WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he did not plan to call Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2024, after a weekend shooting left one of the state’s lawmakers dead and another injured.
Trump, a Republican, issued a statement after Saturday’s shooting saying such “horrific violence” would not be tolerated in the United States. But he has declined to offer conciliatory words to Walz as he presides over the response in his state.
Walz was Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s running mate last year. Trump and his then-running mate, JD Vance, beat them in the November election.
“I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I’m not calling him. Why would I call him?” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on the way back from a trip to Canada for a meeting of G7 leaders.
“The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. So I could be nice and call him, but why waste time?”
The suspect, Vance Boelter, who is accused of assassinating a Minnesota lawmaker and shooting another, drove to the homes of at least four state politicians as part of a planned killing spree, U.S. authorities said on Monday.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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