Tag: rep john lewis
Trump Slammed For Attacks On Civil Rights Leader John Lewis

Trump Slammed For Attacks On Civil Rights Leader John Lewis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump began a long holiday weekend that honors slain black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. by attacking another rights activist and politician who had said he doesn’t see Trump as a “legitimate president”.

Democratic Representative John Lewis, of Georgia, said on a segment of “Meet the Press” released by NBC on Friday he thought hacking by Russians had helped Trump, a Republican, get elected in November. Lewis said he does not plan to attend Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, the first time he would miss such an event since being elected to the House in 1986.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted that Lewis had falsely complained about the election results and instead “should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested).”

“All talk, talk, talk – no action or results. Sad!” Trump tweeted.

During the campaign, Trump said Democrats had failed African-Americans and Hispanics. “What the hell do you have to lose? Give me a chance,” he said at a rally last year in Ohio.

Trump won the presidency with less support from black and Hispanic voters than any president in the last 40 years, only 8 percent and 28 percent respectively, polling data showed.

Lewis, who has been a civil rights leader for more than half a century, was beaten by police during a march he helped lead in 1965 in Selma, Alabama, drawing attention to hurdles for blacks to vote. He protested alongside King that day and on other occasions.

“I believe in forgiveness,” Lewis said in the NBC segment about Trump. “I believe in trying to work with people,” he said. “It’s going to be very difficult. I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president.”

At least 10 other Democratic U.S. politicians have also said they plan to skip the inauguration including Representatives Raul Grijalva, Lacy Clay and Mark Takano.

Supporters of Trump see him as a brash person who tells things as they are. His comments about Lewis came ahead of an anti-Trump march in Washington headed by the Rev. Al Sharpton. The protest by about 2,000 marchers kicked off a week of rallies planned by dozens of groups against Trump before, during and after the inauguration.

DisruptJ20, which is working with Black Lives Matter and other protest groups, said they are planning to disrupt balls celebrating the inauguration in Washington.

FIX A BRIDGE

Several of Trump’s fellow Republicans also criticized the president-elect’s tweets.

Michael Steele, who served as the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee until 2011, said Trump’s tweets were unfortunate.

“John Lewis has a walk that very few people in this country, least of all Donald Trump, have ever walked, so you have to respect that,” Steele said on MSNBC.

If Trump is looking to fix a bridge to black voters, their expectation is he “will do so in a way that shows respect for our leadership,” Steele said.

Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska tweeted that “John Lewis and his ‘talk’ have changed the world.”

Conservative critic Bill Kristol tweeted “It’s telling, I’m afraid, that Donald Trump treats (Russian President) Vladimir Putin with more respect than he does John Lewis.”

(Additional reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by James Dalgleish)

IMAGE: Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee during the second day of confirmation hearings on Senator Jeff Sessions’ (R-AL) nomination to be U.S. attorney general in Washington, U.S., January 11, 2017.      REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Obama Says New Black History Museum Tells Story Of America

Obama Says New Black History Museum Tells Story Of America

 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Saturday expressed hope that a new national museum showcasing the triumphs and tragedies of the African American experience will help to bring people together as the nation reels from recent racial upheaval.

Speaking at a dedication ceremony for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Obama said that the story of black America is the story of America.

“This national museum helps to tell a richer and fuller story of who we are,” said Obama.

“Hopefully, this museum can help us to talk to each other. And more importantly, listen to each other. And most importantly, see each other. Black and white and Latino and Native American and Asian American – see how our stories are bound together,” he said standing on a stage outside the bronze-colored, latticed museum.

The museum, located on the National Mall, officially opened its doors on Saturday. It contains 36,000 items that trace the journey of African Americans from slavery in the 1800s to the fight for civil rights in the 20th century and lauds modern icons, such as media mogul Oprah Winfrey and tennis champion Serena Williams.

With a ring of a bell, Obama and wife Michelle and four generations of an African American family inaugurated the $540 million museum designed by Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye, who was inspired by Yoruban art from West Africa.

Obama, who made history as the first black president of the United States, spoke as racial tensions flared once again across the nation in the aftermath of police shootings of two black men in the past two weeks.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a white police officer has been charged with manslaughter for fatally shooting Terence Crutcher, 40, whose car had broken down and blocked a road.

Violent protests broke out after a separate incident in Charlotte, North Carolina, where police shot Keith Scott, a 43-year-old father of seven.

