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Saturday, April 25, 2020

News Hits

Michigan state senator wore Confederate flag face mask to session over Whitmer's emergency orders

Posted By Lee DeVito on Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 11:00 AM

Screengrab, WLNS News

Republican Sen. Dale Zorn is gaslighting us.

On Friday, Zorn wore a Confederate flag face mask on the Senate floor during a session addressing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's emergency powers and the coronavirus pandemic crisis.

When asked about it by WLNS, Zorn said it wasn't a Confederate flag, but even if it was, the Confederate flag is still part of our national history.

His wife, he says, sewed it for him.

"I told my wife it probably will raise some eyebrows, but it was not a Confederate flag," Zorn said.

In his own words:

"Even if it was a Confederate flag, you know, we should be talking about teaching our national history in schools and that’s part of our national history and it’s something we can’t just throw away because it is part of our history. And if we want to make sure that the atrocities that happened during that time doesn’t happen again, we should be teaching it. Our kids should know what that flag stands for."

When asked by WLNS what he thought the flag stood for, he replied, "the Confederacy."

Zorn said his mask is more similar to the Tennessee or Kentucky flags.

To be clear, this is what a Tennessee flag looks like:

Public domain

And here's a Kentucky flag:

click to enlarge

Public domain

And this, of course, is a Confederate flag:

click to enlarge

Public domain

Some protesters waved the Confederate flag at "Operation Gridlock," last week's protest in Lansing where people rebelled against Gov. Whitmer's stay-at-home order by disobeying social distancing guidelines.

Zorn later removed the mask.

A reminder to Sen. Zorn, Kentucky's flag says "United we stand, divided we fall."

Zorn apologized on Saturday, saying he "did not intend to offend," which is weird considering he earlier said he knew it "will raise some eyebrows."

2/2:

My actions were an error in judgment for which there are no excuses and I will learn from this episode.
— Dale W. Zorn (@DaleZornSenate) April 25, 2020

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Tags: Michigan, Confederate flag, Sen. Dale Zorn, Lansing, Whitmer, Operation gridlock, Image

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