It shouldn’t surprise anyone that leftists decided to show up at the Independence Day parade in order to vocally denounce the greatness of the greatest nation in the world. It also shouldn’t surprise anyone that they were vastly outnumbered by the people there to celebrate the fact that they live in a nation where you can have stupid ideas like that without being put in jail.

Regardless, a few of the protesters decided to get together and chant about how America was never great, and do a little flag burning while they were at it. They were riding high on the smell of their own gas until a veteran showed up and rescued the flag.

According to the Washington Examiner’s Steven Nelson, who captured the event on video, a man wearing a red “MAGA” shirt plowed into the midst of some of the protesters and proceeded to make off with it. He quickly put the flag out and made his way back to the protesters and physically pushed them. The protesters quickly closed ranks with their backs to one another and began chanting.

“My flag mother f**kers!” said the man.

Nelson asked if the man was a veteran, and got an answer in the affirmative.

Footage of White House flag burning ahead of Trump's #SaluteToAmerica A man who identified himself as a veteran grabbed the burned flag #FourthofJuly pic.twitter.com/nJdWlMpdKp — Steven Nelson (@stevennelson10) July 4, 2019

Some of the protesters were arrested shortly after the flag burning.

Joey Johnson was just arrested by the Secret Service after burning an American flag outside the White House #FourthofJuly #SaluteToAmerica pic.twitter.com/eFbRn2dlhC — Steven Nelson (@stevennelson10) July 4, 2019

While it is legal to burn the flag, Nelson reported that a Secret Service statement said the protesters were arrested on different charges:

In a statement, the Secret Service said two officers “received minor injuries while attempting to make arrests” and were taken to a hospital for treatment. The Supreme Court has found flag-burning protected by the First Amendment, but the Secret Service said Johnson and the other man were arrested on different charges. One faces a charge for “felony assault on a police officer and malicious burning” and the other “for obstructing a police investigation and resisting arrest.” The agency did not identify either man by name.