The U.S. Coast Guard removed a service member from its Hurrican Florence emergency response force after a Coastie was spotted allegedly flashing a white supremacist hand gesture on national television.
- In a Friday segment from MSNBC, a service member sitting in the background of an interview with a Coast Guard official was spotted conspicuously flashing an “OK” symbol with his fingers, a hand gesture that has reportedly become a favorite among members of the so-called “alt-right” movement.
https://twitter.com/jgobble/status/1040719621450416128
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- After the clip began to circulate on Twitter, the Coast Guard stated that it was “aware of the offensive video” and that the service had “identified the member and removed him from the response.”
https://twitter.com/USCG/status/1040764976527560704
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- For some context: the incident came just over a week after some home viewers watching the televised confirmation hearing of Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court claimed they saw Republican operative Zina Bash flashing the same white power gesture.
https://twitter.com/paleofuture/status/1038024146867777537
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- However, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary spokesman Taylor Foy offered up “another, innocuous explanation” for the hand gesture, the Washington Post reports: “The signal was aimed at a judiciary staffer who fulfilled a request for the judge.”
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