Watch: Confederate Flag Amendment Provokes Shouting on House Floor

Thursday on Capitol Hill, a vote on resolution that would remove flags containing the Confederate flag symbol from the U.S. Capitol led to a boisterous shouting match.

MSNBC News’ Luke Russert reported, “Let me give you a rundown of what happened here. This is fascinating. Last night, the House is debating an interior bill and Democrats move forward amendments that would remove the Confederate flag from graves, federal cemeteries of  Confederate soldiers as well as from gift shops on national park lands. That seemed to move forward without a hitch. Then a group of southern Republicans led by the congressman of Mississippi, they were upset by this. They got those amendments that had been essentially overturned and that’s what created this entire dilemma.”

The House GOP leadership, they really got caught off guard. So flash forward to today. Everybody wakes up. They see this controversy brewing. The House GOP putting forward an amendment to preserve the confederate flag. A lot of uncomfortable Republican members that don’t really want anything to do with this.”

He continued “What you’re seeing right now is a resolution that was brought forward by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, which would say that you cannot have the Confederate flag on your state flag in the United States Capitol and that is directly targeting Mississippi. Many are opposed. So Pelosi is just done in a masterful stroke of procedure, she’s essentially forced a vote about the Mississippi state flag with the Confederate symbol and by a parliamentary vote and by insisting they have the vote on the House floor. So she can basically then say these Republicans were in favor of not removing the state flag of Mississippi with the Confederate flag right away. They want the issue to stay alive. Essentially so they can spin that to say Republicans are for the Confederate flag. The leadership stepped into one. I spoke with leadership, they were not happy this happened today. the timing could not be worse.”