The White House refused to comment directly on the flag controversy involving Samuel Alito but took a swipe at the Supreme Court justice nonetheless, saying Friday that President Joe Biden "believes that the American flag is sacred."
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said there would be no comment over the photo that surfaced of Alito's home in 2021 showing an upside-down flag before giving a comment.
"The president believes that the American flag is sacred ... We should be respecting that flag; we should be making sure that it is respected in that way," Jean-Pierre said during Friday's press briefing.
The New York Times reported Thursday that it obtained a photo showing an upside-down flag at Alito's Virginia home on Jan. 17, 2021, days ahead of Biden's inauguration. The inverted flag has been used as a symbol by MAGA and "Stop the steal" supporters of former President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on Friday called for Alito to recuse himself from all cases related to the Jan. 6 riots and the 2020 election.
"Flying an upside-down American flag — a symbol of the so-called 'Stop the steal' movement — clearly creates the appearance of bias, "Durbin, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Friday.
Jean-Pierre said the White House would not follow suit. "I do not want to get into the business of the specific actions that that Supreme Court justices, if they should recuse themselves or not on on a court. That is something for the court more broadly; they have to make that decision. That is something that we're not going to step into — we're not going to comment from here."
For his part, Alito said he had nothing to do with the inverted flag, telling the Times that his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, raised it in that manner as a response to a dispute with a neighbor.
"I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag," Justice Alito said in a statement to the Times. "It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor's use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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