Press. voanews.com
Presidential
inaugurations are usually politically unifying events in the United States, but
this year a record number of lawmakers plan to publicly rebuke the
president-elect when he takes the oath of office. At least 26 Democratic
members of Congress out of the 535 elected lawmakers are on the record saying
they plan to boycott President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration Friday.
Trump's divisive
political style, which delivered victory at the polls, enters a new phase when
he becomes president. A new poll of American public opinion indicates Trump
will take office with 51 percent of people in the U.S. disapproving of his
transition, and a 40 percent favorable rating — which is lower than his three
immediate predecessors.
That poll was
conducted before the president-elect tweeted harsh criticism of respected
lawmaker and civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis, who said he did not view
Trump as a "legitimate president." Trump hit back Saturday, saying
the congressmen should spend more time helping his constituents than
"falsely complaining about the election results."
Political
scientist John Hudak says the unusually contentious nature of this election,
clouded by threats of foreign interference, have created an atmosphere for a
boycott.
“It is not
traditional for members of the opposite party to avoid a presidential inaugural
— even when someone loses or there is some contention, typically the elected
officials of Congress attend,” said Hudak, a senior fellow in governance
studies at the Brookings Institution.
The controversy
began Friday when Lewis — who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives
for thirty years — told NBC News he would not attend Trump's inauguration
because he does not view the “president-elect as a legitimate president.”
“I think the
Russians participated in helping this man get elected, and they helped destroy
the candidacy of Hillary Clinton,” Lewis said. Trump struck back with two
early-Saturday morning tweets criticizing the Democratic lawmaker for not
spending 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.”
Lewis represents
a district that includes both wealthy and poor neighborhoods of Atlanta,
Georgia. He commands an unusual level of bipartisan respect on Capitol Hill,
due in no small part to his role in the Civil Rights movement in the early
1960s. As a young man, Lewis helped lead the historic March on Washington in
1963, and was beaten and jailed for protesting segregation in the southern
United States.
Vice
President-elect Mike Pence told CBS News on Sunday that he respects “the
sacrifice” of Lewis, but added “Donald Trump has every right to defend
himself.” Reince Priebus, Trump's incoming White House Chief of Staff, said
Lewis' “irresponsible” comments had started a “firestorm.”
Priebus called
for outgoing President Barack Obama to “step up” and call-out the Democrats'
treatment of Trump. The White House said it would not get involved in the
controversy.
Senator Marco
Rubio, a Republican from Florida who challenged Trump for the nomination in the
primaries, said Monday that although he believed foreign governments had
attempted to influence the election, he disagreed with Lewis' characterization
of the election results as illegitimate.
The debate over
legitimacy figured heavily during Obama's two terms, as Trump and other
Republicans questioned the validity of his birth in the United States.
“That set up a
breakdown in norms that now Republicans are lamenting,” Hudak noted, “But eight
years ago, they were happy to applaud in order to empower certain bases within
their party. So what a lot of politicians need to realize [is] that the
satisfaction of immediate political goals can often have long-term unintended
political consequences, and that's what we're seeing right now.”
In the hours
after the president-elect's tweet, the number of Democrats confirming they
would not attend increased. “After reading classified Russian hacking doc &
@realdonaldtrump offensive Tweets to @repjohnlewis I will not be attending the
inauguration,” Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat from Wisconsin, wrote on Twitter.
Rep. Jerry
Nadler, a Democrat from New York, told CNN in an interview “the last straw” in
his decision not to attend were Trump's “ad hominem personal attacks on an icon
of the civil rights movement, someone who suffered beatings and almost gave his
life for his country, Rep. John Lewis.”
But Hudak said
Democrats would better serve their cause by fighting for their values and
convincing other members of Congress to move in their direction. “Ultimately the refusal to attend the
inauguration of President Trump is meaningless, it is an empty protest,” he
said. “It is something that is not going to change the course of history or of
policy or of politics.”
.jpg)
