Racism In US Politics: New Republican TV Ad Slams Trump For Allowing Supporters' Use Of Confederate Flag, Symbols

A new television advertisement from the anti-Trump Republican group The Lincoln Project, entitled "Flag of Treason,” slams President Trump for ignoring the use of the Confederate flag and other such symbols by his supporters. The political action committee spent $500,000 to air the ad in Washington, D.C., and vital swing states such as Florida, Wisconsin and Michigan.

No patriotic American should brandish or proudly celebrate the iconography of a rebellion that resulted in tremendous devastation, the loss of more than 620,000 American lives, and the continued subjugation of Black America. pic.twitter.com/wc0VxVOrxA
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 1, 2020

“The men who followed this flag 150 years ago knew what it meant—treason against their country. The death of a United States,” the ad’s narrator says. “America defeated the men who followed that flag. Those with honor surrendered and cast it aside forever. So why does it keep showing up today at events supporting Donald Trump?”

The Lincoln Project was co-founded by George Conway, a lawyer and Trump critic who is married to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. Republican strategists Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson and former Mitt Romney strategist Stuart Stevens are also involved in the group.

“President Trump’s co-opting of the Confederate Flag and relationships with known white nationalists like Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon and David Duke shows his true beliefs,” read a statement from The Lincoln Project.

In May, the group put out an ad entitled “Mourning In America,” which criticized Trump’s response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In response, Trump slammed the PAC, dubbing it “The Losers Project.”

The “Flag of Treason” advertisement comes as protests erupt across the U.S. over the death on May 25 of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man in Minneapolis.

Later in the week, Derek Chauvin, the white officer who kneeled on Floyd’s neck, was arrested on charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Three other officers at the scene of the killing are still yet to be charged.

Although Trump has expressed sympathy to Floyd’s family, he has frequently made incendiary comments about the turmoil in cities. He made the unsubstantiated claim that Antifa was responsible for violent demonstrations, and has tweeted "when the shooting starts, the looting starts" — a phrase used by a racist police chief in Miami in the 1960’s.