Republican swastika drama takes bizarre twist as Ohio Rep insists it’s invisible to the eye

Republican Ohio Representative Dave Taylor is in a tough spot. Yesterday, the news broke that an American flag defaced to include a swastika was proudly flying in his private office in the U.S. Capitol.

This disgusting item – which insults the very principles America was founded on and is a symbol 405,000 soldiers gave their lives fighting against in World War II – was spotted on a cubicle wall during a video call. The owner of said wall is staffer Angelo Elia, one of Taylor’s legislative correspondents who, incredibly, doesn’t appear to have been fired yet.

A panicked Taylor issued a statement condemning this “vile and deeply inappropriate symbol” and confirmed that the Capitol Police were investigating the matter to determine what had happened. Taylor, via his spokesperson, later provided his own theory, which conveniently absolves both him and his staff of all responsibility.

He claimed that some mysterious rogue actor had sneaked into his office with “foul play” on their mind and planted the flag there as an act of “vandalism”. Mmm, yeah, that definitely sounds like something that could happen.

But if you thought that was the dumbest excuse ever, hold your horses because you’re not going to believe what they’re saying now. Fox News reports that their sources have told them that the flag is actually a complex optical illusion. When viewed with your eyes, it looks like a normal American flag. However, when it’s photographed or viewed on video, it suddenly has a swastika on it.

Just how dumb do they think we are?

“here’s the strange part: the swastika is not obvious to the naked eye” https://t.co/NMArhk5HPn pic.twitter.com/uSd1zUuhYE

— Brendan Karet (@bad_takes) October 16, 2025

The rest of the story somewhat undermines this ludicrous claim. Fox went on to claim that “an undetermined group” delivered the flags to various congressional offices in early 2025. Another office that received them said the swastika design “was clear”, so they did the right thing and tossed it in the trash where it belongs.

So, the very obvious swastika is invisible to some people and visible to others. Republicans are apparently now theorizing that the flags were distributed “to deliberately embarrass congressional offices by giving them deceptive flags donning the hate symbol.” As Taylor explained:

“Numerous Republican offices have confirmed that they were targeted by an unidentified group or individual who distributed American flags bearing a similar symbol, which were initially indistinguishable from an ordinary American flag to the naked eye. My office was among those that were subjected to this ruse.”

I mean, it sure sounds like utterly unbelievable garbage, but fortunately for Taylor this should be easy enough to prove by showing how this “optical illusion” works. Or, alternatively, maybe one of his young Republican staffers harbors barely disguised admiration for the Nazi party. Who can say what’s more likely?