More Calls to Remove Confederate Flag
BLITZER: Racial tensions in the United States once again in the spotlight after the Charleston church massacre. Prior to that, incidents like the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore highlighted tensions between police and minority communities. Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings of Maryland has been in the forefront in the effort to confront the problems in his state and beyond. He's joining us live from Baltimore. Congressman, thanks very much for joining us. Let me get your quick reaction to this, I guess, buzz that's been generated by the president's use publicly of the "n" word. Your thoughts.</s>REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MARYLAND: I'm not upset about it at all. I've done it myself when being instructive, as the president was doing it here. I see absolutely nothing wrong with it. I mean I stay away from that word as much as I can, but I have used in the speeches to be instructive. And I think that's all he was trying to do. And I think - and I don't want to get distracted with that, Wolf, particularly when there's so many other things going on and the president trying to do the things he's trying to do. But, again, I'm not at all upset about it and not surprised.</s>BLITZER: All right, let's move on. Let's talk a little bit about what happened in Charleston. It's amazing - it's really comforting. This guy, this killer, he wanted to start a race war. It looks like the exact opposite has occurred on the streets of Charleston and beyond. People coming together. Is that your conclusion as well?</s>CUMMINGS: No doubt about it. First of all, let me express my sympathy to the family and the people of Charleston - the family of the nine victims and the people of Charleston and the wonderful church, Mother Emanuel, and all its members. Wolf, I - you know, I'm the son of two Pentecostal preachers from South Carolina. As a matter of fact, from Manning, South Carolina, in Jim Clyburn's district. And the reaction did not surprise me. One of the things that we are taught in our faith is that we cannot allow hatred to overpower love. And that's what love and forgiveness are a part of our religion. But I don't want people to mistake that with regard to making sure that we have a major problem with anybody coming into our church, being welcomed into the church, sitting down for an hour in discussion, then puts down a Bible and picks up a gun. There's a major problem with that and this young man again - and I don't say his name because I think that's what he was looking for, publicity, -- but this young man did something awfully wrong. And then when we look at his manifesto and the things that he talked about, clearly he had racist intent and hatred at the same time on his mind. And so, again, this - but the fact is, is that for the families to be able to come and say, "we forgive you," I think is very powerful, but it does something else, too. It draws people to the church. In other words, they - I think people have looked that this and said, wait a minute, if you can within hours come out and say to somebody who has murdered your loved ones that you forgive them, then that religion must be very, very powerful. But make it clear that now we must seek justice with regard to this defendant.</s>BLITZER: The minister, congressman, that delivered this sermon at Emanuel AME yesterday, he made a point of expressing gratitude to the police there. Listen to this.</s>REV. NORVEL GOFF SR., 7TH DISTRICT AME CHURCH: Then finally I want to say thank you to law enforcement. I got no problem in doing that. I want to thank them. I want to thank them.</s>BLITZER: That was a really powerful moment, congressman, when the minister said that. I know you're working with the police in Baltimore to heal the problem. There have been significant problems, as you well know. Tell us what's going on. What's the latest in your community?</s>CUMMINGS: Well, you know, there have been a few police officers here in Baltimore who have disguised themselves on air and said that they we in the midst of a slowdown and we saw our murder rate go up substantially and we have all been very concerned about that. And so what I'm doing is I'm literally sitting down within the hour, Wolf, with about 20 of our police department folks talking to them about how we can make sure that we're all on the same page and that they are doing their job and I want to know what they expect from the community because, again, the community needs the police and the police need the community to resolve crime. That's always been my position. And so we're going to do that. And then tomorrow, I'll be meeting with the head of our police union, FOP, to try to make sure that the leadership of our union is on the same page with our mayor, police commissioner and others because we've got to move forward. We cannot have the police on one side of the street and the community on the other talking past each other. So I'm hoping to be the bridge to bring them together so that we can address the issues that we have here.</s>BLITZER: Well, good luck on that. I know you've been a leader in the community in trying to make sure that this relationship between the people of Baltimore and the police gets back to being strong and improve that relationship. Good luck. Let me wrap up, congressman, we're just learning, courtesy - according to "The Posted Currier" newspaper in South Carolina, that the governor there, Nikki Haley, will call - will call for the removal of the confederate flag from the statehouse grounds. What's your - your almost a son of the south, shall we say.</s>CUMMINGS: Yes.</s>BLITZER: What's your thoughts on this? I assume you welcome this decision by the governor.</s>CUMMINGS: I welcome that decision and I'm so happy that you are talking about it now during our interview. I think this is wonderful. We have got to get past these symbols that bring so much pain to a large segment of our population. We have to be about the business, Wolf, of uniting our communities and that flag just sends the wrong message and then its placement on the statehouse grounds sends the wrong message. And so I'm glad to hear that and I'm trusting that the members of the legislature down there in South Carolina will follow the governor and do the right thing.</s>BLITZER: They need a two-thirds majority in the legislature there to get it done. We'll see what happens. That's not going to be easy, right?</s>CUMMINGS: It may not be easy, but I can - I can tell you, if - this is that moment where South Carolina who -- the governor has talked about South Carolina being compassionate and people uniting together. I think this is taking down that flag could be the turning point to get where you say she says. I believe it will happen. And I think with the leadership of my good friend, Jim Clyburn, who's been a staunch proponent of taking that flag down, and the mayor in Charleston, I think we'll see it.</s>BLITZER: Mayor Riley has been outspoken on this as well.</s>CUMMINGS: He's been great.</s>BLITZER: All right, Congressman, as usual, thanks so much for joining us.</s>CUMMINGS: Thank you.