Why Is There a Black Flag Flying Over The White House?

Speaker: Hey guys, good morning! It is Christmas Eve, which means I actually have to go buy all the Christmas presents I’ve been putting off.

We are out running around town, but first, a lot of you have been emailing me: “What’s up with the black flag at the White House? Is there a black flag at the White House?” Well, yeah, there is. I’ve shown it to you before—probably almost every day.

We’ve also shown you the one at the Capitol, but a lot of you are asking, “Why is it there?” Well, show, not tell. All right, so let’s head over to the White House. First, let me show you what I see.

Okay, guys, we are on 16th Street heading to the White House. The White House is just down there, on the other side of Lafayette Park. It’s hard to see because the press viewing stand for the inaugural parade is kind of blocking the view, but it’s there.

We’ll get down there in a few blocks. We’ve got to go through Black Lives Matter Plaza, and then we’ll park the car and go into Lafayette Park.

We’re now in Black Lives Matter Plaza, which is kind of cobblestoned—that makes it really bumpy. On the left is the AFL-CIO headquarters, and then you also see the steeple of St. John’s Episcopal Church.

That’s the church where a small fire was lit during the George Floyd protests. It’s also the church where Donald Trump held up the Bible after clearing out the park with the police and military during that widely publicized event.

On my right, with all the flags down there, that’s the Hay-Adams Hotel, a popular hotel with the big muckety-mucks, the rich set. Also on the right, they have an office of the Motion Picture Association. That’s the group that does lobbying for movie theaters and whatnot.

Over here is the Ronald Reagan Institute, which—I have no idea what they do, but they’ve got signage on the door saying they’re the Ronald Reagan Institute. Go figure. All right, let’s go park this car.

Okay, guys, we’ve parked our car down here about a block from the White House. By the way, this little alley you see here is the President’s Escape Alley. There’s a tunnel to the Treasury Building and a tunnel from the Treasury Building to the Treasury Annex.

That leads to a giant vault door back there, allowing the President to get out of the White House and into the Escape Alley to leave the premises if the need arises.

That’s not a big secret—it’s on Google. You can look up “President Escape Alley” and actually find it. But it’s kind of a funny little thing down here on H Street.

By the way, this is the former home of Dolley Madison, President James Madison’s widow. It was also the first headquarters of NASA, where the Mercury 7 astronauts were introduced to the public for the first time in the dining room.

Okay, Lafayette Park. What little we can see—so much of it is boarded up with the presidential viewing stand and the construction.

God, it’s icy out here, guys. Look at this ice! The meltdown isn’t always working that well, but let’s head down this way.

I should be able to get you a view of the flags atop the White House in between all the construction trailers, the press viewing stand, and the presidential viewing stand, where Donald Trump will watch the inaugural parade on January 20th.

That’s less than a month away, isn’t it? I still don’t know what I’ll be doing—if I’ll be covering that. I mean, I’ll be out here for the inaugural, but I just don’t know what kind of credentials I’ll get, if any.

Let’s see if we can go down here and get a view of the flag. Let’s see if the wind is blowing so you can see the flags.

Well, they’re working here on Christmas Eve—look at that! The construction crew is still hammering and sawing on the press viewing stand, the one closest to us.

Up on the top of the White House, I do see two flags. I can’t really get you a clear view from here, though. We could try to shoot through the fence. Let’s see what we can do here.

Okay, we can see the wreath and the press viewing stand. There’s the flagpole, and up on the top, you can see two flags: the American flag and the black flag below it.

Unfortunately, the wind isn’t blowing right now, so you can’t see what’s on it. But there is a logo on it. Let’s see if we can get a better view on the side—tons of trees here.

I mean, in every direction I go, there are trees. We’re going to have to manually focus. There we go.

There’s a view of the flag and the logo. It’s hard to make out here. Stupid focus! Hang on. We had to switch to manual focus because the trees kept getting in the way.

But right there, you can see part of the logo of the POW/MIA flag. That’s the POW/MIA flag you’ve seen for probably the last 30 or 40 years, calling for all missing and former prisoners to be accounted for.

That flag flies over the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon, and some post offices. Maybe we’ll get a breeze so we can see more of it. Let me zoom in a little bit.

Nope, can’t really make it out here, but that’s the POW/MIA flag flying over the White House. I mean, seriously, how hard is it for a gust of wind to blow?

We moved over to a slightly different angle. You can just kind of make out the logo there. I think that’s the one prisoner depicted in the logo at the bottom.

There—let’s see if we can get a better view. Here’s a good view of the press gallery on the right, and then the presidential viewing stand is being built on the left.

You can see it’s got some serious construction—those are some big girders. It’ll have bulletproof glass. It’s not just the stand you see at your local homecoming parade—it’s a pretty solid piece of construction.

All right, let’s go back to the flag. Okay, there’s a slightly different view. You can just see the letters “P” on the top there.

That is the POW/MIA flag over the White House today. We’re going to head out, and I’ll show you a few more places in Washington where the POW/MIA flag is flying.

As we leave the White House area, you can see the flags back behind those trees through Lafayette Park.

Next to the building over here is the Veterans Administration. You can see on the VA building they also have a black flag. That’s the POW/MIA flag as well.

Let’s go closer. Out past the trees, you can see the POW/MIA flag under the American flag at the Veterans Administration headquarters.

