Image copyright AFP Image caption Donald Trump was widely criticised for his attack on civil rights hero John Lewis 
 
 The number of Democratic members of Congress saying they will boycott Donald Trump's inauguration on Friday has increased to 26. 
 
 Many have cited as a reason the president-elect's recent attack on civil rights icon and fellow congressman John Lewis. 
 
 Mr Trump lashed out at Mr Lewis on Twitter on Friday after Mr Lewis said he was not a "legitimate president". 
 
 He said that Mr Lewis was: "All talk, talk, talk - no action or results." 
 
 Mr Lewis was a prominent member of America's civil rights movement and is a hero to many Americans. He was among those beaten by police during the infamous Selma-Montgomery voting rights march of 1965. 
 
 As Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Day, the children of the slain civil rights leader - a contemporary of Mr Lewis - have spoken out about the spat. 
 
 Martin Luther King III played down the row following a meeting with Mr Trump in New York that he described as "very constructive". 
 
 He said that in the heat of the moment "a lot of things get said on both sides". 
 
 But his sister Bernice King told a church audience in Atlanta that "God can triumph over Trump". 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption John Lewis tells Americans to continue to speak out against hate in MLK day address. 
 
 Mr Lewis joined the House of Representatives in 1987 and has served Georgia's fifth congressional district, which Mr Trump went on to call "crime-infested", ever since. 
 
 The president-elect's insults, made just days ahead of Martin Luther King Day, were the final straw for a number of Democrats, who will break with tradition by missing the inauguration ceremony on Friday. 
 
 "When you insult Rep John Lewis, you insult America," said Yvette Clarke, one of five representatives for New York who will boycott the event. There are 535 members of Congress, across both houses. 
 
 More on this story 
 
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 California representative Ted Lieu said: "For me, the personal decision not to attend Inauguration is quite simple: Do I stand with Donald Trump, or do I stand with John Lewis? I am standing with John Lewis." 
 
 Illinois representative Luis Gutierrez was the first member of Congress to say he would boycott the inauguration - announcing his decision in December. 
 
 "I could not look my wife, my daughters, or my grandson in the eye if I sat there and attended, as if everything that the candidate said about the women, the Latinos, the blacks, the Muslims, or any of those other things he said in those speeches and tweets, and that all of that is OK or erased from our collective memory," Mr Gutierrez told the House. 
 
 He has said he will attend the alternative Women's March on Washington the following day. 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Representative Katherine Clark (centre) is among those who will boycott the ceremony 
 
 Mr Lewis's announcement of his own boycott in an interview with NBC News, in which he said that Mr Trump was an illegitimate president, prompted the outburst from the president-elect. 
 
 Mr Trump's inauguration will be the second not attended by Mr Lewis in his 30 years in Congress. 
 
 The Georgia congressman cited alleged Russian interference in the election among his reasons for regarding Mr Trump as illegitimate. 
 
 He also did not attend George W Bush's inauguration in 2001. 
 
 "You cannot be at home with something that you feel that is wrong," he told NBC News. 
 
 Sales of Mr Lewis's memoir soared to the top of Amazon's US best-seller list following Mr Trump's attack, eventually selling out completely. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Democrat lawmaker, Mark DeSaulnier, tells the BBC why he is boycotting Trump's inauguration 
 
 Mr Lewis led a sit-in protest at the House of Representatives in July to demand a vote on gun control legislation, in the wake of the deadly Orlando shooting. 
 
 Republicans adjourned the House early to try to quash the sit-in, switching off the TV cameras, but the C-Span network picked up live streams from some Democrats' phones. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The moment congressman John Lewis asked Democrats to take action 
 
 Katherine Clark, a representative for Massachusetts, was among the first to join Mr Lewis for the gun control protest. Ms Clark said last week she would skip Mr Trump's inauguration. 
 
 "Families in my district are fearful that the anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and divisive promises that drove the Trump campaign will become the policies affecting the health and safety of every American," she said in a statement. 
 
 "I do not feel that I can contribute to the normalisation of the president-elect's divisive rhetoric by participating in the inauguration." 
 
 Mr Trump has struggled to book any established musicians to perform at his ceremony, despite his team appearing to have cast a wide net. 
 
 The event will feature Jackie Evancho, a 16-year-old America's Got Talent contestant, alongside military bands and the Radio City Rockettes, although some members of the Rockettes troupe have publicly refused to take part. 
 
