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 Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in June.

Trump replied, “Well, if the governor had asked me to do that, I would have done that.”

“But the governor of Minnesota didn’t ask me,” the president said.

He continued, “I wouldn’t have thought of that. But I would have if somebody had asked me,” and added: “Had the governor asked me to do that, I would have done that gladly.”

Walz spokesperson Claire Lancaster said in response Monday night that “Governor Walz wishes that President Trump would be a President for all Americans.” The governor also tweeted a video call for unity that featured references to Hortman’s assassination and the recent shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic church that killed two students and injured 21 people. It included feel-good scenes from the recent Minnesota State Fair but didn’t mention Kirk.