Guest Post: Oren Jacobson Reflects On Our First Black President

Oren Jacobson is the progressive who briefly put together a primary challenge to reactionary Chicago Blue Dog Dan Lipinski. After listening to President Obama's eulogy in Charleston last week he sent along this moving post:

Amazing (in his) Grace
By Oren Jacobson

After thirty heartfelt minutes, the greatest orator of our time-- and undoubtedly one of the most consequential Presidents in American history-- took Charleston’s Evangelical African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the country as a whole, to a crescendo. This crescendo was different than what we have come to expect from Barack Obama. It wasn’t his trademark soaring rhetoric that catapulted him toward the heavens this time. Rather, it was a long pause followed by the the man moving, unexpectedly, into song.

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. That saved a wretch like me...”

He barely got past the first two words when the congregation joined in, carrying him to the finish as he had carried them in their collective grief. The first Black president stood at the pulpit of this historic Black church, where the futures of nine black men and women were stolen by the hatred of an unapologetic white supremacist, and delivered a eulogy in his familiar baritone that drove home a message reflecting a characteristic emblematic of his presidency: grace.

When they called him a Muslim he handled it with class. When they demanded his birth certificate, he displayed humility. When he was called the “Food Stamp President,” an unquestionable racial dog whistle, he stayed the course on the high road. When they criticized him for bowing to a foreign leader, for being an apologist, a socialist, for being weak, for leading from behind, he kept his eyes steadfastly on the horizon.

Every president is attacked by his opponents for his policies, but this president has been relentlessly attacked for his policies and for who he is, from the outside in. Overtly racist attacks may not be acceptable in the public sphere in this day and age, but under the camouflage of language deeply rooted in racist ideology, the sentiment has been made clear.

He is a Muslim, a Kenyan, an anti-colonial socialist. He is not like us. Doesn’t share our American values. He is the Other.

He never got mad. He never reacted in anger. He kept his composure under circumstances that would cause most to quiver in rage. How else could this man not only end up in the White House but deal with the problems he has had to face and the vitriolic antagonism he has encountered from day one, whether based on policy, politics, or racial motivations, if it not for grace?

This stirring testament to the too soon lost attempted to heal the nation’s wounds, acknowledged our uncomfortable realities, challenged our egos, and charged us to keep moving towards a more perfect union. A man and a people-- well within their rights to cast dispersion fueled by righteous indignation, allow anger and frustration founded on the injustices of past and present to consume them, attack the people who assault them both figuratively and all too often literally with the same level of hatred-- walking gracefully down a path of reflection, prayer, and hope.

In spite of the centuries of oppression, in spite of a flag flying over capitals in this country with the symbol of a rebellion meant to maintain them in a permanent inhuman status, in spite of a criminal justice system with proven racial bias, in spite of widespread economic disparity, this congregation and our president formed a perfect display of all we should aspire to be. This moment was profound. It was a testament to the beliefs that have formed this nation: that we can overcome, that we can rise up in spite of circumstance, that we can build a better tomorrow no matter what burdens we carry today. It was Barack Obama at his best. It was leadership at it’s best. More importantly, it was America at it’s best.

In times of national tragedy it is common for our presidents to speak for us. This speech, by this man, in this moment, was among the most remarkable moments of American history. It capped off a week that can only be described as the best of his presidency-- a presidency that, despite being characterized as a travesty by the right and a let down by the left, has accomplished so much with such grace that we too often fail to recognize the scope.

16 million Americans have affordable health care because of this man. He saved the economy from the brink of disaster. He ended two wars. He repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. He refused to prosecute DOMA. He passed Wall Street reform and major consumer protections. He protected Dreamers, and millions of others with executive orders.

He became the first President to support marriage equality and made it a touchstone of his second inaugural. He pushed through federal benefits for same-sex partners. He appointed more gay officials than any other president and the first transgendered cabinet official. He passed the Lilly Ledbetter act, expanded funding for the Violence Against Women Act, and appointed the first woman to lead the FED. He appointed two women to the Supreme Court (doubling the previous historical total) including the first Hispanic judge. He saved the auto-industry. He killed Osama Bin-Laden. He cut the deficit by more than half. He raised fuel efficiency standards, doubled federal investments in clean energy, negotiated a major climate deal with China, and has presided over the longest period of sustained private sector economic growth in American history.

