The New York Times Editorial Board member Mara Gay told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Tuesday how it was "disturbing" to see American and pro-Trump flags when she went to visit Long Island during the weekend.
According to Gay, the flags symbolized how people view the United States as "my country" and not "your country. I own this."
"You know, it’s really concerning to me that the Democrats haven’t just gone ahead at this point and said, 'We’re doing this on our own' in terms of getting a commission together. To explain to the American people how we allow the insurrection to take place in the Capitol. I think that really needs to move forward swiftly," Gay said.
"We have to figure out how to get every American a place at the table in this democracy, but how to separate Americanness, America, from whiteness. Until we can confront that and talk about that, this is really going to continue," Gay said. "I was on Long Island this weekend, visiting a really dear friend and I was really disturbed. I saw, you know, dozens and dozens of pickup trucks with expletives against Joe Biden on the back of them, Trump flags, and some cases, just dozens of American flags, which is also just disturbing, because essentially the message was clear, 'This is my country. This is not your country. I own this.'"
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Host Mika Brzezinski voiced her agreement with Gay during the flag portion of her remarks.
When Gay's comments started online mockery, she sent a tweet addressing the "trolling."
I see I’m being trolled with the American flag this morning. Trolling a Black journalist with the American flag is not the own some people think it is.
— Mara Gay (@MaraGay) June 8, 2021
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