 Country music stars including Toby Keith will play a concert on the eve of the inauguration. 
 
 Update 23 January 2017: This story has been updated following confirmation from John Lewis's office that he also missed Mr Bush's inauguration ceremony in 2001. ||||| At a Dr. Martin Luther King Day Jr. breakfast in his honor, civil rights icon and recent target of President-elect Donald Trump's ire — Georgia Democrat Rep. John Lewis — eschewed his prepared remarks and spoke candidly about his remarkable personal journey. He described his impoverished childhood in Alabama and his career as an activist, which eventually sparked a long political career. 
 
 Lewis delivered the address to a group of young African-American men as part of the 5000 Role Models' of Excellence Project's annual scholarship breakfast in Miami on Monday. His comments came amid a firestorm generated by his recent assertion on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Trump is not a "legitimate" president-elect. The president-elect quickly took to Twitter to deem the lawmaker as "all talk" and call his congressional district "crime infested." 
 
 Related: Rep. Lewis: I Would Not Invite Trump to Selma 
 
 On Monday, Lewis chose not to rehash the controversy or engage Trump, instead focusing on his political evolution and the cause of his life — expanding the right to vote to as many eligible people as possible. 
 
 "The vote is precious is almost sacred it is the most powerful not violent instrument or tool that we have in a democratic society and we must use it," Lewis said Monday. 
 
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 The Democrat also reiterated the virtues of non-violence, which he championed as a young activist alongside Dr. Martin Luther King at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. 
 
 "The way of love is a better way, the way of peace is a better way," Lewis said. 
 
 In the speech, Lewis was also defiant about the need to stand up for your principles regardless of the risks. 
 
 "Never give up, never give in. Stand up, speak up. When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something, to say something and not be quiet," Lewis said, his voice rising with emotion. "The scars and stains of racism are deeply embedded in American society." 
 
 He went on to tell the audience at the scholarship breakfast that they are "more than lucky" to live in a world shaped by King's sacrifices. 
 
 From left center, John Lewis (holding bottle), Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy, march for civil rights from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, March 19, 1965. Others unidentified. AP 
 
 "If it hadn’t been for Martin Luther King, Jr. I wouldn’t be a member of the House of Representatives since 1987," said Lewis. "He freed us he helped liberate us to make our nation a better place, to make our world a better place." 
 
 Lewis, who King nicknamed "the boy from Troy" because of his courageous efforts to integrate what would eventually become Troy University in Alabama, is the lone surviving keynote speaker from the historic 1963 March on Washington. He is one of the only figures involved whose speech was censored by the organizers because it was deemed too politically incendiary. 
 
 Related: Trump is Not a Legitimate President: Civil Rights Icon Rep. John Lewis 
 
 And while those efforts helped turn Lewis into a hero for many Americans (including Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who described the Congressman "as the most extraordinary figures in America, a true American hero" at Monday's event), it also left him with a fractured skull, which he suffered at the end of billy club wielded by police on the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma during a protest gone awry in 1965. 
 
 Today, Lewis looks back on his acts of civil disobedience as an effort to cause "good trouble" for a noble cause. And he hasn't slowed down, despite the fact that he will turn 77 this year. 
 
 I'm on the House floor with @repjohnlewis & Dems staging a sit-in to demand action on commonsense gun legislation pic.twitter.com/byIivby5gG — Rep. John Yarmuth (@RepJohnYarmuth) June 22, 2016 
 
 In just the past year, he's drawn criticism (and praise) for leading a late-night sit-in on Capital Hill to protest inaction on gun control legislation and for testifying against Trump's pick for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions. 
 
 He concluded Monday's event by making the case for being ambitious about education and participation in the democratic process, telling the young men: "Never give up your dreams ... just go for it." ||||| Donald Trump lashed out at Rep. John Lewis on Saturday after the civil rights icon said he doesn't view Trump as a "legitimate president” — and the confrontation threatened to trigger a broader boycott of Trump’s inauguration by Democratic lawmakers already on the fence about attending. 
 
 Trump showed yet again that no one who crosses him — no matter how revered or respected, as Lewis is among both parties in Congress — will necessarily be spared his ire. Lewis was one of the top organizers of the 1963 March on Washington, and his skull was fractured by law enforcement authorities on "Bloody Sunday," the civil rights protest in Selma, Alabama, two years later. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 "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. All talk, talk, talk — no action or results. Sad!" Trump wrote in two tweets Saturday morning. 
 
