After Donald Trump tweeted that anyone who burns the American flag should face severe consequences, protesters gathered outside Trump International Hotel in New York City Tuesday night — to burn American flags.
According to Fox News Insider, members of the far-left NYC Revolution Club poured accelerant on a pair of American flags and lit them on fire.
Just burned US flag at Trump Hotel NYC. We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America! Now your turn: #FlagBurningChallenge pic.twitter.com/pvMDaVIyKD
— Sunsara Taylor (@SunsaraTaylor) November 29, 2016
"Oops!" We did it again
Reject a Fascist America#FlagBurningChallenge#1stAmendment#NotMyPresident#NoDAPL#RevCom pic.twitter.com/YqxY69xNIO— Sunsara Taylor (@SunsaraTaylor) November 29, 2016
And here it is from earlier this evening. Thanks @SunsaraTaylor
Fuck you @realDonaldTrump
Who's next for the #FlagBurningChallenge ? https://t.co/jgPgp8Aj0E— Noche Diaz (@Noche_RC) November 30, 2016
Earlier in the day, Trump fired off a tweet stating people who burn the American flag should face jail time or even a loss of citizenship, despite protection of the practice under the First Amendment. The tweet was presumably a response to Hampshire College students burning flags in protest of presidential election results.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/803567993036754944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Trump transition team communications director Jason Miller appeared on CNN’s “New Day” shortly after the president-elect’s tweet to defend his boss.
“Flag burning is completely ridiculous and I think you know that. I think the vast majority of Americans would agree,” Miller said before CNN’s Chris Cuomo chimed in, “But legal.”
Piers Morgan took to Twitter Tuesday morning, reminding the Twitter community that Hillary Clinton once “backed criminalisation of flag-burning.”
According a New York Times article from 2005, Clinton co-sponsored a bill to “criminalize the burning of the American flag. Her supporters would characterize this as an attempt to find a middle way between those who believe that flag-burning is constitutionally protected free speech and those who want to ban it, even if it takes a constitutional amendment.”