Flag fracas: Republicans ‘infuriated’ by show of support for Ukraine

WASHINGTON — Republicans were split roughly down the middle on Saturday’s vote to provide Ukraine with $60.8 billion in aid, but in the aftermath, Speaker Mike Johnson tried to project unity on at least one aspect of the ordeal.

“I just want to say simply what I think most people around the country understand and agree,” Johnson said after the vote. “We should only wave one flag on the House floor. And I think we know which flag that is.”

A tide of blue and yellow washed over the House during the vote, as dozens of Democrats held up mini Ukrainian flags. Others tucked them in their breast pockets, while New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. draped a larger version over his shoulders like a cape.

It was a striking scene, and one that drew immediate rebukes from Republicans. Banging the gavel repeatedly as he called for order, presiding Rep. Marc Molinaro of New York reminded his colleagues to “observe proper decorum,” adding that “flag-waving on the floor is not appropriate.” Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna was even blunter: “Put those damn flags away.”

—CQ-Roll Call

NYPD blames faculty, ‘professional agitators’ in NYU Gaza protest arrests

NEW YORK — NYPD brass Tuesday blamed faculty and “professional agitators” at New York University for heated standoffs with police, after university officials sent cops to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment and arrest 120 protesters for trespassing, including students and staff.

The unrest at NYU over the war between Israel and Hamas was latest in a string of mass arrests at colleges in the tri-state area that started last week at Columbia University and spread to Yale University in New Haven.

“The faculty were — from what I personally observed, and spoke to lieutenants and captains out there — the most aggressive towards the police,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said on Fox 5’s Good Morning America. “They would not move, they would not let go.”

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