 The tweets, two days before the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King, came after Lewis questioned Trump's victory in the presidential race in a pre-taped "Meet the Press" interview that aired Friday on NBC. 
 
 “I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected, and they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton,” Lewis told host Chuck Todd. Lewis said he does not view the "president-elect as a legitimate president” and won't attend his inauguration. 
 
 The 76-year-old lawmaker also testified against Trump's pick for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who has faced long-running accusations of racism that he denies. 
 
 The back-and-forth between Trump and Lewis is the latest sign of partisan upheaval since Trump's victory. Some of the most heated criticism of the president-elect has come from African-American lawmakers. 
 
 Lewis joined a growing group of House Democrats who have declared they’ll be skipping the inauguration rather than sitting by as President Barack Obama transfers power to Trump. Eighteen lawmakers so far have said they will not attend. 
 
 "I stand with @repjohnlewis and I will not be attending the inauguration," Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) tweeted on Saturday morning. The hashtag #StandWithJohnLewis cropped up elsewhere on Twitter. 
 
 Lewis’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Trump's transition team. 
 
 But a source involved in the transition said "no one around Trump would suggest it's a good idea to attack John Lewis on Twitter." 
 
 Trump is particularly aggrieved by any comment that questions the legitimacy of his election, the source said, who added that there often is not a larger strategy at work. He is "not going to change. And when you attack him he's going to hit back, whatever anyone thinks." 
 
 Trump’s attack follows the formula of his previous response to slights on the campaign trail, including questioning Sen. John McCain’s war record. The president-elect even went after the pope once. 
 
 Rep. John Lewis questioned Trump's victory in the presidential race in a pre-taped "Meet the Press" interview that aired Friday on NBC. | AP Photo 
 
 His target this time provoked a sharp response from Democrats as well as one Republican senator. 
 
 Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), a fervent Trump critic throughout the campaign, retweeted Trump, adding: "John Lewis and his 'talk' have changed the world." Sasse on Friday had pleaded with Lewis to attend the inauguration. “To John Lewis, one of my heroes: Please come to the Inauguration. It isn't about a man. It is a celebration of peaceful transfer of power,” Sasse tweeted. 
 
 Democrats were more unsparing. 
 
 Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Trump's attack on Lewis "puts him in a very grave hole," and members are trying to decide what's next and whether it makes sense to attend the inauguration. 
 
 "You can guarantee this will cause people to organize with even greater intensity," he said. "This will make it even more likely that additional members skip the inauguration." 
 
 Jeffries said to expect Democrats to keep up the legitimacy attack on Trump and that members of the Congressional Black Caucus are likely to speak in the next 24 hours. "Trump won this election because of his help from Russia," he said. 
 
 House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tweeted that "many have tried to silence @repjohnlewis over the years. All have failed." 
 
 Mike DuHaime, Chris Christie's top strategist who is close to many in Trump's orbit, said that while Lewis' moral status doesn't "make him immune from criticism or disagreement in the political arena, he has earned tremendous deference and respect. While Rep. Lewis's comments questioning the legitimacy of the election are wrong, any protracted disagreement with him, especially when it sounds personal, is counterproductive at a time when we should be trying our best to come together." 
 
 Ahead of #MLKday2017, let us remember that many have tried to silence @repjohnlewis over the years. All have failed. — Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) January 14, 2017 
 
 Despite the backlash, Trump reiterated his position in another tweet Saturday night. "Congressman John Lewis should finally focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities of the U.S. I can use all the help I can get!" he wrote. 
 
 While Lewis's district includes some poorer stretches of Atlanta and lags the national average on some key indicators, it is not a leader of poverty-ridden, crime-infested areas Trump that made it out to be and has a number of wealthy suburbs. 
 
 Lewis and the Democratic Party on Saturday sent out a fundraising email citing Trump's tweets. 
 
 Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University who met recently with Trump, said the president-elect is entering the White House with less goodwill than past presidents, according to many polls. 
 
 Brinkley said "the constant fights and controversies" is likely to shrink his political capital and that Trump needed to try to strike a more balanced tone. 
 
 "He's got a very divided country and hasn't been working particularly hard at healing that gaping wound," Brinkley said. 
 
 But whether the attack on Lewis damages Trump is unclear. Ari Fleischer, the former press secretary to President George. W. Bush, said Trump made many comments on the campaign trail that were thought to be the end of him. 
 
