With snowflakes everywhere across America seemingly content to burn the Stars & Stripes to protest democracy's decision to elect what they have been told is a racist, homophobic, anti-semitic, sexist, tax-fraud as president...
... President-elect Donald Trump has put his foot down in this seemingly most unpatriotic of endeavors:
Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016
Of course, there is the small issue of changing the Constitution as flag burning remains protected speech by the First Amendment.
The catalyst for Trump's 7 a.m. tweet is unclear. Fox News reported earlier this month that Hampshire College in Massachusetts would stop flying all flags on campus after an American flag was burned following Trump’s win.
"We hope this will enable us to instead focus our efforts on addressing racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and behaviors," Hampshire's president, Jonathan Lash, said in a statement at the time.
Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) pushed back on Trump’s proposal during an early morning interview. "I don't think we want to make this a legal issue," Duffy told CNN on Tuesday.
And before the liberal media gets hold of this tweet and claims Trump's fascist tyranny is peaking through against constitutionally protected rights to do whatever a citizen wants, don't forget that none other than the Hillary Clinton herself sponsored exactly this punishment in The Flag Protection Act of 2005
In 2005 a bill was introduced that would outlaw burning the American flag.
That bill was introed by: @HillaryClinton & Sen Bennett (R-UT) pic.twitter.com/3hKzTjV0E9
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) November 29, 2016
The Flag Protection Act of 2005 was a proposed United States federal law introduced by Senators Hillary Clinton and Robert Bennett. The law would have outlawed flag burning, and called for a punishment of one year in jail and a fine of $100,000. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, the act was summarized as such:
Amends the federal criminal code to revise provisions regarding desecration of the flag to prohibit: (1) destroying or damaging a U.S. flag with the primary purpose and intent to incite or produce imminent violence or a breach of the peace; or (2) stealing or knowingly converting the use of a U.S. flag either belonging to the United States or on lands reserved for the United States and intentionally destroying or damaging that flag.
Early in his presidential campaign, Trump said that he supported revoking the citizenship of babies born to undocumented immigrants, but this appears to be the first time since then that he’s proposed revoking citizenship as a punishment.