Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: (From video.) There is something particularly heartbreaking about a death happening in a place in which we seek solace and we seek peace, in a place of worship.
MS. IFILL: Another mass shooting, this time in a church, revives recurring debates about race, hate and the roots of violence.
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA MAYOR JOSEPH RILEY (D): (From video.) The only reason someone could walk into a church and shoot people praying is out of hate.
MS. IFILL: The question’s why, and what happens next.
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MS. IFILL: Good evening. The names, they’re quite ordinary – Clementa Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Tywanza Sanders, Ethel Lance, Susie Jackson, DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Daniel Simmons and Myra Thompson. Those are the victims of the latest inexplicable burst of violence, allegedly visited this week by one American citizens against others – people who had welcomed him into a weekly church Bible study. The national sense of shock has been palpable.
SOUTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR NIKKI HALEY (R): (From video.) We woke up today and the heart and soul of South Carolina was broken.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: (From video.) I want to be clear. I am not resigned. I have faith we will eventually do the right thing. (Applause.) I was simply making the point that we have to move public opinion. We have to feel a sense of urgency. It is not good enough simply to show sympathy.
MS. IFILL: Attorney General Loretta Lynch launched a Justice Department hate crime investigation into the shootings, which means exactly what, Carrie?
CARRIE JOHNSON: So that means the FBI and civil rights investigators are on the ground right now in Charleston helping and looking over the shoulder of the state authorities who are also investigating the shooting allegedly by 21-year old Dylann Roof. The FBI has seized some computers in the Roof home. They’re going to be searching for his browser history, looking for his contacts on social media and spanning out to interview his friends, family members and associates.
The key, Gwen, in proving a hate crime is being able to establish someone was motivated by some racial animus or animus because of someone’s religion or gender identity. And in this case, we already have some clues according to some search warrants and law enforcement sources that Dylann Roof was pictured wearing a garment with the flag of Rhodesia and the Apartheid-era South Africa flag. There’s also a statement in the affidavit released today by state authorities indicating after Dylann Roof allegedly shot and killed these nine people, he stood over one of the victims and uttered a racial epithet before leaving the AME church in Charleston. All these things are important clues toward establishing some kind of hate crime motive.
MS. IFILL: We saw the president just now saying he’s not resigned. And that was in response to the fact that he came out yesterday and said, you know, there ought to be – we ought to get over this gun violence, but I don’t expect we will – or he – I’m paraphrasing him, poorly. But what can the federal government do if it is determined, A, that it is a hate crime, and that gun violence is really at the root of it?
MS. JOHNSON: So at base this administration already tried and put a lot of capital after the killings of 20 school children in Newtown, Connecticut toward a background check bill and some other measures. That did not succeed in Congress. Congress wound up not doing anything with regard to that issue. So what this administration has done in the meantime is pose what it perceives to be some common-sense gun regulations that it can do via executive fiat. Those are not really moving the dial though, Gwen. And what the president said today was we need the American people to rise up and influence and lean on their members of Congress to try to break a stalemate, to the extent one exists, on gun regulations.
DAN BALZ: Carrie, what’s the relationship between the federal hate crime investigation and what the state authorities are doing?
MS. JOHNSON: Attorney General Loretta Lynch says the feds are working on a parallel track with the state. Often what that means, Dan, is that they’ll allow the state authorities to go first, as they have done in this case. This defendant, Dylann Roof, faces nine murder charges at the state level, and a weapons charge. But federal authorities are looking over the shoulder of the state and may eventually weigh in with a federal case either based on hate crimes or potentially even a domestic terrorism charge. That’s down the line though, not something we should expect right away.
CHARLES BABINGTON: Carrie, killing non – innocent people, for whatever reason or perceived reason, is a horrendous thing. Would there be some difference in the way the case would be punished if he’s convicted, or prosecuted, if it’s determined a hate crime or not a hate crime?
MS. JOHNSON: So in the South Carolina state system, these murder charges are death penalty eligible. And Governor Nikki Haley has already decreed that the state is going to seek the death penalty against Dylann Roof. The federal charges also carry very serious penalties – life without parole and the like. But the role of the federal government here appears to be mostly sending a message that this administration cares, that it views these acts, as accused, to be vile. And it wants people to know that they view these acts as unconscionable. And they’re sending a message to people right now by broadcasting their involvement in this investigation.
YOCHI DREAZEN: But so, if you have the state pursing death penalty charges, as Governor Haley said, and as you say the federal charges could also carry the death penalty, well, what happens procedurally? I mean, who goes first and if he’s convicted, not to be too blunt about it, but who kills him first?
MS. JOHNSON: So Attorney General Lynch said this week that they’re looking at all avenues at the federal level. She says it’s too soon to say whether the state or the feds will go first. But of course, the states have gone first. Dylann Roof is now locked up without the possibility of bond on these nine charges. And that system has already moved into action. So to the extent the federal authorities decide to weigh in with a charge that will likely happen farther down the road. I heard today from law enforcement sources, they’re very eager to get into these computers and see his browser history. Right now, it appears as if he was acting alone, but they want to see what he was looking at, what kinds of materials he was reading, what other influences may have acted on him.
MS. IFILL: And of course, there’s a larger question of what “alone” means in our society, but we can’t address all of that tonight. We’ll be coming back to it. Thank you, Carrie.
