from the grounds of the state capitol, not with a sword, but with a pen. today i m very proud to say that it is a great day in south carolina. [ applause ] reporter: behind her, relatives of the nine who died in the charleston church massacre. their alleged killer pictured here with a confederate flag. these nine pens are going to each of the nine families. reporter: debate over the bill was passionate. take a symbol of hate off these grounds. i grew up with that flag as a heritage. i didn t see issue. and i don t see issue now. reporter: jenny horne is a de descendent of jefferson davis the president of the confederacy. i think we re going to honor their legacy at least something good came out of a tragedy.
family growing up. i m sorry. i have heard enough about heritage. i have a heritage. i m a lifelong south carolinian i m a descendant of jefferson davis, okay? but that does not matter. it s not about jenny horne. it s about the people of south carolina who have demanded that this symbol of hate come off of the state house grounds. i want to bring in south carolina stateruptive house minority leader here in south carolina, todd rutherford. good to see you. good to see you, craig. let s start with the debate over the last few years. we saw jenny horne, a lot of folks crediting her with helping get the football over the 1 yard line for you guys. what was it like wednesday night? it was tough. it was tough for all the democrats who had to sit on their hands and not say
anything. we didn t want to ruin it. we didn t want one democrat to make a speech an impassioned speech but we believed had we done that that flag wouldn t come down. we sat there if you watch the debate for hours upon hours. the republicans got up basically talked to themselves as democrats did nothing. so as not to antagonize. that s extremely difficult and it s exactly what we did. when you saw democrats finally get up and talk they did so so we could go in the back and negotiate. my democratic caucus i can t thank them nfl. while i was in the back talking to the speaker, talking to representative quinn, they did that. while we were asking people to take time, jenny said she wanted to speak. i came out and heard her crying. that s simply not jenny horne. she s a warrior, she s on your side, you can typically get anything across. to see her in tears, i couldn t figure out what somebody said to her. it literally, as you said moved the ball across the goal line. was she concerned
issue in the days ahead. mississippi thinking aboutity own flag other states with similar issues. do you feel like in south carolina you ve learned something here other people should take heed of when they embark on these debates. it was interesting to watch republicans like mike pitts talk about the flag how it represented history and heritage and they went on for hours. we counted almost until about 8:00 the first republican that talked about the charleston nine was representative jenny horne. prior to that not a single republican so worried about the history and heritage of that flag said anything about the nine that had been massacred including our colleague. what we learned is we still have a long way to go. what we learned is they continue to address their own republican colleagues begging them to please see it their way and vote to keep the flag up. they never bothered to look our direction and say, guys please tell me this flag does not offend you. please tell me there s anot
in south carolina that might speak to other southern states grappling with this same kind of issue in the days ahead. mississippi thinking about its own flag, other states with similar issues. do you feel like in south carolina you ve learned something here other people should take heed of when they embark on these debates. it was interesting to watch republicans like mike pitts talk about the flag how it represented history and heritage and they went on for hours. we counted almost until about 8:00 the first republican that talked about the charleston nine was representative jenny horne. prior to that not a single republican so worried about the history and heritage of that flag said anything about the nine that had been massacred including our colleague. what we learned is we still have a long way to go. what we learned is they continue to address their own republican colleagues begging them to please see it their way and vote to keep the flag up. they never bothered to look our di