Connect with us

UPDATING: List Grows as More Than 30 Democratic Congressmen Supporting John Lewis Boycott Trump Inauguration

Published

on

‘Cowardly @RealDonaldTrump Isn’t Fit to Polish Hero @Repjohnlewis’s Boots’ Says One NY Democrat

Currently 31 Democratic lawmakers will boycott Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday, most in response to the president-elect’s Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend’s attacks on Rep. John Lewis. Some cite Trump’s attacks on women and minorities in general, others cite their constituents as their motivation for skipping the historic day, while others point to the intervention of Russia in the election, as Rep. Lewis did. And one cited a wedding as reason she is not attending.

Congressman John Lewis, (D-GA) in a clip of an interview released Friday, did not personally attack Trump. Rather, he cited Russia’s actions in the election as his reason for refusing to attend the inauguration of America’s 45th president.

“I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton,” Lewis said. He also noted a “conspiracy on the part of the Russians and others.”

UPDATE: Growing List Now Includes Nearly One in Four House Democrats Who Are Boycotting Trump Inauguration

On Saturday, the House Democrats posted this simple statement to Facebook:

We stand with John Lewis.

Posted by House Democrats on Saturday, January 14, 2017

Including Rep. Lewis, there are 31 Democrats boycotting Donald Trump’s inauguration:

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR):

There is unprecedented concern by my constituents about the many threats posed by a Trump administration seeking to…

Posted by Earl Blumenauer on Saturday, January 7, 2017

Rep. Judy Chu (CA):

Rep. Lacy Clay (MO):

Fusion reports Rep. Clay “decided to sit out Trump’s big day — he’ll be ‘back at home in St. Louis speaking to school kids,’ his spokesman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on January 13.”

Rep. Katherine Clark (MA):

Rep. Yvette Clark (NY): 

Rep. Steve Cohen(TN):

Rep. John Conyers (MI):

Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR)

Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (CA):

Rep. Adriano Espaillat (NY):

Rep. Dwight Evans (PA):

Rep. Marcia Fudge (OH):

Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (IL):

First congressman to publicly announce he would not attend Trump’s inauguration.

“The reason I am not going is that I cannot bring myself to justify morally or intellectually the immense power we are placing in that man’s hands,” Gutiérrez said. 

I could not look at my wife, my daughters or my grandson in the eye if I sat there and attended as if everything that candidate Donald Trump had said about The women, about The Latinos, or The Blacks, The Muslims or any of the other things he said in his speeches and Tweets – that any of that is OK or erased from my memory.

We all heard the tape when Donald Trump was bragging – bragging! – about grabbing women by their private parts without their consent.  It is something I can never un-hear…

Sorry.  That is never OK.  It is never just locker room talk.  It is offensive and, if he ever actually did it, it is criminal.

Rep. Jared Huffman (CA):

I have decided that instead of attending the inaugural ceremonies in Washington this month, I’ll spend time in…

Posted by Congressman Jared Huffman on Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA):

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (AZ):

“My absence is not motivated by disrespect for the office or motivated by disrespect for the government that we have in this great democracy, but as an individual act — yes, of defiance, at the disrespect shown to millions and millions of Americans by this incoming administration and by the actions we are taking in this Congress,” Rep. Grijalva said on the House floor, according to Fusion.

Rep. Barbara Lee (CA):

Rep. Ted Lieu (CA):

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CA):

“I acknowledge the fact that he is the incoming president, but I’m not in the mood to celebrate that fact,” Lofgren told the LA Times.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (NY):

Rep. Mark Pocan (WI):

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA):

Rep. Kurt Schrader (OR):

“I’ll do my best to work with him when I think he’s doing the right thing for the country. But he hasn’t proved himself to me at all yet, so I respectfully decline to freeze my ass out there in the cold for this particular ceremony,” Schrader told Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Rep. Jose Serrano (NY):

Rep. Adam Smith (WA)

Rep. Mark Takano (CA):

Rep. Nydia Velazquez (NY):

Rep. Maxine Waters (CA):

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ):

Rep. Frederica Wilson (FL):

UPDATE:
Add Rep. Keith Ellison to the list:

 

 

Hat tip: Fusion and The Washington Post

 

Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

‘On Day One’: Trump Vows to End Protections for LGBTQ Students

Published

on

Donald Trump says the day he enters the Oval Office for a second term he will end anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students implemented by the Biden administration.

Serving up a scattershot series of complaints with the hosts from the Philadelphia-based right-wing talk radio show “Kayal and Company” on Friday, Trump compared LGBTQ+ protections to a “cuckoo’s nest.”

“A lot of things don’t make sense, having to do with what they’re doing, from the border to all of the men playing in women’s sports. I mean, the world is like a cuckoo’s nest right now with what they do,” Trump declared.

One of the hosts alleged President Joe Biden has engaged in “manipulation” of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. She claimed parents now have to “pinch some pennies” to be able to afford private Christian schools for their children, to remove them from the enhancements that go into effect this summer.

“Many schools are grappling with what they’re going to do,” she said, “because as of August 1, as you know, because of Biden’s manipulation of Title IX, these kids, the school boards, have no choice, they’re meeting right now they, many of them perplexed, and they don’t know what to do, Mr. President, because they’re so upset over this that at August 1 a biological boy can change in a locker room.”

READ MORE: ‘Rejection of Trump’: 1 in 5 Indiana GOP Voters Just Cast Their Ballot for Nikki Haley

Trump replied, “It’s crazy. Crazy.”

