Several high-ranking Republican senators are expressing misgivings about an upside-down American flag—a symbol most strongly associated with Trump supporters who believe the election was unfairly stolen from him—that was flown outside the Virginia home of Samuel Alito in early 2021. Senate Republican Whip John Thune, the second-ranking member of his party in the chamber, told CNN in a brief interview on Tuesday that the flag was “a bad decision,” adding that he wasn’t sure how it could be explained. (After The New York Times first reported the incident last week, Alito said his wife had briefly flown the flag in a dispute with neighbors over political yard signs.) “It creates a bad image,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told the network. “It created a situation that we’re all talking about. So, yeah, I think it was a mistake.” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), for his part, called the matter “very unfortunate” and suggested legislators ought to investigate it further. Their uneasiness adds to a chorus of Democratic lawmakers who have more harshly criticized the Supreme Court justice and demanded he recuse himself from cases related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attacks.
