The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

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Posted: Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:21 PM

Three Dem Members Of Congress Boycotting President's State of The Union Address

Two Democratic members of Congress are joining a third colleague in boycotting the State of the Union address, Leland Vittert reported Saturday.

Vittert said on "Fox & Friends" that Georgia Congressman John Lewis and Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California announced they will join Oregon's Earl Blumenauer in skipping the traditional presidential address.

"Why would I take my time to go and sit and listen to a liar," Waters, 79, said.

Lewis, 77, said he cannot go forward with attending the address to Congress, after what President Donald Trump "has said about so many Americans... I wouldn't be honest with myself."

He also told NBC News he believes Trump has racism "in his DNA."

Both legislators previously skipped Trump's Inauguration ceremony, and Waters has since repeatedly called for the New Yorker to be impeached.

Earlier this week, Trump signed one of Lewis' bills into law, declaring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthplace in Atlanta a national historic park.

Lewis criticized Trump's reportedly profane remarks about various poor and less-developed nations and also boycotted the opening of a civil rights museum in Mississippi headlined by the president.

Blumenauer, 69, said last week Trump's routinely "divisive" rhetoric spurred him to skip the State of the Union address as well.