Here’s the backstory. Congressman John Lewis, a Democratic Member of the House of Representatives from Georgia, said that Donald Trump was not our legitimate president. He said that this was because in his view Trump was elected by the Russians. To date, he is the only Congressperson making that most unpleasant accusation that Trump is not our legitimate President.
Inter alia, in response the Tweeter-In-Chief sent off a two sentence response. Here’s the first sentence:
Lewis’s district includes most of Atlanta, which does have the typical inner-city problems shared by many US cities.
Now, after that pretty direct and critical start, what would you think Trump would say, or what might you want to put in, for the second sentence?
Maybe something like “29 years a congressman, no results” … Lewis has been in office since 1987.
Or perhaps something more neutral like “Tough problem no easy answers”.
You could get aggro in your second sentence and go for “Vote him out if he cannot do it!”
You could warn him off in the second sentence, “He shouldn’t focus on me!”
Or Trump might speak to Lewis’s claim that Trump is not legitimate, maybe “CIA says Russia didn’t hack election results”.
It’s a tough question. You don’t have a lot of characters. You want it to be short and punchy. You want it to make your point.
So what does the Trumpster tweet?
I laughed at the actual result:
…
…
…
…
Leadership. It’s a curious thing. At all instants you are trying to build and strengthen the team, and move everyone towards a common goal.
In this regard, Trump met yesterday with the game show host Steve Harvey … who said after the meeting that Trump is going to work with him on a project of Harvey’s aimed at … yes … the aforementioned “burning and crime-infested inner cities”.
Steve Harvey is helping Trump, and Trump is helping Steve Harvey, to work on fixing our inner cities. Good for both of them.
Predictably, the response from the Democratic side regarding Representative Lewis has been on the order of “Boo, Trump is insulting a true civil rights hero” and the like. I can only hope that Representative John Lewis will set aside this nonsense and get over the election loss and join in the effort. Our inner cities are a tragedy and a running sore.
Sadly, Trump is right. We need all the help we can get on this and all of our problems.
Regards to everyone on a lovely clear evening,
w.
PS: If you comment please QUOTE THE EXACT WORDS THAT YOU ARE DISCUSSING, so that we can all be clear about your subject.
Skating Under The Ice 
Twitter aside, Trump is a “newbie” politician who is not bringing “politics as usual” to the Presidency.
Should be interesting.
LikeLike
I personally thought it would have been sooo funny if during the transition meeting with Obama when press was present, if Trump had pulled his cell phone out, held it up, and then dropped it.
LikeLike
I suspect that Lewis needs a full-time aide to wake him up when it’s time to go home, and another to show him the way. With spokespersons like Lewis, do the dems need anyone else?
LikeLike
The more Trump tweets, the more I admire and respect his abilities. He turned that tweet into a world class respectful request to assist him in this nation (re)building. If Rep Lewis can’t put away his partisan anger and work together, maybe it is time he moved on. We need winners not sour pusses that want to continue to try to destroy this country.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The one tweet from him I would love to see would be in response to any “celebrity” who disparages him. He should just call them out and challenge them to actually run for public office where they can try to make a real difference if they feel so strongly about things.
LikeLike
Trump truly is a good leader.
Congress needs to get used to a POTUS who really wants to help America, for a change.
LikeLike
Not just the Democrat side W. Here in the UK all the news stations without exception are bemoaning how Trump ‘insulted’ a great Civil Rights activist who stood and fought bravely on the front lines of anti-racism for being all mouth and no action guy. Not a mention that his criticism was about the failure to address what is happening now not forty years ago.
LikeLike
And he hasn’t fixed anything in four decades as the world prospered he did nothing to help the poor in our innercities.
It’s time Rep Lewis and his ilk got out of the wagon and helped push.
LikeLike
Listen to Lewis’s testimony at Session’s hearing and you’ll mostly hear Lewis droning on about the past.
