president barbour? that was the question in the conservative weekly standard magazine in december 2010. quote, all year haley barbour has been deflecting questions about his presidential ambitions. president barbour? i mean, at the time it made sense. haley barbour, cultivated one of the great beltway power careers. he knew every republican at every level in republican politics. when he went home to mississippi he played on the national stage as rebuilder of that hurricane devastated mississippi coast. and with the republicans looking for someone to challenge president obama in 2012 president barbour seemed as likely an idea as anyone. so the weekly standard ran this more than glowing pro time of haley barbour. not just reveling in his high standing in the party and his power and his political experience, but in effect trying to reintroduce haley barbour to conservatives nationwide. basically giving the conservative fairytale of the haley barbour life story. they called it "the boy from yazoo city." in

. >>> god bless haley barbour.e spent a long time on this show talking about the former mississippi governor, former republican party chairman and his rosy recollections about the good work in his mississippi hometown of a white supremacist group from the 1950s. that same group in its new white supremacist form appears to have been the group that inspired the shooter in the charleston massacre last week. well, today haley barbour gave his opinion about the mississippi state flag. that's the only state flag in the country that features the confederate emblem right on it. the republican speaker of the house in mississippi says the state of mississippi should get rid of this flag, should get rid of the confederate emblem on its flag. but when former governor haley barbour was asked about it today he said he is personally not offended by the confederate flag or at least by the confederate emblem on the mississippi flag. he says it doesn't bother him. he added today "while i was governor of mississippi, mississippi beca

haley barbour, i got to tell you.op-out to leave it to others to decide. either you have an opinion in your heart or you don't. >> well in my heart, i have this to say to you. while i was governor of mississippi, mississippi became the only state in the country to use state money, taxpayers' money to build a civil rights museum. we're building a civil rights museum in mississippi to commemorate, to celebrate the civil rights movement in our state. and when the freedom riders of 1961 came to mississippi in 2011 for their 50th anniversary, we had an event for them at the governor's mansion at which time i apologized to them for the way that they were treated. and told them what we were doing with the civil rights museum which i think they were very very proud of. mississippi has a higher percentage of its african-american adults registered to vote than new york where you're sitting. we're proud of that record. we're proud of the change that's happened in mississippi in my lifetime. and that's why we're building this civ

>> you know if you can ask a question 25 times, haley barbour won't tell you. >> so politely. he is so charming and polite. but would not answer me. >> what about you? >> that's what i learned. >> what i learned is thanks for being with us. if it's way too early it's time for "morning joe." >> now it is time for the run down. have a great day, everybody. >>> and good morning. breaking weather news overnight. tornadoes across the midwest. take a look at these aerials this morning as the sun comes up over coal city illinois more than a dozen twisters across three states. in total, ten injuries reported. no fatalities. we will have more on the severe weather system and where it may be heading later today in the rundown and the massive search of two convicted killers in upstate new york. first time, the husband of joyce mitchell is talking exclusively to nbc news. she is the prison worker charged with supplying tools to the two inmates who escaped. i'll have more on that in just a moment. >>> and the second major development, sources familiar with the investigation tell nbc news d

in 2004 haley barbour posed with ccc staff at a barbecue. let's talk about the republican party's problem here. they've got this on their fingers here. they've got a connection to a guy that inspired a guy that shot nine people. >> this is the nightmarish other side of the southern strategy. a little history. the south was democrat. >> solid south. >> solid south. then the civil rights movement happened, caused a depth charge in the south. eventually the republicans led by richard nixon saw the chance to take the south from the democrats and make the south the base of a new republican party. and that, in fact, has been the case consistently from the late '60s and early '70s through to today pretty much except for places like virginia and north carolina occasionally around the perimeter. the solid south of the republicans. and in the old days, it used to be considered almost shrewd that they would play to the edges of this. ronald reagan in 1980, one of the first campaign stops of the fall of 1980 for ronald reagan was at the county fair in p

trent lott, bob barr, haley barbour, the treasurer of -- the former treasurer in south carolina, mr. patterson. they have all appeared at council conservative citizens events in the late 1990's and early 2000's. we like to think of something is this existing only on the margins of society. unfortunately, a group like that, particularly in the south and among republican candidates were officeholders, it also has a foothold in mainstream society. amy: what were you most struck by in this manifesto? this website, apparently, registered in february and it went right to a few hours before the massacre on wednesday where he said he had to leave, he was in a hurry. but this 2500 word manifesto, a lot has been made of this as a high school dropout who repeated -- what was it, ninth grade. what did you make of this manifesto? >> a few points. first, this young man was not stupid. he may have been a high school dropout, but it is a fairly well put together diane trop. he is a lunatic and psychopath but he is not an idiot. secondly, at the end, he talks about, my life might not be worth with in

barboure. >> just to inform you, my testimony will be paraphrased -- >> would you -- >> i did. just for the record, my testimony will be paraphrased and i would request that it be submit >> without objection, yours and all other statements and any additional materials you'd like to have attached to your testimony will be made a part of the record. >> thank you. chairman smith, thank you for submitting your time to address this issue of child abduction and the instrumentation of the goldman act hence forth referred to as icapra. without your constant vigilance over icapra. i and the thousands of other victimized by it would be all alone. many of us have been begging to be properly represented to our children by our government. thank you for answering the plea. in my family's case my children were legally abducted to tunisia by their father, a tunisia native in 2011. at the time i had full custody of two children preventing either of us from traveling outside of the united states with either child. because there are no formal legal agreements between the us and tunisia, i relocat

i interviewed former mississippi governor haley barbour. he defined it to me as a piece of heritage. he said it had nothing to do with the crime. he was taking a pretty strong position that it should stay on the ground of the state capital. he made the case that there have been slaveowners in american history, this does not mean your change history. a lot of people disagree with that. that is his position. others are saying this is a moment where you can seize on all of the unity to work with the victims and make people in south carolina more affected by this tragedy feel better. taking down the flag would do that. state legislature will have to decide. governor nikki haley wants to let the discussion continue. i think mitt romney's comments are really telling. a national political figure in the republican party is nudging his own ranks to consider more deeply getting rid of it. john mcardle: mitt romney tweeting about that yesterday. we want to hear your thoughts this morning. john is in newark, new jersey. line for independents. good morn