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Trump Orders Flags at Half-Staff in Salute to John Lewis

Trump Orders Flags at Half-Staff for a Day in John Lewis Salute

President Donald Trump ordered U.S. flags be flown at half-staff at government buildings and military installations throughout the country and abroad in honor of Representative John Lewis.

The proclamation recognized Lewis, the civil rights leader and lawmaker who died late Friday at the age of 80, for his “longstanding public service.”

Trump later posted on Twitter as his motorcade returned to Washington from his Virginia golf course, where he spent over four hours on Saturday: “Saddened to hear the news of civil rights hero John Lewis passing. Melania and I send our prayers to he (sic) and his family.”

Vice President Mike Pence wrote more extensively about Lewis, saying the Georgia lawmaker would be remembered not only as a selfless “giant of the civil rights movement” but also as “a colleague and a friend.”

“Even when we differed, John was always unfailingly kind, and my family and I will never forget the privilege of crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge at his side on the 45th anniversary of Bloody Sunday,” wrote Pence, a former U.S. representative from Indiana.

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