Rahm Emanuel on the toppling of Grant's statue - ABC This Week

KARL: Rahm, one other thing we saw in the protest in San Francisco, we have seen a lot of Confederate statues going down obviously. I was surprised to see the statue of Ulysses S. Grant toppled in San Francisco.

EMANUEL: Well, you know, I found this a little strange on two fronts. One is Ulysses S. Grant directed, number one, he directed his attorney general to prosecute the KKK. And the KKK, if you know history, doesn't come back until 1920 because of what Ulysses S. Grant did.

Second, I would just say this as a Jewish-American, Ulysses S. Grant signed order 11 which was really quite anti-semitic in the Vicksburg Campaign, and realizes when he becomes president what he had done was wrong, appoints a number of Jews to his administration and the first president to visit a synagogue.

I actually think we should take a step back in all this process. You can't white wash history and you can't white it out. And Ulysses S. Grant is a president who has his faults. He is human. But he accomplished a great deal to get America right in the same way I happen to think Roosevelt is one of the greatest presidents, he interred the Japanese in this country, he didn't allow the St. Louis ship in 1938 to come to the shores of the United States, and given information never bombed Auschwitz.

On the other hand, he accomplished great things. They are flawed. And rather than reject our history, we should learn from our history. And toppling that statue, in my view, Ulysses S. Grant -- I understand the desire and I don't want to throw it it with -- on -- from the civil war honoring Confederate soldiers, that is a mistake and it's wrong.

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