People Are Not Happy With Trump’s Response After Being Asked About Melissa Hortman’s Assassination
“I’m not familiar. The…who?”
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Last week, conservative political spokesperson Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University. Soon after, Trump ordered the US flag to be flown at half-staff “as a mark of respect for the memory of Charlie Kirk.”
People were quick to compare Trump’s response to the assassination of Kirk to that of the Democratic Minnesota Representative, Melissa Hortman. Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed in their home by a masked shooter disguised as a police officer on June 14. The shooter also shot and wounded Sen. John Hoffman, a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, in their home shortly before.
At the time, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called the back-to-back shootings a “politically-motivated assassination.” On Truth Social, Trump wrote that “such horrific violence will not be tolerated” in the US. But when asked by a reporter if he’d call Tim Walz after the attack, he replied no, saying it’d be a “waste of time.”
Now, a reporter asked Trump on Monday if, looking back, he’d also want to lower the flags in honor of Melissa Hortman as he did for Charlie Kirk. “I’m not familiar. The…who?” he replied.
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“The Minnesota House Speaker, a Democrat, who was assassinated this summer,” the reporter said back.
“Oh,” he said. “Well, if the governor asked me to do that, I would have done that. But the governor of Minnesota didn’t ask me. I didn’t, uh, I wouldn’t have thought of that, but I would’ve, if somebody had asked me.”
“People make requests for the lowering the flag and oftentimes you have to say no because it would be a lot of lowering. The flag would never be up,” he said. “Had the governor of Minnesota asked me to do that, I would have done that gladly.”
You can watch the full clip here.
Fox News / @Acyn / Via Twitter: @Acyn
The moment quickly went viral on social media. Here’s what people had to say:
“Are you kidding me right now,” one viral post read.
Fox News / @Acyn / @AaronParnas / Via Twitter: @AaronParnas
“All of a sudden the President isn’t familiar with certain political violence,” another said.
Fox News / @Acyn / @daviss / Via Twitter: @daviss
“This breaks my heart for our country,” someone else wrote.
Fox News / @Acyn / @JoyceWhiteVance / Via Twitter: @JoyceWhiteVance
“Simply unbelievable. Trump didn’t even order the flags lowered when she was killed. He refused to call Minnesota leaders, refused to offer condolences, refused to show up at her funeral,” another wrote, comparing his response to Joe Biden’s, who attended Hortman’s funeral.
Stephen Maturen / Getty Images / Fox News / @ChrisDJackson / @Acyn / Via Twitter: @ChrisDJackson
“So who ‘Requested’ the lowering of the flag for a podcaster??” someone else questioned on Instagram.
And lastly, someone asked: “What episode of The Twilight Zone are we on!?”
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.
