Table of Contents
U.S. Capitol Police launched an investigation Tuesday after staffers discovered an American flag doctored with a swastika image pinned to a cubicle wall in Rep. Dave Taylor's, R-Ohio, Cannon Building office.
Taylor's spokesperson confirmed the doodle appeared during a virtual meeting, captured in a photo obtained exclusively by Politico.
The flag's red and white stripes formed the offensive symbol, tacked up alongside a pocket Constitution and a congressional calendar, behind legislative correspondent Angelo Elia.
Elia joined Taylor's team as a legislative correspondent in January, per his LinkedIn profile.
His precise involvement remains unknown.
Taylor blasted the discovery in a full statement.
"I am aware of an image that appears to depict a vile and deeply inappropriate symbol near an employee in my office," the GOP lawmaker said. "The content of that image does not reflect the values or standards of this office, my staff, or myself, and I condemn it in the strongest terms."
He ordered a full probe alongside Capitol Police.
"I immediately directed a thorough investigation alongside the Capitol Police. No further comment will be provided until it has been completed," he continued.
The office pegs it on "foul play or vandalism," a spokesperson added.
The Capitol Police has not addressed the incident. Instead the police's automated reply cited the government shutdown stating their office remains closed "until the federal government is funded."
This eyebrow-raiser drops one day after Politico's exposé of a Telegram chat where Young Republican leaders slung racial slurs, cracked Holocaust jokes, and hailed Adolf Hitler.
Coincidence? Hardly.
Politico smells blood and screams “GOP racism!” again, peddling this altered-flag sideshow as their shiny new smoking gun.
One rogue doodle in a sea of congressional cubicles? Vandalism — likely some triggered lefty intern's prank.
Yet the outrage machine revs up, desperate to paint every Republican as a hooded klansman.
We've seen this script a thousand times: Exaggerate the trivial, ignore the real scandals piling up in Democrat dens.
Move along — nothing to see here but Politico's endless, tiresome gotcha game.
Conversation