In a formal protest against the incoming presidency of Donald Trump, some congressional democrats have decided to sit out his inauguration as an act of resistance toward his election and also in favoring support for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The inaugural ceremony, which is scheduled to take place on January 20, the same day of the holiday commemorating a national figure of the civil rights movement, has added another layer on top of the other reasons democratic representatives plan to skip the event.
As of now, more than a dozen house representatives in the Democratic Party are planning to skip the inauguration, while others remain undecided, Axios reported.
“I don’t think that this is a time for celebration. I think that if we had a traditional Republican where there were disagreements, then, yeah, I would most likely be there, I would feel more obligated to be there, especially as a sitting member of Congress,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett, TX-30, said of her decision to sit the ceremony out. “But considering this is also Martin Luther King Day, it just seems like the worst way to spend the day knowing that I would be celebrating someone who really is going to work very hard to tear down the legacy in which literally he lived and died for.”
“There are civil rights organizations that are trying to set up alternatives,” she added, asserting that Trump’s inauguration “seems like the worst place to spend Martin Luther King Day.”
Democratic representatives who have decided to attend Trump’s inauguration have expressed their decision represents an effort to maintain public trust in democracy and the peaceful transfer of power, especially following the events after the 2020 election.
“I will go to the inauguration to demonstrate what a peaceful transfer of power looks like… I think it’s very powerful for members of Congress to be there, from the Democratic side, to show our colleagues what it looks like in a true and healthy democracy to have people from both parties there,” said Rep. Becca Balint, VT-AL.
Yet, while dozens of democrats protested Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and attack on the Capitol has added another layer of reasoning behind the boycott for other representatives who have decided not to attend the ceremony, as they argue his reelection poses a considerable threat to the country’s democracy.
“I was trapped in the gallery on Jan. 6, that’s why,” said Rep. Veronica Escobar, TX-16, regarding her decision not to attend the ceremony.
Rep. Steven Cohen, TN-9, has taken a similar stance in protest of the inauguration, saying, “[Trump] has said he is going to pardon some of the Jan. 6 prisoners at his inauguration, and as one who was in the gallery and then locked in my office in the early morning as the insurrectionists tried to overthrow our government and beat police, some to the point of death, I cannot be a part of that spectacle.”
