3 MEN & A BABY!
As past presidents honor Lewis, pouty Trump touts delaying elex
Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton gave impassioned praise to John Lewis on Thursday — while President Trump, who was not invited to the service, spent the day crying that November vote will be unfair.
One by one, former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton stood tall Thursday at the Atlanta funeral of civil rights icon John Lewis, honoring the life and legacy of the fearless congressional veteran.
And in Washington, current President Trump turned yet again to Twitter and conspiracy theories, suggesting the upcoming Nov. 3 election “will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT” in American history.
His profile in outrage stood in contrast to the words of the ex-presidents and their bipartisan remembrances, lauding the profile in courage of Lewis — whose heroic 1965 crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., helped pave Obama’s historic election to the White House 43 years later.
The nation’s first Black president, in a soaring 40-minute eulogy, acknowledged his personal debt to Lewis — adding the civil rights leader’s American legacy was lasting.
“Someday, when we do finish that long journey towards freedom, when we do form a more perfect union — whether it’s years from now or decades or even if it takes another two centuries, John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America,” said Obama.
Trump was the lone living president to play no official role in a week of public remembrances for Lewis. Obama, Clinton and Bush all spoke at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached from the pulpit. Former President Jimmy Carter, at age 95, sent a statement that was read aloud by the church’s senior pastor, the Rev. Raphael Warnock.
Lewis, who died last week of cancer at 80, spent more than three decades in Congress. His district included most of Atlanta.
The church was kept about half-full to comply with social-distancing rules amid the coronavirus pandemic, and participants wore face masks.
Breaking from his homage to Lewis’ storied career, Obama fiercely lashed out at what he called the modern-day efforts under Trump to thwart voting rights. Though segregationists like Bull Connor and George Wallace are gone, others remain intent on raising new barriers to voting, he said.
“John devoted his life on the Earth to opposing the very attacks on democracy that we are seeing right now,” the ex-president said. “We’re going to have to be more like John. We’re going to have to do something.”
Clinton praised Lewis for giving the nation “marching orders” from the grave and lauded his spirit of compromise, even amid his righteous march to racial justice.
“He thought the open hand was better than the clenched fist to his adversaries,” Clinton said.
Bush conceded his political differences with Lewis, but said they were part and parcel of a healthy democracy.
“We live in a better and nobler place because of John Lewis,” Bush said. “He will live
forever in the hearts of Americans.”
Even before the service was set to begin, a few dozen people gathered outside the church in lawn chairs, waiting to watch the service on a large screen just outside the doors.
Some sang the gospel song “We Shall Overcome.”
“He was my hero,” said the Rev. Raphael Warnock, who officiated the service. “He laid it all on the line, at the risk of life and limb.”
Lewis was famously beaten and arrested when he helped lead a civil rights march in segregated Selma. His casket was carried over the Pettus Bridge over the weekend as part of a days-long national tribute.
Shortly before he died, Lewis wrote an essay for The New York Times and asked for its publication on the day of his funeral. In the piece, Lewis recalled the teachings of King and urged Americans to “march on” to justice.
“He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice,” wrote Lewis. “He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out.”
Trump and Lewis shared a recent running feud, with the congressman refusing to attend his inauguration and the president ripping the Georgia politician as “all talk … no action or results.”
Lewis continued to skip any events where Trump would be present, even staying away from the dedication of a Mississippi civil rights museum.
Obama, along with his personal tribute to Lewis, sought to score some political points against what he called “bogus” efforts to stifle democracy and prevent Blacks from voting.
He called for statehood for Washington, D.C., and for eliminating the filibuster in the Senate, which he harshly branded as a racist “Jim Crow relic.”