Two weeks after her attempted character assassination of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in the New York Times and in the wake of multiple concern-mongering spin-offs, Obama hagiographer Jodi Kantor has effectively blown up her own narrative.
On Tuesday, Kantor
provided additional details about the neighbors central to her original report as well as about their encounters with Martha-Ann Alito. In doing so, Kantor has provided strong indications that Justice Alito and his 70-year-old wife were likely victims of a years-long harassment campaign by Biden supporters at their Fairfax County, Virginia, home.
Moreover, Kantor’s latest report in the Times appears to indicate that Mrs. Alito’s alleged flag inversion had nothing to do with the Jan. 6 protests and everything to do with the antagonism directed her way by a 30-something attempted actress who was living with her mother down the street.
Background
Democrats and their allies in the liberal media have worked tirelessly in recent weeks to pressure Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas to recuse themselves from cases that may prove consequential in the upcoming election.
The Alito-focused prong of this public-private attack extends from a
May 16 story published in the New York Times concerning allegations about the Jan. 17, 2021, flying of an inverted American flag at the Alito residence — a story Robert Barnes of the Washington Post reportedly did not bother with at the time because it was clear that Justice Alito was not involved.
Justice Alito recently made clear again to the Times that he was not involved; that the flag was “briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”
Despite the apparent interpersonal nature of the dispute, Kantor managed to construct a narrative wherein the American flag was somehow a “Stop the Steal” symbol and Alito was linked to the Jan. 6 protests — on the basis of unnamed neighbors’ interpretation of the inverted flag as “a political statement by the couple.”
To flesh out this narrative, Kantor turned to leftist “experts” in her original piece as well as in a follow-up. Democratic lawmakers then stepped in to do their part.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) both demanded that Alito recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 protests as well as regarding the question of former President Donald Trump’s immunity in
U.S. v. Donald Trump.
Jeffries went farther than his colleague,
demanding that Justice Alito “apologize immediately for disrespecting the American flag and sympathizing with right-wing violent insurrectionists.”
‘At minimum, he must recuse himself from any cases involving January 6th, Donald Trump, and the security of our elections.’
After Kantor concern-mongered in a subsequent piece about Justice Alito’s alleged flying of the beloved “An Appeal to Heaven” flag — a flag commissioned by George Washington that was for centuries flown by the Massachusetts Navy — Democrats doubled down on their attacks.
Blaze News
previously reported that House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) — whose transvestite son was arrested and charged in January 2023 with assault and battery on a Boston police officer — claimed, “Justice Alito has displayed flags at his homes that support insurrection against our government, promote religious nationalism, and attack free and fair elections.”
Clark, apparently now concerned about threats to the rule of law, added, “At minimum, he must recuse himself from any cases involving January 6th, Donald Trump, and the security of our elections. Anything less will tarnish our judicial system and democracy.”
The radicals down the street
In her Tuesday follow-up, Kantor revealed Emily Baden to be one of the neighbors central to her original piece.
Baden is an
unaccomplished actress and the “liberal and proud of it” daughter of Barbara Baden, a former Public Broadcasting Service vice president. Emily Baden moved in with her retired mother on Alito’s block in 2020.
In the follow-up, Kantor attempted to contrast the account provided by Baden and her unnamed husband with that previously provided by Alito to Fox News.
Alito
told the host of “Fox News Sunday,” Shannon Bream, that a neighbor had a “F*** Trump” sign within 50 feet of where children await the school bus. When the justice’s wife expressed concern about the sign, the neighbor allegedly “engaged in vulgar language, ‘including the C-word.'”
After that exchange, Alito indicated Mrs. Alito flew the inverted flag “for a short time.”
Baden disputed the timeline, suggesting that she instead called her 70-year-old neighbor the C-word weeks after the flag was taken down and months after putting up the first of her crude signs.
‘When they got home [to Barbara Baden’s house], they displayed a political sign they had made from torn-up Amazon boxes, saying ‘BYE DON’ on one side and “F*** Trump” on the other.’
The Times noted, “The couple participated in Black Lives Matter protests in Washington, propped up Biden-Harris signs, and on the Saturday in November when the election was called, whooped and danced in the streets of the nation’s capital. When they got home [to Barbara Baden’s house], they displayed a political sign they had made from torn-up Amazon boxes, saying ‘BYE DON’ on one side and ‘F*** Trump’ on the other.”
According to Baden, she encountered Mrs. Alito shortly after Christmas 2020. Mrs. Alito allegedly thanked Baden for taking down the vulgar sign, which had apparently blown over several weeks after its erection on Barbara Baden’s lawn. When expressing gratitude, Mrs. Alito allegedly indicated that she had found the sign to be offensive.
Emily Baden apparently responded to Mrs. Alito’s gratitude with hostility, indicating that her crude cardboard sign would stay up.
When Jan. 6 rolled around, Emily Baden put up new signs, which reportedly read, “Trump Is a Fascist” and “You Are Complicit.” The leftist, who by that time knew full well who lived down the block, claimed the signs were not targeted at the Alitos but rather at Republicans in general.
Despite an apparent effort to paint Baden as a victim of Mrs. Alito’s alleged glares, unheard comments, and alleged yelling, the Times’ report includes an image of Baden and her nameless husband harassing the Alitos, holding signs outside the justice’s home that read, “Abort SCOTUS,” “Alito was @ JAN6,” and “Fascist Alito.”
The couple had reportedly staged at least one protest at the Alitos’ home despite having moved out of Barbara Baden’s house.
The indication that Emily Baden was not only a radical leftist but antagonistic toward the Alitos over the course of months and years provides greater context for why the justice’s elderly wife might have felt the need to signal distress in a traditional manner. At the very least, Kantor’s report appears to justify Robert Barnes’ reasons for originally ignoring the story: The dispute was interpersonal and did not directly involve Justice Alito.
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