Donald Trump attacks civil rights icon John Lewis

NEW YORK: Donald Trump criticised civil-rights leader John Lewis a day after the Georgia congressman said he doesn’t consider him “a legitimate president”. In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press With Chuck Todd” that will air in full on Sunday, Lewis said he doesn’t plan to attend Trump’s inauguration on January 20, the first such swearing-in he’ll miss since being elected to Congress in 1986.

Trump said in a pair of Twitter posts that Lewis “should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk -- no action or results. Sad!”

The exchange came two days before Monday’s Martin Luther King holiday in the US, honoring the slain civil-rights leader with whom Lewis worked closely in the 1960s. Lewis, 76, attended segregated schools in Alabama. Lewis told NBC that “Russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they helped destroy the candidacy” of Hillary Clinton.