'He is a racist': Civil rights icon John Lewis says Trump 'made me cry' with MLK photo op after Africa slurs
U.S. Representative John Lewis (D-GA), an icon of the Civil Rights Movement, revealed on Sunday that he cried after President Donald Trump reportedly referred to African nations as "shithole" countries.
In an interview on ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos asked Lewis to react to Trump's attempt to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. after reports said that the president had made racist remarks about African countries and Haitian refugees.
"I don't think there is any way that you can square what the president said [about Haiti and Africa] with the words of Martin Luther King Jr., and with what [the president] said about Dr. King," Lewis lamented. "It's just impossible. It's not any way you can do that. It's unreal. It's unbelievable. It made me sad. It made me cry."
"As a nation and as a people we've come so far, we made so much progress," he continued. "And I think this man, this president is taking up back to another place."
"Do you think President Donald Trump is a racist?" Stephanopoulos asked.
"I think he is a racist," Lewis agreed. "We have to stand up, we have to speak up and not try to sweep it under the rug."
Watch the video below from ABC.