I’m getting tired of politicians using past acts of courage as reasons why we should listen to them and vote for them. That includes John McCain. Honor what they did but hold them accountable for their present performance.
LikeLike
In McCain’s case, just because he was a POW and suffered horribly due to that doesn’t make in a good Senator.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congressman Lewis is long past his sell-by date. He has to be sure a very honorable past as a civil right leader in a truly dangerous time, but he has since transitioned into a full-time race warlord who routinely blasts any Republican or conservative proposal as “trying to take us back to the days of Jim Crow and slavery”.
Trump certainly could have been more tactful, but Lewis was the one who picked the fight. He continues the Democrat mantra that they didn’t lose the election; it was stolen. And they way it is reported here in Atlanta we are supposed to feel sorry for him because he will miss his first presidential inauguration since joining Congress. Sorry Congressman; it was your choice and I’m sure someone else will be happy to have your seat. You started off the Trump administration with a deliberate public insult; what did you think would happen?
In the past the stature of Lewis and other civil rights icons was so imposing they could get their way, even making outrageous charges. This time I think they will simply find themselves bypassed. Some people are willing to work with Trump (or as they may think of it, work on Trump — same difference). The ones who aren’t will find themselves grandstanding to diminishing crowds.
LikeLike
Congress critters like Lewis and Pelosi will keep their gravy positions until they die.
They could have dementia and as long as their aides guided them through the daily process they would continue to be re-elected…forever.
It’s time to drain the swamp.
DTS
Follow the money.
LikeLike
Best reason for term limits, especially for the Supreme Court (re Ginsburg). Another irritating part of political correctness is that anyone having had a bad “life experience” (death in the family, illness, beating by racists), are considered as allowed to have free verbal reign with no counter attack allowed. I like that Trump and some media outlets have changed the rules on that.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/01/15/john-lewis-false-racism-hero-partisan/
LikeLike
There is a vast difference between political opposition and sedition. Anyone who is engaged in trying to discredit, obstruct or otherwise inhibit a Constitutionally elected President from carrying out his Constitutional powers and obligations and who incites others to do the same is guilty of sedition bordering on outright treason.
LikeLike
Can someone please explain to a poor simpleton Brit exactly how the hacking (leaks?) *stole* the election. Was it really a crime to reveal to the American people some idea of the corruption of Hillary and the Democratic party?
LikeLike
The Democrats’ claim is that “Russian propaganda” swung the election for Clinton. Unfortunately for her, the “Russian propaganda” were the emails of her and her accomplices. So I fear there is no real explanation. The leaks of her perfidy may have affected the election … but it was her perfidy that did it.
w.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Willis. Thanks. I was afraid that would the answer because it raises more questions:-
– Cannot the majority of your countrymen see that for themselves?
– Why do they – the general mass of people – put up with this nonsense meme being used by the press as an excuse for the failure of the Democrats’ candidate?
PS. “…her perfidy that did it.” I love your way with words, W!
LikeLike
Which is about like a crook complaining about the Mafia ratting on them.
LikeLike
Says it best:
LikeLike
JPG stripped, maybe doesn’t like httpS:
LikeLike
The Wall Street Journal just reported,
More Democratic Legislators Plan on Sitting Out Trump’s Swearing-In
President-elect’s Twitter rebuke of civil rights leader John Lewis increases boycott number
“The number of Democratic lawmakers planning to skip Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony Friday is growing after the President-elect’s rebuke of Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/more-democratic-legislators-plan-on-sitting-out-trumps-swearing-in-1484502998
LikeLike
Thanks, Roving Broker, I saw that this morning and I cracked up. Those jokers think that Lewis is an institution, not a man.
Yes, John Lewis got beaten badly by Democrats back in the day. He was a true hero of the civil rights movement, beaten by the Democratic mobs in the south as one of the “Freedom Riders”. His personal bravery back then is beyond question.
