Rev. Al urges Trump to apologize to hero pol
PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump should be “King-like” and apologize to Rep. John Lewis, the Rev. Al Sharpton said on Martin Luther King Day.
Speaking at National Action Network events in both Washington and Harlem, Sharpton said these were “serious times” that demanded Trump bring a productive end to his nasty feud with Lewis.
The civil rights icon declared Friday that he did not believe the President-elect was “legitimate” and said he would not attend his inauguration.
“I hope he calls John Lewis and apologizes rather than trading insults. Today he needs to speak to black leaders and get King-like on King Day,” Sharpton said of Trump.
“We are in serious times and we do not need unserious discussions.”
Sharpton was referencing Trump’s Twitter insult of Lewis over the weekend, in which he called the freedom rider “All talk, talk, talk — no action or results.”
Lewis, speaking at a breakfast honoring King in Miami, did not directly address Trump but urged people to “not be quiet” when confronted with injustice.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he and other Democratic senators had given Lewis their support.
“When Trump mocked John Lewis, I got all the senators together to say this is unacceptable and called Lewis to keep it up,” Schumer said at National Action Network headquarters in Harlem.
“We are in for a fight. In the memory of Dr. King, we will not turn the hands back to the 1950s or 1800s. I’m ready for the fight.”
Events honoring King were also held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi told the audience to get ready for four years of resistance to Trump’s agenda.
“When women’s rights are being stripped away, we cannot stay silent. When men no better than Klansmen dressed in suits are sworn into office, we cannot stay silent,” she told a cheering crowd, reminding them of Trump’s boasts about groping women.
Trump has painted inner cities with a broad brush, saying they were worse than war zones and crippled by crime, poor education and lack of housing.
He won fewer than 1 out of 10 black voters in November.
The President-elect canceled a visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington and held no public events honoring King on the national holiday, but tweeted out a tribute to the slain civil rights leader.
“Celebrate Martin Luther King Day and all of the many wonderful things that he stood for. Honor him for being the great man that he was!” Trump tweeted.
But those words rang hollow at Convent Ave. Baptist Church in Harlem, where Mayor de Blasio reminded listeners that King’s assassination did not stop the