In case you thought the war of words between President-elect Donald Trump and civil rights icon Representative John Lewis (D-Georgia) might die down ahead of the inauguration, outspoken and controversial Governor Paul LePage (R-Maine) has ensured that the debate rages on.
The Trump-Lewis spat broke out over the weekend, after Lewis said Friday on NBC News' ‘Meet the Press’ that Russia interfered in the US election campaign and therefore Trump was not a “legitimate president.” He also added that, for the first time in his political career, he will not be attending the inauguration.
Since then, nearly 60 other Democratic politicians, mainly in the House of Representatives, have said they will join Lewis in boycotting the inauguration, the Washington Post reported. While many of Trump’s opponents have said that not attending is an appropriate way to express displeasure with Trump, his election and his proposed policies, LePage took the debate a step further than most.
LePage said Lewis, who marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and has been arrested more than 40 times, needed a history lesson.
Did @Governor_LePage really tell John Lewis to thank white people for ending slavery? Jesus Christ. That's a new low even for that slime.
LePage’s remarks served as a catalyst for historians and tweeters alike who lambasted LePage, noting it was Grant (1869-1877) who ended the Reconstruction period, which lasted from 1865 to 1877, allowing for the creation of Jim Crow laws, which Hayes (1877-1881) oversaw. Indeed, the Civil Rights Movement fought against Jim Crow laws, which were repealed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
‘‘Paul LePage is going to give John Lewis a tutorial on the history of black oppression in the United States? That’s rich,’’ Colby College history professor Dan Shea told AP.
The Maine governor tried to clarify his comments later in the day, but only made things worse by attacking the NAACP, the oldest civil rights organization in the country.
Lewis’ office said that LePage’s remarks didn’t warrant a response.