Democrats’ Boycott: How Many Will Protest Donald Trump’s Inauguration?

The number of Democrats refusing to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration is growing. Since Trump attacked civil rights legend and Georgia Congressman John Lewis, many Democrats have said they will not attend inauguration festivities and others will join protests against him.

As of today, 26 Democrats in Congress will not attend the inauguration this Friday. Many have decided to boycott the event following Trump’s attacks on John Lewis and his decision to cancel a planned trip to an African-American museum to mark Martin Luther King Day.

“For me, the personal decision not to attend Inauguration is quite simple: Do I stand with Donald Trump, or do I stand with John Lewis? I am standing with John Lewis,” said California Representative Ted Lieu, echoing similar sentiments from several of his congressional colleagues.

“I could not look my wife, my daughters, or my grandson in the eye if I sat there and attended,” Illinois Representative Luis Gutierrez said. “As if everything that the candidate said about the women, the Latinos, the blacks, the Muslims, or any of those other things he said in those speeches and tweets, and that all of that is okay or erased from our collective memory.”

The number of Democrats in the House and Senate refusing to attend the inauguration could grow between now and Friday. One of the nation’s biggest events could end up as a Republican-only affair.