Despite all of this, President Obama faces level of hatred fiercer than anything endured by his predecessors. Politics and policy may inspire discord, but one cannot honestly stand witness to such seething disdain and not recognize the racial roots in at least some of the attacks.

As I sat and watched him sing “I was once was lost, but now am found…” a lump built in my throat and tears welled in my eyes. I wondered out loud how people could see this man, hear this man, and still hate this man? To disagree with his politics I get. But to despise the man makes no sense.

What a beautiful representative of our country he, and his family, have been for us. We have changed for the better under his leadership. In that moment yesterday there is no doubt some of our national hope was restored. The hate will not stop. The attacks will continue. The disrespect will endure. But, it matters not. For President Barack Obama has been, and will continue to be, Amazing in his Grace.

Can You Learn More Civics From Fox News Or From "Funny Or Die"?

Scalia flipped out after the majority of his Court colleagues rejected his entire life's judicial philosophy Thursday and Friday, first by voting against a frivolous lawsuit to undermine healthcare for millions of American families and then voting to erase the artificial barriers bigots and hate-mongers have erected to prevent gays and lesbians from marrying. While most Americans rejoiced-- many crying tears of joy and pride while President Obama eulogized Reverend Clementa Pinckney at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina, where he and eight members of his congregation had been gunned down by a son of the Confederacy driven into a state of derangement by treasonous Hate Talk radio hosts and seditious right-wing websites (take a look at the video below), Fox News was having its own all-day anti-American rally, the airhead hosts reading Scalia's twisted, sick dissent over and over on national television-- a television network, it should never be forgotten, owned and operated by a billionaire Australian fascist who has always sought to undermine American democracy.

Obama led the congregation in a rendition of "Amazing Grace" during his eulogy for Reverend Pinckney. Ed Pilkington was in Charlestona covering Obama's eulogy for The Guardian:

He referred to the gun rampage by an avowed white supremacist as an act of terrorism, linking it to America’s long history of racist church bombings and arsons.

He said the shooting was not a random act, “but a means of control, a way to terrorize and oppress.” He said the alleged shooter, who he did not name, had imagined his deed would “incite fear and recrimination, violence and suspicion,” as “an act that he presumed would deepen divisions that trace back to our nation’s original sin.”

In the course of a eulogy in which Obama had the audacity to sing Amazing Grace in front of a rapt audience of 5,500 mostly African Americans in the College of Charleston TD Arena, the president also made a robust case for the tearing down of the Confederate flag. As debate continues to rage over the enduring presence of the old secessionist symbol across much of the deep south, Obama said bluntly that the flag was a “reminder of systemic oppression and racial subjugation.”

The flag did not cause the murder of nine churchgoers at a Bible-study meeting on 17 June, Obama said. “But as people from all walks of life-- Republicans and Democrats-- have acknowledged, the flag has always represented more than just ancestral pride.”

He said taking down the flag from the grounds of South Carolina’s state capitol in Columbia “would not be an act of political correctness, it would not be an insult to the valour of Confederate soldiers, it would simply be an acknowledgement that the cause for which they fought-- the cause of slavery-- was wrong.”

Speaking in front of political leaders from both sides of the partisan divide, including Hillary Clinton and the Republican leader John Boehner, as well as African American household names such as Jesse Jackson and the Reverend Al Sharpton, Obama also called for action to address what he called the “mayhem” of gun violence in America.

He also touched on police brutality towards black communities, endemic poverty in many African American neighbourhoods and Republican attempts to introduce new voting laws that would make it more difficult for people to cast their vote.

Over on the fringes of the far right-- on Hate Talk Radio, on Fox News-- extremists were talking about secession, armed resistance, the end of the world... and, of course, asking the suckers in their base for contributions to carry out their work. In the decision that finally legalized same-sex marriage, even some the dissenting Republican justices hinted that the decision smacked of treason. The four right-wing dissenters poured fuel on the fire of controversy over marriage equality with invective and hyperbole, accusing the Court's majority of a "putsch." "Thus," explained the Daily Beast, "the unprecedented calls of elected officials for open revolt against the Supreme Court-- a shocking display of treason-- are now accompanied by calls from within the Court itself that Obergefell is illegitimate, and the Supreme Court itself no longer worthy of full respect." 

