Trump Downplays John Lewis' Legacy
Screengrab via YouTube/HBO
"He Didn't Come To My Inauguration": Trump Downplays John Lewis' Legacy
Donald Trump dismissed John Lewis' legacy as a civil rights icon in a new interview.
Looks like Donald Trump still feels a way about John Lewis not attending his inauguration.
In a recent interview with Axios, Trump was asked how he thought history would remember Lewis, the civil rights icon who recently passed away at the age of 80.
"I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know. I don't know John Lewis. He chose not to come to my inauguration," he said in response.
\u201c.@jonathanvswan: "How do you think history will remember John Lewis?"\n\nPresident Trump to #AxiosOnHBO: "I don't know...I don't know John Lewis. He chose not to come to my inauguration."\u201d— Axios (@Axios) 1596512741
In a follow-up question, Trump was also asked if he thought Lewis was impressive, to which he replied: "I can't say one way or the other. I find a lot of people impressive. I find many people not impressive. He didn't come -- he didn't come to my inauguration. He didn't come to my state of the union speeches. And that's OK. That's his right."
"He should've come. I think he made a big mistake," he added.
Also, in that same response, he implied that he has done more for Black people than Lewis, which wouldn't be the first time he has made such a claim.
Only after being asked again about if he thinks Lewis' story is impressive, Trump finally acknowledged his legacy but was still dismissive in his response.
"He was a person that devoted a lot of energy and a lot of heart to civil rights. But there were many others also," he said.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms addressed Trump's comments on Tuesday during an appearance on CNN.
\u201cAtlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms calls Trump a "narcissist" and "delusional" after his comments on John Lewis: "He doesn't care anything about the American people, he doesn't care anything about the history of this country" https://t.co/KGsltPYyk1\u201d— CNN Politics (@CNN Politics) 1596547017
"He's a narcissist and he is delusional. The only person that believes that is him," Bottoms said. "He's done nothing for African-Americans in this country, and to speak that in the same sentence as speaking of John Lewis is almost blasphemous."
