Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has called on presidential candidates who are canceling their campaign stops following Wednesday's shootings at Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina to instead attend a worship service.
"I'm glad they canceled their political events," Jindal, who is expected to announce his presidential bid next week,
told CNN's "New Day" Thursday morning.
"If there's an opportunity, if they happen to be there and they want to go in a worship service, I think that'd be appropriate, if they want to go support the community."
Republican candidate Jeb Bush was to have a campaign stop in Charleston Thursday, but has postponed it,
reports CNN. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton also appeared in Charleston earlier this week.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has also canceled all his political events Thursday and is heading to Charleston.
"There are bad people in this world who are motivated by hate," Graham, also a Republican presidential candidate said,
reports USA Today.
"Every decent person has been victimized by the hateful, callous disregard for human life shown by the individual who perpetrated these horrible acts."
Jindal, told CNN that he does not think it will ever be understood why the shooter killed the three men and six women, including pastor and state Sen. Clementa Pinckney.
On Thursday, the suspected shooter, Dylann Roof, 21, of Lexington, South Carolina, was captured in neighboring North Carolina after an hourslong manhunt, Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen announced,
The New York Times reported.
"I had conflicting emotions," Jindal told CNN of the shooting. "My heart breaks for the families, the members of this community that lost loved ones. I don't think we'll ever understand why. We're talking about people that were there in a Bible study. This is the last place you'd expect random or senseless acts of violence."
The shootings were "beyond evil," he continued. "This monster needs to be tracked down and brought to justice. You see man's capacity — there aren't any answers for why this would happen. Like so many Americans, I think about this not only as a governor but as a husband and a father."
A church is "a safe place," Jindal said. "It's a place to go to worship and get away from life's worries. To have their lives cut short by this evil — look, there's no other term for it, this evil monster. I hope the authorities are able to capture him quickly and bring him to justice."
Jindal said the members of the church will go on and "try to heal their community."
"These men and women were going about their business and coming together to pray, one of the most harmless and uplifting things you can do," the Louisiana governor said. "And they're not going home after that."
He told CNN that there is a "ray of hope," and that is the community's response, with the leaders in the local NAACP and the Christian community calling for prayer.
"These are incredible people," he said. "I think most of us watching were thinking if that had happened in our community, the first impulse is hate and revenge. It's an understandable human emotion when something this awful has happened to your friends and family members.
"And what you're hearing from this community is we're going to pray and come together. And we're going to come back to this church."
Not all political events have been canceled. Both Donald Trump, a Republican candidate, and Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is running for the Democratic nomination, have appearances scheduled in South Carolina. Neither campaign said Thursday if those stops have been rescheduled or canceled, CNN reports.
The FBI has opened an official investigation on the shooting as a hate crime.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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