John Lewis blasts Trump’s 'election fraud' commission as a form of voter intimidation and harassment

A prominent civil rights leader with a three decade record in Congress is blasting President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions for trying to suppress the vote.

"That is a form of intimidation," Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) told CNN in an interview airing Friday night. "That's a form of harassment."

For over half a century, Congressman Lewis has been fighting for voting rights.

"Some of the people that make up this commission have a history, a long history, of making it harder and difficult for people to participate in the democratic process," Lewis said. "We've come too far. This President should be leading us into the future, not taking us backwards."

President Trump "knows very, very little about the struggle and the history of the Civil Rights Movement," Lewis stated.

"Black and white people died, they gave their lives," Lewis said.

Lewis himself was beaten bloody and jailed by Alabama State Troopers in the historic civil rights march on Selma, AL in 1965.

In January, he described that experience, saying, "The troopers came toward us. Beating us with whips, nightsticks. I was hit in the head by a state trooper with a night stick. I was the first one to be hit. Knocked down. My knees went from under me. I thought I saw death. I thought i was going to die on that bridge. I thought it was my last nonviolent protest."