USA Today reporter is getting clowned for his coverage of ‘controversial Christian nationalist flag’

A USA Today reporter is getting clowned on for his coverage of a “controversial Christian nationalist flag.”

In a now-deleted X post, the reporter wrote about the flag “hanging outside the D.C. office of a top Education Department Official.”

Look:

Deleted my initial tweet. This flag is more accurately described as a “symbol associated with Christian nationalism.” ⁰⁰Please read our full story with the relevant context here: https://t.co/M09yfxqGf6 pic.twitter.com/IBcXCim0GC

— Zach Schermele (@ZachSchermele) December 16, 2025

“The flag, which was raised by rioters during the Jan. 6 insurrection, is adorning the office of Murray Bessette, principal deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development,” the journo said. “The ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flag is the same that was flown outside the vacation home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in 2023, according to the NYT.”

His ‘scoop’ was dunked on so hard by X users that he had to delete it. But in true journo fashion, he didn’t apologize for referring to the flag as a “Christian nationalist” symbol in his new post.

“Deleted my initial tweet. This flag is more accurately described as a ‘symbol associated with Christian nationalism,’” he said, adding a link that included “relevant context.”

Oh, he also locked his comment section down this time. Probably because he predicted that doubling down wasn’t going to go well.

That didn’t stop X users from weighing in:

“A symbol associated with Democrat propaganda” https://t.co/H3bYtT6lJY pic.twitter.com/D943fIYaM6

— Billy Gribbin (@BillyGribbin) December 16, 2025

No one is looking for the context behind your bias against Christians, patriotic Americans, Republicans and apparently residents of the city of San Francisco https://t.co/iHzWkOwgWZ

— OSINT with a splash of good takes and a few bad 1s (@supersean415) December 16, 2025

Why can’t the context of the flag be its historical significance and we not give a shit if it’s co-opted by wackos or fringe groups? Who cares that it made an appearance during Jan 6th? https://t.co/g7g7l4GYvE

— JB (@btcbourne) December 16, 2025

But did you learn something about your nation’s history, @ZachSchermele?

If you did, then you would understand that even that framing is incorrect.

Co-opted, not associated. The flag is associated with George Washington and John Locke. With Massachusetts Patriots. https://t.co/DuRV14X55W

— Scot Turner (@Scot23) December 16, 2025

I.e. progressive journalist forced to reel and wordsmith after being shown to be incendiary by anyone with a good faith knowledge of US history https://t.co/sBxAAlE1aR

— Nathan Vancil (@PourOverTheo) December 16, 2025

So this garbage reporter deleted his initial post–which he was getting ratioed on–and did this with a link to his garbage story and then shut off replies.

Journalism’s low esteem in many quarters is earned. https://t.co/B4T6JCutXN

— Matthew Hoy (@hoystory) December 16, 2025

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