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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Chris Stein (now) and Gloria Oladipo (earlier)

White House refuses to comment on Alito reports but says Biden believes ‘American flag is sacred’ – as it happened

Samuel Alito United States Joe Biden Donald Trump The New York Times
Supreme court justice Samuel Alito.
Supreme court justice Samuel Alito. Photograph: Reuters

Closing summary

Democrats are howling after the New York Times reported that a flag associated with Donald Trump’s false election fraud claims flew outside the house of Samuel Alito, a conservative supreme court justice. Dick Durbin, the Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary committee, called on Alito to recuse himself from cases involving Trump and the 2020 election – such as the ex-president’s petition for immunity from the federal charges related to his plot to keep Joe Biden from taking office. In a rare interview with Fox News, Alito said that the flag was raised by his wife after a confrontation with a neighbor.

Here’s a rundown of what else happened today:

  • Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, had no comment on the report of Alito’s pro-Trump flag flying, but noted that Biden feels the country’s banner is “sacred”.

  • Alito is among the conservative justices who appeared skeptical of the government’s arguments at a hearing over Trump’s immunity petition last month.

  • The banner flown from Alito’s house was an upside-down American flag, a traditional symbol of distress that became associated with support for Trump’s “stop the steal” movement.

  • The House oversight committee devolved into chaos last night as personal arguments broke out between Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

  • Nancy Pelosi’s family shared their thanks after the attacker of the former House speaker’s husband was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

A big story that broke this week was the agreement – made public in a series of rapid-fire tweets – for Donald Trump and Joe Biden to meet for two debates, in June and September. The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino reports that the two candidates are hoping to use the events to gain an edge over the other:

It’s game on for a pair of presidential debates between two unpopular candidates most Americans wish weren’t running for the nation’s highest office.

In a ratatat social media exchange on Wednesday, Joe Biden and Donald Trump agreed to participate in two debates on 27 June, hosted by CNN, and on 10 September, hosted by ABC.

“Make my day, pal,” Biden said in a video, challenging his predecessor and rival to a high-stakes showdown. Trump, who had been insisting for months he would debate Biden “anytime, anyplace”, quickly accepted the offer: “Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!”

The arrangement jolted a general election campaign that had begun to feel stagnant. And if their plans hold, Americans will be treated to a presidential matchup far earlier than usual – before either candidate will have formally accepted his party’s nomination.

“The candidates realize the value of the debates, especially given their ages,” said Aaron Kall, director of debate at the University of Michigan. “They need to show that they have the stamina to debate for 90 minutes or two hours to reassure the country.”

The decision to square off at least twice before the November election reflects a careful calculation by both candidates who believe televised confrontations will help magnify the other’s weaknesses.

The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, also did not have much to say when asked if Joe Biden had any thoughts on the partisan fracas that took place last night in the House oversight committee.

“I have not talked to him about if [he’s] seen it,” Jean-Pierre said at her press conference.

“What we can say and I think this is something the president would agree upon … as someone who was a senator for 36 years he believes that people should respect each other, treat with each other with dignity and civility.”

Updated

White House spokesperson declines comment on reports of Alito flying flag associated with Trump support

The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, declined to comment on the New York Times’s report that Samuel Alito flew an upside down American flag at a time when it was being used by supporters of Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.

“We’ve seen the reporting, and I don’t want to comment on the specific report,” Jean-Pierre replied when asked about the Times’s story at her ongoing press briefing.

However, she noted that Joe Biden believed people should respect the country’s flag:

What I can say more broadly, is that the president believes that the American flag is sacred. You’ve heard him say that, and is owed proper respect and honor for the brave men and women who have defended our country for generations.

Updated

In a series of tweets, the progressive Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the squabble that broke out last night at a meeting of the House oversight committee was used as an excuse by Republicans to force a vote on holding the attorney general, Merrick Garland, in contempt.

The GOP is pushing the contempt citation over Garland’s refusal to hand over recordings of Joe Biden’s interview with a justice department special counsel. Ocasio-Cortez accused Republicans of seizing on the chaos that broke out as insults flew between the far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene and the Democrat Jasmine Crockett to block the opposition from offering amendments to the resolution:

Updated

From the Guardian’s Dani Anguiano, here’s more on the sentencing of David DePape, who broke into then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home two years ago and bludgeoned her husband:

David DePape, a rightwing conspiracy theorist who broke into Nancy Pelosi’s northern California home in 2022 and bludgeoned her husband with a hammer, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

A federal jury convicted him of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official in November 2023, just over a year after the attack in the former House speaker’s San Francisco home.

DePape broke in through the back door in the early hours of 28 October 2022 with plans to kidnap Nancy Pelosi, interrogate her and post footage online. Instead, he found Paul Pelosi, who was 82 at the time and awoke to DePape in his bedroom with a hammer and zip ties, asking: “Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?”