The deaths were the latest in a string of fatal encounters between police and African Americans that have sparked unrest and threaten to overshadow Obama’s legacy on race relations.

IObama said the museum’s exhibits on the fight against racial discrimination and segregation could provide context for current movements against police brutality.

“It reminds us that routine discrimination and Jim Crow are not ancient history. We shouldn’t despair that it’s not all solved,” Obama said, noting all the progress that the country has made just in his lifetime.

“This is the place to understand how protest and love of country don’t merely coexist, but inform each other,” he said.

The dedication ceremony was attended by a who’s who of American officials, including Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as entertainment luminaries including Winfrey, Stevie Wonder and Will Smith.

The Obamas were joined on stage by former President George W. Bush, and his wife Laura. Bush signed the law authorizing construction of the museum in 2003.

“A great nation does not hide its history, it faces its flaws and it corrects them,” Bush said.

Demand to visit the museum is high, with free tickets to the museum quickly snatched up online.

Obama has joined in the excitement for the new attraction. The first family enjoyed a private preview earlier this month. He also hosted a reception at the White House on Friday in honor of the opening and attended a star-studded concert heralding the museum at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Friday night.

(Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Mary Milliken)

Show Me The Fraud

Show me the fraud.

Show me the hordes of college students using fake IDs to cast votes for president.

Show me the poor people boarding buses and trains or walking for miles so they can cast a vote in the wrong precinct using somebody else’s name.

Show me throngs of citizens spending entire days traveling from precinct to precinct to cast their votes over and over in the same election.

Until Republicans can produce these felons, any attempt to restrict voters’ rights by conjuring such mythical malefactors is partisanship of the ugliest and most dangerous kind.

Last week, U.S. Rep. John Lewis — a civil rights hero who earned his stake in this debate with his own blood — wrote an op-ed for The New York Times about the wave of Republican-backed voting restrictions in state legislatures. The title of his piece, “A Poll Tax by Another Name,” is enough to send chills up the spine of anyone who remembers a time when African-Americans risked their lives to vote.

Lewis took aim at the slew of photo ID mandates passed to prevent voter fraud that no one can prove exists.

“Indiana was unable to cite a single instance of actual voter impersonation at any point in its history,” he wrote. “Likewise, in Kansas, there were far more reports of U.F.O. sightings than allegations of voter fraud in the past decade. These theories of systematic fraud are really unfounded fears being exploited to threaten the franchise.”

In the battleground state of Ohio, where I live, the far-right extremists in the state Legislature took a breather in their march across women’s bodies to pass a slew of voting restrictions.

The voting law’s sponsor, state Rep. Robert Mecklenborg, said last March the legislation was necessary “to combat voter fraud and the perception of fraud.” No one — not county boards of elections, the League of Women Voters or former secretaries of state — could cite a single instance of voter impersonation in Ohio.

This did not deter Mecklenborg and his fellow Republicans from plowing right over the voting rights of potentially hundreds of thousands of Ohio voters.

“I believe it happens, but it’s proving a negative,” Mecklenborg told reporters after the March vote. “It’s impossible to prove a negative. How do you prove that fraud doesn’t exist there?”

The law has sparked a petition drive to repeal it through a ballot referendum.

We won’t be hearing Mecklenborg pontificate anymore about nonexistent voter fraud, because he’s no longer a member of the Ohio House of Representatives. He resigned last month after he made headlines across the country for driving while intoxicated.

Mecklenborg, who also sponsored the most radical anti-abortion legislation in the country this year, was arrested in the wee hours of the morning in Indiana, where he was driving with an expired license in a car with temporary Kentucky plates in the company of a young woman who was not his wife. He managed to hide this arrest from the public for a whole two months.

What does any of this have to do with voter fraud? Absolutely everything when you’re claiming to be the standard-bearer for authenticity.

The Republican majority in the Ohio Legislature wanted to pass a photo ID mandate, too, but one of its own — Secretary of State Jon Husted — publicly opposed it.

Husted paid a price for this independence.

GOP leadership punished him by removing a provision for online voter registration. Republicans also worked the refs at The Wall Street Journal, which ran an opinion piece about Husted, titled “Ohio’s Pro-Fraud Republican.”

Husted has more plans to buck his party’s leadership. Ohio’s new voting law eliminates the requirement for poll workers to help voters find their right precinct. Husted said he will instruct poll workers to offer help to any voter who needs it.

Imagine that. Issuing an order to defy your own party just so voters can find the right place to vote.

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and an essayist for Parade magazine. To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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