After the delay, Trump orders flags to half the staff: NPR

Updated at 9:38 am ET

President Trump has ordered that US flags be lowered to half-staff, "a mark of solemn respect" for the four journalists and a newspaper salesman killed last week at the Capital Gazette The proclamation came after the mayor of Annapolis said his request to lower the flags had been denied.

"Our nation shares the sadness of the people affected by the Capital Gazette shootings in Annapolis, Maryland," said the statement signed by Trump and published by the White House on Tuesday morning. "Americans across the country are united in calling God to be with the victims and to bring help and comfort to their families and friends."

Less than 24 hours earlier, the city of Annapolis had confirmed to NPR that the president had refused his request.

"Clearly , am I disappointed for the tragedy? "Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley said Monday afternoon, according to The Baltimore Sun." It was an attack on the press, it was an attack on freedom of life. expression, just as important as any other tragedy. "

Shortly after the release of the order Tuesday, Buckley told the Sun that the setback was" the least The respect we can give to reporters is a little comforting .

In a statement to NPR's Scott Horsley, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders proposed a different schedule.

"Last night, as soon as the president heard the mayor's request, he ordered that the flags be lowered and that a proclamation be issued," Sanders said. "I spoke with the mayor last night and again this morning to let him know the ruling of the president."

The order applies to flags on public places throughout the United States and in diplomatic facilities abroad.

to the newspaper "shocked the conscience of our nation and filled our hearts with sorrow," and stated that "journalists, like all Americans, should be freed from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their job . "

However, since Long before taking office, Trump has been openly hostile to the press, calling it "the enemy of the American people" and frequently accusing the mainstream media of being "uncomfortable". engage in "false news".

Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan on Monday ordered that the state's flag be deployed half-way Monday at the sunset.

But Buckley, a Democrat, told the Sun that the scale of the tragedy "

" This is not as striking when a state flag is shot down, but you always have your main flags in action.

After recent mbadive shootings in high schools in Texas and Florida, Trump ordered US flags across the country lowered to half-staff to honor the victims. He did the same after killing Spree in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, Texas

. While some have accused Trump of fostering a climate of disrespect and even violence towards the Fourth Estate, others note that it is a dilemma for all.

Mbad shootings in Las Vegas killed 58 people. In a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, 26 people were killed. At Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., 17 died and, in a high school and at Santa Fe High School, Texas, 10 people were killed.

In comparison, the Annapolis newspaper shootings killed 5. [19659009] USA Today writes, "Like its predecessors, Trump also faces a bleak calculation: What differentiates a devastating crime of a truly national tragedy? Is it a matter of body, or do some attacks carry a symbolic meaning that transcends the police? report? "

Nevertheless, Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor of the 39, University of Houston that studies presidential proclamations, says USA Today Maryland's shooting transcends the death toll because "the crucial role of the free press in America" ​​

Some have also pointed out that President Obama was also criticized in 2015 for failing to quickly issue a proclamation that the flag should be deployed to half the staff for five days. by an armed man in a naval reserve center in Chattanooga, Tennessee Obama finally made such an order, five days after the killings.