Paul Pelosi was able to call 911, and police officers arrived just before DePape struck him in the head multiple times with a hammer, knocking him unconscious. Pelosi required surgery for a skull fracture as well as injuries to his arm and hands after the attack, which was captured in police body-camera footage.

The former House speaker Nancy Pelosi has put out a statement after, David DePape, the attacker of her husband Paul Pelosi was sentenced to 30 years in prison for breaking into the family home and bludgeoning her husband with a hammer.

In a statement, a family spokesman for the applauded the bravery of Paul Pelosi during the night of the attack and subsequent trial.

From the spokesperson, Aaron Bennett:

The Pelosi family couldn’t be prouder of their Pop and his tremendous courage in saving his own life on the night of the attack and in testifying in this case. Speaker Pelosi and her family are immensely grateful to all who have sent love and prayers over the last eighteen months, as Mr Pelosi continues his recovery.

Given the ongoing state court proceedings, Speaker Pelosi and the Pelosi family will not be offering further comment on this matter at this time.

Updated

Here’s more on the allegations in Arizona against John Eastman, from the Associated Press:

The Arizona indictment said Eastman encouraged the GOP electors to cast their votes in December 2020, unsuccessfully pressured state lawmakers to change the election’s outcome in Arizona and told then-Vice President Mike Pence that he could reject Democratic electors in the counting of electoral votes in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump himself was not charged in the Arizona case but was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator.

Charges have not yet been made public against Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and Trump-aligned attorney, but he was readily identifiable based on descriptions of the defendants in the indictment. No arraignment date has been scheduled for Giuliani. Arizona authorities say they have been unable to serve Giuliani with the notice of the charges …

Last year, Eastman was indicted on racketeering, conspiracy and other charges in a scheme to overturn the 2020 president election in Georgia. He has pleaded not guilty to the Georgia charges. Eastman also is named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the sprawling federal indictment filed in Washington against Trump for working to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol.

Read the full article here.

Updated

Attorney John Eastman pleaded not guilty to fraud, conspiracy and forgery charges for his role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in favor of Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported.

Eastman is the first person in Arizona’s fake elector case to be arraigned. Eastman was charged after he attempted to create a plan to get Congress not to certify the 2020 election.

“I had zero communications with the electors in Arizona [and] zero involvement in any of the election litigation in Arizona or legislative hearings. And I am confident that with the laws faithfully applied, I will be fully be exonerated at the end of this process,” Eastman said in a brief statement outside the courthouse.

Updated

The day so far

Democrats are howling after the New York Times reported that a flag associated with Donald Trump’s false election fraud claims flew outside the house of Samuel Alito, a conservative supreme court justice. Dick Durbin, the Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary committee, called on Alito to recuse himself from cases involving Trump and the 2020 election – such as the ex-president’s petition for immunity from the federal charges related to his plot to keep Joe Biden from taking office. In a rare interview with Fox News, Alito said that the flag was flown by his wife after a confrontation with a neighbor.

Here’s a rundown of what has happened so far today:

  • Alito was among the conservative justices who appeared skeptical of the government’s arguments at a hearing over Trump’s immunity petition last month.

  • The banner flown from Alito’s house was an upside-down American flag, a traditional symbol of distress that became associated with support for Trump’s “stop the steal” movement.

  • The House oversight committee devolved into chaos last night as personal arguments broke out between Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, weighed in on the kerfuffle in the House oversight committee last night, saying the sparring between Democratic and GOP lawmakers was “not a good look”.

From the Daily Beast:

Updated

Here’s video of the moment last night when an exchange between the far-right Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and the progressive Democratic congresswoman Jasmine Crockett sparked a quarrel that ground the House oversight committee’s business to a halt:

It escalated from there:

Updated

A bout of cross-chamber Democratic infighting has broken out after the Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman attempted to make light of the argument that ensued late last night in the House oversight committee:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive Democrat from New York who was a part of yesterday’s rhetorical melee, did not take kindly to her ostensible ally’s comment:

Updated

Hawaii senator says reported Alito flag incident 'a wild, radical thing' to do

The Hawaii Democratic senator Brian Schatz also had strong words for Samuel Alito after the New York Times reported that a flag associated with Donald Trump’s election lies flew outside his house:

Updated

On X, Alicia Bannon, the director of the judiciary program at the non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice, warned that Samuel Alito’s display of a flag associated with Donald Trump’s election lies was “a five-alarm fire”:

Alito says wife hung upside-down American flag at home after argument with neighbor following January 6 - report

The Fox News journalist Shannon Bream said she heard from Samuel Alito, who elaborated on how an upside-down American flag came to be displayed outside his house after it had been adopted by supporters of Donald Trump’s election lies.