Since then, however, he seems to have defined himself by what he is opposed to, not what he has done. He has now been in Congress for thirty years. He has authored only a few bills that have been enacted, and I find nothing of note in them.
If that were my record after thirty years as a Senator I’d hide my head in shame. Trump said that he was all “talk, talk, talk”, and I fear that his Senate record bears that out.
I’m sorry, but the fact that a man was brave in the face of being beaten by Democrats half a century ago does not mean he gets a free pass or is immune from criticism for his claims and comments about Republicans today.
w.
LikeLike
With respect to “Democratic lawmakers planning to skip Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony,” they are being petulant.
(of a person or their manner) childishly sulky or bad-tempered:
“he was moody and petulant” ·
“a petulant shake of the head”
synonyms: peevish · bad-tempered · querulous · pettish · fretful · cross · irritable ·
sulky · snappish · crotchety · touchy · tetchy · testy · fractious · grumpy · disgruntled · crabby · grouchy · cranky
Oxford Dictionaries via Bing
The Democratic lawmakers need to stand up, shake themselves off and decide what they want to accomplish in the next two, four, six or eight years and get on with the job. It is said that a congressman’s main job is to get re-elected and they may think that the voters who put them into office will be impressed by their petulance.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
You don’t need to be religious to see the wisdom in those words.
LikeLike
House of Representatives; not the Senate.
LikeLike
That’s an understatement. Most of those bills are simply “marking his territory” by getting things named after other civil rights leaders.
LikeLike
RovingBroker.
Certainly I agree with petulant but you’ve got to mix in a bit of stupidity. Boycotting the nomination will mean nothing. Nobody will particularly notice if you’re not there. You’re likely to “Casper” into the dustbin of history. I’m not a politician but it seems the quote from Josey Wales is applicable:
You know, in my line of work you got to be able either to sing The Battle Hymn of the Republic or Dixie with equal enthusiasm depending upon present company
LikeLike
Times change. Lewis has become nothing but a race-baiter. Like Brother Al.
LikeLike
The reopening of the email investigation by Comey definitely affected the election and was caused by the NYPD investigation, not the Ruskies. The WikiLeaks stuff, not so much effect – mostly noise. The Veritas Project videos had a real influence. If you haven’t seen them, take a look. They are so important that a cover-up campaign has been instituted involving a supposed Dem-supporter coming out to claim he had been creating fake news trying to make Trump look worse than he is. The guy claimed to have created fake stories about DNC-hired thugs at Trump rallies – I presume in an attempt to lure the public away from seeing the tapes from Veritas Project documenting exactly that, and to plant a meme that such stories were a misguided effort by a man who admits to creating fake news (for which he is very sorry, of course). He was interviewed by the CBC.
Both the Veritas Project and Wikileaks provide a look into the breathtaking corruption that lies at the heart of the DNC. Was all that anti-Sanders stuff provoked by the Russians too? I realise Putin is a convenient devil but he is not a superhuman one.
LikeLike
I hope Trump avoids the mistake of acting as though the Federal government can “fix” the inner cities. Only African-Americans can put their own house in order. Government can provide policing, schooling, and with these two working properly, economic incentives to encourage employment opportunities.
BUT THESE 3 THINGS CANNOT fix the problems that plague the inner-city African-American community. Only African-American leadership that makes clear that personal values and behavior are personal responsibilities and provides the local, hands-on involvement with broken families and young people alienated from a culture of hard-work and pride in accomplishment will change the reality of inner-city African-American life.
Trump is taking the right steps to call on those who SHOULD BE but HAVE NOT BEEN effective role models in the African-American community to stand up for personal responsibility.
We can only hope there are enough brave African-Americans willing to shrug off the yoke of victim-hood that enslaves them today to show what real progress requires. Yes, local/ state/ Federal governments can play a role, but it is a very different role than has been played until now.
LikeLiked by 2 people
JP: Right. It is a culture problem.
