Bipartisan Pushback on Charge Trump Not ‘Legitimate’ President

Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia) received immediate backlash — even among members of his own Party — when he charged that President-Elect Donald’ Trump’s presidency would not be “legitimate” during a clip from an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that will air Sunday.

The clip, which was released Friday, featured the civil rights icon casting doubt on Trump’s Election Day victory while citing concerns of Russian hacking and meddling. Lewis also announced his plans to skip the Jan. 20 inauguration for the first time since he was elected to the House in 1986, saying that he cannot support something that “is wrong.”

“Donald Trump won West Virginia by over 42 percent … I can assure you the Russians had nothing to do with him winning by 42.”

“You know, I believe in forgiveness. I believe in trying to work with people. It will be hard. It’s going to be very difficult. I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president,” Lewis said in the clip. “I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.”

The Democrats have been forced to engage in far-reaching soul searching ever since the voters resoundingly rejected their Party, led by Clinton as its standard bearer, and denied the Democrats the presidency, the House and the Senate. But rather than support the peaceful transfer of power from President Obama to Trump on Inauguration Day, Lewis and a handful of other Congressional Democrats will boycott it.

Although Republican Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) said he looked up to the civil rights legend and considered Lewis as his friend, he expressed his disappointment with Lewis’ words and his decision to abstain from the inaugural process. Blunt maintained that “the idea of constantly looking for ways to delegitimize the results of an election, no matter how unhappy you are about it, isn’t the best example we set,” according to the Associated Press.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska), a Trump critic himself, also pleaded with Lewis to reconsider. “To John Lewis, one of my heroes: Please come to the Inauguration. It isn’t about a man. It is a celebration of peaceful transfer of power,” Sasse tweeted Friday evening.

Even Clinton herself will be attending Trump’s inauguration alongside her husband, former President Bill Clinton, thus adhering to the long-held tradition of former presidents and their wives attending subsequent inaugurations.

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“I get [Lewis] doesn’t like Donald Trump,” CNN host Anderson Cooper said Friday evening. “I get he doesn’t accept the results of the election, but is this helpful in any way?… If a Republican had said this about President-Elect Hillary Clinton, Democrats would be up in arms.”

When CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) on “The Lead” if he though Trump would be a “legitimate” president, Manchin responded, “absolutely.”

“There is no doubt the Russians were involved in hacking, they were responsible for the hacking,” Manchin said. “But there is no credible evidence showing that that intervened and had one iota to do with the outcome of the election.”

“Donald Trump won West Virginia by over 42 percent,” Manchin added. “I can assure you the Russians had nothing to do with him winning by 42.”

“Now, with that being said, we’ve got to move on,” Manchin continued. “We’ve got to come together as a country.”