News

Clinton links Confederate flag to KKK-like photos at The Citadel

by Jesse Byrnes - 12/11/15 12:52 PM ET

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton on Friday called for the Confederate flag to be removed at the The Citadel in the wake of publicized images of cadets evoking the Ku Klux Klan.

“Symbols of hate create more hate. It’s time for the Confederate flag to come down at The Citadel,” Clinton tweeted.

Symbols of hate create more hate. It’s time for the Confederate flag to come down at The Citadel. -H https://t.co/OFkRmc1LiI

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) December 11, 2015

{mosads}The former secretary of State also retweeted a statement from her South Carolina campaign state director Clay Middleton, a 2003 graduate of The Citadel in Charleston, denouncing the online imagery.

Eight cadets have been suspended at the military college after photos emerged on social media showing them dressed in all-white outfits wearing pillowcases with eyeholes over their heads.

A spokesperson for the school told The Hill that the students went home early Friday morning. The school’s president on Thursday called the images “offensive and disturbing”.

The campaign of Democratic presidential rival Martin O’Malley, a former governor of Maryland, has also called for the Confederate flag to be removed at the military college since the photos emerged.

“The photos from The Citadel are repugnant. Period. No excuses. The Confederate flag on campus must come down,” Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted Friday afternoon.

Charleston was the site of a deadly shooting at a historic black church earlier this year. The accused shooter, Dylann Roof, had posted a manifesto online showing him holding a Confederate flag.

– Updated at 4:10 p.m.

Tags Charleston Confederate flag Hillary Clinton KKK Martin O'Malley Military South Carolina