'A crazy question': GOP rep deflects when asked about posting 'Appeal to Heaven' flag

The Appeal to Heaven flag, a.k.a. the Pine Tree Flag, was around long before Donald Trump's presidency or the MAGA movement. It goes back to colonial times and pre-dates the signing of the United States' Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

But in recent years, the Appeal to Heaven flag has been adopted as a symbol of the Stop the Steal movement, Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and far-right Christian nationalism. And U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has drawn widespread criticism for displaying an Appeal to Heaven flag outside of his summer beach home on the New Jersey Shore.

Now, Rep. Jim Banks' (R-Indiana) use of the flag is drawing attention.

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Banks posted an image of the flag on X, formerly Twitter, after Trump was convicted on 34 criminal charges in his hush money/falsified business records trial. And he even made it a pinned tweet.

When NOTUS asked Banks about posting an Appeal to Heaven image on X on May 30, the Indiana Republican responded, "I'll let you make your own conclusions…. I'm not sure what there is to misconstrue. We're in unprecedented times, and November will be the result of regular people taking our country back."

Banks continued, "And then, we'll have a reset. And then, we'll take back our government and our country from the elites and those who are trying to destroy it. So, you can infer whatever you'd like from that post."

When NOTUS asked him if he opposed the idea of a second U.S. civil war, Banks responded, "That's a crazy question."

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Read NOTUS' full article at this link.