South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will call on the her state’s Legislature to act immediately to remove the Confederate flag that flies over the grounds of the state Capitol during a press conference scheduled for Monday afternoon, sources have confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
Her press conference comes amid growing pressure for the state to remove the flag. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who last week said the flag “works here, will join the call for the Confederate flag that flies over the grounds of his state Capitol to be taken down, a source familiar with his decision confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
Graham, a Republican presidential candidate and South Carolina’s senior senator, is expected to go public with his decision Monday. Graham and Haley are part of a growing cascade of Republicans to call for the flag’s removal from a Confederate war memorial on the grounds of the South Carolina Capitol in Columbia.
The calls for the flag’s removal come days after Dylann Roof opened fire at an historically black church in Charleston, killing nine worshippers. He was allegedly motivated by race, and photos have surfaced of Roof posing with the Confederate flag.
Haley, a Republican, and leaders of the GOP-controlled legislature were meeting Monday afternoon to plot a path forward and win over opposing lawmakers. The flag is perched above a Confederate war memorial and cannot be removed without legislation that passes with a two-thirds vote of the legislature.
The matter could be handled through the budget process, but time in the current legislative session is running out and it’s possible the matter will have to be punted to January.
According to one South Carolina GOP insider, the legislature is “generally friendly” to Haley’s pitch that the Confederate flag be taken down immediately rather than waiting until next year, but there will be some holdouts that she and legislative leaders are trying to bring on board. “They’re expending some political capital behind scenes,” this source said.
In addition to Graham, Haley will join a group of Charleston-area political and religious leaders who called on lawmakers to vote to remove the flag from that memorial. Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. and Democratic state Sen. Marlon Kimpson, among others, spoke from North Charleston, asking for the South Carolina General Assembly to stay in session and vote as early as Tuesday to take the flag down.
“The time has come for the [Confederate] flag to be removed from the State House grounds,” Riley said, adding the flag should be preserved in a museum.
Reverend Nelson B. Rivers II, Elder James Johnson of the National Action Network, State Representatives Wendell Gilliard and Leon Stavrinakis and J. Elliot Summey of the Charleston County Council were also part of Monday’s news conference. They announced that a rally is scheduled at the State House on Tuesday at 2 p.m. to encourage legislators to vote to remove the flag.
“The intense and difficult debate that took place in 2000 over the Confederate soldier flag was ultimately resolved by compromise. Wednesday’s unspeakable tragedy has reignited a discussion on this sensitive issue that holds a long and complicated history in the Palmetto State. Moving South Carolina forward from this terrible tragedy requires a swift resolution of this issue,” Republican House Speaker Jay Lucas said in a statement.
According to CNN’s Jeff Zeleny, Sen. Tim Scott also will call for the flag to be removed from its current perch. Scott, a Republican from Charleston, is among the most popular elected officials in South Carolina. Scott’s office did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment. Also calling for the flag to come down Monday were Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo.; Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and GOP Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker of Tennessee.
“It is up to the people of South Carolina, but I hope they remove a flag that many see as a symbol of racial intolerance. The flag to fly is the American flag because it is a symbol that this is one country and we are all Americans,” Alexander said in a prepared statement.
(h/t The Associated Press, Post & Courier, WSSC News)
