If anything good has come from the public tiff between President-elect Donald Trump and civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it’s that the takedown of Trump has been swift and intense.
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As it stands, 38 Democratic members of Congress have announced that they won’t be attending Trump’s inauguration Friday. Some of them announced earlier this month that the president-elect’s ridiculousness would not be celebrated on their watch, but since Trump’s tweet Saturday claiming that Lewis should spend more time fixing his congressional district than worrying about the president-elect, several more have joined the sit-out.
Rep. Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.) posted to Twitter that she would not be attending, noting that “when you insult [John Lewis], you insult America.” She also added:
The tête-à-tête began after the Georgia Democrat noted that he didn’t believe that the president-elect was “a legitimate president.”
To which the tweeter-in-chief posted the following Saturday morning:
Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk – no action or results. Sad!
Those comments led to a Twitter rage and included Democratic Reps. Mark Takano and Judy Chu, both of California, tweeting that they wouldn’t be attending the inauguration as a show of solidarity with Lewis.
Another Democratic congressman from California, Ted Lieu, said in a statement: “Trump—who lost the popular vote—has made a series of racist, sexist and bigoted statements. In addition, he has attacked Gold Star parents, veterans such as John McCain and now civil rights icon John Lewis.” He, too, won’t be attending.
Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin expressed similar sentiments in a statement released Sunday morning, CNN reports.
“I was planning on attending the Inauguration on Friday out of respect for the office of President, while still making it back home on Saturday to attend the Women’s March in Madison,” he said. “However, after long consideration based on reading the Classified document on Russian hacking and the Trump candidacy on Thursday, the handling of his conflicts of interest, and this weekend’s offensive tweets about a national hero Rep. John Lewis, I am no longer attending the event.”
Several more representatives announced on MLK Day that they would be absent from the inauguration, again referencing Lewis.
While Reps. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.) did not mention Lewis in their announcements, they did make their statements the same day Trump challenged the civil rights icon.
Below is the full running list of Democratic Congress members, compiled by CNN, of those planning not to attend Trump’s inauguration:
Rep. Raul Grijalva, ArizonaRep. Judy Chu, CaliforniaRep. Mark DeSaulnier, CaliforniaRep. Jared Huffman, CaliforniaRep. Barbara Lee, CaliforniaRep. Ted Lieu, CaliforniaRep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, CaliforniaRep. Mark Takano, CaliforniaRep. Maxine Waters, CaliforniaRep. Darren Soto, FloridaRep. Frederica Wilson, FloridaRep. John Lewis, GeorgiaRep. Luis Gutierrez, IllinoisRep. John Yarmuth, KentuckyRep. Chellie Pingree, MaineRep. Anthony Brown, MarylandRep. Katherine Clark, MassachusettsRep. John Conyers, MichiganRep. Keith Ellison, MinnesotaRep. William Lacy Clay, MissouriRep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, New JerseyRep. Yvette Clarke, New YorkRep. Adriano Espaillat, New YorkRep. Jerry Nadler, New YorkRep. Jose Serrano, New YorkRep. Nydia Velazquez, New YorkRep. Marcia Fudge, OhioRep. Earl Blumenauer, OregonRep. Peter DeFazio, OregonRep. Kurt Schrader, OregonRep. Brendan Boyle, PennsylvaniaRep. Dwight Evans, PennsylvaniaRep. Steve Cohen, TennesseeRep. Al Green, TexasRep. Don Beyer, VirginiaRep. Pramila Jayapal, WashingtonRep. Adam Smith, WashingtonRep. Mark Pocan, Wisconsin
Read more at CNN.
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