Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday called on Senate Democrats to launch “active investigations” into two separate reports that flags associated with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol were on display outside Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s home.
“What we are seeing here is an extraordinary breach of not just the trust and the stature of the Supreme Court, but we are seeing a fundamental challenge to our democracy,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview on MSNBC’s “All in with Chris Hayes” on Wednesday.
“Samuel Alito has identified himself with the same people who raided the Capitol on January 6 and is now going to be presiding over court cases that have deep implications over the participants of that rally,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “And while this is the threat to our democracy, Democrats have a responsibility for defending our democracy.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks come after the New York Times reported Wednesday that a flag toted by rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was at one point displayed outside the vacation home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
An “Appeal to Heaven” flag – which has origins dating back to the Revolutionary War but is associated with Christian nationalism and “Stop the Steal” efforts today – was seen flying outside Alito’s New Jersey beach home in July and September 2023, the Times reported, around the same time a high-profile Jan. 6 case arrived at the Supreme Court.
The report comes just days after the Times reported that an upside-down American flag flew outside Alito’s Virginia home in January 2021 — around the time rioters stormed the Capitol when Congress was set to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 election win over former President Trump.
The upside-down flag is also associated with the “Stop the Steal” movement that emerged from false election fraud claims in 2020. Alito said his wife hung the flag during a spat with neighbors.
In the Wednesday interview, the New York progressive said that Democrats, who have a slim majority in the Senate but are in the minority in the House, should not wait until the next election to investigate Alito in the hope of winning both chambers.
Ocasio-Cortez said Senate Democrats should launch investigations immediately.
“I don’t even think that we have to wait until we have a Democratic House majority because we have a Democratic Senate majority,” she said, adding, “In the Senate, we have gavels. There should be subpoenas going out. There should be active investigations that are happening.”
While Democrats, she said, are preparing to take the House majority and launch a “broader effort to stand up” for democracy, “I also believe that, when Democrats have power, we have to use it.”
“We cannot be in perpetual campaign mode. We need to be in governance mode. We need to be in accountability mode with every lever that we have,” she continued, “because we cannot take a Senate majority for granted, a House majority for granted, or a White House for granted.”
“And every single minute matters, and we have to use our power when we have it.”
