[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] President-elect Trump continued his attacks on both civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis and the country's inner cities Saturday evening, calling them "burning and crime infested.""Congressman John Lewis should finally focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities of the U.S. I can use all the help I can get!" Trump tweeted.
Trump and Lewis have been at odds for the last day and a half after Lewis said in an interview he views Trump as an illegitimate president due to Russian interference in the election.
Trump responded Saturday morning with tweets calling Lewis' district in "horrible shape and falling apart," despite the fact that Lewis represents much of Atlanta including wealthy neighborhoods and the nation's busiest airport.
Trump also called Lewis, famous for being one of the leaders of the March on Washington and the march from Selma to Montgomery where civil rights activists were bloodied and beaten by coppers, "all talk, talk, talk ‐ no action or results."
Lewis was lauded by Democrats and Republicans alike in the wake of Trump's earlier tweets on Saturday and has long been seen as above reproach in the halls of Congress. Trump showed no such deference Saturday.
| For your full enjoyment, dear Reader, Besoeker gave us a write-up of the earlier tweets: |
[HOT AIR] And to think, I was worried that he might be easily baited by Lewis’s criticism of him.
Did Lewis freelance his attack on Trump’s legitimacy or was it plotted with Democratic leaders in hopes of drawing a response, to strategic ends? This is exactly the kind of headline the party may have been hoping for:
Lewis is the perfect person to lead the left’s attack on Trump since he’s a deeply partisan pol who’s typically treated as nonpartisan. He’s admired by people in both parties for his civil-rights-era activism, which gives him a degree of moral authority beyond partisanship that no one else in Congress enjoys. In practice, though, he’s been a reliable liberal as a congressman and a usefully vicious critic of Republicans for his party. The 2008 campaign ended with Lewis accusing John McCain of "sowing the seeds of hatred and division" and comparing him explicitly to George Wallace. Five years later, McCain was still vowing that he’ll never forgive him for it. For the left’s purposes, "John Lewis" is basically a synecdoche for "the civil-rights movement." Criticize him, for whatever reason and no matter how justified, and you’re criticizing social progress writ large -- exactly the sort of perception Democrats want to create about Trump.