Transcript

U.S. Capitol Removes Robert E. Lee Statue And Replaces Him With THIS?!

From Matt Walsh · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 23 min · 3,843 words · 31 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "U.S. Capitol Removes Robert E. Lee Statue And Replaces Him With THIS?!", an episode of Matt Walsh published December 18, 2025 (23 min, about 3,843 words). It mentions 17 people, works and ideas, including Battle of Chancellorsville, Glenn Youngkin, Emancipation Hall, Farmville, Virginia, Stonewall Jackson.

What this episode is about

The U.S. Capitol has removed the statue of Robert E. Lee and replaced it with a statue of Barbara Rose Johns, a significant figure in the civil rights movement. The unveiling was attended by various political leaders who celebrated the new statue as a tribute to Johns' legacy and impact, contrasting with the controversial figure of Lee.

Key takeaways

  • Replacing Lee with John's statue shifts history from war generals to civil rights pioneers. Who'd 'ev thunk it?
  • Barbara Rose Johns led a school strike at 16 and now embodies change in U.S. Capitol.
  • Iconic status isn't about age; the legacy of courage reverberates louder than cannon fire.
  • Statues represent ideals; the statement isn't who Johns was, but what she stood for.
  • Unexpected icons teach us unsung stories matter as much as famous historical figures—or a bit more.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Emancipation Hall, American civil rights movement, Farmville, Virginia
  2. – 10:00: Barbara Rose Johns, Farmville, Virginia, Top Gun
  3. – 20:00: Stonewall Jackson, Balance of Nature, Friendly fire, Union Army

Notable quotes from "U.S. Capitol Removes Robert E. Lee Statue And Replaces Him With THIS?!"

  • Something else. Here's footage from the US capital yesterday. This is Emancipation Hall where they just unveiled a new statue that is going to replace the Robert E. Lee statue that they took down. and they took down the.
    about Emancipation Hall · at
  • The age of 16, Pal led a student strike for equal education opportunities at RR Morton High School in Farmville, Virginia.
    about Farmville, Virginia · at
  • With all due respect to Barbara Rose Johns, like I said, I got nothing against her. I'm sure she was a nice person.
    about Barbara Rose Johns · at
  • Librarian. She became a fighter jet pilot or something. she became it's like Top Gun because they have no real heroes. Why?
    about Top Gun · at
  • One option that even the busiest person can make time for, and that is balance of nature. Balance of nature's whole health system supplements make it easy to eat the fruits…
    about Balance of Nature · at
  • And they followed and they did it and it worked. He sends Stonewall Jackson on a wide flanking march. So Lee already outnumbered severely. He decides to divide his army even more to make it even smaller. and he sends.
    about Stonewall Jackson · at
  • Sends the Union army into a panic disarray. It's a brilliant risky move.
    about Union Army · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Companies & orgs

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Sponsors

Full transcript with timestamps

That was back when like your father was in the Civil War or your grandfather. You had relatives who died in the Civil War and now it's 100 years after that. And you've got people that oh the wounds are so so deep. I can't we can't I can't even see a Roberty Lee statue. It hurts me so much. Oh, shut the up. I need to complain about something something else which I know is shocking to you. Uh because I I don't usually complain on this show except for except for every single second of the show. I don't usually complain except for that except for every moment of every show. I don't usually complain. But here's something else. Here's footage from the US capital yesterday. This is Emancipation Hall where they just unveiled a new statue that is going to replace uh the Robert E. Lee statue that they took down. and they took down the statue. I think it was a couple of years ago. Um, high-ranking members of

Congress were in attendance. Other political figures, Mike Johnson was there, Hakeem Jeff was there for the unveiling of this new statue. And this is supposed to represent uh Virginia. So Glenn Yncan was there, a bunch of other Virginia politicians were there. And uh anyway, let's let's watch. Here it is.

