South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to Call for Removal of Confederate Flag
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The Charleston Post and Courier reports that South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) will publicly support the removal of the Confederate flag from the state's capitol grounds in Columbia. The announcement will come during a 4 p.m. ET press conference.
The news comes as the legislature in South Carolina debates extending their work this summer into a special session to handle this issue. Republican state Rep. Doug Brannon has publicly committed to introducing a bill that would remove the flag. Brannon was friends with state Sen. Clementa Pickney, one of the nine Black people killed last week by a white supremacist at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. Pickney was a pastor at the church.
"Right now my strategy is to scream a lot because my friend is dead," Brannon told CNN. "Sen. Pickney's death and the death of eight others, that has to move us to do the right thing."
It appears that Haley will support this measure.
Any bill aimed at removing the flag will face stiff opposition, partially because of the complex legality that ensures the flag flies on the capitol grounds. In 2000, a compromise was reached whereby the flag was removed from the top of the South Carolina state capitol and transferred to a nearby Confederate Civil War memorial. In return, flag supporters managed to mandate by law that the flag could only be removed by a super majority vote by the legislature. That means Brannon's bill would need "Yes" votes from two-thirds of the state legislature.
This past weekend, there were protests in South Carolina demanding that the flag be removed. For more on that movement, see our video:
