CNN
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Key Republican senators sharply criticized Supreme Court docket Justice Samuel Alito after information stories confirmed an upside-down American flag – a logo utilized by some supporters of former President Donald Trump who challenged the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory – flying exterior his house in 2021.
Such criticism of a conservative justice from high-ranking GOP senators is extraordinarily uncommon and an indication of how uncommon the controversy is.
In a quick interview with CNN, Senate Republican Whip John Thune, one of many contenders vying to exchange retiring Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell, referred to as the flag a “dangerous resolution.”
“I don’t know the way you clarify that,” Thune stated.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, the highest Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, stated that it was a “mistake” for Alito to have an American flag hanging the other way up at his house.
“It creates a nasty picture,” Graham informed CNN’s Manu Raju. “It created a state of affairs that we’re all speaking about. So, yeah, I feel it was a mistake.”
Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney echoed issues in regards to the flag.
“It’s very unlucky and we ought to try it,” he stated to reporters.
The upside-down flag turned a logo of the “Cease the Steal” motion within the weeks and months following the election, through which Trump’s supporters falsely claimed that Biden’s win was illegitimate as a result of widespread fraud. The inverted flag was extensively seen in the course of the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol.
The New York Occasions revealed a photograph of the inverted flag, which it stated was seen on the justice’s house in Alexandria, Virginia, on January 17, 2021.
“I had no involvement in anyway within the flying of the flag,” Alito stated in an emailed assertion to the Occasions. “It was briefly positioned by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard indicators.”
Many Republicans who spoke to CNN, nonetheless, defended Alito or downplayed the matter. Even some who questioned his judgment over the incident nonetheless defended his position on the courtroom.
“There’s at all times accusations made about, you recognize, members of this courtroom, and the left has tried very laborious to discredit them,” Thune stated. “It is a courtroom that’s trying on the legislation within the Structure and deciphering it as they need to.”
“I don’t assume he needs to be recused,” Graham informed Raju.
Many Republicans vehemently argued in opposition to requires Alito to recuse himself from Trump- and election-related circumstances.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a member of the Judiciary Committee who’s working to be GOP chief, stated, “there are extra vital issues to fret about.”
Cornyn described the concentrate on the upside -down flag as “continued harassment” in opposition to Alito.
“Ever since Clarence Thomas skilled what he referred to as the high-tech lynching, I feel we’ve seen repeated efforts to attempt to undermine the credibility of the Supreme Court docket. And that is simply the most recent episode,” Cornyn added.
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, additionally a member of the Judiciary Committee, stated information of the flag is the “newest try by the left to assault and query the Supreme Court docket.” He stated calls by Democrats for Alito to recuse himself from some circumstances involving Trump is “an idiotic factor to assume that has nothing to do with what’s occurring.”
GOP Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana stated, “That is America and Mrs. Alito is entitled to her opinion, however I don’t see any proof in anyway that Justice Alito had something to do with it.”
Kennedy additionally weighed in on the position and obligations of Supreme Court docket spouses.
“Ought to they be discreet and even handed in the best way they articulate their perspective? Positive. However they don’t should be,” Kennedy stated.
One other GOP senator appeared to downplay the problem as a dispute between neighbors.
“It seemed like some form of neighborhood factor. I don’t actually have a touch upon it,” stated Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia.
CNN’s John Fritze, Lauren Fox, Morgan Rimmer and Manu Raju contributed to this report.