LikeLike
The New Yorker on John Lewis …
John Lewis, Donald Trump, and the Meaning of Legitimacy
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/john-lewis-donald-trump-and-the-meaning-of-legitimacy
John Lewis Talks to David Remnick About Nonviolent Activism
http://www.newyorker.com/podcast/political-scene/john-lewis-talks-to-david-remnick-about-nonviolent-activism
LikeLike
Oh, please, not the left-wing, elitist-and-proud-of-it New Yorker. Their kind of too-clever-by-half hero-worshipping suck-up articles turn my stomach, and those are perfect examples of the genre. No hard questions. No difficult concepts. Hagiography at its worst.
Yes, Lewis was there on Bloody Sunday, and acted heroically and bravely. It is arguably the one useful thing he’s done in his life. Since then he’s spent thirty years doing little in the Congress except sponsoring bills to rename some obscure Federal building after some equally obscure civil-rights pal of his. Seriously, when did anyone ever get enthusiatic about anything Lewis has done? When has he been in the news ever? Can you give us one single achievement associated with his name?
Well, to be fair, there is one thing he has done. Each and every year he has led a memorial march over the same damn bridge. The main point, of course, is reminding everyone that despite his wasting thirty years in a position of power where he could have done some good, he is still an awesome heroic and historical gentleman of the finest water whose every word is a pearl of wisdom.
Trump is right. Since Bloody Sunday he’s been talk, talk, talk. Doesn’t take away from Bloody Sunday and all that meant, doesn’t decrease what he did for the US in general and black people in particular on that day.
But that was a half century ago, and since then it’s little more than talk, talk, talk … and I suppose that as long as the New Yorker is willing to lap up his words, he’ll continue to do so.
w.
LikeLike
Just to be clear … I’m not supporting the New Yorker’s point of view.
I found this interesting …
While in Congress, Rep. Lewis has sponsored 14 bills that have become law. 14!
(In reverse chronological order)
o Gold Medal Technical Corrections Act of 2014
o Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act of 2010
o To designate the annex building under construction for the Elbert P. Tuttle United States Court of Appeals Building in Atlanta, Georgia, as the “John C. Godbold Federal Building”.
o Civil Rights Act of 1964 Commemorative Coin Act
o Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007
o National Museum of African American History and Culture Act
o Martin Luther King, Junior, National Historic Site Land Exchange Act
o National Museum of African American History and Culture Plan for Action Presidential Commission Act of 2001
o King Holiday and Service Act of 1994
o African American History Landmark Theme Study Act
o To authorize the National Park Service to acquire and manage the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, and for other purposes.
o Selma to Montgomery National Trail Study Act of 1989
o To designate the United States Court of Appeals Building at 56 Forsyth Street in Atlanta, Georgia, as the “Elbert P. Tuttle Court of Appeals Building”.
o A bill to designate the Federal building located at 50 Spring Street, Southwest, Atlanta, Georgia, as the “Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Building”.
https://www.congress.gov/member/john-lewis/L000287?searchResultViewType=expanded&q={“sponsorship”:”sponsored”,”congress”:”all”,”bill-status”:”law”}
LikeLike
“He said that this was because in his view Trump was elected by the Russians.” Mr Lewis, I gather, was a participant in the Civil Rights Movement long ago. It does not detract from the nobility of that movement to conjecture that it must surely have received subsidies from the Soviet Union. If the FBI were to present evidence to that effect to Mr Lewis would he thereupon decree that its achievements were invalid?
LikeLike
I posted upthread that local reporting stated that Trump’s Inauguration will be the first one Congressman Lewis has missed since joining Congress. However, this Washington Post article from Jan. 21, 2001 claims Lewis boycotted the G. W. Bush Inauguration of 2001 as well. The relevant paragraph is 5th up from the bottom:
Ah yes, the “Supreme Court gave the election to Bush” claim — often repeated and still believed by many.
LikeLike