SC senator: US will have ‘robust conversation’ on race relations

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) on Sunday said the country will have a “robust conversation” about race relations following the killing of nine people in a historically black church in his state. 

Scott, one of two black U.S. senators, declined to give his position on whether the Confederate flag should continue to fly on his home state’s capitol grounds, saying he would weigh in after the funerals of the victims. 

{mosads}“My voice will be clear,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “My position will be stated.  I’m not going to make any breaking news here.  I have made the commitment to waiting ’till after the funeral to start that debate.  And I’m going to honor that commitment.”

Controversy surrounding the Confederate flag ignited last week amid the killings. The flag no longer flies above the state’s capitol building. For the past decade, it has flown at a nearby memorial on government grounds. Scott supported that compromise at the time. 

“Well, there’s no doubt that South Carolina has a rich and provocative history,” Scott said. “And that flag is a part of the history.  And for some, that flag represents that history. And for so many others, it represents a pain and oppression.”

Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has joined with President Obama and other Democrats to call for the flag to be taken down, which would require action by the state legislature.

Scott said that debate “will be coming soon.”

Scott said the killings were “obviously a case of racism.” The shooter was “driven by hatred. And that is the clear and dominant reason this happened,” Scott said. 

Dylann Roof, 21, was charged with nine counts of murder after allegedly opening fire in the historically black Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., on Wednesday night. 

When asked about gun reform, Scott said, “I think when there’s that much evil in the heart, it is hard to think of the right legislative solution for that problem.”