“Trump Kicks Off MLK Weekend Sharply Criticizing Civil Rights Icon John Lewis” – LA Times – Headline of the Week So Far

Trump on Saturday pilloried as “all talk … no action” national icon John Lewis, who was repeatedly beaten by police and nearly lost his life during protests in the long struggle for civil rights.

Headline of the Week — so far … and not a bad analysis either …

“At the start of a weekend dedicated to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,

Trump was using his potent social media platform to hurl insults at a civil rights leader.

And the trigger for the outburst was doubt being raised about Trump’s legitimacy,

even after Trump himself led a more than five-year effort to delegitimize President Obama by falsely claiming that he was foreign born.

Trump also used racially freighted language when he said that Lewis’ Atlanta district was “crime infested” and “falling apart.”

The district, which is mostly African American, includes many of the Atlanta area’s most prominent neighborhoods …

It is home to Atlanta’s airport and upscale neighborhoods;

it houses corporate headquarters like those of Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines.

Most of the area’s many colleges and universities are situated in the 5th District, where the average annual household income is $73,000.

The area is at the national average for college degrees …

Lewis is among a handful of congressional lawmakers to announce they will not attend the inauguration, but the first to be called out by Trump.

Lewis had already emerged as a high-profile Trump opponent on Capitol Hill;

on Wednesday he appeared before a Senate committee to urge it reject Trump nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) as attorney general …

The furor, along with continued investigations into the Russian activities,

threatened to mar a period during which an incoming president would traditionally want to unify the nation.

Trump will be inaugurated on Friday.”

Source: Trump kicks off Martin Luther King weekend by sharply criticizing civil rights icon John Lewis – LA Times