Dozens of Democratic lawmakers now say they are skipping Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Friday after more representatives made their boycott plans known on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.Some Democrats had said they were boycotting the event before the weekend, but more Democratic members of the House said they wouldn’t attend after Trump in a series of tweets attacked Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who a day earlier said he doesn’t see Trump as a “legitimate president” because of Russia’s alleged interference in the election.
As of last week, a very modest number of congressional Dems were on record saying they’d boycott Trump’s inauguration, but the total jumped in the wake of Trump’s feud with John Lewis, a respected, iconic figure on Capitol Hill.By late yesterday, the number was just above 30. As of this afternoon, the Huffington Post‘s tally, which looks accurate to me, puts the new total at 54. (It’s worth noting, however, that 3 of the 54 said they’re skipping Friday’s event, but not to protest the incoming president.)I don’t expect this year’s boycott to reach the size of Nixon’s in 1973, but there are still a few days remaining and if Trump took another outrageous step that offended the minority party, the totals may draw close.At this point, however, zero Democratic senators have joined the effort.
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."