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| John Lewis |
President-elect Donald Trump extended his war of words with American civil rights leader John Lewis on Tuesday, accusing the Democratic congressman of lying when he said Trump’s inauguration would be the first that he would miss, according to Reuters.
“John Lewis said about my inauguration, ‘It will be the first one that I’ve missed.’ WRONG (or lie)! He boycotted Bush 43 also because he ‘thought it would be hypocritical to attend Bush’s swearing-in….he doesn’t believe Bush is the true elected president.’ Sound familiar!” Trump said in a pair of posts on Twitter.
Trump hit out at Lewis a few days ago when the latter called his presidency illegitimate, telling the Democratic congressman he should clean up his congressional district.
Republican President George W. Bush was sworn in in January 2001 after the Supreme Court halted a protracted recount of a very close election in Florida between him and Democratic candidate Al Gore.
According to the Washington Post at the time Lewis did not attend the Bush inauguration.
“Some members of the Black Caucus decided to boycott Inauguration Day; John Lewis, for instance, spent the day in his Atlanta district. He thought it would be hypocritical to attend Bush’s swearing-in because he doesn’t believe Bush is the true elected president,” a wider article on the Bush boycott states. No media outlet in the US appears to have yet asked Lewis if he attended in 2001.
