Marianne Williamson Vows To Remove Andrew Jackson’s Portrait As ‘Atonement’ For Native American Treatment

Keeping in line with her spiritualist approach to politics, 2020 longshot Marianne Williamson has vowed to remove the portrait of President Andrew Jackson from the Oval Office as part of her "atonement" plan for the U.S. treatment of Native Americans. 

Speaking at a Native American forum on Monday, Williamson stopped shy of endorsing reparations for that demographic while simultaneously calling for the United States government to atone for mistreating them.

"I want people of the United States to come to understand that what occurred on this planet was one of the great evils of history, but that I believe in redemption for nations as well for individuals," Williamson said, according to Politico. "We can atone. We can make amends. And if and when I'm president of the United States, we will. We will begin by taking that picture of Andrew Jackson off the wall of the Oval Office, I assure you."

"I am not a Native American woman, but I find it one of the greatest insults." she continued. "You will not be insulted. You will be more than not insulted." 

Andrew Jackson, who is largely considered as the founder of the Democratic Party, helped to enact the "Trail of Tears" when he signed into law the Indian Removal Act in 1830, which forced nearly 125,000 southeastern Native Americans to make a dangerous trek toward specially designated "Indian Territory" when the federal government forced them off their land. In his book, "Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party," Dinesh D'Souza described it as a "cruel and infamous" moment in American history.

 

"Native Americans who were unable to travel were rounded up and put into internment camps, a policy reminiscent of the Japanese internments that a later Democratic administration would enforce during World War II," wrote D'Souza. "Reports differ about how bad conditions in the camps were; what no one disputes is that around four thousand Indians died from malnourishment and disease. The Trail of Tears has gone down in American history as cruel and infamous. It certainly was, although its perpetrator was not 'America' but rather the Jackson Democrats."

Prior to that, Andrew Jackson was notorious for running real-estate scams forcing Native Americans off their property. Aaron Bandler, formerly of The Daily Wire, wrote of the president's checkered past in 2017:

Jackson would use his wealth and political influence to blackmail Native Americans off their property and then sell the property at a higher price than he originally paid for it. In other cases, Jackson would invest in property under other names in order to conceal the sprawling amounts of property that he and his associates owned. Those properties too were sold at higher prices than they were initially purchased.

Jackson's political opponents would frequently attempt to use these shady land deals as a political bludgeon against him, but it never stuck due to the real estate records being destroyed. These land deals seemed to have had a Whitewater-esque feel to them, but it didn't matter to Jackson's supporters. They were just ecstatic that Jackson was taking land from Native Americans and selling it to them.