(CNN) South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham blames 21-year-old Dylann Roof, the man who shot and killed nine African Americans praying in Charleston, for his actions, and the presidential hopeful doesn't want the Confederate flag to be used as an excuse.

"We're not going to give this a guy an excuse about a book he might have read or a movie he watched or a song he listened to or a symbol out anywhere. It's him ... not the flag," the Republican senator told CNN's "New Day" Alisyn Camerota.

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One of the common photos of Roof circulated in the media is one of him seen posing by a car featuring a South Carolina license plate depicting the Confederate flag.

When Graham was asked his thoughts regarding the Confederate flag, he said, "It works here, that's what the statehouse agreed to do. You could probably visit other places in the country near some symbol that doesn't quite strike you right."

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