Mississippi governor Haley Barbour has come under fire for refusing to condemn a group pushing for a state license plate honoring Confederate general and founding member of the Ku Klux Klan Nathan Bedford Forrest.

“I don’t go around denouncing people. That’s not going to happen. I don’t even denounce the news media,” said Barbour in a press conference yesterday, according to the Associated Press. Barbour was responding to a question about the NAACP’s call for Barbour to condemn the plate.

“I know there’s not a chance it’ll become law,” Barbour added.

The Mississippi branch of the Sons of Confederate Veterans is pushing for the Forrest plate, along with a few others commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. The group claims that Forrest later rejected the Klan.