So, everyone's very excited. Lots of different members of Congress um put out statements about how wonderful this was that they replaced Roberty Lee with that statue. That is Barbara Rose John's is the name of the person. Cory Booker was excited about Tim Kaine. Uh Glenn Ynan as mentioned was there. He put out this statement. Today we gather in Emancipation Hall of the US capital to dedicate the Barbara Rose John statue to honor her legacy as a trailblazer and ensure her story of courage and conscious conscience is a story for generations to come.

Now, of course, when you hear that, uh, you you hear that they they took down the Roberty Lee statue, replaced it with Barbara Rose John's, you might have a few questions, but the first question that that pops into your mind is, um, who the hell is Barbara Rose John's? You see that and you and you're thinking, am I supposed to know who this person is? Barbara Rose John's. This is someone who supposedly is worthy of being immortalized in the US capital along with the great icons of American history. Shouldn't I know who she is?

Like if I'm if I'm a vaguely educated sort of person and I know a little bit about American history, if there's a statue of a person in the US capital, it should be the kind of person that we all at least know who that is. Well, so who is who is she? Um, every statement about this has gushed over the fact that she's an icon and a trailblazer and a hero. Uh, and and who is she? Well, like everybody else, including Glenn Yncan and Cory Booker and Tim Kaine, I had to check Wikipedia to find out cuz I have no clue. And here's what it says. Barbara Rose John's was a leader in the American civil rights movement. On April 23rd, 1951 at the age of 16, Pal led a student strike for equal education opportunities at RR Morton High School in Farmville, Virginia.

And um and that's it. I mean, that's actually it. That's I read the whole Wikipedia article, but that is that's it. That so she protested uh for quote unquote equal education opportunities when she was 16 in Farmville. And then she went on to become a librarian. She went to to university and studied library science or something like that and became a librarian which is fine. I mean, that's a perfectly fine, acceptable life, you know, and she had she died of cancer in the early 90s, unfortunately. And, you know, uh it's fine. That's a there are many worse lives that have been lived for sure.

But this is what gets you a statue is you held a picket sign when you were 16 and then became a librarian. And now we're going to put you give you a statue. Now you're qualified to stand alongside the greats like to stand alongside Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, Abraham Lincoln. And you you know if I showed that statue of Barbara Rose John's to 10 million people, not one of them, zero of them would be able to correctly identify it as Barbara Rose John's. If I got 10 million people in a line and showed them each the statue, precisely zero of them would say, "Oh, that's Barbara Rose John's." Oh, I I know Barbara old Barbara. I know her anywhere. That's That's a Oh, that's Barbara Rose John's who led the uh protest in Farmville, Virginia.

I I'd know that face anywhere. Why? Why? That that that's got to be Barbara Rose John's. And then if I said, "You idiots, this is Barbara Rose John's." Still zero of them would have any idea who it is. And and that's also not an exaggeration and we and we all know that. How many total people in the entire country do you think had heard about Barbara Rose John's prior to today? How many total humans in the country if you had done a poll of everybody? How many of them could give you even one biographical detail about Barbara Rose John's? I think I don't know 50 maybe 100 at most. Probably not that many. Now granted, if I saw that statue with no context, I could probably have given you at least one vague biographical detail.

Like if you'd show me that statue and especially if you'd given me the context of where it was erected and what it was replacing. If you given me but even without that context because that makes it a little too easy. You just show me the statue. Don't even tell me where it's from. I I would be able to look at it and I would at least be able to tell you that it must be some kind of civil rights thing because it's a black woman. And so if if the black if there's a a statue of a black woman being put up somewhere, it's it's always like a civil rights thing. It's always going to be someone probably who's who lived within the last 100 years, 150 at the absolute most. And uh and it's a civil rights thing because there just aren't a lot of black female inventors or like philosophers or war heroes or pioneers or anything else.

