MSNBC "The Ed Show"- Transcript: Charleston Church Shooting

Interview

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Craig Melvin reporting tonight from Charleston, South Carolina.
Thanks so much Craig. Let`s turn now to South Carolina State Senator Tom
Davis. Senator Davis, good to have you with us tonight. You knew Reverend
Pinckney very well. Tell us about your friend.

SEN. TOM DAVIS, SOUTH CAROLINA: I did know him very well. I have known
him for about 14 years, back when I was Chief of Staff of the governor and
he was new to the Senate. And then I was elected to the Senate in 2009.
And he`s been a colleague of mine for the past seven years. He and both
represent portions of Jasper County and portions of Beaver County, which
are in the lower part of the state. And we worked together closely on a
number of matters, one of which would be the development of a new ocean
terminal in Jasper county that will help the entire region.

He and I worked together on that for several years, most recently, just a
month or so ago in the wake of another tragedy, I worked with him in regard
to passing a body camera bill in South Carolina. You`ll recall that Walter
Scott was shot eight times by a law enforcement officer in the back. In
the wake of that shooting Senator Pinckney took the well of the Senate.
And in a way only he can, brought meaning and sense to what everybody was
feeling in that chamber. He talked about we were in the Easter session,
the Christians season of Easter and about how Thomas did not believe that
Jesus had risen from the dead until he put his hand in Jesus` side.

In Clementa Pinckney said that when we heard that Walter Scott had been
gunned down and he`s words was six, seven, eight shots in the back, and
then left to lie on the ground as if he were game, he then said, many of us
did not believe that until we saw the picture and then when we saw the
picture we also said we believe. And he went ahead and made that
passionate speech and got that bill moving.

But what`ll always remember and what I said today in the chamber of the
Senate, was just how he was able to rise above the raw emotion of the time,
the hurt, the pain, the anger, refocused our attention and he ended what he
said by saying this, "We pray for the family of Walter Scott. But we also
pray for the family of the law enforcement officer that shot him down
because our savior teaches us to forgive and love our enemy".

And that`s the kind of person that Clementa Pinckney was. He had a booming
voice and a gentle heart as our Senate Chaplain said "He had a love of
people". And politicians sometimes are able to feign that they like
people, they pretend or act -- very few politicians genuinely, truly love
and enjoy people. And Clementa Pinckney was one of those. You could tell
that he cared about people. It didn`t matter if you`re Republican or a
Democrat, black or white, male or female, young or old it didn`t matter.
He cared about you. He looked you in the eye, and you knew that he was
thinking about you and cared what you had to say.

He`s going to be tremendously missed in the Senate today. I mean, to a
person in that Senate, it shocked us to the core. And listening to the
tributes that were given to him, all together fitting capped off by a
unanimous resolution in the Senate to posthumously have his portrait done
and hung in the chamber of the Senate, so that senators forever more can
look upon that gentle, decent man and as he urged us to do in the wake of
Walter Scott`s shooting, take this moment of grief and tragedy, to find
something good out of it, and make ourselves better.

And I think that`s going to be our challenges in the days ahead to make
sure that Senator Pinckney`s message resonates with us that we do dig down
and seek to do things better. That we do things in regard to criminal
justice reform that was a passion of his. That we do things to better the
lives of all South Carolinans and what he used to say to me, and I came
into the Senate and I was a freshman in 2009, and I had pretty good set of
beliefs, a core set of belief as we all do.

But what he said to me was, you know, Tom in order to be a good senator, of
course you have to have your convictions, and of course you have to have
your beliefs. But what you also have to do, it`s vital that you do it, is
understand somebody else`s point of view, and understand that they
represent 103,000 people just like you do. And that they have beliefs and
values that are a product of their experiences in their life, that are
every bit as legitimate as yours. And that to be an effective legislator
does not enough simply to have a core governing philosophy, you have to
have that, but have you to have the ability to listen to others and the
empathize and to put yourself in somebody else`s shoes.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

DAVIS: And that`s a lesson I`m going to take away from this. And as many
people in the Senate said today, we`re not going to let his death be in
vein and we`re going to endeavor going forward to continue pushing for
racial justice, for criminal justice, for the things he was passionate
about.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

DAVIS: Because we`ve got work to do. Weren`t perfect people, everybody --
we`re an imperfect society. And we can`t forgive that fact. We can`t
forget that a lot of individuals are less advantaged than us, didn`t have
the advantage that we have and that they look at the world through
different eyes

And what he said in the wake of Walter Scott being shot, let us have new
eyes to see, so that we might understand. Let us keep open minds, let`s
lift up our hearts and I was just tremendously moved by that, and in fact
right after he gave that speech, after Walter Scott was shoot. I ran
upstairs and asked my secretary to get that clip off TV, have that clip
immediately posted online and sent out to all my constituents and then I
went home that night to my wife. And I said, "I want you to watch this
seven minute clip of this man speaking, because this is what a South
Carolina Senator should be".

This is a South Carolina standing there in a moment of grief, and tragedy,
and anger, and uplifting our hearts and tying it to scripture and ending
with extremely positive message. And I just said to my wife at that point
in time, I just pray something I`m able to communicate in that way. I pray
that I`m able to take.

SCHULTZ: OK.

DAVIS: Things that are out there, importance facts and to persuade people
and to lift them up the way Senator Pinckney did. And that something
you`re born with this a gift. And it`s a tremendous loss for our Senate.

SCHULTZ: South Carolina State Senator Tom Davis, we certainly appreciate
and respect your heartfelt testimony tonight, about your friend in this
tremendous losses country in the state of South Carolina. Thank you so
much for joining us tonight. The country needed to hear what you just
said.

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