Republican presidential contender Rick Perry on Saturday condemned the killings in South Carolina earlier this week as a “hate crime.”
Perry discussed the horrific murders of a prominent black minister and eight black members of the church congregation in Charleston, S.C. while addressing a conference in Washington, D.C.
“I think we all come here today with heavy hearts for those individuals in Charleston — those Charleston Christians — who were gunned down in an absolute heinous hate crime inside of their place of worship,” Perry said at the Faith and Freedom Coalition “Road to Majority” Conference in Washington.
“That deranged individual didn’t just take lives of black Americans — he gunned down nine children of God,” Perry said, referring to the 21-year-old assailant Dylann Storm Roof.
CNN pointed out on its website that Perry’s use of the term “hate crime” follows an earlier interview with conservative NewsmaxTV on Friday night, in which he referred to the massacre as an “accident.”
A spokesman for Perry clarified soon after that Perry meant to say “incident,” CNN reported.
He also told reporters after his speech Saturday that he welcomed a debate over gun control in the wake of the church shooting, according to CNN.
“I think it is healthy for us as a nation to have conversations and defend our positions whatever they may be,” Perry said. “I do have an issue that the knee-jerk from the Left is always, ‘We’re going to take people’s guns away from them,’ when in fact there may be a host of contributing factors here.”
