Confederate Flag Fight in South Carolina.
BANFIELD: Just about an hour ago, South Carolina's state senate passed a bill to remove the confederate flag from the statehouse grounds.</s>GERALD MALLOY (D), SOUTH CAROLINA SENATE: And what we have done is that we have spoken, one voice here, with unity. And we are not being divisive and we are not -- I told them, there is no time for victory laps. There is no time -- there's no winners and losers. We're just trying to end up making sure that we move this state forward.</s>BANFIELD: It was an emotional session as the widow of the late Senator Clementa Pinckney received hugs from every member of the senate. Reverend Pinckney was among the nine shot and killed at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church during Bible study last month. The bill passed 36- 3. But now it goes to the state house where it's unclear how much opposition it might face. I'm joined now by Dan Rice. He's a graduate of West Point, as well as an Army veteran, and he's written extensively about the history of the confederacy. Dan, I wanted to bring you in on the whole discussion of history versus the confederate flag because there are vocal opponents -- as we go into the house vote, you will probably hear some of the vocal opponents of getting rid of the confederate flag -- who say it's about preserving history. And you have a very, very interesting take on preserving what happened, when Lincoln looked at a divided nation and wanted reconciliation.</s>DAN RICE, AUTHOR, "WEST POINT LEADERSHIP: PROFILES OF COURAGE": Yes. It's a -- it's a fascinating subject that's been ongoing for 150 years, reconciliation, basically. And in Lincoln's second inaugural address he said "with malice towards none," basically trying to bring the country back together. And this is another step forward in the removal of that flag, the confederate battle flag, from state grounds.</s>BANFIELD: Which is interesting because effectively what Lincoln and other leaders wanted to do -- and you're great at how you position this thinking -- is that there was a need to honor those who were lost on the confederate side.</s>RICE: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: Honor the generals. Name those bases after the generals. There's a nuclear sub named after --</s>RICE: Yes, the Stonewall Jackson.</s>BANFIELD: The Stonewall Jackson.</s>RICE: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: And try to be as inclusive as possible. You hit a nail with me where you said, "I went to Iraq and preached reconciliation to the Iraqis among Sunnis and the Shia and realized --</s>RICE: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: We haven't done it at home.</s>RICE: No, not at all. It's still -- 150 years later, it's still a very passionate subject for Americans. And for us to be in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Lebanon, places -- I've been to all of them, and -- and it is a very difficult subject. It's very passionate. If it's in the immediate present to have it 150 years later in the U.S., it is still a very passionate subject. And it took 100 -- it took 99 years for us to have civil rights after the -- after the civil war, let alone removing the battle flag. So it's just a progressive step towards reconciliation.</s>BANFIELD: So some will say, well, then that's the argument for the confederate flag representing history and, you know, why tear down this history? But you look at it differently. You say, honor the fallen.</s>RICE: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: Honor the soldiers who fought valiantly, perhaps. Perhaps not the politicians. Perhaps not the leaders.</s>RICE: Yes, absolutely.</s>BANFIELD: And the flag may represent that.</s>RICE: Absolutely. The soldiers that fought on both sides fought valiantly. And the way we reconciled as a nation after the war, to recognize those who fought for the confederacy, those who fought for the union, we have bases named after confederate generals like Fort Hood, Fort Bragg, Fort Polk. Bases where Americans soldiers were staged to go to World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And they were brought together under the premise that if we -- if we honor the soldiers that fought from both the south and the north, the Stewart Tank, the Stonewall Jackson, that we will reconcile as the group. Now, the politics behind the war, the reason that we had a divided nation, slavery, right, state's rights versus federal right, all of those issues we should not honor, especially in a federal or a state courthouse, in my opinion. And that's why removal of these -- these symbols -- and the flags represent -- they symbolize things. And so they symbolize their values. And so removing them from a lot of the state pictures is one issue. The other issue is freedom of speech and being allowed to hold the flag up. There's 400,000 reenactors in the United States that go out and reenact civil war battles. And that's a great way to remember history, to remember the issues, because those who forget history are bound to repeat it and --</s>BANFIELD: Yes. Always -- always important to remember reconciliation takes all sides.</s>RICE: It does.</s>BANFIELD: And if someone's in pain, that needs to be reconciled, you know, as well in this whole debate. Great to have you. Thank you for coming in. Appreciate it.</s>RICE: Great -- great to see you again. Thank you.</s>BANFIELD: Dan Rice for us.</s>RICE: Thanks.</s>BANFIELD: And we just learned, by the way, that Dylann Roof, the man accused of killing those nine people at that South Carolina church, is going to be facing even more charges now. The South Carolina solicitor has released a statement saying that Roof has been indicted for three attempted murder charges. That's for those who survived the attack. And it's also in addition to the nine counts of murder, as well as weapons charges that Dylann Roof will be facing. Can the six Baltimore police officers who have been charged in Freddie Gray's case get a fair trial in their hometown? Their lawyers say, not a chance. So what is behind their fight for a change of venue?