*Earlier this week, Rep. John Lewis announced that he would not be attending President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Friday, Lewis said he did not regard Trump to be “a legitimate president” citing Russian interference in last year’s election on his behalf.
“It will be the first one that I miss since I’ve been in Congress,” he said. “You cannot be at home with something that you feel that is wrong, is not right.”
When asked whether he would try to forge a relationship with Trump, Lewis said, “It’s going to be very difficult. I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president.”
He added, “I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton,” Lewis told NBC News when pressed to explain why he cited allegations of Russian hacks during the campaign.
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Trump has acknowledged that Russia did engage in hacking during the campaign, but in a carefully worded statement, he denies that it had any impact on the presidential outcome.
He also took to Twitter to fire back at Lewis, saying that the 16-term Georgia Congressman 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.
Following his feud with Trump over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, two of Lewis’ books sold out on Amazon. USA Today reports that sales of the civil rights leader’s graphic novel “March,” and his 2015 memoir “Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement” have skyrocketed. His “March” trilogy ranked no. 1 on Amazon, and the memoir ranked number two.
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