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In a ceremony held in Paris on July 4, 1884, the completed Statue of Liberty is formally presented to the U.S. ambassador as a commemoration of the friendship between France and the United States. The idea for the statue was born in 1865, when the French historian and abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye proposed a monument to commemorate the upcoming centennial of U.S. independence (1876), the perseverance of American democracy and the liberation of the nation’s slaves. By 1870, sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi had come up with sketches of a giant figure of a robed woman holding a torch—possibly based on...

In comments that demonstrated historical and diplomatic ignorance, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday told France, America’s oldest ally, it should be “very grateful” to the United States that it isn’t speaking German right now. The president’s 28-year-old mouthpiece was responding to comments over the weekend by a French politician, Raphaël Glucksmann, a member of Europe’s Parliament, who told reporters, “We’re going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: ‘Give us back the Statue of Liberty.’”...... “We gave it to you as...

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the US has no plans to return Lady Liberty. […] Leavitt said the US would “absolutely not” return the statue and addressed that “low-level French politician.” (Raphael Glucksmann) She said: “It’s only because of the United States of America that the French aren’t speaking German right now.” “They should be very grateful to our great country,” she added. Leavitt seemed to be referring to Germany’s occupation of France during World War 2. France was later liberated with the help of the US and other Allied forces in 1944. …

Democrat proposes bill to remove Statue of Liberty in protest of GOP's immigration bill.

The Statue of Liberty is a “symbol of hypocrisy or unfulfilled promises” the Washington Post’s Philip Kennicott said in an essay published Saturday. In his piece titled “Maybe it’s time to admit the Statue of Liberty has never quite measured up,” the art and architecture critic wrote: Try looking for Lady Liberty at an exhibition of Chicano graphic art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, for example, where familiar images — flags, maps, military recruiting posters — are repurposed. You will find the statue almost or entirely absent. Maybe that’s because, compared with other icons of national identity, it is...

2020 Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro discusses the symbolic meaning of the border wall with CNN's Jake Tapper: CNN, JAKE TAPPER: Earlier this month, Speaker of the House Pelosi said that the wall was -- quote -- "immoral." As you know, as you just stated, there are roughly 650 miles of existing wall, barrier, fencing at the border. Are they immoral? JULIAN CASTRO: Well, I don't think it represents the best of what America stands for. I think -- I believe that if we were to build the kind of wall that Donald Trump is talking about -- (snip) But...

A French Parliament member is demanding the US return the Statue of Liberty, claiming America has lost its way and no longer stands for what the iconic sculpture represents. “We’re going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: ‘Give us back the Statue of Liberty,’ ” the left-leaning French dip, Raphaël Glucksmann, said during a recent convention of his political party, Place Publique, according to the French newspaper Le Monde.

The Trump administration will not entertain a French politician’s request to return the Statue of Liberty to France.“Absolutely not. My advice to that unnamed low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a press briefing Monday, likely referencing an American-French allyship during World War II that snuffed out Nazi Germany. “They should be grateful.”

OMG...MIC DROP. DOOCY: There is now a member of the European Parliament from France who does not think The US represents the values of the Statue of Liberty anymore. They want the Statue of Liberty back. So is President Trump going to send the Statue of Liberty back to France? LEAVITT: "Absolutely not. My advice to that unnamed low level French politician would be to remind them that it's only because of the United States Of America that the French are not speaking German right now. So, they should be very grateful, to our great country."

The U.S. no longer represents the values of freedom therefore it should send the Statue of Liberty back to France, a Socialist French Euro-deputy demanded Sunday. Raphael Glucksmann, of the Socialists and Democrats group, told a cheering convention of his Place Publique leftist movement how disappointed he is in the U.S. and why it should not keep what was originally a gift from France: Give us back the Statue of Liberty. We’re going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: ‘Give us back the...