 "Politicians learn to stop saying anything controversial because their threshold of pain is low," Fleischer said. "Trump can be boorish, he can be offensive, he can be highly controversial, but he lets it rip, and people see him as not another politician who parses his lips like politicians are supposed to." ||||| Donald Trump met with Martin Luther King III on Monday, a holiday commemorating the life of King's father, which this year was marked by Trump’s quarrel with Rep. John Lewis, a hero of the civil rights struggle. 
 
 King, the oldest surviving child of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., described the meeting at Trump Tower as constructive and said it had centered on efforts to improve the voting system. 
 
 Asked by reporters about Trump’s characterization Saturday of Lewis as “all talk … no action,” King said he “absolutely” disagreed. 
 
 “I would say John Lewis has demonstrated that he is action,” King said. 
 
 But, he added, “Things get said on both sides in the heat of emotion. And at some point in this nation, we’ve got to move forward.” 
 
 The conflict between the president-elect and Lewis began Friday when NBC’s “Meet the Press” released video of Lewis saying he did not consider Trump a legitimate president. 
 
 On Saturday, Trump responded via Twitter, criticizing Lewis and referring to his Atlanta-area congressional district as downtrodden and crime-ridden. Actually, it includes many of the city's high-end areas. 
 
 King said that Trump told him that he intended to represent all Americans. 
 
 “I believe that’s his intent,” King said. “I believe we have to consistently engage with pressure, public pressure.” 
 
 In his reference to voting, King appeared to be referring to difficulties faced by African American voters, many of them due to restrictive laws put into effect by Republican legislators. 
 
 Trump, during his campaign, suggested that voters in overwhelmingly African American cities like Philadelphia could be planning to steal the election via voter fraud. 
 
 After the meeting, Trump accompanied King down the elevator and shook his hand before returning upstairs. He did not speak to reporters. ||||| Rep. John Lewis, a champion of the civil rights movement and congressman for 31 years, has been released from an Atlanta hospital one day after falling ill on a plane. 
 
 The 78-year-old Democrat from Georgia had been admitted for "routine observation," according to spokesperson Brenda Jones. 
 
 By Sunday night, the congressman had been released from the hospital. 
 
 "Rep. John Lewis has been released from the hospital this evening," according to a statement. "All tests have been completed, and doctors have given him a 'clean bill of health.' He thanks everyone who shared their thoughts, prayers and concerns during his stay." 
 
 Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images 
 
 Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB reported the congressman fell ill on a plane trip back to Atlanta, where he was to attend an event Saturday night. 
 
 Jones had said Saturday night the civil rights icon was fine and expected to be released on Sunday. 
 
 "There is no cause for alarm," Jones said in an email to ABC News. "He will be fine. He's resting comfortably and expects to be released tomorrow." 
 
 The representative was a close friend of Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1960s and took part in many of the same iconic civil rights moments as King. 
 
 Bettmann Archive/Getty Images 
 
 As chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the mid-'60s, he was one of the first Freedom Riders. He and 12 others, six of whom were black, traveled from Washington, D.C., to Louisiana to protest segregated interstate bus travel. He and the group were met by protesters who beat the group of students. 
 
 Lewis walked alongside the civil rights leader in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965, when he was badly beaten by police while crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. 
 
 He suffered a fractured skull in the attack. 
 
 AP Photo 
 
 Lewis has served in Congress since January 1987. Currently representing Georgia's 5th Congressional District, he has been re-elected 14 times -- often running unopposed in recent years. 
 
 His activism did not stop in the 1960s, however. He has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump and many of his policies since he took office. Recently, he took part in extensive protests against the president's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy. 
 
 Lewis was part of a march in Atlanta on June 30 to praise attendees causing "good trouble, necessary trouble" in trying to keep the pressure on the administration's immigration policy. 
 
 "The world is crying with us," Lewis told the crowd. "We must show the world that we are better than what is going on in America today." 
 
 Joshua Roberts/Reuters FILE 
 
 He skipped the president's first official State of the Union address in January, telling ABC News' "This Week," that "I cannot sit there and listen to him." He also skipped the president's inauguration a year earlier, which brought on an attack from Trump. 
 
 "Congressman John Lewis should finally focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities of the U.S.," Trump tweeted on Jan. 14, 2017. "I can use all the help I can get!" 
 
 Lewis was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honor, in February 2011 by then-President Barack Obama. 
 
