Speaker Johnson defends displaying quotappeal to heavenquot flag outside congressional office

>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=4X6iSP86NEM

(23 May 2024) • RESTRICTION SUMMARY: • • ASSOCIATED PRESS • Washington - 23 May 2024 • 1. Various an appeal to heaven flag outside House Speaker Mike Johnson's congressional office on Capitol Hill • 2. Various of House Speaker Mike Johnson speaking to reporters while walking through the U.S. Capitol • 3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House: • (AP Reporter: Can you talk to us about the situation with the flag that has flown outside your personal office? Are you aware that the (appeal to heaven flag) is being associated with the (Stop the Steal movement?) ) • Johnson: I never, never heard that before. This is, look, my background is in constitutional law and I am an American history buff and I have always used that flag for as long as I can remember because I was so enamored with the fact that Washington used it. That was, that was the first flag. In their time of desperation in the American Revolution, they felt like the challenge was so great that they had to appeal to heaven for the existence of God himself. And that's why -- That's what inspired the decoration outside my office. • (AP Reporter: question) • Johnson: I just think it's nonsense. It's part of our history. We don't remove statues and we don't cover up things that are so essential to who we are as a country. I mean, I think the controversy is contrived. It has nothing to do with how I've seen or used the flag. • (AP Reporter: Even the backward American flag? Do you not see that as a symbol? ) • Johnson: I've never flown a flag upside down. • (AP Reporter: No, no Justice Alito's decision to -- ) • Johnson: I'm not commenting on Justice Alito. I haven't had a chance to dive into any of that. I'm just telling you the appeal to heaven flag is a critical, important part of American history. It's something that I've always revered since I've been a young man. People misuse our symbols all the time. It doesn't mean we don't use the symbols anymore. This is, I think it's nonsense. • 4. Various an appeal to heaven flag outside House Speaker Mike Johnson's congressional office on Capitol Hill • STORYLINE: • House Speaker Mike Johnson defended his decision to display an appeal to heaven flag outside his congressional office on Capitol Hill Thursday. • • The same flag was flown outside Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s beach vacation home last summer, according to The New York Times. Rioters carried the same flag during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. • • The white flag with a green pine tree was seen flying at the Alito beach home in New Jersey, according to three photographs obtained by the Times. The images were taken on different dates in July and September 2023, though it wasn’t clear how long it was flying overall or how much time Alito spent there. • • Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said he has flown the flag “for as long as I can remember” but did not know the flag had come to represent the “Stop the Steal” movement. • • “Never heard that before,” Johnson told AP at the Capitol. • • The speaker, who led one of Trump’s legal challenges to the 2020 election, defended the flag and its continued use despite the modern-day symbolism around it. • • “I have always used that flag for as long as I can remember, because I was so enamored with the fact that Washington used it,” Johnson told AP. • • “The Appeal to Heaven flag is a critical, important part of American history. It's something that I've always revered since I've been a young man,” Johnson said. • • “People misuse our symbols all the time. It doesn't mean we don't use the symbols anymore.” • • • • • • • • • Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork • Twitter: / ap_archive • Facebook: / aparchives • Instagram: / apnews • • • You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...

#############################

New on site