Karl Rove: Confederate Flag A ‘Hateful Symbol’ That Must Be Banished to a Museum

In an interview with Fox News’ David Webb posted on Tuesday, Karl Rove praised South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) for reversing her position on the Confederate flag and calling for its removal. Rove concurred, referring to the Confederate flag as a “hateful symbol” that should be in a museum rather than on the South Carolina Capitol grounds.

Rove also praised Senator Lindsey Graham for reversing his position on the Confederate flag — going from a position in which he said the Charleston shooting was the fault of the gunman, not the flag, to a position where he stood beside Gov. Haley in calling for the flag’s removal.

Rove segued into his Confederate flag statements by highlighting his belief that President Obama should turn away from gun control and focus instead on the “reconciliation” taking place in South Carolina

These were his exact words:

This is an incredible example of the reconciliation that has taken place in the United States, particularly in the South, and I thought Nikki Haley — standing next to her was [Tim Scott], the first African American since the Reconstruction era to be a Senator from the South — and standing next to her was Lindsey Graham, who had previously opposed the removal of the Confederate flag.

But there was this recognition by South Carolina, as a community, that it was time to return that flag to the museum where it belonged and to remove this hateful symbol that so many people in the state of South Carolina saw as a hateful symbol.

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.