ABC had clearly picked sides in the fight between President-elect Donald Trump and Congressman John Lewis, who claimed Trump was an “illegitimate president,” during their Sunday morning programming. The network spent that time slamming Trump for his counterattack on the congressman, even tying it to Martin Luther King Jr. “You know, just five days before the inauguration and one day before MLK day,” noted Paula Faris on Good Morning America, “President-elect Donald J. Trump is doubling down in his war of words with the civil rights icon, Congressman John Lewis.”
“This all started because Lewis said Trump's presidency was not legitimate and would boycott the inauguration,” she continued as she defended Lewis, “Critics tweeting out pictures of Lewis' mug shot from just one of his many arrests during his time in the civil rights movement.”
Her colleague Dan Harris insinuated that Trump would take his frustration out on the National Museum of African American History and Culture by not showing up to a planned event on Monday. But he was never forthcoming with any evidence that would lead to that sort of conclusion.
The gush was followed up with a cushy report by David Wright who glorified Lewis saying, “Others have called John Lewis the conscience of the Congress. The living link to Dr. King's dream.” Wright was dismissive of Trump’s knocks on Lewis, reporting that, “Donald Trump went ballistic. Lambasting Lewis as ‘All talk, talk, talk. No action or results.’”
The ABC reporter leaned on anti-Trump journalist Cokie Roberts, who remarked how Trump’s feud with Lewis was “not the way to reach out” to the people who didn’t support him. Wright ended his report rebuking Trump’s critique of Lewis’ district saying, “And Trump is also wrong in suggesting in his tweets that Lewis' home district is crime-infested, full of urban decay,” because big businesses are headquartered there.
ABC did not disapprove of Lewis’ claim that Trump was an “illegitimate president.” In fact, Harris seemed to lend it credence:
At the heart of this dispute between Trump and Lewis is, of course, the issue of Russia. The reason the congressman says he can't support the new president is that he believes Russia helped get Trump elected. And with congress now poised to investigate possible or alleged contacts between the campaign and the Kremlin, ABC’s Alex Marquardt has just arrived in Moscow.
During the following hour, on ABC’s This Week, Clinton lackey George Stephanopoulos grilled Trump’s Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, on the Tweets asking, “But isn't it harder to [bring people together] after a tweet like that from the president-elect?”
Priebus called them out on their lunacy, arguing, “But George, hang on. John Lewis stood up in an interview and said that Donald Trump was not a legitimate president. That's insanity.” “And to question the legitimacy of the next United States president. And you're worried about a tweet that says, “Hey, why don't you get back to work instead of questioning my legitimacy?” Too bad,” he exclaimed.
ABC had made it clear on Thursday’s World News Tonight that they plan to use any allegation of a Russian connection against the incoming president. That night, reporter Brian Ross insulated that Trump was wrong about Russia not having dirt on him and touted the KGB’s ‘blackmail tactics.’ Disregarding, and even backing up, Lewis’ smear of illegitimacy appears to be in the same vein.