On Thursday afternoon, The Washington Post reported that the U.S. Coast Guard would no longer classify swastikas as hate symbols, instead adopting new guidelines that would label the Nazi-era insignia as “potentially divisive.” The same policy, set to take effect on Dec. 15, was intended to apply to nooses.
The Coast Guard falls under the Department of Homeland Security, and after the Post’s report was published online, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary at DHS, described the reporting as “an absolute ludicrous lie,” “unequivocally false” and “fake crap.”
But as additional evidence of the proposed guidelines emerged and outrage over the change grew, officials did exactly what many predicted they would do: They quickly reversed course. The Washington Post reported in a follow-up piece:
In a stunning and lightning-fast reversal of policy, the U.S. Coast Guard late Thursday said the swastika and noose were indeed hate symbols that are prohibited and have no place in the military branch.
Adm. Kevin Lunday, the Coast Guard’s acting commandant, clarified in a late Thursday memo, “A symbol or flag is prohibited as a reflection of hate if its display adversely affects good order and discipline, unit cohesion, command climate, morale, or mission effectiveness.”
The same memo added, “Divisive or hate symbols and flags are prohibited. These symbols and flags include, but are not limited to, the following: a noose, a swastika, and any symbols or flags co-opted or adopted by hate-based groups as representations of supremacy, racial or religious intolerance, anti-semitism, or any other improper bias.”
It’s worth noting for context that Lunday is the White House’s nominee to serve as a permanent Coast Guard commandant, and he was on Capitol Hill this week shoring up Senate support. If confirmed, he’ll succeed Adm. Linda Fagan — a four-star admiral and the first woman to lead a branch of the military — whom Donald Trump fired on the first day of his second term, and who was evicted from her home with three hours of notice. As the dust settles on this story, the Post’s latest reporting added, “While the Coast Guard has now come out strongly against the incendiary wording in the now defunct policy … there are still significant questions as to who approved reclassifying both a noose and swastika as just potentially divisive in the first place.” In other words, there might yet be another chapter to this short-lived controversy. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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