Trump orders flags to be lowered for Gazette victims after request reportedly was denied

President Donald Trump requested American banners to be brought down to half-staff through Tuesday to respect of the casualties of a week ago's lethal shooting at an Annapolis, Maryland, daily paper.


The city's leader said the demand was at first denied.

Five individuals were killed and two were harmed on Thursday in a "focused on assault" on the Capital Gazette daily paper by a shooter with resentment against the paper, experts have said. Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley along these lines requested that the White House arrange the bringing down of American banners.


Gotten some information about Buckley's claim that his demand was denied, White House squeeze secretary Sarah Sanders told CNN on Tuesday morning that "when the President specifically heard the demand made by the chairman, he asked that we connect and check that the leader had made the demand. When we did, the President asked that the banners be brought down instantly."

Sanders said she addressed Buckley Monday night to advise him of the President's choice, including that she was "not certain about the procedure" which prompted Buckley's claim that his demand was at first denied.


"However, certain convention was taken after. It was - however when the President found out about the chairman's particular demand to him, he satisfied the leader's demand all together for the banners to be brought down," she included.

Buckley called the underlying choice to not bring down the banners "an assault on the press" and "an assault on the right to speak freely."

"Clearly, I'm frustrated, you know? ... Is there a cutoff for catastrophe?" Buckley told the Gazette.

A message left with Buckley's office Tuesday morning after the bringing down of the banners was not instantly returned.