S.C. senators had a rapid change of heart on flag issue
Graham and Scott, interviewed by the Daily News on Friday, had avoided calling for removal. Yesterday they stood alongside the governor.
JUST LAST FRIDAY, South Carolina's two Republican U.S. senators were silent or vague when asked by the Daily News whether the Confederate flag should be removed from the grounds of their state Capitol.
Yesterday, Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott stood with Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as she called for the flag to come down.
The whirlwind of events following the murders of prominent African-American pastor and state Sen. Clementa Pinckney and eight of his parishioners in their Charleston church last Wednesday may have helped the senators make up their minds. The flag has been embraced by white supremacists from the Civil War through the civil-rights era and to this day.
The man who confessed to committing the Emanuel AME Church massacre - Dylann Roof - is shown holding the flag in photographs.
At a Friday prayer vigil for the victims that drew 4,000 people to the College of Charleston's basketball arena, Graham had said the issue was ripe for discussion. "I would put the flag and the guns in the same boat and let's have a conversation," the presidential candidate said.
"Let's bury these people with dignity, move ahead and find out what can you do to prevent things like this in the future. And it's not a movie, it's not a book, it's not a song, it's not a symbol to excuse this guy, but we need to do some self-evaluation so we can move forward."
Scott, the first and only elected black U.S. senator from South Carolina, demurred when asked about the flag. "If you want to have a conversation about the families and about the loss, great," the Charleston native said. "If you want to have a political conversation, in my opinion, this is an inappropriate time to have that. So I won't be answering any of those political questions."