NBC's Savannah Guthrie on Friday echoed Barack Obama's call for more gun control in the wake of the Charleston shooting. The Today host talked to South Carolina's Governor Nikki Haley and highlighted the President "venting" about gun violence. Guthrie quizzed, "I know you are a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. Is there anything about this situation that makes you think, okay, should we rethink? Is it time for some kind of change?"
Haley retorted, "There is one person to blame here. A person felled with hate, a person that doesn't define South Carolina." On CBS This Morning, the network highlighted Obama's "outrage" and reminded that the President is "again calling for changes in America's gun laws."
Haley also appeared on CBS, but the show's hosts didn't specifically ask her about guns. Instead, Gayle King lectured the governor that there are "calls in your state that we need to have a real honest conversation about race in the country about race in your state in particular."
She also wondered, "There are also calls today that you have to take the Confederate flag from the state capitol. How do you address those calls?"
A transcript of the Today exchange can be found below:
6/19/15
7:12SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: I know the President called you yesterday. He then made some public remarks and he openly vented about mass violence and in particular gun violence in this country. I know you are a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. Is there anything about this situation that makes you think, okay, should we rethink? Is it time for some kind of change?
NIKKI HALEY (R-SC): Any time there is a traumatic situation, people want something to blame. They always want something to go after. There is one person to blame here. A person felled with hate, a person that doesn't define South Carolina. And we are going to focus on that person. I know President Obama has his job to do and he made those statements. But my job is to now get this state to heal and our focus, very much, is on those nine families. It's on the Mother Emanuel church family. It's on the AME family and it's on the people of South Carolina who are saying that one person doesn't define us. What's happening in churches now around the state, that defines us.