Bobby Jindal was the first of the Republican Party presidential hopefuls to embrace the idea, calling for abolishing the Supreme Court. Jeremy Peters reported on the responses from the right-wing justices for today's NY Times:

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, said that while he was certain that “some cowardly politicians will wave the white flag,” he was determined not to bow to a decision he saw as illegitimate. “I will not acquiesce to an imperial court,” he said Friday.

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin said he would push for a constitutional amendment that would allow states to continue prohibiting same-sex marriage. “No one wants to live in a country where the government coerces people to act in opposition to their conscience,” he said. “We will continue to fight for the freedoms of all Americans.”

Others tried to shift the debate to the safer terrain of religious tolerance.

Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, was brief and more tempered. In a statement that ran just 82 words, he said that while he believed the court had erred, he urged respect for all couples, “including those making lifetime commitments.” He then said it was crucial “to protect religious freedom and the right of conscience and also not discriminate.”

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida also criticized the decision but added, “We live in a republic and must abide by the law.” The next president, he said, must focus on protecting “the First Amendment rights of religious institutions and millions of Americans whose faiths hold a traditional view of marriage.” (Mr. Bush and Mr. Rubio, unlike Mr. Walker, have said they do not support a constitutional amendment to reverse the court’s ruling.)

The varied reactions reflected the priorities of the Republicans seeking the presidency. Some, like Mr. Bush, are eyeing a general election in which hostility to same-sex marriage could present difficulties in winning competitive states. Others, like Mr. Huckabee, Mr. Walker and Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana-- who said Friday that marriage was ordained by God “and no earthly court can alter that”-- are focused on winning over social conservatives in early nominating states like Iowa and South Carolina. A few, like Mr. Rubio, seem equally mindful of both.

Justin Amash (R-MI), a Republican but a thorn in the side of the party's strategic careerism, more a libertarian and reformer than a doctrinaire party hack, expressed a very different view from most of his party's conference on Facebook:

Throughout history, different cultures have defined marriage according to their own customs and practices. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, agnostics, and atheists do not share identical views on marriage. In fact, significant differences regarding marriage exist even within Christianity.

What makes marriage traditional is not its adherence to a universal definition but rather that it is defined by personal faith, not by government. For thousands of years, marriage flourished without a universal definition and without government intervention. Then came licensing of marriage. In recent decades, we've seen state legislatures and ballot initiatives define marriage, putting government improperly at the helm of this sacred institution.

Those who care about liberty should not be satisfied with the current situation. Government intervention in marriage presents new threats to religious freedom and provides no advantages, for gay or straight couples, over unlicensed (i.e., traditional) marriage. But we shouldn't blame the Supreme Court for where things stand.

To the extent that Americans across the political spectrum view government marriage as authoritative and unlicensed marriage as quaint, our laws must treat marriage-- and the corresponding legal benefits that attach-- as they would any other government institution. So, while today's Supreme Court opinion rests upon the false premise that government licensure is necessary to validate the intimate relationships of consenting adults, I applaud the important principle enshrined in this opinion: that government may not violate the equal rights of individuals in any area in which it asserts authority.

And that brings us to Coheed and Cambria, a progressive rock band from New York formed 10 years ago. If you haven't had an opportunity to listen to their latest yet, it's at the top of this post, courtesy of Funny Or Die. One-upping Fox News, they performed an acoustic song that borrows copiously from Scalia's insane dissents on the two decisions. If you've been over at Amash's Facebook page, you might want to check out what the Children of the Fence are saying about the Scalia song at Coheed and Cambria's Facebook page.



Barney Frank had a comment worth reading this morning about Scalia's warped homophobia. You can read the whole thing at the link, but here's a taste to give you an idea what's waiting for you:

Republicans Favor States' Rights When It Comes To Racist Symbols... But What About Medical Marijuana?

I haven't talked to a congressional candidate so far this cycle who hasn't been in favor of legalizing medical marijuana. And the last time marijuana policies were voted on, May 30, a healthy bipartisan majority passed an amendment by California Republican Dana Rohrabacher, 242-186. 175 Democrats voted for Rohrabacher's amendment-- and only 10 joined 176 Republicans in opposition. But so many Blue Dogs and New Dems have been defeated in recent years that many of the anti-marijuana Democrats who support backward GOP policies are now lobbyists and bums. So the 276 nay-voting Republicans (plus the idiot Dems like Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Dan Lipinski who joined them) couldn't overcome the 67 more libertarian Republicans who backed Rohrabacher's legislation. In recent marijuana roll calls 9 Republicans who were formerly NO votes have begun voting YES: Raul Labrador (R-ID), Scott Tipton (R-CO), Johnny Duncan (R-TN), Chris Gibson (R-NY), Peter King (R-NY), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Thomas Rooney (R-FL), Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Jason Chaffetz (R-UT).

