Marie Harf lashed out at her colleagues in conservative media after they criticized a Black journalist for complaining about the way Trump's fans police the use of the American flag.
June 13, 2021

Fox News pundit Marie Harf on Sunday lashed out at her colleagues in conservative media after they criticized a Black journalist for complaining about the way former President Donald Trump's fans police the use of the American flag.

During an appearance on MSNBC last week, New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay said that she was "really disturbed" when she witnessed "dozens and dozens of pickup trucks with [expletives] against Joe Biden on the back of them, Trump flags, and, in some cases, just dozens of American flags."

"Essentially, the message was clear ... 'This is my country. This is not your country. I own this,'" she explained.

In a statement, The New York Times said that comments made by Gay had been "irresponsibly taken out of context."

"Her argument was that Trump and many of his supporters have politicized the American flag," the Times noted. "The attacks on her today are ill-informed and grounded in bad faith."

Harf pointed out that criticism of Gay had come from conservative outlets like Fox News.

"I do think some of the media coverage on the right particularly was bad faith," Harf told Fox News host Howard Kurtz. "Look, there is a question in this country -- I have encountered it -- where people on the right accuse me as a Democrat of not being patriotic. They say they own patriotism, they own the flag and they get to decide what that means."

"Did she perfectly give voice to that concern that many of us have?" she continued. "No. Of course. It wasn't perfect. I don't think she was saying that American flags in and of themselves bother her."

Harf added: "Some of the media response was in bad faith. I do think Trump supporters, many of them I've encountered, seem to think they get to define what patriotism is. We should have that conversation not in a bad faith way in the media."

Kurtz, however, did not seem interested in having a conversation about the misuse of patriotism. Instead, he moved on to the next segment.

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