President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he would not change the names of American military bases named after Confederate generals on the grounds that those generals were part of America's tradition of "winning and freedom."
A CNN panel on Thursday, however, pointed out that the generals being praised by Trump are most famous for losing a war in which they fought to keep millions of black people enslaved.
"It is amazing that that is actually the justification," said CNN reporter Abby Phillip. "A lot of people have rightly pointed out that some of these generals you wouldn't -- first of all, you wouldn't associate them with freedom, but some of them you can't associate with winning."
CNN's John Berman then pointed out that Trump's first campaign rally in months will be held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was the site of one of the worst racist massacres of black Americans in the country's history.
"I don't know what he knows about these things, but someone in there should be aware of the symbolism here and he may want to address that," Berman said.
"They may be aware and this may be a very clear dog whistle," replied CNN political commentator Karen Finney. "Trump does understand, from a cultural perspective, that the swathe of his base... that it was racial anxiety that people were feeling."
Watch the video below.