The conservative supreme court justice told Bream most of the same things he told the New York Times, but with a bit more detail. Here’s more:

Supreme court justices grant few interviews, Alito included. On the few occasions he has talked to the press, Alito has chosen conservative outlets such as the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board and, now, Fox News, to make his views known:

Updated

Senate judiciary committee chair calls for Samuel Alito to recuse himself from Trump cases

The Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary committee, Dick Durbin, is calling on Samuel Alito to recuse himself from cases concerning Donald Trump and the 2020 election after the New York Times reported that a flag supporting the ex-president’s false election fraud claims flew outside the supreme court justice’s residence.

Here’s what Durbin had to say:

Flying an upside-down American flag – a symbol of the so-called ‘Stop the Steal’ movement – clearly creates the appearance of bias. Justice Alito should recuse himself immediately from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection, including the question of the former President’s immunity in US v Donald Trump, which the supreme court is currently considering.

The court is in an ethical crisis of its own making, and Justice Alito and the rest of the court should be doing everything in their power to regain public trust. This latest story is further proof that Congress needs to pass the SCERT Act to create an enforceable code of conduct for the supreme court. Supreme court justices should be held to the highest ethical standards, not the lowest.

The Scert Act would require the supreme court to adopt a code of conduct and create a mechanism to investigate violations. While the court adopted an ethics code last year, it lacks any mechanism for enforcement.

Republicans are vehemently against any new regulations on the supreme court, and have the votes to prevent the Scert Act from passing the Senate.

Updated

In other news, the House oversight committee last night advanced a resolution to hold the attorney general, Merrick Garland, in contempt after he refused to release audio of Joe Biden’s interview with Robert Hur, the special counsel who investigated his possession of classified documents. But the vote only took place after a messy verbal clash between lawmakers at opposite ends of the political spectrum, the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports:

The two most famous sets of initials in US politics clashed in a chaotic House hearing on Thursday, as the progressive star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or AOC, objected fiercely to an attack on another Democrat by the far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, or MTG.

The oversight committee hearing concerned Republican attempts to hold the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, in contempt, for refusing to release tapes of interviews between Joe Biden and the special counsel Robert Hur.

Things went wrong when MTG made a partisan point, trying to tie Democrats to the judge in Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money case – which, by drawing a number of Republicans to the New York courtroom to support Trump, was responsible for the hearing starting late in the day.

In answer to MTG, Jasmine Crockett of Texas said: “Please tell me what that has to do with Merrick Garland … Do you know what we’re here for? You know we’re here about AG Garland?”

Updated

In response to the New York Times’s reporting, Samuel Alito acknowledged that the flag was raised outside his house, but said it was due to a dispute with a neighbor:

I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag,” Justice Alito said in an emailed 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.”

The Alitos live in Alexandria, Virginia, a pleasant city across the Potomac river from Washington DC, where some of their neighbors do not like them, the Times reports:

In recent years, the quiet sanctuary of his street, with residents who are Republicans and Democrats, has tensed with conflict, neighbors said. Around the 2020 election, a family on the block displayed an anti-Trump sign with an expletive. It apparently offended Mrs. Alito and led to an escalating clash between her and the family, according to interviews.

Some residents have also bridled at the noise and intrusion brought by protesters, who started showing up outside the Alito residence in 2022 after the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion. Other neighbors have joined the demonstrators, whose intent was “to bring the protest to their personal lives because the decisions affect our personal lives,” said Heather-Ann Irons, who came to the street to protest.

The half-dozen neighbors who saw the flag, or knew of it, requested anonymity because they said they did not want to add to the contentiousness on the block and feared reprisal. Last Saturday, May 11, protesters returned to the street, waving flags of their own (“Don’t Tread on My Uterus”) and using a megaphone to broadcast expletives at Justice Alito, who was in Ohio giving a commencement address. Mrs. Alito appeared in a window, complaining to the Supreme Court security detail outside.

Updated

As you can see in the below tweet from the New York Times, the flag flown outside the conservative supreme court justice Samuel Alito’s house was simply an upside-down American flag:

But as their story notes, flying the flag that way had, by early 2021, become a symbol of support for Donald Trump’s false claims that his loss in the November 2020 election had occurred due to fraud:

Turning the American flag upside down is a symbol of emergency and distress, first used as a military S.O.S., historians said in interviews. In recent decades, it has increasingly been used as a political protest symbol — a controversial one, because the flag code and military tradition require the paramount symbol of the United States to be treated with respect.

