Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin argued on Sunday that if liberal justices were found to have displayed upside-down flags on their lawns after former President Trump was elected in 2016, Republicans would be calling for their resignations.
According to recent reports by the New York Times, an inverted flag was briefly displayed outside the residence of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on January 17, 2021. This incident occurred just days before President Biden’s inauguration and less than two weeks after the tragic attack on the Capitol on January 6.
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The flag turned upside-down was primarily linked to the “Stop the Steal” movement and the false claims of election fraud that aimed to prevent the transfer of power. Alito has attributed the responsibility for the flag to his wife.
During a panel discussion on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the former Trump aide who is now a CNN pundit expressed her criticism of the Republican response to the reporting, labeling it as “deeply disturbing.”
Farah Griffin pointed out that if Justice Sonia Sotomayor had hung a flag upside down on her front lawn after Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, Republicans would have been demanding her resignation.
“It deeply disturbs me, and I believe we cannot simply overlook this,” she expressed.
The Democrats have faced widespread criticism for their reporting, with many of them also urging Alito to recuse himself from any Jan. 6-related cases before the Supreme Court.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) criticized Alito for his alleged disrespect towards the American flag and his apparent sympathy towards right-wing violent insurrectionists. Jeffries urged Alito to apologize for his actions.
According to Jeffries, Alito should abstain from participating in any cases related to the 2020 election and former President Trump. Jeffries also suggested that Congress should contemplate introducing new ethics reform legislation specifically for the Supreme Court.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), has urged Justice Alito to recuse himself from cases pertaining to the events of January 6, 2021, and the 2020 election. Durbin argues that Alito’s act of flying an upside-down American flag, which is considered a symbol of the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, creates an apparent bias.
According to Alito, he had no role in raising the flag. He clarified that it was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s offensive and personally insulting language on yard signs.