 ABC News' Quinn Owen contributed to this report. ||||| One of the highest elected officials in one of Georgia’s most diverse counties waded into controversial territory over the weekend when he wrote a Facebook post calling U.S. Rep. John Lewis – a Civil Rights legend already locked in a war of words with president-elect Donald Trump – a “racist pig.” 
 
 The reaction to Gwinnett County Commissioner Tommy Hunter, a Republican, taking on Lewis a few days before the holiday honoring the life of counterpart Martin Luther King Jr. was varied – but swift. 
 
 Many took to the comments section of Hunter’s Facebook posts to support him. Others did quite the opposite. 
 
 “Hunter is a disgrace to Gwinnett County in particular and Georgia in general, and he should apologize for those comments,” Gwinnett Democratic Party Chairman Gabe Okoye told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 
 
 He later called for Hunter to resign. 
 
 Hunter, who was first elected to Gwinnett’s Board of Commissioners in 2012 and narrowly won re-election in November, made the Facebook post in question on Saturday afternoon. It came amid a well-publicized feud between Lewis and Trump, which started when Lewis told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he didn’t view Trump as a “legitimate president.” 
 
 Trump then responded on Twitter, calling Lewis “all talk” and proclaiming his Congressional district — which includes most of the city of Atlanta — to be “in terrible shape and falling apart.” 
 
 In addition to calling Lewis “a racist pig,” the subsequent Facebook post from Hunter – whose Gwinnett district lies many miles east of Lewis’ congressional one – referred to “Demonrats” as “a bunch of idiots.” 
 
 A recent Facebook post from Gwinnett County Commissioner Tommy Hunter. (Facebook screenshot) 
 
 On Sunday afternoon, Hunter addressed Lewis on Facebook a second time, calling his election wins “all illegitimate.” 
 
 A recent Facebook post from Gwinnett County Commissioner Tommy Hunter. 
 
 Hunter later posted an image that included this phrase: “If you’re easily offended and looking for a ‘safe place’ my page ain’t it.. Move along snowflake.” 
 
 Sometime shortly before 11 a.m. Monday, however, the “racist pig” post was no longer on Hunter’s timeline. The page’s privacy settings also appeared to be changed, but the other posts mentioned above were still visible to “friends” and “followers” — along with additional posts mocking U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, asking if there were “any white guys" on the University of Alabama’s football team and criticizing Gov. Nathan Deal’s decision to declare a state of emergency ahead of last weekend’s ultimately uneventful winter storm. 
 
 In November, he used the word “libtard” in a comment on one of his own Facebook posts. 
 
 The privacy changes on Hunter’s Facebook page were likely in response to an influx of nasty comments, many of which called the commissioner disparaging names or urged him to “stay classy.” 
 
 Hunter is the vice president of a local environmental testing firm and, prior to his time on the Board of Commissioners, worked in the county’s department of public utilities and served on its water and sewage authority (2005-09) and its planning commission (2011-12). Controversial or contentious votes are generally few and far between for Gwinnett’s Board of Commissioners, but Hunter represents himself as a staunch conservative. 
 
 He represents District 3, which covers a wide (and diverse) swath of southern and eastern Gwinnett, including parts of Snellville, Loganville, Grayson and Dacula. 
 
 Though much of suburban Gwinnett remains a Republican stronghold, Hillary Clinton won the county in November’s presidential election. It was the first time a Democrat took Gwinnett since Jimmy Carter in 1976. 
 
 Gwinnett is the second-most populous county in Georgia and is also a majority-minority county, meaning non-white residents account for more than half of its population. 
 
 Hunter’s fellow commissioners, all Republicans, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday. Nor did several other local, state and federal Republican party members with Gwinnett ties. 
 
 Some local Democrats were happy to weigh in, however. 
 
 Georgia State Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick, whose District 93 touches part of Hunter’s Gwinnett territory, shared her thoughts on Twitter, saying she was “ashamed” of him. 
 
 I'm ashamed he represents the GWINNETT portion of my district. https://t.co/NNfAY1FM3Z — Dar'shun Kendrick (@DarshunKendrick) January 16, 2017 
 
 For his part, Hunter later told The AJC that his “racist pig” comment was “probably an overreaction out of aggravation” — but he didn’t back down from the rest of his message. 
 
 In a lengthy message sent to a reporter, he defended Trump, saying the president-elect isn’t racist and downplaying reports of Russian hacking possibly influencing the election. 
 
