Rep. Raul Ruiz says he won’t attend Trump’s inauguration
Representative Raul Ruiz (D-Palm Desert), says he will be skipping Friday’s Inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Ruiz will be joining at least a dozen other Democratic members of Congress from California in skipping the event,
Ruiz says he does not believe Trump is acting as a legitimate president, mentioning the Russian hacking controversy, the Twitter fights with celebrities and other politicians, along with his comments on Latinos and women.
“I truly respect the office of the Presidency and we all should and that’s why the problem is that Donald Trump doesn’t respect the office of the Presidency.” , said Congressman Ruiz.
The number of members of Congress pledging to boycott the inauguration began ticking up after a feud erupted between Trump and Democratic Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga.
On Friday, Lewis told NBC’s ”Meet the Press” that he would not be attending the inauguration and that he did not believe Trump would be a “legitimate president,” accusing Russia of helping to elect him. Trump took to Twitter the next day and fired back at the congressman, a lauded civil rights leader.
“I think that we need to start coming together as a community, as a nation. The President-elect Donald Trump has the most responsibility to bring us together, however he is not making any move towards unity. said Congressman Ruiz on the feud. “In fact this past weekend he insulted and degraded a great American hero of the civil rights, representative John Lewis, so he needs to start acting like a presidency and start bringing us together instead of pushing us away.”
At least 28 members of Congress have now RSVP’d in the negative to the swearing-in of the nation’s 44th president. At least one in five members of California’s congressional delegation are planning to boycott the event, according to the Los Angeles Times.
