Trump's feud with civil rights leader prompts outrage

Days before his inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump is engaged in a high-profile feud with some of the country's most prominent African-American leaders, setting off anger in a constituency already wary of him after a contentious presidential campaign.

Trump's criticism of Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a widely admired leader of the civil rights movement, has prompted a number of Democratic lawmakers to say they will not attend his inauguration on Friday.

Blacks around the country have reacted to Trump's remarks with fury, and the subject has dominated social media and discussions among black activists. Trump said on Saturday on Twitter that Lewis, who asserted last week that Trump was not a "legitimate president," should focus on his district and "the burning and crime infested inner-cities."

The angry reaction is driven not only by Trump's Twitter posts but what many blacks say they reveal about the president-elect's lack of understanding of the reverence with which the civil rights movement, and its leaders, are viewed by African-Americans.

"I don't think we have ever had a president so publicly condescending to what black politics means," said Mark Anthony Neal, an African and African-American studies professor at Duke University.

Neal added that while other presidents like Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton may have imposed policies that hurt black communities, they were more sensitive to issues of race. Trump, through Twitter, is giving the world access in real time to his unvarnished thoughts, which Neal called "raw, unsophisticated, ignorant and uninformed."

"He doesn't care that people think the civil rights movement was important," Neal said. "He doesn't feel the need to perform some sort of belief that it is important."

Trump's talk is especially striking as it comes during the transition period, when, typically, incoming presidents are focused on trying to bring the country together.

Trump has also not made any public announcement of plans to commemorate Martin Luther King's Birthday, a tradition observed by most Republican and Democratic politicians. A plan for him to visit the newly opened National Museum of African American History and Culture on Monday has been scrapped.

"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," Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday. "All talk, talk, talk — no action or results. Sad!"

Within minutes, Democratic leaders and others came to the defense of Lewis, who, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution later noted, represents both pockets of poverty and parts of Atlanta's "crown jewels," like Emory University and Morehouse College. The newspaper's front page on Sunday carried this headline: "Atlanta to Trump: Wrong."

Cornell William Brooks, president of the NAACP, criticized Trump and tweeted a photo showing a young Lewis bloodied from protesting. "By disrespecting @repjohnlewis, @realDonaldTrump dishonored Lewis' sacrifice & demeaned Americans & the rights, he nearly died 4. Apologize," he wrote.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence defended Trump's criticism of Lewis during an interview with "Fox News Sunday," though he did so in noticeably softer tones.

"I was deeply disappointed to see someone of his stature question the legitimacy of Donald Trump's election as president and say he's not attending the inauguration," Pence said, referring to the Georgia congressman. "And I hope he reconsiders both positions."

Asked if he thought Trump's Twitter posts were appropriate given Lewis' biography and record, Pence said that the president-elect "has the right to defend himself" and that Trump had wished to call attention to Democratic policy failures in America's cities.

A spokesman for the Trump transition team said it would have no further comment.

Many of the members of Congress who will not attend Trump's inauguration said they planned to instead meet with activists and focus on how to push back against Trump's administration.

Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the dean of the House of Representatives, was among those announcing that he would not be attending the inaugural and was gearing up to fight Trump. "I will do everything in my power to ensure that accountability is brought to bear on the administration and that the Constitution and our nation's laws are adhered to, as no one is above the law," he wrote in a statement.

Rep. Barbara Lee of California said Trump "has demeaned and insulted the African-American community, and we are going to have to really raise our voices and resist this if these views are going to be reflected in his policies."

Others skipping the inaugural include: Reps. Nydia M. Velázquez of New York, Jerrold Nadler of New York, Maxine Waters of California, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Katherine M. Clark of Massachusetts, Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona, Luis V. Gutiérrez of Illinois, José E. Serrano of New York, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, William Lacy Clay of Missouri and Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio.

Trump had scant support in the black community before his transition began; only about 8 percent of blacks voted for him in the election on Nov. 8. The relationship seemed further imperiled when Trump appointed his White House chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News, who some people fear will bring nationalist and racist views to the West Wing.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who led a march in Washington on Saturday, said Trump's Twitter posts drove more people to brave the cold to demonstrate.

"Some people told me they would have had second thoughts, but they heard what he said about John Lewis, which was tantamount to spitting in our face," he said. "What you're telling black people is that all the things John Lewis directly was involved in that resulted in the legislation that we are fighting to maintain and make permanent, you consider nothing."

Last week, the tensions between black leaders and the incoming president were on vivid display as Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican nominated for attorney general, testified at his confirmation hearing.

Lewis and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey both testified in opposition to Sessions, saying he could set back racial progress by decades. Sessions has been criticized for joking in the presence of a Justice Department Civil Rights Division lawyer that the Ku Klux Klan was "OK until I found out they smoked pot." He was also said to have called a black assistant U.S. attorney "boy" and the NAACP "un-American.''

The deep unease that many African-Americans feel about Trump has also set off a backlash toward black celebrities who appear with him. The comedian Steve Harvey and the rapper Kanye West have faced fierce criticism and ridicule for meeting with Trump at Trump Tower in Manhattan.