Group of FL Republicans want D.C. mayor to remove Black Lives Matter mural

Claiming that the Black Lives Matter movement has demonstrated support for Hamas following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel, six Florida Republicans, including U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, are calling on Washington, D.C., Mayor Miriam Bowser to rename Black Lives Matter Plaza in the nation’s capital and remove the street mural that bears the organization’s name.

As protests broke out against police brutality and racial inequality in the immediate aftermath of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in June 2020, a mural featuring the words “Black Lives Matter” in 50-foot-tall capital yellow letters was painted alongside two blocks of 16th Street NW, just outside of the White House. The area was renamed “Black Lives Matter Plaza NW” by Bowser, according to Washington.org, the city’s official tourism website.

Now 25 GOP members of Congress have written a letter to Bowser, urging her to “immediately” rename Black Lives Matter Plaza and erase the mural “due to that movement’s celebration of violent antisemitic terrorism.”

Along with Rubio and Scott, four Florida House Republicans — Scott Franklin from Polk County, John Rutherford from Jacksonville, Gus Bilirakis from Pasco County, and North Central Florida’s Michael Waltz — all signed the letter.