There just aren't. And um and I I don't say that to be mean or rude. It's just just true. But more importantly, I know the pattern, which is this, and it's grounded in this fact, which is that the left has no historical heroes. It's really one of the most striking things about the modern left is that they have no heroes. They just don't have any. So, every once in a while they'll come along and erect a statue to some unremarkable nobody. With all due respect to Barbara Rose Johns, like I said, I got nothing against her. I'm sure she was a nice person.

But in historical context, she's not remarkable, which is true of most of us. Most of us are going to die and it's like we're not going to get statues in the context of history. Most of us will not be remembered. Like almost every person who's ever lived will not be remembered. Almost none of us will ever get statues. And that's just how it is. And that's fine. But um you know it that's is what they do every once in a while. They come along, they put up some statue to some to some nobody calling her an icon even though everyone has to check Wikipedia to find out who she even is. And then the left will pretend as soon as you put up the stat they put up the statue and they say oh this is Barbara Rose John. that everyone on the left goes, "Oh, yeah. What? You don't know who Barbara Rose John's is really?

And you think you're educated, there's going to be a movie about this woman getting now, guaranteed. Not because it's an interesting story. They're they're going to find a way. Netflix is going to have to find a way to get two hours of interesting content out of a woman who held a picket sign and then became a librarian. They're going to have to they're have to find some kind of way. Like they're going to have to turn her into like a ninja or something. They're going to have to they're going to have to like in her private life she was really a secret assassin or something like they're going to have to do that.

Um they're going to have to take some serious liberties. She didn't become a librarian. She became a fighter jet pilot or something. Um she became it's like Top Gun because they have no real heroes. Why? Because all of the true icons of history are problematic, right? All of the great men of history are ruled out because for one thing they're men and for for another thing most of them are white. Uh when we're talking about the the history of our of western civilization and for another great men, great people are complicated. Very often those with great virtues are tend to also have great vices. So men who are very physically brave may also tend to be aggressive and violent. Uh men who are geniuses tend to have all kinds of eccentricity eccentricities of various kinds. Uh they might hold political views, ideological views that are uh we consider unsaavory, you know. And so the nitpickers, the peanut gallery, the men

who are not in the arena, right? The critics that Teddy Roosevelt talks about, the nobodies, can always sit on the sidelines and find reasons to criticize the great men. All of the great men, all of the men who did anything notable in history, all of the men who've ever had a statue built to them, whether the statue's been since torn down or not, all of them. There are going to be details of their life that you can look at and say, "Well, I don't know. I don't they did that. Here's this thing they did. They said this thing over here.

I don't know. They did this. They They all Yeah, they did all that, but they also did this. The weak men, the weak people who are not even good, let alone great can find problems with the great men. And that's the story of our recent history. There's a lot of people who are not even good, let alone great, finding problems, finding issues with the greats. So, uh, what are we left with? We're left with a black librarian who held a picket sign when she was 16. You know, our civilization once stood on the the shoulders of giants.

Giants. We once stood on the shoulders of men and I keep saying men because like most not all of them were men uh who did unthinkable things. Okay, this is not just like oh she protested because the school was unfair. It's it's not that. It's like men who did things that I can't even conceive of how you would have done it. things that are inconceivable. Men who got on ships before any modern technology existed, who had no idea what the world looked like. Entire swaths of the globe unknown, and they got on ships and managed to go around the entire world and get back to where they started.

Do you have any idea how that's how could you do that? How could a person do that? I I don't know. Things that are so great that they're out they're not just outside of our capacity. They're outside of our our our comprehension is how great they were. and the the the the pioneers who went out into the wilderness with nothing just went out into a hostile wilderness filled with animals and bandits and and and Indian, you know, ruthless, savage Indian tribes that would scalp you while you're still alive. They heard these stories about people being kidnapped and having their scalps removed from their heads while they're still alive and then tortured and killed. And you had people that went out in the midst of that and just like built societies from scratch.

