U.S. President Donald Trump condemned the defacing of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington on Friday and said that the government was investigating the incident.
A vandal used colored spray paint on Thursday to write “Clean hands dirty $” and to smear the granite inside the Atlantic Theater pavilion of the memorial, and filled its fountains with bubbling soap.
“Our beautiful World War II Memorial was just hit by spray painting vandals,” Trump stated on Friday. “There can be no greater insult to those American heroes who died in World War II.”
Jeanine Ferris Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, stated that Melissa L. Farris was in custody and faces up to 10 years in prison for the alleged offenses.
“Vandalizing our World War II Memorial is a despicable attack on a sacred monument honoring the Americans who fought and died for our freedom,” stated Pirro, a former judge. “Those Americans include my father and grandfather.”
Pirro said that the Justice Department filed two felony charges—for damaging federal property and for destroying a veteran’s memorial—in federal district court.
Sara J. Bloomfield, director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, told JNS that “over 16 million Americans served in World War II, and more than 400,000 made the ultimate sacrifice to defeat Nazi Germany and its allies and preserve our democracy.”
“Winning the war brought an end to the genocide of Europe’s Jews,” Bloomfield told JNS. “Vandalizing the World War II Memorial is an outrageous insult to all who served and Holocaust survivors, as well as all Americans and the values for which our country stands.”
Other elected officials condemned the vandalism on Friday.
“My dad served in World War II and completed all four combat jumps with the 82nd,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) wrote. “He and so many others put their lives on the line to keep our country safe, and they deserve our respect.”
“This is the lowest of the low,” Scott added. “I hope the criminals responsible are held accountable ASAP.”
“First the Reflecting Pool, now this,” Trump stated. “We are on their trail! Where do these animals come from?”
Pirro dismissed vandalism charges against David Hearn, a former Olympian, and others in July for damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after conceding in court filings that the damage to the pool was “the result of a botched installation and not vandalism.”
