The Rules Don’t Apply to Him?
A former Republican National Committee chairman was arrested Tuesday after attempting to pass through airport security with a loaded handgun. Haley Barbour, who still occasionally appears on cable news as a commentator, says he forgot he had the gun after his assistant moved it from his desk to in his briefcase, The Associated Press reports.
Barbour served as RNC chair from 1993-1997 and later as governor of Mississippi from 2004 to 2012.
A TSA spokeswoman told the AP an “officer at a checkpoint X-ray machine spotted a .38 caliber revolver, loaded with five bullets, in a carry-on bag. TSA contacted airport police, who arrested the former governor.”
In 2010 Barbour came under fire for racially insensitive comments. Speaking of the 1960’s civil rights movement in Mississippi Barbour said, “I just don’t remember it as being that bad,†according to a New York Times article. He also praised white supremacist groups, known as the White Citizens’ Councils, referring to them as merely an “organization of town leaders,” and a positive force.Â
Those remarks quashed his chances at a 2012 presidential run.
Barbour says he will pay a fine for carrying the loaded gun into the airport. Fines begin at $3920.
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license
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