US

Former Obama Administration Official Blames South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley For Shooting At Black Church

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
Font Size:

A former Obama administration official wasted no time in politicizing a shooting at a black Charleston, S.C. church that left nine people dead.

Brandon Friedman, the former deputy assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, posted a tweet shortly after the Wednesday night shooting linking it to South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s defense of flying the Confederate flag outside of the South Carolina statehouse.

In the tweet, Friedman linked to a 2014 article from the liberal website Talking Points Memo which reported Haley’s position on the issue.

What Haley’s defense of allowing the flag to continue flying has to do with Wednesday night’s shooting is unclear. Friedman did not return a request for comment.

WATCH:

Police say a white male in his early 20s entered the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston and opened fire on parishioners holding Bible study. The gunman is still on the loose, and his motivation is unknown. Charleston police chief Greg Mullen did state at a press conference that he believes that the shooting could be a hate crime.

This is not the first time that Friedman, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has made controversial statements on social media. Last June he posted a string of tweets asserting that Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier who deserted his Army unit in Afghanistan in 2009, may have done so because the rest of his platoon were “psychopaths.”

“What if his platoon was long on psychopaths and short on leadership?” Friedman asked. What if he grew disillusioned with what he saw, didn’t trust his leadership, and walked off? Legal? No. Worthy of sympathy? Maybe.” (RELATED: Obama Administration Official Brandon Friedman: Hey, Maybe Bergdahl’s Platoon Was A Bunch Of Psychopaths)

Friedman apologized shortly after making those comments.

[Hat tip: The Blaze]

Follow Chuck on Twitter