Tim Scott: Taking Down Monuments Is ‘Definitely a Local Issue’

DICKERSON: Let me ask you about your relationship in South Carolina when the Confederate flag came down. You supported that.

The president has said these Confederate monuments are beautiful, and that it`s foolish to take them down. Do you think it`s foolish to take the Confederate monuments down?

SCOTT: I think that`s definitely a local issue. But I am certainly wanting to be clear — one of the most powerful pictures I`ve ever been a part of, from a racial progress standpoint, was seeing President Obama standing in front of the Pettus Bridge. Not the Selma Bridge, but the Pettus Bridge. Someone stood for hatred, bigotry, and oppression — having an African-American president stand in front of that bridge said so much about the darkness of the human soul in the past, and how much progress that has been mad in this country.

Here at home in South Carolina, John C. Calhoun was a United States senator, famously a part of the notion of oppression and bigotry in this country.

DICKERSON: But do you —

SCOTT: For the voters of South Carolina to evolve to the place where they elect someone like myself to be in the same seat of John C. Calhoun says what is possible in America, and has started in South Carolina. I think we are on the right path overall.

DICKERSON: All right, Senator Scott, we`re going to have to leave it there. We`re out of time. We`re so grateful for you being with us.

SCOTT: Yes, sir, thank you.