Burning of US flags triggers political attacks

The burning of several U.S. flags outside Union Station during demonstrations in Washington against Israel’s war in Gaza has triggered a new round of political attacks, with Republicans seeking to tie the demonstrators and their actions to Vice President Harris.

Protests became chaotic outside Union Station on Wednesday afternoon when a group pulled down three American flags from flagpoles, burned them along with an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and vandalized the park in front of the station with anti-Israel and pro-Hamas graffiti.

The actions were all the more dramatic for occurring just blocks from the Capitol, where Netanyahu had just spoken to a joint session of Congress, an event boycotted by dozens of Democratic lawmakers furious over Netanyahu’s handling of the war against Hamas.

Harris, who did not preside over the address because of a scheduling conflict, put out a statement around noon Thursday condemning the protesters as “unpatriotic” and “hate-filled.”

“I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews,” Harris said in a statement. “Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric is abhorrent and we must not tolerate it in our nation.”
 
“I condemn the burning of the American flag. That flag is a symbol of our highest ideals as a nation and represents the promise of America. It should never be desecrated in that way,” she added.

But Republicans criticized her silence on the protests throughout the morning.

“Anti-American and pro-Hamas rioters burned the American flag in front of the U.S. Capitol, and the woman who wants to be our president is still refusing to condemn it,” Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), former President Trump’s running mate, said shortly before her statement came out.

Vance also missed the Israeli leader’s address to Congress because of a scheduling issue.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel group criticized by many of those protesting Israel’s war, thanked Harris “for unequivocally condemning these unpatriotic and pro-Hamas protestors.”

But a number of Republicans piled on, with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) suggesting Harris’s absence had encouraged the belligerent behavior.

“Kamala Harris’s appeasement of these radicals who hate Israel and hate America was clear today when she skipped @IsraeliPM Netanyahu’s speech,” Scott wrote on the social platform X. “Her disgusting abandonment of our ally has welcomed this hate and violence to Washington.”

Scott did not mention Vance’s absence.

Former President Trump, who is now likely to face Harris in the presidential election, issued a statement online calling for the flag burners to get prison time.

“You should get a one-year jail sentence if you do anything to desecrate the American flag,” Trump said Wednesday on “Fox & Friends” when asked about the protests. “Now, people will say, ‘Oh, it’s unconstitutional.’ Those are stupid people. Those are stupid people that say that.”

Protesters flooded some streets near the Capitol starting Wednesday morning as part of an “Arrest Netanyahu” rally organized by more than 100 groups opposed to the Gaza war. Police used pepper spray and stun grenades on the crowd near the Capitol early in the afternoon, and some of the protesters made their way to Columbia Circle near Union Station, where the vandalism occurred.

In total, more than 20 people were arrested by Capitol Police, the National Park Police and the Metropolitan Police Department related to the protests — though it’s unclear if any of those arrested were involved in the flag burning.

On Wednesday night, a group of congressional Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), raised new U.S. flags in front of Union Station. 

The White House also condemned the protests on Thursday.

“Identifying with evil terrorist organizations like Hamas, burning the American flag, or forcibly removing the American flag and replacing it with another, is disgraceful,” deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.

Harris skipped the speech to attend a scheduled event in Indianapolis with Zeta Phi Beta, a Black sorority.

Republicans appear likely to use her absence as an attack line. Israel’s war in Gaza has badly divided Democrats, and it has inflicted political pain on President Biden. In the key swing state of Michigan, Biden saw more than 100,000 Democrats vote “undecided” in the primary as a protest vote against his policies.

In the four days since Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Harris, there has been much speculation about whether the new likely Democratic presidential nominee will differ from her boss on how to handle Israel and Gaza. A number of Democrats critical of Netanyahu have sounded hopeful notes of a shift from Harris, who is seen as more compassionate toward the Palestinian cause.

Either way, the ugly scenes at Union Station served as a warning sign for Democrats, with a growing number on Thursday criticizing the actions of some demonstrators.

“You gotta be peaceful,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) told reporters Thursday morning. “We cannot have the burning of flags, we can’t have the calling of violence towards any group of people. That cannot happen, and its unfortunate that it did.”

Bowman also pointed out that the “majority of the protest was peaceful,” and blamed Netanyahu’s presence in Congress for stoking tensions.

Bowman lost his seat in a Democratic primary after facing intense scrutiny from pro-Israel lobbying groups over his support for pro-Palestine protesters. 

Organizers of the “Arrest Netanyahu” protests released their own statement Thursday afternoon seeking to distance themselves from the vandalism and flag burning, but also accused the media and White House of seeking to undermine their message.

“We reject this unauthorized and unrepresentative behavior, which does not reflect or represent the movement to end the Gaza genocide,” they said.

“We also reject those politicians and media personalities who have cynically attempted to conflate rogue criminal behavior by a small number of individuals with the actions of the peaceful protesters who gathered on Capitol Hill to oppose Netanyahu, his government’s genocide and U.S. support for it.”