Mika Brzezinski Suggests Flag-Burning is a Form of Hate Crime

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:36 pm

Mika Brzezinski says flag burning could be considered a hate crime. Yes, it’s back to business as normal on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Trump was elected and now Joe Scarborough can go back to talking disparagingly of “elites” on behalf of Donald Trump’s bogus populist agenda.

The topic today as flag burning, as a result of Donald Trump’s morning tweet suggesting loss of citizenship as a penalty for flag burners.

Scarborough first tried to soften the outrage by treating it as a response to the “Colin Kaepernick era” and claiming that an attempt to amend the Constitution in 2006 failed by a single vote, saying “elites will sniff.”

That set the stage for Mika Brzezinski to suggest that,

“I think it’s an interesting thing to bring up at this time because hate crimes obviously are – there was even yesterday after a terrible event – law enforcement saying ‘we treat hate crimes like murder.’ And you could say, you could look at a connection between flag burning and that being the next level of some sort of hate crime. I mean, you see that with other symbols across the country.”

Watch courtesy of MSNBC’s Morning Joe:

Trump threatens loss of citizenship and jail over flag burning… #morningjoe responds to the tweet https://t.co/KYQiLsGjus

— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) November 29, 2016

Brzezinski said it’s an awful thing to do and that it’s a “hateful act.” But Morning Joe’s panel, while stumped as to why Trump would make such a random if provoking tweet, explained that flag burning is a protected act. It is legal.

For the record, Trump transition spokesperson told Fox Business this morning that “When he has something to say, he’s going to say it and people are going to know it.”

Scarborough seemed to relish the idea of “putting Democrats in the position…to come down on the side of flag burning.”

While you can be sure some Republican would indeed love to do just that, others, like Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), would not – and we can wave in their faces conservative idol Antonin Scalia’s own defense of flag burning as a protected act.

Regardless of what support such an idea might have, Scarborough has it backward: What Democrats would really be doing is waving the First Amendment in Republican faces and Trump would be handing them this opportunity.

Joe Scarborough can talk about Colin Kaepernick and single votes and Brzezinski can complain about hateful acts but the First Amendment protects free speech. Approve of it or not, flag burning is a form of free speech and that is ultimately the only answer we need give Donald Trump.

If Donald Trump wants to attack the First Amendment, you can be sure Democrats will be more than happy to be put in the position of defending it.

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Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen's Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

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