President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday morning returned fire on a top Democrat who said he was not a “legitimate president.”
A day after Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said Trump was not legitimate, the president-elect told him to worry about his own district instead.
“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!” Trump wrote in a series of tweets.
Lewis on Friday told NBC News he wouldn’t attend next week’s inauguration, saying he doesn’t believe Trump is a “legitimate president.”
{mosads}”I believe in forgiveness. I believe in trying to work with people. It will be hard. It’s going to be very difficult. I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president,” Lewis said.
“I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton,” he added.
“I don’t plan to attend the inauguration. It will be the first one that I miss since I’ve been in Congress. You cannot be at home with something that you feel that is wrong, is not right.”
Lewis was a key civil rights leader in the 1960s as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
He has since 1987 represented Georgia’s 5th District, which is predominantly black and includes much of Atlanta and some surrounding suburbs. More than 87 percent of adults in the district are high school graduates, and more than 40 percent are college graduates, according to Census data. The median household income is just over $48,000.
Republican Sen. Ben Sasse (Neb.) later Friday urged Lewis to change his mind.
Sasse, who never backed Trump’s presidential run, said the inauguration “isn’t about a man. It is a celebration of peaceful transfer of power.”
Six Democrats so far have announced they won’t attend Trump’s inauguration, according to The Hill’s whip list.