Politico can’t quite decide whether it was political savvy or a lack of “moral courage” that led many 2016 Republican presidential candidates to delay telling South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley what to do about the Confederate battle flag displayed on the capitol grounds.
Politico asserted in a report this week that while certain 2016 Republican candidates have feared running “afoul of white voters” by addressing the flag issue following a racially motivated terrorist attack last week in Charleston, South Carolina’s Republican Party has been quick to deal with the flag’s removal.
“[T]op party officials and several campaigns quickly fell in line behind the decision to remove the flag,” the news group claimed in an article that also dinged candidates for lacking the “moral courage” to speak out against the flag.
The article continued, detailing the behind-the-scenes of South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s announcement Monday that she would try to have the flag removed from the state capitol. “She took much of the weekend to coordinate Monday’s announcement so that members of the state’s congressional delegation could attend,” the story reported.
Politico quoted an anonymous South Carolina political operative who said, “[I[t was pretty easy. South Carolina has changed a lot in the last five years. It took some of the old guard Republicans dying, frankly, for this new generation of conservative leaders to come in and remake the party.”
Haley’s announcement came after media and the people of South Carolina turned their attention to the flag following a racially motivated terrorist attack last Wednesday that claimed the lives of nine black churchgoers. She was flanked during her press briefing by Republican Sens. Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham, who caught a good deal of grief last week when he defended the flag’s display.
“By Sunday,” Politico reported, citing its anonymous source, “the direction in which the issue was trending was fairly clear — it was more a question of how the announcement would be rolled out.”
The report then asserted that Republicans struggled with the decision on account of “party stalwarts who cling to the Confederate flag as an important symbol of their heritage.”
Graham, for example, reportedly weighed “old guard” consideration for the flag before agreeing that calling for its removal was the correct thing to do.
However, as Politico suggested that the Republican lawmaker was slow to react, it also reported that Graham “had been working the phones [since Thursday], talking with business leaders, state and federal legislators and other stakeholders to take their temperature on the issue, and was in frequent consultation with Haley and Scott.”
By early Monday morning, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and South Carolina GOP Chairman Matt Moore were on board with the Haley-led effort.
The report then focused on declared and likely Republican presidential candidates who “not-so-artfully dodged the question” of whether South Carolina should continue to fly the flag, accusing them of “dragging their feet.”
Jeb Bush, for example, “dodged” the question by saying that he was confident that South Carolina would “do the right thing.” As governor of Florida, Bush spearheaded the effort to have the Confederate battle flag removed from state buildings.
In another example, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker “dodged” the question by saying Saturday that he’d been asked to hold off on expressing his views, explaining that he had spoken directly with Haley.
“[T]that’s what they’re going to do, and we think that’s a respectful decision and I’m sure they’re going to start to have a debate after that,” he said, adding that he’d offer his thoughts “whenever they’re done with all their funerals and the dead have been buried and I think it’s an appropriate time after that.”
For Politico, Bush and Walker’s failure to issue marching orders to Haley apparently constitutes a lack of “moral courage.”
Immediately after Haley’s announcement, both Walker and Bush issued statements throwing their support behind the South Carolina governor.
After accusing Walker and Bush of “dragging their feet” on the issue, Politico then asserted, “they waited, perhaps smartly, for leaders in South Carolina to take the lead, knowing many people there were more likely to be offended by outsiders telling them what to do than by the flag’s eventual removal.”
And yet, the report ends with this line: “Moral courage, it turns out, is easier to come by when you’re a former presidential candidate.”
That line is a reference to Sen. John McCain’s, R-Ariz., saying he regrets not taking a stronger stand against the flag when he was a presidential candidate.
