Republicans blame swastika flag fiasco on 'ruse' that targeted multiple offices

A House Republican is blaming a "ruse" targeting multiple GOP offices on Capitol Hill after photos surfaced of an American Flag altered to feature a swastika hanging in his office.

Rep. Dave Taylor (R–OH) garnered national headlines this week when an image made the rounds on social media showing an American flag altered to display a swastika inside his Washington, D.C. office. The image was a screenshot from a Zoom call with one of Taylor’s staffers and showed the doctored flag hanging on a cubicle wall in the background.

Taylor on Thursday offered new insights as to what happened.

“Numerous Republican offices have confirmed that they were targeted by an unidentified group or individual who distributed American flags bearing a similar symbol, which were initially indistinguishable from an ordinary American flag to the naked eye,” he told Politico. “My office was among those that were subjected to this ruse.”

A Republican staffer told the outlet that similar flags were mailed to multiple congressional offices in February. That staffer said the flags were clearly "hate mail."

“It was plainly obvious to us that there was a swastika on the flag with the naked eye,” the staffer said. There was no investigation, and the flag was thrown away, “like we would hate mail,” the staffer said.