 “While I am grateful for what the Congressman did in Selma and other times during the civil rights movement, you get respect by showing respect,” Hunter wrote. “He is using his fame as a way to continually divide the races and in this case standing on the very much unsubstantiated claim that the guy I voted for [Trump] is racist and only won because of Russians hacking the election—which, of course, we all know didn't occur.” 
 
 “So, true to exactly what the political pundits said would happen, he makes the claim that Trump, and all of us that voted for him, are illegitimate,” Hunter’s message continued. “Therefore I claim [Lewis] is illegitimate and make just as many unsubstantiated claims as [Trump] does. After all, in today's world, it's not about the evidence, but the seriousness of the charges.” 
 
 Shortly after sending that message, Hunter took to Facebook again — this time to wish his followers a “Happy MLK Day.” 
 
 A recent Facebook post from Gwinnett County Commissioner Tommy Hunter. 
 
 Gwinnett County’s annual parade celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. was held Monday morning in Lawrenceville. Donna McLeod, a Democrat who narrowly lost her bid last year for Georgia House District 105, which is partially in Hunter’s district, was there. 
 
 She said she wasn’t surprised by Hunter’s comments. 
 
 “This is the kind of campaign that the president-elect ran,” McLeod said. 
 
 Susan Clymer, another member of the Gwinnett County Democratic Party, said she thinks Lewis represents everything that King would have – fighting injustice and inequality. 
 
 “This Tommy Hunter is painting a horrible picture of Gwinnett County,” Clymer said. “He’s reflecting poorly on all of us, black, white or whatever.” 
 
 Not all of the feedback on Hunter’s comments was negative, though. On Monday afternoon, a woman who described herself as a personal friend of Hunter’s posted on his Facebook page. 
 
 “He is a fantastic man with an exceptional heart, and that’s all that matters,” she wrote. “So what if he openly put his view on [Facebook]. We ALL do a little too much of that. So if expressing yourself on [Facebook] is now wrong we all need to get off.” 
 
 Hunter and the rest of Gwinnett’s Board of Commissioners are scheduled to have their next bi-monthly meeting on Tuesday. 
 
 —Staff writer Lauren Foreman contributed to this article. Please return to AJC.com for updates. ||||| CLEVELAND — Donald Trump campaigned Wednesday morning in a church in a historically African-American community and sold himself as the candidate who could fix the problems of urban America. Within hours, Trump was proposing a vast expansion of “stop-and-frisk” policing policies that have proved explosively controversial in black communities for encouraging racial profiling. 
 
 It was just another day in Trump’s up-and-down black outreach campaign undertaken to wash away the stain of racism charges lobbed at him by Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. 
 
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 The effort has taken Trump from a black church in inner-city Detroit earlier this month to addressing largely white audiences in rural North Carolina where, on Tuesday evening, he proclaimed in a small town named after a slaveholder that black communities "are absolutely in the worst shape that they’ve ever been in before, ever, ever, ever." 
 
 On Wednesday, Trump hit the campaign trail with former boxing promoter Don King — who dropped the N-word before a group of pastors at a Cleveland church while extolling Trump as a “gladiator.” King hailed Trump as the rare candidate who would overthrow the existing political system under which minorities have suffered. 
 
 “The system is the problem, and he’s the only gladiator that will take on the system,” King said. 
 
 After the church event, Trump sat for a “town hall” with Fox News host and unabashed supporter Sean Hannity. Asked by an audience member what he would do to address “violence in the black community,” Trump embraced stop-and-frisk. 
 
 “We did it in New York, it worked incredibly well,” Trump said. 
 
 Fierce opposition to that policy in minority communities was among the issues that Bill de Blasio rode to prominence and, ultimately, the mayor’s office. 
 
 But even before Trump’s stop-and-frisk comments, he was taking heat for his “ever, ever, ever” remark Tuesday night. 
 
 “I don't know what Mr. Trump is talking about to say that the situation for African-Americans is worse than it's ever been,” Rep. John Lewis, the Democratic civil rights icon, said Wednesday on MSNBC. “Is he talking about worse than slavery? Worse than the system of segregation and racial discrimination — when we couldn't take a seat at the lunch counter and be served? Worse than being denied the right to register to vote, to participate in the democratic process and live in certain neighborhoods and communities?” 
 
 Trump’s polling numbers among African-American voters have been dismal — in the low single digits — and some believe his outreach to black voters is as much about convincing moderate white voters, particularly women and those in the suburbs, that he is not racist. Trump regularly brings up his outreach to blacks — “What do you have to lose?” he says — to largely white audiences. 
 