According to a report in The Hill over the weekend by Tim Devaney, it is the GOP conference that's being torn apart by the marijuana issue. The uptight conservatives in charge have attitudes about marijuana, including medical marijuana, that harken back to the 1960s-- and to the bad guys in the 1960s. Sick elderly people find relief from pain and suffering from the marijuana their doctors prescribe? Republicans and the dwindling number of conservative Dems want to lock up the sick patients and their doctors! "Pot policy," Delaney wrote, "is splintering the GOP."

GOP support for medical marijuana is on the rise as backers look to couch legalization as a states’ rights issue, while other Republicans are fighting tooth and nail to beat back recreational pot laws like the one approved in Washington, D.C.

The division reflects a political conundrum for the party, which is torn between social conservatives who still see marijuana as a gateway drug, and libertarian-leaning voters who want to legalize pot.

The GOP’s internal conflict has been on full display of late, as Congress has voted on a series of conflicting marijuana measures-- frustrating advocates on both sides of the fight over legal pot.

"I think there are some mixed signals, particularly among Republicans," said Dan Riffle, director of federal policies at the Marijuana Policy Project.

Added Kevin Sabet, the head of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which advocates against legalization: "I think a lot of lawmakers are confused."

Many of the recent votes have come as Congress looks to fund the federal government for fiscal 2016. A number of competing pot amendments have been tucked away in government spending bills.

Most would further the push to strike down varying degrees of the federal prohibition of pot. One popular provision, for instance, would prohibit the Justice Department from interfering with state medical marijuana laws.

But other provisions backed by some of the same lawmakers would prohibit the sale of recreational marijuana in the nation’s capital and a select few states around the country.

...Slowly but surely, the politics surrounding pot may be changing, suggested Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.).

"I think it’s getting easier,” Cohen told The Hill. "Republicans wouldn’t have touched these issues in the past. Now they’re real popular. I think things are changing."

Although Romney joined all the Democratic presidential candidates calling on South Carolina to stop flying the Confederate flag of treason and racism on state property, the current crop of crap candidates are all too cowardly to do so, even if it's completely obvious that the more mainstream ones would like to join Romney and the Democrats on this. Scott Walker, an ardent anti-marijuana crusader, told reporters over the weekend that flying the racist flag-- if not the freak flag-- is strictly "states' rights"... like conservatives used to say of slaveholding. "The placement of a Confederate flag on the Capitol grounds is a state issue," said the pandering Walker. Ted Cruz, another Republican who wants to throw people using medical marijuana into jail, regardless of the laws in their own states, was whining over the weekend that the last thing the people of South Carolina need is "people from outside of the state coming in and dictating how they should resolve it." Yesterday Walmart and Sears announced their own resolutions-- both retail giants are getting rid of all Confederate-branded merchandise in all their outlets.

If seeing medical marijuana legalized is an important issue for you, all the candidates on this list are on the same page as you are. Replacing conservatives like Dave Reichert and Steve Knight with progressives like Jason Ritchie and Lou Vince is exactly how you effect the change that is so long overdue.

Conservative Politicians Tragically Pander To Racists

In 2000, George Bush and John McCain, battling out for the Republican nomination in South Carolina, both pandered to the racists and secessionists by encouraging the flying of the Confederate flag on the State Capitol dome. After McCain's real feelings about the flag slipped out a month before the primary-- he called it a ''symbol of racism and slavery"-- his handlers grabbed him and talked some reality into his head. The very next day he "corrected" himself by referring to it with the wease words that racists use: "a symbol of heritage." McCain lost anyway-- to a Bush who didn't have to alter his opinion.

After Bush beat him, McCain was ashamed of himself for the pandering, and he admitted it aloud. He apologized for it. "I feared," he said, "that if I answered honestly, I could not win the South Carolina primary. So I chose to compromise my principles. I broke my promise to always tell the truth." So what would his answer have been had he chosen to answer honestly?

McCain said his own Confederate forefathers ''fought on the wrong side of American history... I don't believe their service, however distinguished, needs to be commemorated in a way that offends, that deeply hurts, people whose ancestors were once denied their freedom by my ancestors."

McCain, speaking before the right-wing South Carolina Policy Council, said, "'I do not intend for this apology to help me evade criticism for my failure. I will be criticized by all sides for my late act of contrition. I accept it, all of it. I deserve it. Honesty is easy after the fact when my own interests are no longer involved. I don't seek absolution."

Suppose McCain-- and other cowardly, self-serving politicians-- had spoken out forthrightly about the flag and had led in South Carolina and other Confederate bastions. Would a pathetic little zombie like Dylann Roof have thought to develop a worldview founded on racist hatred? People like Roof need their visions confirmed for them, the way the flag confirmed the "white man's cause." Do you think he was more a Drudge fan, a Limbaugh fan or a Fox News fan? All of the above? 

Bill Maher: "We can never know why someone snaps, but I betcha I know where he got his news."

UPDATE: DYLANN LEFT A RACIST MANIFESTO
TARGETING BLACKS, JEWS AND HISPANICS

So report the Washington Post's Lenny Bernstein, Sari Horwitz and Peter Holley, according to authorities based on a website identified as being Dylann Roof's, "a white supremacist broadside that also appears to offer a rationale for the shootings."

The lengthy declaration, loaded with offensive racial characterizations of blacks and others, includes the conclusion that “someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.”

“I have no choice,” states part of that final section, titled “An Explanation.” “I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is [the] most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country.”

Law enforcement officials said that the site belonged to Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old accused of gunning down nine people at a Bible study in Charleston’s historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday night, and that it reflected his views. The site also included 60 photos, most of which showed Roof.

The Web site domain was registered on Feb. 9 to Roof, according to a law enforcement official. Another official said the material on it was last modified late Wednesday afternoon, just hours before Roof allegedly attacked the Bible study group at the church. In its penultimate paragraph, the manifesto states: “Unfortunately at the time of writing I am in a great hurry and some of my best thoughts, actually many of them, have been . . . left out and lost forever.” The last line apologizes for typos. . . .

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Has Ricky-Roo Santorum yet thought of any possible "rationale" for the Charleston AME church shoot-up besides hostility to religion?

“You just can’t think that things like this can happen in America. It’s obviously a crime of hate. Again, we don’t know the rationale, but what other rationale could there be? You’re sort of lost that somebody could walk into a Bible study in a church and indiscriminately kill people,” Santorum told radio host Joe Piscopo Thursday on AM 970, a New York radio station. “It’s something that, again, you think we’re beyond that in America and it’s sad to see.”

The former Pennsylvania senator pointed to what he described as anti-religious sentiment.

“All you can do is pray for those and pray for our country,” Santorum said. “This is one of those situations where you just have to take a step back and say we — you know, you talk about the importance of prayer in this time and we’re now seeing assaults on our religious liberty we’ve never seen before. It’s a time for deeper reflection beyond this horrible situation.”

-- from a "Post Politics" post yesterday by Jose A. DelReal

by Ken

In The New Yorker, Jelani Cobb wrote yesterday ("Death in Charleston"):

We have, quite likely, found at 110 Calhoun Street, in Charleston, South Carolina, the place where Columbine, Aurora, and Newtown cross with Baltimore, Ferguson, and Sanford. We periodically mourn the deaths of a group of Americans who die at the hands of another armed American. We periodically witness racial injustices that inspire anger in the streets. And sometimes we witness both. This is, quite simply, how we now live.

Not, however, our our Ricky-Roo lives. "What other rationale could there be?" he wanted to know. True, he claimed to be talking about "a hate crime," and I think we can agree that it would be hard to deny the suitability of that designation. But the only hate the Ricky-Roo-ster seemed able to imagine was hatred of religion. And at this point surely we have to ask, "Could you really think of no other 'rationale' for the shooting-up of a Charleston AME church? Think hard now, Ricky-Roo."

Alas, Ricky-Roo doesn't think, so I guess "thinking hard" is out of the question. But apparently no, he couldn't imagine any other reason why a young white man might come into a black church and shoot the place up.

Which is why it would help him if he ever learned to keep his imbecilic yap shut.

I should clarify what I mean by "insane," because I expect that mental-health professionals would find many strange features to Ricky-Roo's mental processes but none that fit any of our definitions of insanity. No, although Ricky-Roo's behavior and speech are indistinguishable from clinical insanity, he isn't insane in the sense of a deficiency in mental capacity. He's one of those people who, perhaps inspired by his notion of "God," made the decision always to check his brain at the door. Right-wingers don't believe in checking their guns at the door, feeling a compulsive need to "carry" at all times, but their brains they never carry.

Which leaves the Roo-ster with no mental capacity for understanding that:

(1) Far from in any sanely imaginable way impinging on religious liberty, the U.S. displays an almost insane degree of tolerance for almost anyu wacko bullshit fobbed off in the name of religion

(2) What now passes for religious belief in the U.S. has crossed more widely and deeply across the line of sanity and decency -- as witness the ravings of a degraded beast like Ricky-Roo. Not only is he allowed to spew the poisonous ignorance that fills the space occupied by his brain, but he is actually listened to, and covered by TV and print media as if he had a working brain.

(3) If there is nevertheless a growing unease about religious tolerance in the U.S., the obvious first place to look is at the sociopaths and psychopaths who have so ruthlessly pushed the boundarires to see just how much insane behavior they can get away. In other words, Ricky-Roo, before you go wagging your necrotic finger of doom at others, take a good long look in the mirror.

Now, Ricky-Roo, if you had thought to raise the possibility -- in that fairly brief period before we knew anything about the shooter -- that he might have been racially motivated, you wouldn't be looking as much like an ideological psychopath, or just plain jackass. But of course you wouldn't have thought to raise that possibility, because you're a prisoner of your mental incapacity. And of course you wouldn't have thought about the whole issue of American gun violence. This is what it's like to live in as bizarre and unreal a space as your mind.

Saddest of all, it would never occur to you just to keep your fool mouth shut. That's all part of who you are.


OF COURSE THE NRA IS TARGETING THE SLAIN PASTOR

Because that's who they are.

NRA official blames slain South Carolina pastor for Charleston church shooting because he opposed concealed firearms

BY DAN FRIEDMAN, CORKY SIEMASZKO
Friday, June 19, 2015, 12:09 PM

NRA board member Charles Cotton

One of the NRA’s top numbskulls responded to the Charleston church massacre by shooting off his mouth — and blaming the victims.

Displaying all the sensitivity of an anvil, Charles Cotton said the slaughter was the fault of Clementa Pinckney, the murdered pastor of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church who also was a South Carolina state senator.

“Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead,” Cotton declared. “Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue."

Cotton, who sits on the board of the National Rifle Association, wrote on an online forum for Texas gun advocates that Pinckney had “voted against concealed-carry.”

Nowhere did Cotton mention Dylann Roof, the white racist who used his 21st birthday money to buy the gun that police said he used to slaughter Pinckney and the others in the church basement Wednesday.

MEANWHILE IN CHARLESTON --

Officials: Suspect in church slayings unrepentant amid outcry over racial hatred


A 21-year-old white man accused of murdering nine people in a historic black South Carolina church makes his first court appearance.

By Jeremy Borden, Sari Horwitz and Jerry Markon
June 19 at 3:06 PM

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The gunman charged with killing nine people in an African American church was unrepentant during a confession to police, even after almost backing out of what he called his “mission” because church members were so nice to him, according to law enforcement officials and others briefed on the investigation.

Dylann Roof not only confessed to causing the Wednesday night carnage in Charleston, but said he wanted his actions known, said the law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is unfolding. They said Roof espoused strong anti-black views when questioned by officers.

But the 21-year-old also told police he had briefly reconsidered his plan during the time he spent quietly watching a Bible study group before opening fire, two people briefed on the investigation said. Roof “said he “almost didn’t go through with it because they were so nice to him” one of the people said, before concluding: “I had to complete my mission.”

As he methodically fired and reloaded several times, the person said, Roof called out: “You all are taking over our country. Y’all want something to pray about? I’ll give you something to pray about.”

Roof’s words added to an emerging portrait that suggests the 21-year-old was driven by runaway racial hatred in the attacks — unleashed after Roof spent nearly an hour watching the group before opening fire, authorities said. . . .

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