Harsh words from South Florida Democrats in Congress.

Few kind words for president’s address

The inauguration may be over, but for the Democratic minority, resistance has just begun.

Three of the four Democratic congresspeople who represent Broward and southern Palm Beach counties were at the inauguration. And they say the scene there left them flabbergasted.

“My first impression was that after listening to Donald Trump’s inaugural speech we’ve gone from hope and change with Barack Obama to doom and gloom,” U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, said.

She particularly took offense to Trump’s referring to the “American carnage” of gangs and drugs. She also disparaged the speech for not offering anything “about unity and coming together around a common purpose.”

Trump called for Americans to come together several times throughout the speech.

“We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity,” he said. “When America is united, America is totally unstoppable.”

Wasserman Schultz called those “meaningless platitudes.”

U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, DBoca Raton, said he also failed to see a call for unity in the speech.

“I came to the inauguration hoping for a unifying speech that would reach out to the majority of Americans who did not vote for the new president,” he said. “I was sorely disappointed in his dark and divisive address that sounded more like an angry and overheated convention speech instead.”

U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, DWest Palm Beach, also found the speech offputting.

“I do not share his pessimistic view of America or his bias towards extreme nationalism,” she said.

Wasserman Schultz, Frankel and two other Democratic congresswomen will begin their opposition to the Trump administration tomorrow morning, when they host a breakfast ahead of Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington. That anti-Trump protest is expected to draw similar numbers to the inauguration itself.

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Delray Beach, stayed home from the inauguration in protest of Trump’s treatment of civil rights hero and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga.

Trump referred to him as “all talk, talk, talk — no action” after Lewis said he felt Trump was not a “legitimate president” because of Russian interference in the election.