Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:49 pm
With just days until his inauguration, Donald Trump took to Twitter this morning to attack civil rights icon John Lewis who has called Trump “illegitimate” and promised to boycott the president-elect’s swearing-in ceremony.
Trump’s tweets turned out to be just the beginning of his temper tantrum on Tuesday as he visited his pals at Fox and Friends to escalate his attacks on Lewis.
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“How do you forget if you go to an inauguration?…He got caught. And it’s pretty bad & it’s making him look bad, frankly.” -Trump on Lewis pic.twitter.com/i4xasPIyqW
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) January 17, 2017
He conveniently doesn’t remember,” Trump said of Lewis’ admission that he had forgotten that he did not attend George W. Bush’s inauguration. Lewis had initially said Trump’s inauguration will be the first he’s missed during his time in Congress before clarifying that he did, in fact, miss Bush’s in 2001.
Trump continued:
How do you forget if you go to an inauguration? I can tell you when I was at the inaugurations. You don’t forget something like that. So he got caught, and it’s pretty bad. And it’s making him look bad, frankly. It’s a very important time. This is a transition and a very important transition … I think for [Lewis] to have grandstanded – because I think he just grandstanded, John Lewis – and then he got caught in a very bad lie, so let’s see what happens. As far as other people not going, that’s okay because we need seats so badly.
Not only does Trump – like a child – continue to lash out because an iconic civil rights hero is standing up to him, but his line of attack on Lewis is quite rich.
Keep in mind, Trump – who, again, is attacking Lewis for misremembering the 2001 inauguration – has similar and much more frequent memory lapses when it comes to recalling his whereabouts.
For example, after having repeatedly bragged about meeting and communicating with Russian President Vladimir Putin – the guy who directly helped the president-elect defeat Hillary Clinton last year – Trump suddenly started denying ever having done so once the Russian controversy started bubbling up around him.
Mr. Trump, how do you forget meeting with the Russian president? Most of us would certainly be able to tell you if we ever met the leader of a foreign state.
Ultimately, the president-elect is only making matters worse by continuing to lash out at a civil rights icon like John Lewis. Instead of trying to unite the country and strike a positive tone, Trump continues to dig his hole deeper.
With just days until he is sworn in as the 45th president, Trump should put down the shovel and start acting like a president.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
