Politico Writer Shares Gif of Himself Burning American Flag

After Breitbart News had reported on Politico magazine writer Ian Murphy’s Twitter meltdown where he said former President Ronald Reagan “fucks Satan in hell,” Murphy tweeted out a gif of himself burning an American flag.

“Some of you folks are unfairly questioning my patriotism,” Murphy tweeted with a link to the animated image. “So here I am on a very typical Tuesday evening.”

Soon after, he riffed on an earlier tweet where he taunted a critic, saying, “Reagan fucks Satan in Hell”:

Politico had published a screed from Murphy in its new magazine this week, in which he recounts how he prank-called Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker pretending to be one of the Koch Brothers. When Politico published Murphy’s reporting, it was lending its media platform to someone who raged against the concept of societal respect for the U.S. military. 

In a 2008 piece titled “Fuck the Troops,” Murphy argued that anecdotal evidence of misbehavior by American soldiers should be universalized to a general disrespect of the military. He specifically complains that in the public’s view, “there are only bad apples, never bad orchards.” Sprinkled in the text are casual references to service members as rapists, “rubes,” and murderers–while describing amputee veterans as having “cool robotic limbs.”

Politico has not responded to inquiries from Breitbart News on whether the publication was aware of Murphy’s anti-military article before printing his anti-Walker article.