 At the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland, Trump assembled an eclectic kitchen cabinet of some of his closest advisers to attest to his beliefs before a diverse crowd. 
 
 Seated to Trump’s right was Mike Pence, his soft-spoken running mate. To his left, outspoken longtime attorney Michael Cohen. Behind him: King (“there’s only one,” Trump said), former presidential rival Ben Carson (“tough”), retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (“a tough general”) and former "Apprentice" star Omarosa Manigault (“a wonderful woman”), who has helped with Trump’s black outreach. 
 
 “I’m different from a lot of Republicans, frankly,” Trump said from the pulpit. 
 
 Trump, who has called himself the “law and order” candidate, criticized the police officer who shot an unarmed black man in Oklahoma last week. Trump said he had watched the video and that the officer may have been “choking” in the fatal shooting. Trump has mostly defended the police in such incidents. 
 
 "Now, did she get scared? Was she choking? What happened? But maybe people like that, people that choke, people that do that, maybe they can't be doing what they're doing, OK?” 
 
 King, whom top GOP officials had pushed not to speak at the Republican National Convention due to a past manslaughter conviction, was given the prime slot of introducing Trump at a forum billed as a pastors leadership conference. 
 
 King, clothed in a sparkling jacket and clutching the flags of Israel and the United States, argued repeatedly that “the system” had oppressed minorities and women and only Trump can upend it entirely. 
 
 “Every white woman should cast a vote for Donald Trump,” said King, who also went on an extended riff about the struggles of African-Americans. 
 
 “I told Michael Jackson, I said if you're poor, you're a poor Negro — I would use the N-word — but if you rich, you are a rich Negro; if you are intelligent, intellectual, you're an intellectual Negro; if you're a dancing and sliding and gliding n-----, I mean, Negro,” King said. 
 
 When Trump took his turn at the pulpit minutes later, he grinned, “Ah, there’s only one Don King.” 
 
 Before King, Cohen, Trump’s attorney, used his time at the church to slash at the “disgusting, liberal, mainstream media” and its casting of Trump as a “racist.” 
 
 “The word of the 2016 election has somehow become ‘racist,’” Cohen complained. “I’ve lost count as to how many times the disgusting, liberal, mainstream media have attempted to label Mr. Donald Trump as racist, a xenophobe and a bigot. And let’s not forget, sexist, misogynist, narcissist, Islamophobe, anti-Hispanic, anti-Semite demagogue. And countless others. It’s disgraceful.” 
 
 Cohen said, “Not only is Donald Trump not a racist, he believes that all people are part of one race: the human race.” 
 
 Trump insisted that Democrats had abandoned black voters, and that he wouldn’t. 
 
 “They come and they take your vote,” Trump said, “and they say they’ll see you in four years.” ||||| State of the Union: The Democratic boycott list grows 
 
 CLOSE Plagued by historically low public approval numbers and the firestorm of the Russia probe, President Donald Trump will look to celebrate his successes and reset his term Tuesday night with his first official State of the Union address. (Jan. 29) AP 
 
 A growing number of Democrats say they plan to boycott President Trump’s first State of the Union address. 
 
 The members are citing objections to Trump’s rhetoric and politics, with several pointing specifically to reports this month that Trump questioned why the U.S. accepts so many immigrants from “s---hole countries” in Africa and said the U.S. didn't need more people from Haiti. 
 
 While more than 60 Democrats skipped Trump’s inauguration, most will attend the address on Tuesday, using the event and their guest selections to highlight concerns about immigration, health, gun violence prevention and sexual misconduct. 
 
 Michael Ahrens, Republican National Committee spokesman, said boycotting politicians “clearly don’t realize that it’s not about them, it’s about the citizens they were elected to represent. 
 
 "By refusing to attend a joint session of Congress, they’re failing to do their jobs and robbing their constituents of the representation they deserve,” Ahrens said. 
 
 Here is a list of Democrats saying they won’t attend: 
 
 Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon 
 
 Blumenauer, the first to announce he will not attend, said he will be in Oregon listening to constituents rather than “listening to yet another destructive and divisive speech by Trump.” He later announced on Facebook that he’ll send an Oregon “DREAMer” — undocumented immigrants brought here as children — in his place, “to remind Trump that these are real people with families and jobs, who are vital to our communities. They deserve certainty and protection.” 
 
