Charleston, 2015: Dylann Roof and Emanuel AME
Gone South
Audacy Podcasts
4.8 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 4 March 2026
⏱️ 35 minutes
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Summary
At a 2024 House Judiciary oversight hearing, an exchange about racially motivated violence goes viral after FBI chief Kash Patel appears to stumble over a question about the 2015 Charleston church massacre. The moment sparks a grim question: how does a tragedy this defining slip out of view?
Jed Lipinski revisits what happened at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church when 21-year-old Dylann Roof sat in on Bible study, then opened fire and killed nine Black parishioners. With New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb and Charleston native Jack Hitt, we trace the deeper history Roof targeted: Denmark Vesey, the long shadow of Confederate “heritage,” and the symbols that still shape South Carolina’s public life.
From the Confederate flag’s removal to today’s backlash, this is a story about memory, denial, and what the country chooses to learn, or forget.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Jill Schlesinger, CBS News, business analyst, certified financial planner, and the host of the Jill on Money podcast. |
| 0:07.8 | With the new year upon us, there's no better time to take control of your financial life. |
| 0:13.6 | And the Jill on Money podcast is here to help. |
| 0:16.6 | It's your questions that make it possible for me to provide unconventional and I hope entertaining |
| 0:22.2 | insights on your money, and more importantly, on your life. |
| 0:25.5 | Follow and listen to Jill on Money wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:35.9 | Every year, sometime between summer and fall, the House Judiciary Committee holds its annual |
| 0:41.9 | oversight hearing of the FBI. |
| 0:45.0 | The hearing is basically a check-in, a chance for lawmakers to question the FBI's director on |
| 0:50.4 | the Bureau's decisions, priorities, and controversies. |
| 0:59.0 | The oversight hearing in 2024 covered some hot-button topics, |
| 1:02.3 | like the FBI's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, |
| 1:05.2 | the recent firings of senior FBI agents, |
| 1:10.1 | and the ways in which social media and AI can fuel violent ideologies. |
| 1:14.8 | Cash Patel, the FBI chief, fielded the questions. |
| 1:18.1 | His tone ranged from evasive to defiant. |
| 1:20.7 | Voices were raised on both sides. |
| 1:25.8 | But one question, asked about two hours into the hearing, left him stumped. |
| 1:30.3 | It came from Congresswoman Sidney Kamlager Dove, a Democrat from California. She was asking about how the FBI handles cases of racially motivated |
| 1:36.4 | violence. So I too have some questions I'd like to ask you. These are not gotcha questions. |
| 1:42.6 | And just deny, please, what you deem to be false. |
| 1:47.9 | So Dylan Roof, who followed white supremacist propaganda, murdered nine black parishioners in Charleston in 2015. |
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