Just 10 members of the South Carolina House of Representatives voted against a motion to open up a debate to ultimately remove the Confederate flag from a war memorial outside the state capitol.
Most of them scattered soon after the vote, but of the two who remained to talk, one couldn’t try hard enough to get away. And the second offered reasons that were steeped in history.
Republican State Rep. Chris Corley, who represents the town of Aiken, said at first he didn’t want to talk at all, then pushed aside CNN reporter Drew Griffin. He then said he believes the fate of the flag should be debated in December “in the normal process.”
“I’m for opening up debate on it, yes, but I want to go through the normal process which would be filing the bill in December and us coming back next year and talking about it,” Corley told CNN’s Griffin.
Corley said he wants to hear from both sides of the flag debate and then walked away.
State Rep. Bill Chumley, a Republican who represents Spartanburg, said the whole flag issue was settled in his mind in 2000, when lawmakers voted to place the flag at its current war memorial position, instead of atop the State House.
“I think the misuse and the miseducation of the flag has pushed it to this point,” he said. “Why do we let hate groups dictate how we feel and how we live? Hate groups are everywhere. They’re just mean people. We just found that out in Charleston.”
Outside the South Carolina State House, though, the sentiment was clear. Hundreds demonstrated and wanted to remove the flag instantly.