18 Democrats to skip swearingin

Lawmakers angered by spat with civil rights icon, record number of protesters expected

WASHINGTON: About 2,000 men and women marched to the Martin Luther King memorial in Washington DC braving a steady drizzle on a cold and gray Saturday, kicking off protests against Donald Trump’s inauguration.

“We will march until hell freezes over, and when it does, we will march on the ice,” said Cornell William Brooks, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which was a part of the rally.

On Friday, the day Trump is inaugurated as the 45th president of the US, over a dozen Democratic lawmakers will be boycotting the swearing-in, they have said. Their numbers could grow.

On January 21, with Trump in the White House, an estimated 200,000 women are expected to participate in a rally called the Women’s March on Washington.

A record number of protests are expected in Washington DC around and after the inauguration of the man who is perhaps the most unpopular incoming president in recent US history.

Trump hasn’t helped matters. He has taken on an icon of the civil rights movement, John Lewis, a contemporary of Martin Luther King Jr and a long-time member of the House of Representatives loved and respected by both Democrats and Republicans. “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!” Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

The president-elect was angered by remarks by Lewis the day before that he didn’t consider Trump a “legitimate president”, so he lashed out.

Lewis had already announced by the time of his interview he would not attend the inauguration — the first he would miss — and later 17 more Democratic lawmakers announced they’ll stay away too.