So that's what our civiliz used to stand on the shoulders of those kinds of people and now we stand on the shoulders of like three or four random black women who accomplished basically nothing. I would almost prefer it if they just put up a statue of Karl Marx or Mao or Stalin or somebody like that. I'd almost prefer. I mean, they're evil men who should not be celebrated, but somehow it feels less insulting. Like, it's still insulting. Somehow to me, it feels less demoralizing to replace a statue of a man of great historic influence with a statue of another man of great, though really bad historic influence.

That's still outrageous. I guess my point is a lot of people are saying, well, next thing you know, they're going to be putting up statues of, you know, fill in the blank evil guy, Karl Marx. And my point is that like actually we're kind of past that. What we're doing now is worse than that. I I think we I think we've we've we kind of we leapfrogged over that part of the slippery slope and now we're just tearing down these statues of like the greatest people in history and just replacing it with like a a r some random librarian.

And I I find that even more insulting. I really do. You ever feel too busy to make healthy choices? is do you find yourself too tired at the end of the day to cook a healthy meal and find yourself frequenting your favorite drive-thru more than you would like? Well, you're not alone. Life can make it hard to make healthy choices sometimes. But there is one option that even the busiest person can make time for, and that is balance of nature. Balance of nature's whole health system supplements make it easy to eat the fruits, veggies, spices, and fibers that you're supposed to eat on a daily basis. You can take them however you like, swallow them with water, chew them, or open the capsules, and mix the powder into your meals or drinks inside.

You'll find 47 ingredients from 100% real whole fruits, vegetable, spices, and fibers. Everything from cinnamon to turmeric, mango to pineapple, and spinach to mushrooms. Simple way to give your body the nutrition it needs every day. I personally love it because of its convenience when I'm traveling for work or trying to keep up with the kids. It gives me a simple, no mess, and no stress way to make sure I'm getting all the essential nutrients in my diet. New and existing customers can get 50% off the whole health system for life with this limited time offer. Go to balanceofnaturation.com to claim this offer. Now, Roberty Lee, on the other hand, was a great man.

A great man. And I make no apologies for saying that. I've been saying it my whole career. I make no apologies. He was a great man. He was a brilliant military technician. He was a leader of men. He was one of our greatest military leaders. He was honorable. He was brave. He was um so much more honorable and much braver than any of the people who have torn down his statues. Any of the people in that video standing around clapping like seals. Oh yes, Barbara Rose John's a librarian. Roberty Lee was had more greatness and dignity and honor in his pinky finger than any of them have in their entire bodies put together.

Um, I mean, if you don't think that our country would be in a much better place if men like Roberty Lee were in charge of it rather than these clowns, if you don't think that, then you're a fool. Then you are just a stupid fool and you're not worth talking to. Honestly, if you think what we have now, if you think the people that are tearing down these statues are in any way better than Roberty E. Lee, then you are a clown. You are a fool. You are a un unworthy of of being taken seriously. Roberty Lee went to battle against an opponent that was much larger, much better supplied, better armed. Okay? He was marching with armies of like 16-year-old farm boys. He was marching armies. He was marching with a force that that of of boys and men. Some of them didn't even have shoes, okay? They didn't even have shoes or they had one pair of shoes and it was worn down to the souls and he won one battle after another. Do

you do you know how he did that? Can you even conceive of that? Is that something you could ever do in a million lifetimes? It's not. His victory at Chancellor'sville alone, I mean that alone is greater than anything that was ever achieved by Barbara Rose John's or any other random nobody the left venerates. That alone, Chancellor'sville, Lee facing a force twice his side. He size he divides his force repeatedly. Extremely risky, bold, brilliant move. He's he's doing things that would have seemed absolutely crazy to everybody around him and did except that his men followed. And they followed him because he was a great man. He was a leader that commanded, not demanded, but commanded respect. And so they knew that this sounds crazy. This goes against everything we this goes against all the rules to divide your force like this.

