Top congressional Republicans defend right to burn American flag

Protesters try unsuccessfully to burn an American flag.
(Image credit: MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images)

Top Republicans don't seem to share President-elect Donald Trump's opinion that flag burning should be a punishable offense. After Trump tweeted Tuesday that burning the American flag, an act constitutionally protected as free speech, should result in jail time or a "loss of citizenship," both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) mildly — yet clearly — expressed their disagreement with the suggestion.

McConnell said that people who burn the flag "pose little harm to our country. But tinkering with our First Amendment might." McCarthy, during an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe, said: "We respect our First Amendment."

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