Thumbs down: Donald Trump knocks civil rights icon John Lewis

Not one to let a perceived slight go un-tweeted, the president-elect lashed out again this weekend, this time with a vicious attack on 76-year-old Rep. John Lewis, an icon of the civil rights movement. The Georgia Democrat, who marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., said during a TV interview that he believed, based on intelligence reports, that the Russians had delivered the election to Trump and that he was not “a legitimate president.”

Rather than addressing the legitimacy question, however, Trump went after Lewis personally. “Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results,” he tweeted. “All talk, talk, talk - no action or results. Sad!”

All talk? No action? This is the same Lewis who was one of the 13 original Freedom Riders and one of the “Big Six” leaders who organized the March on Washington in 1963, the scene of King’s famous “I have a Dream” speech. Beaten multiple times, he suffered a skull fracture while joining other civil rights marchers in crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge on “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama in 1965.

He was first elected to Congress in 1987 where he has been a strong voice for gun control, gay rights and health care reform and, of course, civil rights and remains one of the most respected figures on Capitol Hill. In the future, Trump would be wise to pick on someone his own size - someone much smaller.