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UPDATING: List Grows as More Than 30 Democratic Congressmen Supporting John Lewis Boycott Trump Inauguration

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‘Cowardly @RealDonaldTrump Isn’t Fit to Polish Hero @Repjohnlewis’s Boots’ Says One NY Democrat

Currently 31 Democratic lawmakers will boycott Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday, most in response to the president-elect’s Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend’s attacks on Rep. John Lewis. Some cite Trump’s attacks on women and minorities in general, others cite their constituents as their motivation for skipping the historic day, while others point to the intervention of Russia in the election, as Rep. Lewis did. And one cited a wedding as reason she is not attending.

Congressman John Lewis, (D-GA) in a clip of an interview released Friday, did not personally attack Trump. Rather, he cited Russia’s actions in the election as his reason for refusing to attend the inauguration of America’s 45th president.

“I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton,” Lewis said. He also noted a “conspiracy on the part of the Russians and others.”

UPDATE: Growing List Now Includes Nearly One in Four House Democrats Who Are Boycotting Trump Inauguration

On Saturday, the House Democrats posted this simple statement to Facebook:

We stand with John Lewis.

Posted by House Democrats on Saturday, January 14, 2017

Including Rep. Lewis, there are 31 Democrats boycotting Donald Trump’s inauguration:

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR):

There is unprecedented concern by my constituents about the many threats posed by a Trump administration seeking to…

Posted by Earl Blumenauer on Saturday, January 7, 2017

Rep. Judy Chu (CA):

Rep. Lacy Clay (MO):

Fusion reports Rep. Clay “decided to sit out Trump’s big day — he’ll be ‘back at home in St. Louis speaking to school kids,’ his spokesman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on January 13.”

Rep. Katherine Clark (MA):

Rep. Yvette Clark (NY): 

Rep. Steve Cohen(TN):

Rep. John Conyers (MI):

Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR)

Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (CA):

Rep. Adriano Espaillat (NY):

Rep. Dwight Evans (PA):

Rep. Marcia Fudge (OH):

Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (IL):

First congressman to publicly announce he would not attend Trump’s inauguration.

“The reason I am not going is that I cannot bring myself to justify morally or intellectually the immense power we are placing in that man’s hands,” Gutiérrez said. 

I could not look at my wife, my daughters or my grandson in the eye if I sat there and attended as if everything that candidate Donald Trump had said about The women, about The Latinos, or The Blacks, The Muslims or any of the other things he said in his speeches and Tweets – that any of that is OK or erased from my memory.

We all heard the tape when Donald Trump was bragging – bragging! – about grabbing women by their private parts without their consent.  It is something I can never un-hear…

Sorry.  That is never OK.  It is never just locker room talk.  It is offensive and, if he ever actually did it, it is criminal.

Rep. Jared Huffman (CA):

I have decided that instead of attending the inaugural ceremonies in Washington this month, I’ll spend time in…

Posted by Congressman Jared Huffman on Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA):

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (AZ):

“My absence is not motivated by disrespect for the office or motivated by disrespect for the government that we have in this great democracy, but as an individual act — yes, of defiance, at the disrespect shown to millions and millions of Americans by this incoming administration and by the actions we are taking in this Congress,” Rep. Grijalva said on the House floor, according to Fusion.

Rep. Barbara Lee (CA):

Rep. Ted Lieu (CA):

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CA):

“I acknowledge the fact that he is the incoming president, but I’m not in the mood to celebrate that fact,” Lofgren told the LA Times.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (NY):

Rep. Mark Pocan (WI):

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA):

Rep. Kurt Schrader (OR):

“I’ll do my best to work with him when I think he’s doing the right thing for the country. But he hasn’t proved himself to me at all yet, so I respectfully decline to freeze my ass out there in the cold for this particular ceremony,” Schrader told Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Rep. Jose Serrano (NY):

Rep. Adam Smith (WA)

Rep. Mark Takano (CA):

Rep. Nydia Velazquez (NY):

Rep. Maxine Waters (CA):

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ):

Rep. Frederica Wilson (FL):

UPDATE:
Add Rep. Keith Ellison to the list:

 

 

Hat tip: Fusion and The Washington Post

 

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News

Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation

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3 months ago

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July 6, 2026

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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.

Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”

“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”

In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”

He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”

“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”

“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”

“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”

The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.

“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”

Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”

Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.

Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.

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Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs

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3 months ago

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July 6, 2026

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President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.

“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”

The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”

Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”

TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”

Critics blasted Trump.

“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.

One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”

Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”

The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”

 

Image via Reuters 

 

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One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won

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3 months ago

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July 6, 2026

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President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.

According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.

Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”

“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”

Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”

Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.

Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.

The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.

“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.

The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.

“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”

 

Image via Reuters

 

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