Multiple GOP congressional offices earlier this year received American flags with "optical illusion" swastikas embedded in them, two Republican sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The news comes one day after Rep. Dave Taylor, R-Ohio, called the flag with the swastika “vile” and “deeply inappropriate” after the symbol was seen in one of his staffers’ offices in the background of a meeting.
One of the sources, whose office received a flag back in January, said it was initially difficult to see the flag's swastika with the naked eye, calling it an “optical illusion.” But once the swastika in the center of the flag was discovered, the flag was thrown out, the source said.
The matter is also being investigated by the GOP-led House Administration Committee, in addition to the U.S. Capitol Police.
Capitol Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s unclear who handed out the flags to the congressional offices and what the intention was, which is part of what is being investigated.
Taylor denounced the symbol Wednesday, saying in a statement, "I condemn it in the strongest terms."
The symbol is historically associated with Nazis. It has been used in the United States in recent years by neo-Nazi groups promoting hateful rhetoric and violence against Jews and other minority groups.
In 2021, a swastika was found carved in an elevator at the State Department. Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote in an email to staffers at the time that the incident "painfully reminds us, anti-Semitism isn’t a relic of the past."
"It’s still a force in the world, including close to home. And it’s abhorrent. It has no place in the United States, at the State Department, or anywhere else. And we must be relentless in standing up and rejecting it," he added.
Outside Cincinnati this year, police responded to reports of demonstrators dressed in all black clothing displaying swastikas on an overpass.
The demonstrators left the area after residents confronted them.
