WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump defended his order that flags be lowered to half-staff after last week’s slaying of conservative activist Charlie Kirk by suggesting he would have done the same following the assassination of a Minnesota Democratic state lawmaker this summer had he been asked by the state’s governor.
That’s despite Trump saying at the time that he had no interest in calling Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
During an unrelated Oval Office event where he announced that he was deploying the National Guard to Memphis, Trump was asked why he signed an order lowering flags nationwide after Kirk’s killing during an event in Utah, but didn’t do so after former Democratic state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in June.
Trump replied, “Well, if the governor had asked me to do that, I would have done that.”
“But the governor of Minnesota didn’t ask me,” the president said.
He continued, “I wouldn’t have thought of that. But I would have if somebody had asked me,” and added: “Had the governor asked me to do that, I would have done that gladly.”
Trump said during the same event that he planned to attend Kirk’s funeral this weekend in Arizona and added that he’d likely be speaking.
“I guess I’ll say a few words, I don’t know,” he said. “But I guess I will.”
Walz’s spokesperson did not reply to messages Monday evening seeking comment on the president’s remarks, and whether Walz had requested the White House to order that flags be lowered across the country after Hortman’s assassination.
However, Trump’s assertions omit the fact that — days after Hortman and her husband were shot dead in their home in the northern Minneapolis suburbs — the president was asked if he’d be calling Walz. Trump suggested that doing so would “waste time.”
Presidents often reach out to governors, mayors and other elected officials at times of tragedy, such as after mass killings or natural disasters, to offer condolences and, if needed, federal assistance. But Trump said then that Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee against Trump in last year’s election, was “slick.”
“I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I’m not calling him. Why would I call him?” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One in June. He then added, “The guy doesn’t have a clue” and “he’s a mess. So, you know, I could be nice and call him but why waste time?”
Teddy Tschann, a spokesperson for Walz, responded at the time with a statement saying, “Governor Walz wishes that President Trump would be a President for all Americans, but this tragedy isn’t about Trump or Walz.”
During the campaign, Walz often branded Trump and other Republican politicians as “just weird.”
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