CHRIS CRUCIAL: Samuel Alito's shambolic defense 😞

PLUS: NC-Gov moves toward GOP

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1. Alito Agonistes

I am neither a lawyer nor a Supreme Court expert.

Given that, I am not going to wade into the legal question of whether or not Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito should have recused himself — he did not — from cases involving Donald Trump and the January 6 rioters that are currently in front of the nation’s highest court.

Of course, Donald Trump isn’t a lawyer or a Supreme Court expert either and he decided to weigh in on Alito’s decision:

So, yeah.

Here’s what I will do: Tell you that the way Alito and his wife have handled the whole flag-flying controversy is disastrously bad from a political and public relations perspective.

In case you have been on vacation from Planet Earth the last week or so (and who could blame you!), let me get you caught up: The New York Times reported that outside of the Alito’s home during the run-up to President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, there was an upside-down American flying. The upside-down flag was widely seen, at the time, as a signal of support for the “Stop the Steal” movement, which erroneously claimed that the election had been stolen from Trump.

Then, a few days ago, the Times reported that another flag — the “Appeal to Heaven” flag — had been seen flying at Alito’s Long Beach Island beach house. Like the upside-down flag, this flag had been adopted by the January 6 rioters as a symbol of resistance.

Which is, well, bad.

But, Alito made it worse — in three specific ways.

1. He blamed (and blames) his wife. In his initial statement to the Times, when the first flag story published, Alito said this: “I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag. It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”

   Then, today, in his letter to Congress making clear he would not recuse himself, Alito offered up this delicious morsel: “My wife is fond of flying flags. I am not. My wife was solely responsible for having flagpoles put up at our residence and our vacation home and has flown a wide variety of flags over the years.”

   Like, really, dude? Your wife is aware that you are a Supreme Court Justice, right? And that your public image, given that role, matters? There’s NO way you could have a conversation with her where you say “I am a Supreme Court Justice and, er, having a symbol of the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement hanging in front of our house is not a great idea”?