WASHINGTON — Swastikas became the talk of Capitol Hill Thursday, to the surprise of, seemingly, everyone.
As news trickled out of a Washington Post report that the U.S. Coast Guard will no longer consider swastikas a hate symbol, Republicans were overcome with disbelief while Democrats were shocked, appalled or personally pained.
“How come you don’t tell me stuff?” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) demanded of staffers after Raw Story showed her the report on our phone, which made her gasp in surprise.
The Coast Guard will re-classify “the Nazi-era insignia as ‘potentially divisive’ under … new guidelines,” according to the Post.
Citing documents reviewed, the Post said the new policy set to take effect on Dec. 15 “similarly downgrades the definition of nooses and the Confederate flag, though display of the latter remains banned, according to documents reviewed.”
As her surprise morphed into dread, Tlaib voiced long-held concerns about “white supremacist groups actively recruiting white supremacists to get into law enforcement.”
Other senior Democrats were similarly dismayed.
“It’s not a good thing,” former Jan. 6 Committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) told Raw Story. “You can’t undo history.”
The usually staid Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) was more vocal, maybe because he represents New London, home of the Coast Guard Academy — which he oversees on its board of visitors.
Courtney’s also a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, where he’s the top Democrat on the Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces.
“This is just a terrible message in terms of just saying, it's not hate, but potentially divisive,” Courtney told Raw Story, before pointing to a released statement.
"In 2007,” that statement said, “two hangman nooses were found at the Coast Guard Academy: one in a Black cadet's bag and another in a race relations trainer's office.
“In response, then-Commandant Thad Allen personally flew up to the Academy campus in New London to emphatically tell cadets that this hate behavior has no place in the Coast Guard.”
Speaking to Raw Story, Courtney added that the late Maryland Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings flew north with Commandant Allen, to “read the riot act.”
“Much work was done to make the Coast Guard safe and inclusive for its highly talented personnel,” Courtney’s statement continued.
“It is appalling that the Coast Guard is taking this gigantic step backwards and reclassifying nooses and swastikas as ‘potentially divisive’, as opposed to what they are: hate symbols.
“It is deeply troubling that this decision was even considered and [it] should be immediately reversed."
Courtney was far from alone.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, told the Post: “At a time when antisemitism is rising in the United States and around the world, relaxing policies aimed at fighting hate crimes not only sends the wrong message to the men and women of our Coast Guard, but it puts their safety at risk.”
Democrats have voiced rising concerns about the hard-right turn of the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security under Secretaries Pete Hegseth and Kristi Noem, loyal lieutenants to Donald Trump.
The Coast Guard is part of DHS in peacetime but can transfer to the Pentagon in times of war.
The Trump administration aggressively rejected the Post report.
“This is an absolute ludicrous lie and unequivocally false,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant DHS secretary, posted on social media.
“The Washington Post should be embarrassed it published this fake crap.“
But the Post quoted an unnamed Coast Guard official as saying they had seen the new policy wording, which they called “chilling.”
“We don’t deserve the trust of the nation if we’re unclear about the divisiveness of swastikas,” the official said, speaking anonymously “due to a fear of reprisal.”
The new policy, according to the Post, sets a 45-day limit for displays of swastikas to be reported, where previously no time limit was set.
The anonymous official was quoted as saying: “If you are at sea, and your shipmate has a swastika in their rack, and you are a Black person or Jew, and you are going to be stuck at sea with them for the next 60 days, are you going to feel safe reporting that up your chain of command?”
Despite widespread revulsion over the Post report, one senior Republican confronted by Raw Story seemed reluctant to take the story seriously.
Shown the report, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chair of the powerful House Oversight Committee, offered an unusual reaction.
“Where are you on swastikas?” Raw Story asked.
“On what?” Comer said.
“Swastikas,” Raw Story said, sharing a screengrab of the Post story. “You seen this reporting?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Comer said.
Raw Story also mentioned reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents — like the Coast Guard, part of DHS — sporting white supremacist symbols as tattoos.
The senior Republican said he wasn’t too familiar with swastikas.
“I’ve never seen one in person,” Comer said. “Not in a tattoo. I’ve seen ‘em in movies [and] Sons of Anarchy” on TV.