WASHINGTON — Thousands of veterans and their supporters tore down barricades blocking access to the World War II Memorial on the National Mall because of the government shutdown.
“Tear down these walls!” chanted the crowd, which included Tea Party champions Sarah Palin and Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), offering a variation on the famous line by President Reagan regarding the Berlin Wall.
The protesters, including some disabled veterans, picked up the black metal barricades and carried them away, allowing visitors to once again walk through the open-air monument. Some protestors carried the metal barricades to the White House and dumped them in a pile outside the gate, some jostling with police before the crowd was pushed back.
The throng that descended on the National Mall was part of the Million Vet March organized by a group that described its members as “military brats, current and former military spouses and some veterans.” They charged that the Obama administration closed the memorial and unnecessarily inflicted other shutdown pain on veterans to gain leverage in the budget showdown with Republicans.
“Many in our group have decided that enough is enough,” said a statement on the group’s Web site. “We are Americans. We are proud of our heritage and our service. We will not stand by and let the US government dishonor the legacy of sacrifice of the generations before us.”
President Obama, who threatened to veto a bill to spare national parks from the shutdown, said last week that the parks could reopen if the states paid for it. New York opted to foot the bill to reopen the Statue of Liberty, as did Arizona with the Grand Canyon.
But DC runs on federal money and can’t pay its own way.
The flag-waving veterans also took their protest to other Washington landmarks. At the Lincoln Memorial — where Palin on Facebook fumed they were met by “a SWAT team in full riot gear!” — at least one protester was arrested, according to US Park Police.
“Seeing the unity of the American people as they joined together and rose up against this out-of-touch government was an inspiration,” Palin wrote.
Standing in front of the World War II Memorial, Lee proclaimed that “this belongs to the people.”
“We are here to show our solidarity with them,” he told Fox News Channel. “This is not a tool to be used against them in a political fight.”
As part of the demonstration, about 15 tractor-trailers made a convoy with horns blaring down 17th Street, a busy thoroughfare in Washington. The truckers threw in with the vets after their “Ride for the Constitution” demonstration last week mostly fizzled.
The big rigs were stopped by police barricades before they reached the National Mall.