We're already outnumbered. And uh they followed and they did it and it worked. He sends Stonewall Jackson on a wide flanking march. So Lee already outnumbered severely. He decides to divide his army even more to make it even smaller. and he sends Stonewall Jackson, his best general, through like 10 or 15 miles or whatever it was, marching through back roads and uh and dense forests to hit the Union from its uh from I think it was its right flank which was exposed and but what this meant was taking like 20 or 30,000 men along with Stonewall out of the fight for basically the whole day because this would have taken I mean this is not a short they have to march, right? So this would have taken like 10 or 12 hours What happens if you get just decimated in the meantime? Could have happened.

Finally, 12 hours later, they complete the move. They launch their surprise attack from the right flank. It works. Sends the Union army into a panic disarray. It's a brilliant risky move. Could have ended in disaster. I mean, ultimately, battle is won. It did end in disaster because uh Stonewall Jackson was hit with friendly fire and he died six or seven days later. Uh which was a a a pivotal pivotal loss. Um but this this is what I mean when I talk about greatness. This is greatness. And um, and you can point out all of the well, he fought for the Confederacy. He fought, okay, that doesn't change that this was a great man.

and his personal motivation in doing so. As I've said so many times, if people had any capacity, like we used to be able to a 100 years ago, back when back when a lot of these statues were being put up, we were able to talk about the Civil War with some measure of nuance. People people took it less personally, which as I've also often pointed out, makes no sense. How could it be that a hundred years ago people took it less personally, were more capable of talking about this and understanding it kind of from both sides than we are today? That was back when like your father was in the Civil War or your grandfather, you had relatives who died in the Civil War.

And now it's a 100 years after that and you've got people that, oh, the wounds are so so deep. I can't. We can't. I can't even see a Roberty Lee statue. It hurts me so much. Oh, shut the up. Doesn't hurt you. You don't even know who he is. You don't know anything about him. You You know nothing about him whatsoever. You don't even know what Chancellor'sville is. Go ahead. Name one battle of the Civil War. Can you do that? No, you can't. And yet, you're so injured. You're so hurt. It's so I can't. It's I I I feel so attacked.

Most of these people, do you even know like what years the Do you even know what century the Civil War was fought in? We're pulling down these statues on the beha at the behest of people. They couldn't even tell you wi within 300 years. Tell me when the Civil War was fought. Probably couldn't even do that. Uh I don't know the 1400s. I must also say that my my real frustration my the reason why I take this I get so heated is uh is you know it's not just with the Democrats here but this is Republicans. We control Congress and the White House.

Why was this allowed to happen? What's the point of being in power if we're going to let this happen? That's my question. Not only let it but participate in the humiliation ritual. just letting it happen. We're participating in it. What's the point? Why did we elect you? You're going to sit there. We elected you and you're going to sit there and applaud this. Cuz you don't have the balls to stand up and say, cuz you're worried that people will say, "Oh, you support slavery." Because you're you're still worried about that.

You don't have the balls to stand up there and say, "Shut up. No. What are you No one supports slavery. you dumbass. It's not what this is about. You're still worried about that? Why are you there? Why did we elect you? I'd love an answer to that question. Thanks for checking out this video. If you'd like to listen to my full podcast on the go, you can check out the Matt Wall Show on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Questions about this episode

What is "U.S. Capitol Removes Robert E. Lee Statue And Replaces Him With THIS?!" about?

The U.S. Capitol has removed the statue of Robert E. Lee and replaced it with a statue of Barbara Rose Johns, a significant figure in the civil rights movement. The unveiling was attended by various political leaders who celebrated the new statue as a tribute to Johns' legacy and impact, contrasting with the controversial figure of Lee.

What is mentioned in this Matt Walsh episode?

17 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Battle of Chancellorsville, Glenn Youngkin, Emancipation Hall, Farmville, Virginia, Stonewall Jackson, Confederate States of America. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "U.S. Capitol Removes Robert E. Lee Statue And Replaces Him With THIS?!"?

The episode runs 23 min; the transcript is about 3,843 words in 31 timestamped sections.

More from Matt Walsh

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated December 19, 2025.