WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday that he would have ordered flags lowered to half-staff following the assassination of a Minnesota Democratic state lawmaker this summer had he been asked by the state’s governor. But Trump at the time refused to even call Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to express his condolences, saying it would only “waste time.”

The president made the remark during an unrelated Oval Office event as he defended his decision to lower U.S. flags after last week’s slaying of conservative activist Charlie Kirk .

After announcing 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 Ho

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