Secret recording reveals Alito agreeing that US should return to ‘a place of godliness’ – live

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Justice Samuel Alito, in an audio recording posted to X on Monday, is heard agreeing that the US should return “to a place of godliness.”

The audio was posted by liberal filmmaker Lauren Windsor, who said it was recorded at the Supreme Court Historical Society’s annual dinner last week.

Windsor, posing as a religious conservative, is heard saying to Alito:

I think that the solution really is like winning the moral argument. Like, people in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that, to return our country to a place of godliness.

“I agree with you, I agree with you,” Alito responded.

Secret recording captures Justice Alito agreeing that US should return 'to a place of godliness'

Good morning US politics readers. Supreme court justice Samuel Alito is in facing fresh scrutiny after newly released audio recordings captured him agreeing that America should return “to a place of godliness”, just weeks after he came under fire for controversial flags that flew above his homes.

In audio posted on social media by liberal filmmaker Lauren Windsor, Alito is heard questioning whether compromise between the left and right is possible. “One side or the other is going to win,” Alito said.

There can be a way of working, a way of living together peacefully, but it’s difficult, you know, because there are differences on fundamental things that really can’t be compromised.

The recording comes after reports that an upside-down American flag was displayed at the home of Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, in Virginia just weeks after the January 6 Capitol riot. The inverted flag is a symbol that has become associated with Donald Trump’s false claims that Joe Biden stole the election. Another provocative flag, the “Appeal to Heaven” flag which has in recent years become a symbol of far-right Christian extremism, was flown outside the Alito’s’ New Jersey summer home, according to reports.

Alito has rejected calls to step aside from supreme court cases involving Trump and January 6 defendants, claiming that neither incident merits his recusal. The court is considering two major cases related to the 6 January 2021 attack by a mob of Trump supporters on the Capitol, including charges faced by the rioters and whether the former president has immunity from prosecution on election interference charges.

Here’s what else we’re watching today:

• 1.30pm ET. Joe Biden will speak about gun safety at Everytown’s Gun Sense University.

• Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, met this morning in Israel with Benny Gantz, chair of the National Unity party. Blinken will participate in an event in Sweimeh, Jordan, during an international conference to call for urgent humanitarian aid for Gaza. In the evening, Blinken will meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah.

• Jury deliberations began in Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial on Monday. Deliberations are not expected to last long.