While explaining his newfound support of removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina capitol grounds, Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) also expressed his frustration that the debate turned to the Confederate flag so quickly following the deadly shooting at a Charleston church.
Mulvaney said in a statement on Facebook that he was hesitant to support the removal of the flag given how quickly the debate took place.
He also said he had always viewed the compromise in 2000 that moved the Confederate flag from the capitol dome to the grounds “a high point in South Carolina politics: a time when people got together and worked through their differences in a way that all could accept with pride.”
“But in speaking with many people over the course of the last few days, it has become clear that the flag does in fact mean different things to different people in our state,” Mulvaney said. “And I blame myself for not listening closely enough to people who see the flag differently than I do. It is a poor reflection on me that it took the violent death of my former desk mate in the SC Senate, and eight others of the best the Charleston community had to offer, to open my eyes to that.”
Yet, the congressman said the debate over the Confederate flag was a distraction.
“It strikes me as particularly disappointing, for example, that we have spent more time talking about the flag for the last few days than we have talking about the extraordinary display of faith, love, and forgiveness shown by the families of the victims of the shooting in Charleston,” he said in the statement. “If the flag has become an excuse for people to ignore things like that, then perhaps time has come for a change.”
Mulvaney concluded his statement by noting that the shooting in South Carolina did not lead to riots, despite the presence of the Confederate flag.
“Finally, I will say this: there is no Confederate flag flying at the state capitol in Missouri, yet Ferguson had race riots; there is no Confederate flag flying at the state capitol in Maryland, yet Baltimore had race riots,” he said. “There is a Confederate flag flying on the grounds of the state capitol in South Carolina, yet Charleston set an example for the world to marvel at in its response to this atrocity. And of that, I am extraordinarily proud. Perhaps those who are now trying to focus attention on the flag are spending their time on the wrong things.”
