As demands continue to rise across California for leaders to get rid of any remaining Confederate flags and statues, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican who represents the state's 23rd District, introduced a bill this week to penalize state and local governments that do not protect their public statues and monuments.

Across the nation, many cities and organizations are taking steps to remove Confederate symbols, but some protesters are taking it upon themselves to send a message about change, as they tear down certain statues and monuments on their own.

McCarthy said the people pulling down statues are “leftwing mobs” who are trying to erase history. Protesters, on the other hand, have repeatedly said these targeted figures have “racist” and controversial pasts and should not be idolized. Some toppled statues include figures of Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Robert E. Lee, and several other confederate soldiers. The toppling of statues is the latest move by protesters in the nation’s reckoning over racism and police violence following George Floyd’s death.

But McCarthy questions the intentions behind the latest vandalism and destruction. His bill would disqualify localities from getting federal "historic preservation" funding and "transit capital investment" grants.

“You know I stood in front of a statue of St. Junipero Serra with the Pope, along with Joe Biden and along with Speaker Pelosi and we prayed. Well, this statue was torn down in Nancy Pelosi’s district and she has said nothing. You know when it comes to a rule of law, there’s a lot of statues that offend me as well. There’s a process to remove them and let’s walk through that process because we have order in it,” McCarthy said. “There are problems in America but I believe in working together to solve them. I believe in a more perfect union; I do not think a Confederate flag should fly, and you know what I belong to a Republican Party and the Republican Party was the party that took the flag down in 1865.”

McCarthy said he does not think a Confederate flag should fly and when he was pressed about renaming U.S. military bases that are named after Confederate generals, he said he was “not opposed to it.”

But President Donald Trump said he wouldn’t let that happen, and threatened to veto any bill that would strip the Confederate names from bases, even if that meant vetoing the $741 billion annual defense bill. The president also signed an executive order this month and said anyone tearing down a statue could face up to ten years in prison.

This month, House Democrats introduced the text of a bill that demands Confederate statues be removed from the Capitol building, and returned to the states that donated the pieces. Democrats have been unsuccessful in trying to get rid of Confederate statues in the Capitol for several years. They’re now hoping that will change with this movement and the mounting pressure on both parties to address the nation’s racial injustices. At least one Republican in the House supports the bill.