Former White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah Griffin said Sunday that Republicans would demand the liberal justices’ firing if it was reported that they displayed upside-down flags on their lawns after former President Trump was elected in 2016.
New New York Times report revealed that an inverted flag was displayed outside Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s home briefly on January 17, 2021, days before President Biden’s inauguration and less than two weeks after the deadly January 6 attack to the Capitol.
The inverted flag had been widely associated at the time with the “Stop the Steal” movement and efforts to prevent the transfer of power based on false claims of electoral fraud. Alito said his wife was responsible for the flag.
In a CNN “State of the Union” panel discussion, the former Trump aide turned CNN commentator criticized the Republican response to the report, which she called “deeply disturbing.”
“If after Donald Trump won in 2016, Justice [Sonia Sotomayor] If you hung a flag upside down on your lawn, we Republicans would be calling for your resignation,” Farah Griffin said Sunday.
“I find this deeply disturbing and I don’t think we can cover it up,” she added.
The report was met with widespread criticism from Democrats, many of whom also called on Alito to recuse himself from all Jan. 6-related cases before the Supreme Court.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (DN.Y.) on Friday called on Alito to apologize for “disrespecting the American flag and sympathizing with violent right-wing insurrectionists.”
“He must recuse himself from cases involving the 2020 elections and [former President Trump],” Jeffries continued, referring to Alito. He added that Congress should consider new ethics reform legislation for the high court.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) also called on Alito to recuse himself from cases related to January 6, 2021, and the 2020 election, saying, “Flying an American flag upside down – a symbol of the so-called ‘Stop the Steal’ movement – clearly creates the appearance of prejudice.”
In a statement to the Times, Alito said, “I had no involvement in the raising of the flag,” adding, “It was briefly placed by Ms. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs. .”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