“We’re going to end it on day one,” Trump vowed. “We’re going to change it on day one. It’s going to be changed. We’re going to end it. That’s right.”

“The whole thing is crazy. Look, it’s like men playing in women’s sports. It’s like open borders for the world to come in. Send all their prisoners. We’ll take as many as you can give us. Send all their people from mental institutions.”

“We’ll get that changed. Tell your people not to worry about it. It’ll be signed on day one. It will be terminated,” Trump promised, vowing to end the LGBTQ+ protections which include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.

On his first day in office, President Biden implemented “the most far-reaching of any federal protections yet” for LGBTQ+ people, according to NPR.

In an explainer on the new expanded rules, Ms. Magazine reports “The 2024 regulations prohibit discrimination not only on the basis of sex, but also on the basis of sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

According to GLAAD, which is tracking “the Biden administration’s executive orders, legislative support, speeches and nominations that affect LGBTQ people and rights,” President Biden has made 337 “moves” in 1206 days.

Listen to a short clip below or at this link.

READ MORE: Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict

Continue Reading

News

Ari Fleischer Offers Donald Trump Advice Attorney Says ‘Effectively’ Violates Gag Order

Published

on

A Fox News panel discussing the Trump New York criminal trial debated whether or not the indicted ex-president could attack the judge’s daughter, with former Bush 43 press secretary Ari Fleischer insisting he should, and claiming doing so would not violate the terms of the gag order.

“President Trump needs to stop calling the judge ‘conflicted.’ He needs to explain why he’s conflicted,” Fleischer said Friday to a panel that included former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. “Every day of the trial he goes in there, he says, ‘the judge is conflicted, conflicted bigger than I’ve ever seen anywhere in my life.’ He doesn’t explain how or why. He needs to say that the judge’s daughter works for a Democratic political consulting firm that does anti-Trump business. He needs to explain it. Otherwise, it’s just an assertion with no proof. And the President if he’s going to say it, back it up. Explain.”

“I think that’s a violation of the gag order, is it not?” a Fox panelist replied.

“No, he can criticize the judge,” McEnany responded.

READ MORE: Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict

“Not the judge but the family,” the panelist added.

“But when he says the judge is conflicted, you can still explain how and why, and I think comply with a gag,” Fleischer insisted.

The panelists then agreed Donald Trump has been “measured” in his remarks.

National security attorney Brad Moss weighed in on social media, posting the relevant portion of the gag order and writing that Fleischer “effectively recommends Trump violate the terms of the gag order.”

The gag order in part reads: “Defendant is directed to refrain from” … “Making or directing others to make public statements about (1) counsel in the case other than the District Attorney, (2) members of the court’s staff and the District Attorney’s staff, or (3) the family members of any counsel, staff member, the Court or the District Attorney, if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with, or to cause others to materially interfere with, counsel’s or staffs work in this criminal case, or with the knowledge that such interference is likely to result.”

Despite Trump’s repeated attacks, an ethics panel last year cleared Judge Juan Merchan of any issues surrounding his daughter’s work.

On Monday, Judge Merchan warned Trump he may throw him in jail if he violates the gag order again.

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Undisguised Corruption’: Critics Slam Trump for ‘Selling the White House’ to Big Oil

Continue Reading

News

Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict

Published

on

A federal appeals court panel of three judges has upheld the criminal contempt of Congress conviction of Steve Bannon, the far-right provocateur and former Trump chief strategist and senior White House advisor. Legal experts say he can appeal but ultimately he will he headed to prison.

Bannon had refused to comply with a subpoena lawfully-issued by the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

“Bannon was sentenced to four months in jail in 2022 by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols after a jury convicted him of two counts of contempt of Congress,” Politico reports Friday. “But Nichols, a Trump appointee, agreed to postpone the jail term while Bannon appealed the decision, agreeing that the complex mix of laws that govern executive privilege and testimonial immunity for White House aides could be overturned by higher courts.”

The appeals court panel includes judges appointed by President Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden, according to CNN’s Zachary Cohen.

In their ruling the judges wrote: “Public accounts indicated that Bannon had predicted on a January 5, 2021 podcast that ‘all hell [wa]s going to break loose’ the next day,” and noted, “In addition to the podcast prediction, Bannon had reportedly participated in discussions in late 2020 and early 2021 about efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.”

READ MORE: House Ethics Committee Extends Investigation Into ‘Ultra MAGA’ Congressman

Politico noted the “three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Bannon’s argument, saying the former aide and prominent podcaster had no legal rationale for his blanket refusal to appeal before the Jan. 6 committee — and that long-standing case law.”

Bannon is a peddler of conspiracy theories whose podcast “was crowned the top peddler of false, misleading and unsubstantiated statements among political podcasts,” according to The New York Times, citing a Brookings study.

“Bannon is unlikely to have to report to prison immediately,” NBC News reports.

Legal experts weighed in on the question of prison for Bannon.

READ MORE: ‘Undisguised Corruption’: Critics Slam Trump for ‘Selling the White House’ to Big Oil

“And now it’s time for Bannon to be given a date to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence,” remarked MSNBC and NBC News legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor.

“Bannon is effectively out of appeals,” observed professor of law and MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance, former U.S. Attorney. “He can delay a little bit longer, asking for the full court to review the decision en banc & asking SCOTUS to hear his case on cert, but neither one of those things will happen. Bannon is going to prison.”

Professor of law and former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter remarked, “it’s slammer time.”

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.