CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: South Carolina Flag

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LEMON: So, Governor, you will remember where you were on July 10th, 2015, you presided over history. What does that mean to you?

GOV. NIKKI HALEY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: You know, this is a surreal moment. Standing out there and watching that flag come down, it felt like the biggest weight was lifted off the state. It just felt so -- it's like the state -- it's a true new day in South Carolina. It feels like a new day in South Carolina.

LEMON: You have said this, and I don't know if it's in the exact words. But you have all done this because you weren't always on the side of taking this down, but you -- I think it takes a big person to change their mind. Why did you change your mind? HALEY: It wasn't that I wasn't for taking it down. First of all

South Carolina very much respects history, respects tradition, and so the flag has just always been up there. So when I came into office, you know, to have a two-thirds vote threshold was a huge one. And it's not a Republican-Democrat, white-black, there hadn't been a bill filed to bring that flag down since 2007. There was so much of a divide and so much hurt in the compromise of 2000, that no one wanted to talk about it. So it was almost like people just assumed it was going to be there.

LEMON: Yes. These -- you've used the words in the signing of this bill, you said tradition, you said history, you said respect, and love and forgiveness. It has to have been hard to strike a balance because not everyone was on the side that you were on.

HALEY: It's important for people to know what it's like to be in another person's shoes. And if you watch the legislative debate, that's what happened. People put themselves in each other's shoes, so they understood what the respect of tradition and heritage was, and that it wasn't about hate. But the other side also learned how painful that flag was and the pain that it was causing people. That's what brought South Carolina to this new day, was the ability to look at each and listen and say, it's time.

LEMON: You're an immigrant, your family -- you grew up here.

HALEY: Born and raised in South Carolina, but the daughter of Indians parents.

LEMON: Does that -- does it mean more to you? Does it make you more connect to do this issue? Do you have a special feeling about it?

HALEY: You know, we grew up, an Indian family, in a small town of South Carolina. My father wears a turban. My father at the time wore a sari. It was hard growing up in South Carolina, but what I've always been proud of and what I worked towards is to make sure that today is better than yesterday, and that my kids don't go through what we went through. And now I feel good because now I know my kids can look up and there won't be a flag. And it will be one less reason to divide, and there will be more reasons for us to come together.

LEMON: Now, as I understand, you went up and looked over the -- at the flag in the capitol this morning and it was important for you to do that. Why?

HALEY: I just needed to see it one last time. I needed -- I wanted to remember the moment. You know, so much of this has a whirlwind over the last several weeks, it's been extremely emotional, but I just needed to see what was about to happen.

LEMON: This flag went up in 1962, correct? Do you think it was sort of a poke in the eye to the civil rights movement?

HALEY: You know, I'm not going to try and figure out why people did what they did. I think the more important part, it just never should have been there. And I think that even when it was on the grounds of the statehouse, it was right in front. And these grounds are a place that everybody should feel a part of. And these grounds are a place that should be -- that belong to the people of South Carolina.

And what I realize now more than ever is people were driving by and they felt hurt and pain. No one should feel pain. You know, we can have our disagreements and we can have our policy back and forth, but no one should feel pain over something, not over a symbol.

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