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  • 2020-04-17 (xsd:date)
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  • Was a Swastika Flag Displayed at Operation Gridlock Protest? (en)
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  • On April 15, 2020, hundreds of Michiganders turned up in the state's capitol for Operation Gridlock, a protest against the stay-at-home orders implemented to combat the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease. As social media lit up with comments and photographs of the event, one image supposedly showing a flag bearing a swastika flag and the words Trump and Pence started to go viral. This appears to be a genuine photograph. However, it was not taken in Lansing, Michigan, during Operation Gridlock in April 2020 and it may not actually show a Trump supporter. This photograph was taken a month earlier at a protest in Boise, Idaho. Twitter user @notaxiwarrior first shared this image on March 2, 2020, along with the following caption: In a follow-up message, @notaxiwarrior added more details: It should be noted that while this photograph is real, the person holding this flag may not actually be a Trump supporter. Additional images from the event appear to show that this person was holding a Bernie Sanders sign at another point during the rally: Footage of this person holding the flag can be glimpsed around the 4:30 mark of the following video: Unfortunately, this isn't the first time that a Nazi symbol has been displayed at a Bernie Sanders rally. A few days after this photograph was taken, a man unfurled a Nazi flag at a Sanders rally in Arizona, as BuzzFeed News reported: The above-displayed image was not taken during the Operation Gridlock protest in April 2020 in Lansing, Michigan. However, at least one protester did display a swastika at Operation Gridlock to suggest that the stay-at-home orders implemented in Michigan were comparable to Nazi Germany. (en)
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