President Trump performed down the accomplishments of Consultant John Lewis, the not too long ago deceased civil rights icon, and criticized him fo
President Trump performed down the accomplishments of Consultant John Lewis, the not too long ago deceased civil rights icon, and criticized him for not attending the Trump inauguration in an interview performed whereas Mr. Lewis was mendacity in state on the Capitol.
The feedback from Mr. Trump, which aired on “Axios on HBO” Monday evening, have been unsurprising, given his penchant for grievance. However they have been nonetheless gorgeous for the diploma to which Mr. Trump refused to view Mr. Lewis’s life and legacy in phrases past the way it associated to Mr. Trump himself.
“I by no means met John Lewis, truly,” Mr. Trump mentioned. “He didn’t come to my inauguration. He didn’t come to my State of the Union speeches, and that’s OK. That’s his proper.”
When requested to replicate on Mr. Lewis’s contributions to the civil rights motion, Mr. Trump as an alternative talked up his personal file.
“Once more, no one has performed extra for Black People than I’ve,” he mentioned. “He ought to have come. I believe he made a giant mistake.”
Mr. Trump declined to say whether or not he discovered Mr. Lewis’s life story “spectacular.” He appeared detached to renaming the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., after the congressman. The bridge, named after a former Accomplice normal, Grand Dragon within the Ku Klux Klan and senator, was the location of a turning level within the civil rights motion that grew to become referred to as Bloody Sunday.
On that day, March 7, 1965, Mr. Lewis suffered a cracked cranium throughout a march throughout the bridge when a state trooper clubbed him and beat him to the bottom. The second was a defining one in his life and within the civil rights motion. Mr. Trump, within the Axios interview, urged there “have been many others additionally” whose work must be praised.
Days earlier than Mr. Trump took workplace in 2017, Mr. Lewis questioned the legitimacy of his victory and mentioned he wouldn’t be in attendance when the president-elect traveled to the Capitol to be sworn in.
“I believe the Russians participated in serving to this man get elected,” Mr. Lewis mentioned on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And so they 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 dwelling with one thing that you simply really feel that’s incorrect, will not be proper.”
(Mr. Lewis, actually, additionally skipped the primary inauguration of President George W. Bush after the controversial 2000 election recount in Florida.)
Within the wide-ranging interview with Axios, Mr. Trump repeatedly insisted he deserved reward for the nation’s capacity to detect the coronavirus via testing and dismissed criticism that he and his administration ought to have performed extra to include it. Remarking on the greater than 150,000 deaths the virus has precipitated, he mentioned: “It’s what it’s.”
“They’re dying. That’s true,” Mr. Trump mentioned within the interview, which was recorded on July 28.
“It’s what it’s. However that doesn’t imply we aren’t doing every thing we will. It’s below management as a lot as you may management it.”
Mr. Trump repeatedly performed down the virus all through the spring, and did so once more within the interview, insisting that instances are falling in locations the place they aren’t.
“One individual’s an excessive amount of,” Mr. Trump mentioned. ”And people folks that basically perceive it, that basically perceive it, they mentioned it’s an unbelievable job that we’ve performed.”
Mr. Trump was additionally requested about his current properly needs for Ghislaine Maxwell, the previous girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, who has been charged by federal officers with trafficking underage ladies. Mr. Trump advised mentioned he hoped nothing “dangerous” occurred to her in jail.
“Her boyfriend died in jail and persons are nonetheless making an attempt to determine how did it occur, was it suicide, was he killed?” Mr. Trump mentioned. “I do want her properly. I’m not searching for something dangerous for her.”
Lawyer Common William P. Barr has mentioned that Mr. Epstein positively killed himself as he was being held in a Manhattan jail final 12 months. However conspiracy theorists have continued to query the loss of life.