Jim Webb: Confederate Battle Flag ‘Long Been Due to Come Down’
O'DONNELL: “Former Virginia Senator Jim Webb is the latest Democrat to enter the presidential race. He wants a fresh approach to problem solving in Washington. Webb is a decorated Vietnam War veteran. He was secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan and most recently served one term as a senator. He joins us now for his first interview since announcing his candidacy last week. Senator, good morning and welcome to the race.”
WEBB: “Good morning. Thank you.”
O'DONNELL: “Off and running.”
WEBB: “We've been at the edges for several months. It's nice to be in it.”
O'DONNELL: “I want to ask you about some of the headlines of the day. We learned today that South Carolina is going to remove the Confederate flag. Are you glad to see it gone?”
WEBB: “Well, I think it's long been due to come down. The Confederate flag was a battle flag. It assumed a lot of unfortunate racist and divisionist overtones during the civil rights era. At the same time, I have been trying to reinforce we need to remember two other parts of our history here. One is the very complex history of the Civil War itself where in John Hope Franklin's own numbers, the most eminent African America historian, only five percent of the whites in the south owned slaves and only 25 percent of the whites in the south had anything to do economically. While at the same time, there were four slave states that remained in the Union during the Civil War. Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware. And so, if you were a young person being called to duty during that period, this was a very complicated decision to make and we should remember that. And the other point –“
O'DONNELL: “Is that why you didn't call for its immediate removal after the church massacre?”
WEBB: “Well, actually, I did say that it didn't belong in public places, but what my concern was this would go beyond the issues of harmony and unity that we want to keep on the table and into issues that again divide us. I think we've seen a great sense of growth of unity in the American south since the civil rights era. And the south has never white against black, per se. It's always been a small veneer manipulating the emotions white against black for all these other reasons and we need to look at jobs. We need to look at education. We need to look at harmony, and bringing people together. That's what I hope we don't lose with this.”
