Try to follow this logic: Trumpsters were furious with Colin Kaepernick the football player who kneeled during the playing of the National Anthem while the flag was carried onto the field in protest of police killings of Americans of color “How dare he?!” they said, and “we back the blue!” Republicans have, for years, vilified the burning of the American flag and insisted that anyone who did so should be imprisoned. Two themes that have resounded throughout the Trump years and even before have been Republican support of the police and their reverence for the American flag.
So when Trumpsters who call themselves Republicans used an American flag to beat Capitol Police officers, injuring 140 police officers, 6 of whom later died, the GOP was really furious. Just kidding. Virginia Republicans saluted a flag from that attack to show their support of a candidate endorsed by Donald Trump.
Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell told @Acosta a GOP rally's pledge of allegiance to a flag flown by rioters on Jan. 6 was "a total disgrace."
"That probably was the flag that they hit me with," he said. pic.twitter.com/DolrM7DBok
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) October 17, 2021
On Sunday, Capitol Police officer Aqualino Gunnel appeared on CNN to talk about the use of that flag during the Trump rally to endorse Glenn Youngkin for the governor’s seat in Virginia. Gunnel was on the front lines during that insurrection and saw the vicious brutality the insurrections used to attack police officers, illegally enter the Capitol Building, and destroy government property while searching for lawmakers they threatened to kidnap or kill.
Gunnel told Jim Acosta that:
‘They were in the crowd when I was fighting those people off, they were throwing the flag on the floor and…wanted us to pick it up and they got angrier and angrier about it. The way they’re using the flag as if they did something good. And that flag they’re probably holding right now… that probably was the flag that they hit me with.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcGi4maiJW8&t=239s
Gunnel told Acosta that the scene was ironic considering the GOP’s insistence that they were the party of “backing the blue” – which they said each time the police killed an unarmed black American – considering their silence when Trump supporters attacked police officers at the Capitol.
‘Instead of celebrating [police officers] as a party of law and order and pro-police, back the blue, they are celebrating this individual who committed an attack in the Capitol. You know, it’s very disappointing.’
This week in GOP:
•Georgia: Swastika used for GOP Senate event
•Virginia: GOP rally used flag from the Nazi led insurrection
•Texas: GOP law pushing teachers to teach kids the opposing view of the Holocaust0 condemnations from GOP leadership. It's not a bug—it's the feature.
— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) October 14, 2021
The officer who experienced the worst day of his life the day that Republican voters tried to stop the certification of the vote for a new president and reinstall their preferred leader said that more accountability was needed for those who incited the insurrection.
‘He needs to be held accountable in order for me to feel like justice has been served,” Gonell said. “Another person that I feel strongly about is Mr. Giuliani. He told the crowd, ‘trial by combat.’ And guess what? That is exactly what we encountered at the lower west entrance of the Capitol.’
Important follow up from @cam_joseph:
Glenn Youngkin's campaign is refusing to answer questions about use of 1/6 flag at last night's rally where Trump called in to endorse him:https://t.co/RHliAdmaTI
Condemning worship of the insurrection might depress GOP turnout. Amazing. https://t.co/j6fypgFtVm
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) October 14, 2021