Speaking at Ralph Reed’s ultra-right wing Faith and Freedom summit today, Jeb Bush took time out to comment on Dylann Reed’s shooting rampage at the historic Emanuel AME church, where he killed 9 people including a prominent black state senator.
“I don’t know what was on the mind or the heart of the man who committed these atrocious crimes,” Bush said. “But I do know what was in the heart of the victims.”
According to the New Civil Rights Movement, although updating his take with a slight nuance, Bush doubled down on his ‘I don’t know’ stance when asked by a HuffPo reporter if he thought the shooter’s motives were racially motivated.
Asked again whether the shooting was because of race, Bush added, “I don’t know. Looks like to me it was, but we’ll find out all the information. It’s clear it was an act of raw hatred, for sure. Nine people lost their lives, and they were African-American. You can judge what it is.”
The hesitancy of conservative politicians and pundits to acknowledge the clear racial component in Wednesday’s shooting is to be expected. But each time the strategy of not alienating the “white fear” demographic of their voting base is knee-jerkingly implemented, it becomes more unsustainable and grotesque.
Shooter: I hate black people and wanted to start a race war so that the Confederacy will rise again. Jeb: Real head scratcher why he did it.
— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 19, 2015
Jeb’s tip-toeing around the source of the evil that was wrought upon church-goers this Wednesday is cartoonishly detached considering the recent revelations about Roof. Aside from the FBI’s labeling the shooting spree as a hate crime, along with all the victims being black and the reported comments Roof made to survivors, saying, “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country and you have to go,” we now know according to his stepmother that Roof talked about being involved with “racist groups.” His roommate said he was “planning something like that for six months,” adding that Roof “was big into segregation and other stuff,” and that he said “he wanted to start a civil war. He said he was going to do something like that and then kill himself.”
If Jeb Bush wants to represent the American people as president, it’s time he and the conservative media complex gets on the bus with the rest of the human race and calls Dylann Roof what he is – a white supremacist who carried out a terrorist act against civilians.
[Featured image: The Huffington Post]
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