Larry Wilmore on Charleston murders

While The Nightly Show‘s Larry Wilmore didn’t deliver a joke-free look at the Charleston, South Carolina massacre like Jon Stewart did, Wimore’s ire and jokes were focused squarely on those not fully accepting the intrinsic role of racism in the shooting deaths of nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday.

“I know we talk about race a lot on this show, but I think we can all agree, this time, that this was a racially motivated attack,” Wilmore said, noting that the gunman, Dylann Roof, even reportedly clearly stated to his reasons for the attack. (Roof confessed to the murders on Friday, according to CNN, and said he wanted to start a “race war,” per the network.)

But the coverage on Fox News, and comments from some conservative politicians, “just makes my f–king head explode,” Wilmore said.

The Nightly Show then aired a montage of comments discussing that perhaps more so than a racial motivation, a religiously bigoted impulse drove the killer.

“I know you guys don’t want to admit racial stuff isn’t going on, but how can there be any doubt when it came out of the gunman’s month,” Wilmore asked, before replaying the report of what the gunman said. “He told his victims ‘I want to shoot black people.’ I think when he says ‘black people’ he means black people, and not Christians.”

Wilmore also called out GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s comments about the shooting before shifting over into a discussion on the history of the church at which the shootings took place.

Wilmore’s panel on Thursday night also tackled the shooting and violence in America at large.

For more of late night’s coverage of the Charleston shootings, watch Jon Stewart’s take.