WATCH: Hirono on US Senate floor slams Trump’s attacks on national parks

U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono, a Hawai‘i Democrat, recently took to the Senate floor to highlight President Donald Trump Administration’s attacks on national parks throughout the country.

Hirono said Trump has targeted national park sites since his return to office, stripping land protections, gutting park staff, eliminating entrance fee-free days for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth while making his own birthday a fee-free day and even attempting to remove information at national park sites he claims are instances of “partisan ideology.”

One of the exhibits removed at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge displayed information describing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, in addition to information about massacres of indigenous people and historical accounts of slavery.

“The removal of these exhibits not only strips these sites of critical context, but it erases and whitewashes the history of our country,” said Hirono in her floor remarks. “These exhibits, and others like them, reflect some of the darkest stains on our country’s history. That’s precisely why it’s so important we continue to talk about them. It is by preserving history that we prevent ourselves from repeating the more egregious parts of our past.”

She emphasized the importance of protecting history that tells the story of the unconstitutional internment of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans that “destroyed their livelihoods, their businesses and split apart families.”

“Doesn’t this sound familiar as this regime goes about arresting and deporting thousands of immigrants without due process, spreading fear and chaos in our communities?” Hirono said.

Trump also tried to remove exhibits addressing the impacts of climate change on national parks, in an attempt to ignore climate change and prioritize his interest in the oil industry.

The National Park Service was ordered to remove its general climate change web page, as well as other more specific pages on other national park websites, including the Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park site.

“Americans need to understand what is happening to our environment, so that we can better understand how to protect these natural resources for future generations,” Hirono said.

She concluded her speech by reiterating national parks must not only continue their missions of conserving natural, cultural and historical landscapes, they must continue to accurately display context about the sites on which they exist.

“This regime — as it attempts to rewrite history all over the place — it’s no surprise that they’ve set their sights on our national parks,” said Hirono. “The millions of visitors to our national parks will not get a full picture. Apparently, that is exactly as this regime intends.”