Does it say VA? It does say VA somewhere—I can’t see it from this distance. Oh, there it is: Department of Veterans Affairs.

They have the POW/MIA flag flying there too. Oh, now the breeze comes up. Do we have a breeze at the White House? Let me show you this.

That’s, of course, St. John’s Church, the one we talked about with George Floyd, the small fire, and the Bible incident. Up there behind it, on the side of the AFL-CIO building, you see those webcams?

Those are the White House webcams—the cams you guys watch on YouTube to see what’s happening at the White House.

I think the other ones are Secret Service, to be honest, but they’re right there next to the church. Okay, we’re heading out of Lafayette Park.

That’s the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. It’s one of two U.S. Courts of Appeals in D.C.

The other is the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. D.C. gets two Courts of Appeals, which is kind of funky.

This yellow house is called the Tayloe House. It was the home of a wealthy Washingtonian who was kind of the trendsetter in D.C. during the Gilded Age and before.

Everybody used to come to Tayloe House for social events. Next door was a place called the Washington Club.

A long time ago, there was a guy named Philip Barton Key, the son of Francis Scott Key. He was the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

One day, Congressman Sickles saw him out here. Here’s the problem: Congressman Sickles’ wife and Philip Barton Key were having an affair.

So, Congressman Sickles came out here and shot Key dead—three shots, right here by this tree.

What’s interesting about that is he pled temporary insanity and won. This was the first time a temporary insanity defense was ever decided in the U.S.

He got off for murdering Philip Barton Key. What’s more interesting is that Sickles later issued a public forgiveness of his wife, which caused a huge scandal in Washington’s social circles.

Anyway, a little bit of trivia next to the White House. Christmas Eve in D.C. is actually really empty right now.

Biden gave all federal workers the day off for Christmas Eve. That’s not totally unheard of, but it’s unusual since today is a Tuesday.

We’re now down on the National Mall, crossing by the Air and Space Museum to make our way to the U.S. Capitol. I want to show you the flags flying at the Capitol.

Hopefully, we’ll get some wind up here since it was pretty calm back at the White House.

Here is the Air and Space Museum. Wow, they’ve almost finished all the construction hoarding. This is the new entrance vestibule, designed for security screening outside of the priceless plane collection.

This part on the right hasn’t reopened yet—it’s been a couple of years and about a billion-dollar renovation. Hopefully, it’ll reopen next year.

This is the Museum of the American Indian. It’s a pretty cool museum and the second newest on the National Mall, after the African American History Museum.

All right, we’re approaching the Capitol. We’ll probably just pull over and take a picture from the street since we don’t need to get that close with the big lens.

Okay, guys, there is the Capitol Christmas tree. What are those people doing? Taking pictures with Santa? That’s kind of cool.

Up above, you can see the platform for the inauguration still being built. See that rickety part over there? That’s probably where the press will be stuck, fearing for their lives.

As we go up to the Capitol Dome, you can see the flags. The American flag is flying, and below it, there’s a black flag—the POW/MIA flag.

Let me zoom in. The American flag is flying, but the POW/MIA flag is still kind of limp. Come on, breeze!

Let’s zoom a little more. There we go! You can see it now. The POW/MIA flag is blowing underneath the American flag.

It must be a heavier flag because it’s barely moving in this light wind. So yes, the POW/MIA flag also flies at the U.S. Capitol building.

This scaffolding here is likely for the inaugural. They’ll probably hang banners or something over it. Behind it, there’s more scaffolding—definitely some construction work going on.

Now, over there is the Pentagon. We’re at Columbia Island Marina, and above the Pentagon, you can see two American flags. Beneath them, there are two black flags—again, the POW/MIA flags.

Let’s zoom in. Nope, no wind over there either. What a lousy day to film this video. You can sort of make out the logo on the flag, though.

Okay, now we’re in Georgetown. No flags here—just finishing Christmas shopping. The weather is still calm, so I can’t show you the flags fluttering, but here’s the C&O Canal.

The canal has been drained for maintenance. Some of the old stone walls are collapsing, but hopefully, they’ll clean it up and refill it by spring.

It’s kind of cold today—there’s ice in some spots. We’re heading up to a store that just returned to Georgetown after a 10-year absence: a giant Barnes & Noble store.

By the way, right over there is Baked and Wired, which has amazing cinnamon rolls on weekends. Sometimes they’re short on bakers, but when they have enough, those cinnamon rolls are incredible.

Now, let’s go inside Barnes & Noble. It’s been 10 years since this was a bookshop.

That’s the fiction section. I want nonfiction, so we have to go upstairs. There’s a book here similar to one I saw the other day.

By the way, this is a great book if you want to know all the spy sites in D.C. Let’s head upstairs.

And we’re out! No, you don’t get to see the books I bought because my kids watch these videos too. It’ll be a surprise what Santa brings them.

So, about those flags—why is there a black flag over the White House, Congress, the Pentagon, and other federal buildings?

It’s because of Donald Trump. He signed a law five or six years ago, sponsored by the VFW, requiring the POW/MIA flag to be flown at major government buildings, including the White House.

If you want to learn more, I’ll include some links in the description about the passage of that law. That’s it for today.

Happy Christmas, Merry Christmas! I’m going away for a few days but will be back at the end of the week.

Biden is off to St. Croix, the Vice President is in L.A., and Congress is gone, so it’s going to be a quiet time in D.C. I’m going to see some family.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas! Bye-bye.