Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Monday endorsed the removal of the Confederate Flag in South Carolina, where nine worshipers were killed in an historic black church in Charleston last week.
“The Confederate Battle Flag means different things to different people, but the fact that it continues to be a painful reminder of racial oppression to many suggests to me at least that it’s time to move beyond it, and that the time for a state to fly it has long since passed,” McConnell said. “There should be no confusion in anyone’s mind that as a people we’re united in our determination to put that part of our history behind us.”
McConnell made the statement hours after Republican Gov. Nicky Haley and GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, both of South Carolina, called for the flag’s removal.
Kentucky was considered neutral during some of the Civil War but eventually joined the Union states.
