Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush addressed the national debate over the Confederate battle flag on Monday and called for the flag's removal.

The controversial flag has been at the center of national discourse since 21-year-old racist white man Dylann Roof fatally shot nine people who were praying inside of a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina. Following the June 17 shooting, critics noted that Roof was just of one of many Americans who used, or believed, that the Confederate flag represented a symbol of white supremacy. Therefore, critics argued that the flag should be removed from the state's capitol building.

On Monday, Bush chimed into the debate during a campaign stop in West Columbia, South Carolina. While addressing a diverse crowd at the Nephron Pharmaceuticals Plant, the former Florida governor called the Confederate flag a "racist" symbol and praised the state's governor for taking action to remove it.

"The symbols were racist," Bush said, responding to a question about the flag from an African-American employee, reports The Washington Post.

The Republican frontrunner also mentioned that when he was Florida governor he removed the flag from outside the state capitol in Tallahassee back in 2001.

"I decided to do something politically incorrect. I decided to remove the flag. I was governor, I figured I could do it, and I did," he said, reports CNN.

"The symbols that have divided the South in many ways, the symbols that were used in most recent modern history -- perhaps, not at the beginning of the time -- the symbols were racist," he added.

Bush went on to say that many Floridians found the flag to be offensive.

"If you're trying to lean forward rather than live in the past, you want to eliminate the barriers that create disagreements, and so I did," he said.

He also applauded South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for "more or less doing the same thing under a lot of pressure" in the wake of the Charleston massacre.