Over the years, upside-down flags have been displayed by both the right and the left as an outcry over a range of issues, including the Vietnam War, gun violence, the Supreme Court’s overturning of the constitutional right to abortion and, in particular, election results. In 2012, Tea Party followers inverted flags at their homes to signal disgust at the re-election of President Barack Obama. Four years later, some liberals advised doing the same after Mr. Trump was elected.

During Mr. Trump’s quest to win, and then subvert, the 2020 election, the gesture took off as never before, becoming “really established as a symbol of the ‘Stop the Steal’ campaign,” according to Alex Newhouse, a researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder.

A flood of social media posts exhorted Trump supporters to flip over their flags or purchase new ones to display upside down.

“If Jan. 6 rolls around and Biden is confirmed by the Electoral College our nation is in distress!!” a poster wrote on Patriots.win, a forum for Trump supporters, garnering over a thousand “up” votes. “If you cannot go to the DC rally then you must do your duty and show your support for our president by flying the flag upside down!!!!”

Updated

In an appearance on MSNBC this morning, Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic senator who serves on the judiciary committee, said the revelation that a pro-Trump flag flew outside Samuel Alito’s house further undermines the supreme court’s credibility.

Polls indicate public approval of the supreme court has declined over the past two decades, which Blumenthal blames on the conflicts of interest that have developed among its conservative justices. He called on Chief Justice John Roberts to order Alito and Clarence Thomas, a fellow conservative whose wife was involved in efforts to stop Joe Biden from taking office, to recuse themselves:

Blumenthal has been among the Democratic lawmakers that have pressured Roberts and the justices to tighten their ethics following reports of their connections with wealthy conservatives:

Updated

Alito among conservative justices critical of government's arguments in Trump immunity case

The revelation that a flag used by supporters of Donald Trump’s baseless 2020 election fraud claims flew outside the house of Samuel Alito comes as the court is considering whether to give the ex-president immunity from the federal charges brought against him for his attempt to block Joe Biden from assuming office.

In oral arguments in the case last month, the supreme court justice and other conservatives seemed partial to Trump’s claim that he should be immune from at least some of the charges, since they concern his conduct while acting in his official capacity as president. That raises the prospect of a decision that could have the net effect of further delaying his trial, potentially until after his November presidential election rematch against Biden.

During the oral arguments, Alito, together with fellow conservative Brett Kavanaugh, seemed worried that future presidents could be affected by a denial of immunity to Trump. Here’s a recap of their viewpoint, from the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell:

Alito and Kavanaugh suggested they were particularly concerned about zealous prosecutors going after former presidents once they left office for “mistakes” if the supreme court decided that presidents had no immunity from criminal prosecution.

“It’s not going to stop, it’s going to cycle back and be used against the current president and the next president and the next president after that,” Kavanaugh said.

The government disputed that prosecutors could wantonly target former presidents, arguing there were checks and balances in the judicial system like the grand jury process.

Alito was dismissive of the grand jury suggestion, bringing up the adage that a grand jury could indict a “ham sandwich”. When Dreeben said prosecutors don’t charge people who don’t deserve it, Alito responded: “Every once in a while there’s an eclipse too.”

For more on the case, and how the supreme court’s decision could affect it, here’s our story from April:

Updated

Republicans on defense, Democrats outraged after report of Alito flying Trump-supporting flag

Good morning, US politics blog readers. The New York Times reported yesterday that a flag used by supporters of Donald Trump’s baseless claim of fraud in his 2020 election loss flew outside Samuel Alito’s house shortly before Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021. The supreme court justice, who said the flag was displayed by his wife amid a dispute with a neighbor, is a conservative stalwart on the court, and authored the decision that two years ago overturned Roe v Wade and allowed states the ban abortion. The reactions to the news have been predictably partisan, with Republican senator Tom Cotton accusing the Times of trying to “incite another mob”, Minnesota’s Democratic governor Tim Walz describing flying the flag as “not normal” and Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal saying the court’s credibility “is plummeting”.

The story was the latest in a string of reports that have emerged over the past year and raised questions about the supreme court’s ethics. While these stories have generated plenty of outrage, none of the justices involved have suffered any consequences, and the conservatives remain dominant on the court, with six seats against the liberals’ three. The court is poised to soon rule on whether Donald Trump is immune from prosecution over his attempt to overturn the 2020 election – a case that could have a major impact on his rematch with Joe Biden.

Here’s what else is going on today:

  • The House oversight committee late yesterday advanced a resolution to hold attorney general Merrick Garland in contempt for not releasing a recording of Biden’s interview with a special counsel, but only after a shouting match between lawmakers.

  • Biden, who polls show has lost some of his support with Black voters, will speak at the National Museum of African American History and Culture at 11.45am ET, and then meet with leaders of Black fraternities and sororities together with Kamala Harris at 3.30pm.

  • White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre takes reporters’ questions at 1pm.

Updated

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