MLK son pays respects & calls for cooperation
Martin Luther King Jr.’s eldest son said Monday that he had a “constructive” meeting with Donald Trump — and weighed in on the president-elect’s feud with Rep. John Lewis.
“First of all, I think in the heat of the moment a lot of things get said on both sides,” Martin Luther King III said on the day the nation honors the memory of his father.
He added that he’s a “bridge builder” and called for unity.
“We are a great nation, and we must become a greater nation,” King III said in the lobby of Trump Tower in Midtown.
Lewis, a major player in the civil-rights movement, called Trump’s presidency illegitimate late last week and the feud intensified over the weekend.
Last year, King III spent the national holiday commemorating his father in Nashville, Tenn., where he spoke out against then-candidate Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims, calling it “the most un-American thing I’ve ever heard of.”
King III on Monday said he and Trump discussed preserving voting rights, a key part of the modern civil-rights movement.
He said he talked to Trump about creating a national ID card voters could use during the election to repair a “broken voting system.”
“It is very clear that the system is not working at its maximum,” he said.
Trump and many Republican lawmakers have pushed for voter-ID laws that would require people to show photo identification before they can cast a vote.
Critics say such laws create barriers for those without such IDs — mostly minorities and the poor — and would disenfranchise millions.
“We have to create a climate for all boats to be lifted,” King III said.