WASHINGTON — The Republican governor of Georgia mentioned that the nation will “by no means be the identical” with out Consultant John Lewis, who died Friday at age 80. The Democratic speaker of the home known as Mr. Lewis “a titan of the civil rights motion.” The Home minority chief mentioned that Mr. Lewis “by no means stopped working to enhance the lives of others.”
Except for issuing a boilerplate proclamation for flags to be flown Saturday at half-staff on the White Home and public buildings, President Trump mentioned nothing.
Within the midst of an outpouring of bipartisan tributes that flowed late Friday night and into the following day, Mr. Trump’s silence on the demise of Mr. Lewis, one among his most outstanding critics, grew extra obvious as he posted a flurry of retweets. He slammed former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, as corrupt. He known as his niece, whose just lately printed e-book took an unflinching take a look at his character, a “mess.” He praised a visitor host of Sean Hannity’s Fox Information tv present.
However he didn’t share a message from his personal press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, who mentioned that Mr. Lewis “was an icon of the civil rights motion,” or one from Vice President Mike Pence, who known as Mr. Lewis a “nice man whose braveness and many years of public service modified America endlessly.”
Mr. Lewis, the Georgia Democrat and son of sharecroppers, devoted most of his life to preventing for racial equality, whether or not it was serving to to arrange the March on Washington in 1963 or supporting protesters calling for justice for George Floyd, who died in police custody in Might. He was one of many unique Freedom Riders, a bunch of activists who traveled all through the American South to protest segregated buses and terminals.
On a march in Selma in 1965, he was crushed by cops who left scars that may be seen for the remainder of Mr. Lewis’s life. And he had little good to say about Mr. Trump’s views on race.
As protests roiled over the demise of Mr. Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis who died after being pinned below the knee of a white police officer, Mr. Lewis criticized Mr. Trump, who has threatened navy motion in opposition to peaceable protesters and inspired cops to be harsher on civilians.
“You can not cease the decision of historical past,” Mr. Lewis mentioned final month, criticizing Mr. Trump’s enthusiasm for militarizing American cities. “You could use troopers, you could use fireplace hoses and water, however it can’t be stopped. There can’t be any turning again. We’ve come too far, made an excessive amount of progress, to cease now or to return. The world is seeing what is going on, and we’re able to proceed to maneuver ahead.”
His criticism of the president started earlier than Mr. Trump’s inauguration. In January 2017, he questioned the legitimacy of Mr. Trump’s election and mentioned he wouldn’t be in attendance when the brand new president traveled to the Capitol to be sworn in.
“I feel the Russians participated in serving to this man get elected,” Mr. Lewis mentioned in a tv interview days earlier than Mr. Trump took workplace. “They usually helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. I don’t plan to attend the inauguration. Will probably be the primary one which I miss since I’ve been within the Congress. You can’t be at house with one thing that you just really feel that’s unsuitable, just isn’t proper.”
He additionally mentioned he believed in forgiveness and “attempting to work with individuals.” However Mr. Trump, an avid follower of his personal information protection, returned fireplace the following day, accusing Mr. Lewis of “falsely complaining concerning the election outcomes” and questioning his management.
“Congressman John Lewis ought to spend extra time on fixing and serving to his district, which is in horrible form and falling aside (to not point out crime infested) quite than falsely complaining concerning the election outcomes,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. “All speak, speak, speak – no motion or outcomes. Unhappy!”
The president-elect’s feedback about Mr. Lewis resulted in a torrent of messages from individuals who lived in Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District, which is majority African-American and residential to rich areas like Buckhead, in addition to the world’s busiest airport and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Apparently nonetheless smarting from the snub, Mr. Trump adopted up three days later, mentioning on Twitter that Mr. Lewis had additionally boycotted President George W. Bush’s inauguration.
Mr. Lewis, whose colleagues known as him “the conscience of Congress,” continued to be an outspoken voice in opposition to the administration. In 2018, he mentioned that Mr. Trump was a racist when the president was reported to have referred to Haiti and a few African nations as “shithole international locations,” and once more when Mr. Trump mentioned on Twitter that 4 Democratic congresswomen of shade ought to “return” to their house international locations.
“I do know racism after I see it,” Mr. Lewis mentioned on the time, because the Home voted on a decision to sentence these tweets. “I do know racism after I really feel it. And on the highest degree of our authorities, there’s no room for racism.”
When the Home voted to question Mr. Trump in December 2019, Mr. Lewis, as he usually did, framed the choice as a historic one.
“Whenever you see one thing that isn’t proper, not simply, not truthful, you’ve an ethical obligation to say one thing,” Mr. Lewis mentioned on the Home ground. “To do one thing. Our kids and their youngsters will ask us, ‘What did you do? What did you say?’ For some, this vote could also be onerous. However we’ve a mission and a mandate to be on the correct facet of historical past.”
The president has a historical past of ignoring, and even attacking, the legacies of his political foes. In 2018, Mr. Trump’s White Home was harshly criticized for initially flying the American flag solely briefly at half-mast after the demise of Senator John McCain, the Republican of Arizona, who was one other vocal critic.
On the day of Mr. McCain’s funeral, Mr. Trump went {golfing} and tweeted conspiracy theories.