Democratic Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights icon from Georgia, says he does not consider Donald Trump a “legitimate president,” days before the New York Republican is inaugurated.
In an interview with Chuck Todd for NBC’s Meet the Press, Lewis said Russian interference with the 2016 election does not make the Republican’s victory legitimate.
When asked by Todd if he will forge a relationship with Trump, Lewis said doing so will be “very difficult,” even though he does “believe in forgiveness.”
“I don’t see the president-elect as a legitimate president,” he said.
Elaborating, Lewis said: “I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.”
Lewis, who led the Selma to Montgomery Marches in the 1960s, added that the 2016 election results were a “conspiracy on the part of the Russians” that was “not the open democratic process.”
Lewis also testified this week against Trump’s nominee to be the next attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. In that testimony, he slammed Sessions’ civil rights record and said the country needs an attorney general to look out “for all of us.”
Lewis also disclosed to Todd that he will not attend Trump’s inauguration ceremony next week, which he said is the first one he will miss since he’s been in Congress.
“I don’t plan to attend the inauguration,” he said. “It will be the first one that I miss since I’ve been in the Congress. You cannot be at home with something that you feel that is wrong, is not right.”
