Dan Rather Just Went Viral Defending John Lewis From Trump’s Attack
Yesterday, civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) publicly slammed Donald Trump, calling his electoral college victory “illegitimate,” which on cue sparked a fresh Twitter rant from the petite-pointed president-elect.
Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2017
mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk – no action or results. Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2017
How very fitting it is for the gas-lighter in chief to blame a black Democratic representative for the systemic racism, urban decay, and economic disenfranchisement that is the natural result of a state run for decades by plutocratic conservatives.
Legendary journalist Dan Rather took to Facebook today to speak on the matter, highlighting just why Trump is so upset at a “true American hero like Rep. Lewis – he’s terrified because he knows the accusations of illegitimacy ring true:
I want to avoid getting too caught up in the tweets of Donald Trump, but there are some comments that are so far beyond the pale that one risks normalizing them by ignoring them. And the message that Mr. Trump said today about Representative John Lewis, a true American hero, is such an instance.
To be sure, Mr. Lewis levelled some very sharp criticism at the incoming president yesterday – calling his election illegitimate on account of Russian interference. We all know this story seems to grow darker and more worrisome by the hour. I have never seen an administration begin under such a serious cloud.
One can easily understand why Mr. Lewis’ comment would anger Mr. Trump because it is a real threat. The famed and respected Civil Rights leader is putting into words what few of his political peers have dared say out loud. And we must note that there are still many more questions about this issue than there are answers. The fact that the Senate will now conduct hearings – mark you hearings that may very well cast doubt on the legitimacy of a president who has yet to be officially inaugurated – will hopefully lead to a more complete account of what took place.
But whatever the truth is about these swirling allegations on Russia, and whether one feels such conclusions of illegitimacy are premature, Mr. Trump would have been well served to have let Mr. Lewis’ comments pass. Of course he couldn’t. In a pair of tweets the President-elect wrote:
“Congressman John Lewis should spend 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. All talk, talk, talk – no action or results. Sad!”
I have known Mr. Lewis for decades. I covered him in those early and dangerous days of the Civil Rights Movement when almost all the institutions of government and society, especially in the South, seemed to be arrayed against the young activists. One thing you cannot say about John Lewis is that he is “all talk, talk, talk – no action or results.” This man came within a hair’s breath of dying after being beaten by Alabama State Troopers on a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. His expert organizing skills and moral clarity made the United States a far more just and equitable nation. And for all this to happen at the beginning of Martin Luther King weekend, of all times.
Perhaps the conservative political commentator Bill Kristol said it best in one of his tweets:
“It’s telling, I’m afraid, that Donald Trump treats Vladimir Putin with more respect than he does John Lewis.”
Donald Trump won the election thanks to the electoral college, which means that 80,000 voters in three states were able to tip the scales despite his losing the popular vote by nearly three million votes. The firestorm of controversy that has arisen in response to the overwhelming evidence that Trump won thanks to the interference of a foreign power and may in fact be being actively blackmailed by that power means his presidency, short may it last, will forever be marked with an asterisk.
