Dylann Roof, who has confessed to killing nine members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, as they were holding a Bible study group Wednesday night, didn't represent anything "more than being a sick, twisted 21-year-old," Sen. Lindsey Graham said Friday.
"If his goal was to start a race riot, he failed miserably," the South Carolina lawmaker told
Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. "Everyone is grieving together."
Graham, who is seeking the GOP presidential nomination, also told the news program that his niece knew Roof when they were in school together.
"Apparently my niece, Emily, was in eighth grade English with him and went to high school with him a while," the senator told Fox News. "Everyone thought he was on drugs, just a real strange kid."
Graham also said it is not the time to talk about solutions to such tragedies on a political level, despite
President Barack Obama's call on Thursday for a national reckoning on gun violence, when he commented that "this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries."
"Now is time to focus on individual family members in the community," said Graham. "To his credit, President Obama called yesterday offering sympathies; I appreciate that."
Graham said he hopes there is more talk about the people who were killed in Wednesday night's massacre, not just about Roof.
"They were incredible people," said Graham. "The pastor, Sen. [Clementa] Pinckney, I've known for a long time. Every time you walked in a room, he would smile."
However,
South Carolina Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn argued on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show that it is time to recognize that there is a problem with gun violence that is not going to be solved by ignoring it.
"I hope that what is taking place now will allow the people of this country to allow this discussion to go forward," said Clyburn. "Nobody is saying that we want to control guns. We want to prevent people who ought not have guns from having them.
"In this particular instance, Dylann Roof had been arrested for a felony. He was old enough to buy a gun at 21 years old, but under the process he couldn't. But his father bought the gun and gave it to him for his 21st birthday."
Story continues below video.
Those circumventions happen "time and again," Clyburn said. "If you were to have an open, honest discussion about all of these things, then the gun advocates would know, we don't want to keep guns away from you. We want to keep guns away from the Dylann Roofs of the world and other people who misuse them."
Clyburn lauded Debbie Dills, the florist who saw Roof's black car, recognized it, and reported it.
"There are a lot of Dylann Roofs in the world," said Clyburn. "But there a lot of Debbie Dillses in the world. She broke her silence. She did not remain silent when she saw something."
Clyburn described Pinckney as "an outstanding young man," and just a few weeks ago told his wife that he thought the minister was starting to pursue his role in the church more than he was his role in politics.
"He was just what we call a stand-up kind of guy who really felt strongly about his involvement with the church," said Clyburn, adding that all of the nine killed were his constituents and that he knew five of them very well.
South Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Sanford, also on the MSNBC show Friday, addressed calls being made by some for removing the Confederate flag from South Carolina's Statehouse grounds altogether.
Story continues below video.
The flag had been brought down from the Statehouse itself and put on the grounds in a compromise, with a monument to African-Americans and slaves also being constructed, and the compromise left both sides unhappy.
"Some folks say, 'my great, great grandfather died if the battle of Bull Run and for me it's a simple of states rights or the loss within our family,'" said Sanford. "It's a very, very complex issue within our state. And, you know, I don't think that that should be the immediate solution because it's one that would take, frankly, some time. It's not going to come down immediately. That will be my political take."
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.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.