'Just clueless': Senator slams Trump's 'callousness' over lowering flag for slain lawmaker

Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) slammed the "callousness" that President Donald Trump exhibited during a press conference on Monday.

Trump claimed during the press conference that he didn't order flags to be lowered after Minnesota Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered in June by a right-wing extremist because Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, didn't ask him to. CNN's Kaitlan Collins played footage of Trump saying he chose not to call Walz after Hortman's murder.

Smith discussed Trump's comments on CNN's "The Source" on Monday.

"I'm just sort of blown away by the callousness of his response," Smith said. "What we need in this moment is a universal condemnation of political violence. That condemnation should transcend politics."

"And yet the President of the United States, I don't know whether he's just clueless or he was pretending that he didn't know who Melissa Hortman was and trying to deflect blame, is exactly what we do not need in this moment," she continued. "This is a moment when the president is actively trying to gin-up fear by spreading disinformation and his opinions when he has no idea what is behind this tragic killing of Charlie Kirk."

Collins asked whether Smith thought Trump would have lowered the flags if Walz had called the president.

"I don't think so," she said. "What was it he said? 'You can't do it for everyone.' That is exactly what we do not need."