Senate Democrats on Tuesday demanded a probe of racist domestic terrorism in response the the deadly shooting this month at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
“What we saw in South Carolina is about hate, and it is about evil. We must address the reality of domestic terrorism spurred by racial hatred head on,” six Democratic senators said in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican.
The senators, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, said the church shooting appeared to also fit the U.S. Code’s definition of a terrorist attack, which describes terrorism as a criminal act dangerous to human life that is intended to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population” or “to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction [or] assassination.”
The June 17 attack at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston killed nine black churchgoers and set off a debate about racism in America and whether it is appropriate to display the Confederate battle flag.
Dylann Roof, 21, a white man who has ties to white supremacists and posed in photos with the Confederate flag, was charged with the nine counts of murder in the attack, which the Justice Department is investigating as a hate crime.
The senators said that the shooter’s actions were “clearly driven by bizarre and perverse beliefs.”
The letter was also signed by Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, Chris Coons of Delaware and Al Franken of Minnesota.
“We urge you to hold hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee on the threat posed by domestic terrorism and homegrown hate groups,” they wrote.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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