Congressman John Lewis says Donald Trump is not a “legitimate president”

| 6:15 pm EST January 13, 2017
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Congressman John Lewis has never been one to show fear in the face of oppression. He he’s civil rights pioneer who was once beaten severely in a racist attack, but he continued his advocacy anyway, and eventually found his way to the House of Representatives. Last year he sat down on the floor of Congress and refused to get up the other party was willing to discuss gun control. And now John Lewis has broken another barrier: he’s the first Democrat in Congress to take the risk of stating that Donald Trump is not a “legitimate president.”

While liberals and democratic voters sitting at home are wishing all Democrats in Congress would say these same words, the political reality doing so comes at great risk. The people in the middle will decide whether Trump succeeds or fails, based on whether they side with the left of the right. And the middle doesn’t generally favor these kinds of attacks, where one side eviscerates the other. It can blow back harshly on the politician who says something along the lines of what Lewis said today — but he’s either gambling that he can get away with it, or he just doesn’t care.

Congressman Lewis has told Meet The Press that he’ll have a hard time working with Donald Trump because “I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected.” Then he took it further and spoke the magic words: “I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president.” Now that he’s said it, that may open the door for other Democrats in Congress to get away with saying it as well, and to sell the middle on the idea that Trump truly does not belong in the oval office.

Watch John Lewis say that Donald Trump isn’t a legitimate president in the video below: