Murphy raises flags for Trump inaugural

Calling it “fitting and appropriate,” Gov. Phil Murphy today ordered U.S. and state flags to be raised to full-staff for the remainder of today after President Donald Trump directed that be done by presidential proclamation shortly after taking office.

Murphy had issued an executive order on December 31 to fly flags at half-staff through January 28 in honor of the President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29 at age 100.  The flags will be lowered again tomorrow.

The issue generated some controversy among some Trump supporters who believed the flag should be flown at full height on Inauguration Day.

Assembly Minority Whip Brian Bergen (R-Denville) said  Murphy should have gotten it right the first  time.

“It was a day to put aside the blue versus red and stand unified in the red, white, and blue,” said Bergen.  “It was a day for all Americans to celebrate the peaceful transfer of power in the most powerful nation on the planet for all the world to witness, and Murphy made it about politics. Petty and disgraceful.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson had ordered the flags raised at the U.S. Capitol.

The last time a former President died just before an inaugural was over fifty years ago: Democrat Harry Truman died on December 26, 1972; President Richard Nixon, a Republican, did not object to the flags being flown at half-staff when he took office for a second time on January 20, 1973.

This story was updated at 10:58 AM on January 21.