Clyburn: Charleston Shooting a Result of America’s ‘Right-Wing Drift’

Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) discussed the fatal shooting of nine parishioners inside Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC and blamed the shooting on a “right-wing drift in the country” that has “gone too far.”

Chuck Todd asked, “Congressman, you’re from a generation that was in the middle of the Civil Rights movement. You saw the pain and protests of the ’60s, some attacks that took place in the ’60s. Did you think this was at all possible, that something like this could happen in the 21st century?”

Clyburn said, “Unfortunately, Chuck, I did. I’ve been saying for some time now, and my friends in the Congressional Black Caucus will tell you I’ve been saying to them that there’s a right-wing drift in the country that I think has gone too far. People get emboldened by all this. We hear all this discussion about the Confederate battle flag. What’s so interesting about that, Chuck, that’s not the confederate flag. That’s a battle flag that flies in front of the state house. That’s a flag of rebellion. We would not be having this discussion if that were the confederate flag — or the flag of the confederacy of America. That flag is not now a symbol of hate. When you see the resurrection of this, a young man 21 years old, wearing Apartheid things on his shirt, burning the United States flag, and glorifying an elongated version of the battle flag, certainly you’re creating a climate that allow this kind of thing to happen.”