Nebraska lawmaker removes, later returns part of PragerU ‘Founders Museum’ at Capitol

LINCOLN — In plain view of the public, progressive State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha tore down and later returned part of a Nebraska Capitol display distributed by the conservative nonprofit PragerU and the White House on the first day of the legislative session.

Gov. Jim Pillen had said the purpose of hosting the display, sponsored by the state’s Semiquincentennial Commission, was to let the state “celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary.”

The nonprofit behind the images has faced criticism for sharing content that historians consider misleading and inaccurate. The latest display is part of a push from the Trump administration’s White House Task Force 250, outreach designed to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S.

Cavanaugh told the Examiner she removed the frames because “we are not allowed to adhere anything to walls in the hallway of the Capitol.”  She said generally any such display would be placed near the information desk and not in the Capitol’s hallways. 

“I have always been a stickler for the rules … so I removed the prohibited objects,” Cavanaugh said.

A Cavanaugh office aide said the removed portraits were “gone” when asked by the Examiner Wednesday morning, but they were in her office. Cavanaugh, a Democrat in the officially nonpartisan Legislature, said someone would pick up the paintings from her office. 

Speaker John Arch of La Vista confirmed that Cavanaugh told him that she had removed the portraits. Arch said the commission can display in the Capitol with approval, which he said the group had received from the Nebraska Capitol Commission.

Cavanaugh later told the Lincoln Journal Star that she tried not to damage the artwork and called the Nebraska State Patrol to let them know where to find the paintings.

State Sen. Brad von Gillern of the Elkhorn area shared photos of Cavanaugh pulling down the paintings. The posters were back up by around 3 p.m. 

Conservative PragerU’s ‘Founders Museum’ displayed at Nebraska Capitol

The State Patrol said Wednesday evening that no citation was issued, and no “apparent damage” was done to the art. The patrol returned the posters to the Capitol Commission, and the images were rehung.

Pillen, whose office referred reporters to his social media post, shared Capitol security footage of the incident from the State Patrol. In them, Cavanaugh can be seen removing the paintings.

“Celebrating America during our 250th year should be a moment of unity and patriotism, not divisiveness and destructive partisanship,” said Pillen, a Republican. “I am disappointed in this shameful and selfish bad example.”

Conservative radio host Dennis Prager and Allen Estrin, Prager’s then-producer, founded PragerU to give people visual and accessible ways to see historical, economic and climate issues through a right-leaning lens.