characters next,” said Hemmer. “Mark my words, right?”
Watch the video above, via Fox News.