Sacré bleu! Talk about a Napoleon complex.Some stories don’t require a lengthy set-up. They speak for themselves (and today, they’re parlez-vous-ing exclusively in French):France should take back the Statue of Liberty because the US no longer represents the values that led France to offer the statue, a French Euro-deputy said Sunday."Give us back the Statue of Liberty", centre-left politician Raphael Glucksmann said at a convention of his Place Publique centre-left movement. "We're going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: 'Give us back the...

Here’s a trivia question for you. The Statue of Liberty holds a torch in one hand. What is she holding in the other? It looks like a book, in tablet form.

Vladimir Solovyov, media personality and ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin, recently suggested that Moscow launch a missile strike at the torch of the Statue of Liberty in New York City. Amid Moscow's ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine that Putin launched in February 2022, Solovyov has been a source of Russian propaganda. He has talked about Russia expanding its war, claiming that the country owns Ukraine and even parts of Europe like Poland and Finland.

On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston stated that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) doesn’t see people crossing the border as people “who are trying to do exactly what the Statue of Liberty says, which is, send us your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” He also stated that he hopes Texas stops sending migrants to Denver during the winter storm and “A strategy of having folks just sent to New York and Chicago and Denver I think is not setting them up for success or setting our cities up for success.”

The Statue of Liberty, with its big torch, blue-green color and fancy hat, is one of the most recognizable landmarks on Earth. But when it was first constructed as a gift from France in 1885, the statue had not yet acquired this color, doing so later as the result of chemistry. The idea of returning it to its original color is gaining a little attention on X (Twitter). So how has the color been altered over the years? As a video from the American Chemical Society's YouTube channel Reactions explains, the original color of the Statue of Liberty was a...

NEW YORK, NY — After an order from New York Mayor Eric Adams, the Statue of Liberty has been altered to signify that the city is full of illegal immigrants and cannot take any more. Lady Liberty will now hold a sign redirecting migrants to New Jersey. "As the good book says, our cup runneth over here in New York," said Adams to reporters. "So basically, God wants us to stop taking in the poor, the tired, and the huddled masses. That's really what Psalm 23 is all about. That's why we want everyone to go to New Jersey. They...

MIAMI, FL—Tourists unloading from the ferry onto Liberty Island in New York Harbor were met with disappointment this week, as the pedestal upon which the Statue of Liberty once stood was empty. Instead, a stationery the size of a king bed lay on the pedestal with a message reading, “Fed up with New York, moving to Florida. - L. Liberty” “I had just clocked into my shift this morning and looked up to see she was gone,” said security guard Feldman Baxter, while complying with the city’s mandates of wearing three masks outdoors, standing 20 feet from anyone else, rubbing...

New Yorkers have a surprise gift to look forward to for this Independence Day: a second Statue of Liberty sent by France. This new bronze statue, nicknamed the "little sister," is one-sixteenth the size of the world-famous one that stands on Liberty Island. On Monday, during a special ceremony, the smaller sibling was lifted and loaded into a special container at the National Museum of Arts and Crafts (CNAM) in central Paris, where it has been installed since 2011 in the museum's garden. It will be erected on Ellis Island, just across the water from the original, from July 1...

Editor's note: This column was co-authored by Dr. Loyd Pettegrew. The melting pot metaphor applies to a society where many different types of people blend together as one. A national identity bouillabaisse if you will. It is essentially an environment in which many ideas, religions and races are socially assimilated. Since its inception America has prided itself in being a melting pot. While some countries are composed of people who are almost all the same in terms of race, religion, and culture (Scandinavia, the Middle East, Asia and India come to mind), the United States is a nation of many...

“30 Rock” star Alec Baldwin was hustled by a fake Statue of Liberty tour operator while out sightseeing with his wife, Hilaria, and their kids. Baldwin said in an Instagram post that the family shelled out more than $40 per ticket for a tour of Liberty Island — but instead found themselves being escorted toward a bus bound for New Jersey. “I kid you not. We paid. Then we read the tickets,” he raged in the post. “NO ON [sic] EVER MENTIONED NEW F***ING JERSEY!!!” -snip Bogus ticket sellers have hawked scam passes near Battery Park for years. The Post in 2015 exposed how...