'Bizarrely embarrassing and infantile': Right wing outlet slammed for selling 'Alito flags'

07 June 2024

A right-wing website is selling flags to honor Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, after he appears to have made several false statements, including in a letter to Congress, about why flags associated with the January 6 insurrection and the “Stop the Steal” conspiracy movement were flying at his homes.

The Bush-43 appointed jurist has been accused of either being mistaken or “lying” about events, by a former neighbor.

In claims called into question by facts, including a police report and eyewitness reports, Justice Alito alleged his wife flew an upside down American flag outside their Virginia home, and another flag associated with both the insurrection and the far-right Christian nationalist movement outside their New Jersey beach house.

Democrats on Capitol Hill and many Americans on the left have been outraged for weeks, not only because the flags are symbols of the deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection and were carried by some who attacked the Capitol and American democracy, but also because Justice Alito refuses to recuse from any cases associated with that fatal day, or with the leader of that day’s events, Donald Trump.

Now, the right wing website National Review is selling flags honoring the Supreme Court justice and invoking the two insurrectionist symbols. They are $197 each.

“National Review is delighted to announce new ‘Alito flags’ based on honored colonial-era American flags and fashioned to show support for the Supreme Court justice,” the website published in an article.

And while NR publisher Rich Lowry, a frequent guest on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” claims the “beautiful flags … hearken back to some of the most stirring symbols of the American Revolution,” the advertorial ignores almost entirely the actual controversy surrounding the two flags that flew at the Alitos’ homes.

NR instead points to the alleged historic nature of their original designs.

“Democrats have gone too far with their attacks on the Supreme Court and it’s time to take a stand,” NR said on Friday on social media.

Former Republican and former U.S. Congressman Denver Riggleman called the flags, “just bizarrely embarrassing and infantile. Unserious.”

Some pointed out defacing or putting someone’s face an American flag is both disrespectful and may violate flag code.

“Congratulations to the American left on winning football, Bud Light, and the undefaced Stars and Stripes in the culture wars,” wrote The New Republic’s Matt Ford.

The Bulwark’s Matt Stokes just commented, “So, so lame.”

Jay Willis, editor-in-chief of the legal news outlet Balls and Strikes, offered this opinion:

See the social media posts above or at this link.

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