 Rep. John Lewis of Georgia 
 
 The civil rights icon, who marched with The Rev. Martin Luther King, announced he wouldn’t attend the speech on MSNBC after reports of Trump’s "s---hole" comments. Lewis called the statements “unreal” and later said, “I cannot, in all the conscience, be in a room with what he has said about so many Americans. I just cannot do it. I wouldn't be honest with myself.” 
 
 Last year, Lewis said he wouldn’t attend Trump’s inauguration because he didn’t consider Trump a “legitimate president.” Trump responded by tweeting that the congressman was “all talk, talk, talk – no action or results.” 
 
 Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington 
 
 The first-term congresswoman said she refuses “to dignify a president who has used the platform of the Oval Office to fan the flames of racism, sexism and hatred — most recently with his vulgar condemnation of Haiti and other African countries.” 
 
 If I felt that attending @realDonaldTrump's State of the Union advanced the interests of Washington's 7th District, the United States, or the global community to which we are so interconnected, I would be there. 
 
 
 
 But it doesn't. Here is why. https://t.co/XvUlUHdgmX — Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) January 17, 2018 
 
 Rep. Barbara Lee of California 
 
 "I will not attend this State of the Union because this president has not honored nor respected the office of the presidency and has shown a total disregard for our democratic institutions," she said in a statement. 
 
 Rep. Maxine Waters of California 
 
 Waters, an outspoken critic of Trump’s, said on MSNBC, “I don’t trust him, I don’t appreciate him and I wouldn’t waste my time sitting in that House listening to what he has to say. He does not deserve my attention.” 
 
 Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida 
 
 Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla. (Photo: Joe Skipper, Getty Images) 
 
 Wilson told CNN that "to go would be to honor the President and I don't think he deserves to be honored at this time, after being so hateful towards black people and then black countries, Haiti and the whole continent of Africa. It hurts." 
 
 Wilson and Trump tangled publicly in October when Wilson said Trump told the widow of a U.S. service member killed in Niger that "he knew what he signed up for." Trump denied the claim. 
 
 Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois 
 
 Schakowsky told the Chicago Sun-Times her reasons for skipping the speech include Trump’s so-called “Muslim travel ban,” his failure to denounce Nazis after violence in Charlottesville and his language during the immigration discussion. 
 
 Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York 
 
 “I cannot give this man, who does not respect me, the respect to be in that audience,” Meeks said on MSNBC. 
 
 Rep. Albio Sires of New Jersey 
 
 "The congressman is not attending the State of the Union because many of his constituents are offended by the president's rhetoric and behavior," Sires spokeswoman Erica Daughtrey told N.J. Advance Media. 
 
 Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois 
 
 “We are watching the presidency erode before our eyes and I, for one, refuse to participate in pomp and circumstance that does nothing but normalize his egregious and hateful behavior,” Rush said in a statement. “This is a presidency that has been built on racism, stupidity, and lies, which has already wasted enough of America’s time and I will not waste any more of mine.” 
 
 Also not attending 
 
 Reps. Juan Vargas of California, Danny Davis of Illinois and Steve Cohen of Tennessee, according to news reports. 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2FtfJ3P ||||| Martin Luther King Jr.’s eldest son on Monday compared President Trump Donald John TrumpTrump concerned Zinke broke rules amid DOJ referral: report 1,600 scientists sign letter opposing Trump’s plan to narrow gender definition Five Takeaways from West Virginia's Senate debate MORE to former Alabama Gov. George Wallace (D) amid backlash over Trump's controversial "shithole countries" remark, The Associated Press reported. 
 
 “George Wallace was a staunch racist and we worked on his heart and ultimately George Wallace transformed,” Martin Luther King III said while speaking in Washington on the holiday named after his father. 
 
 “We got to find a way to work on this man’s heart,” he adding, referring to Trump. 
 
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 Wallace emerged during the height of the civil rights movement as one of the nation's most vocal segregationists, declaring during his 1963 inaugural address: "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." 
 
 King's remarks about Trump come after the president faced immense scrutiny for reportedly describing several nations as "shithole countries" during a meeting on immigration reform with lawmakers last week. 
 
 Trump made the comment in an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers during a discussion of protections for immigrants from several countries, according to The Washington Post. 
 
 “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump reportedly said, referring to immigrants from African countries, Haiti and El Salvador. He then allegedly proposed bringing in more immigrants from countries like Norway, a predominantly white country. 
 
 The White House did not initially deny the remarks, which were confirmed by Sen. Dick Durbin Richard (Dick) Joseph DurbinDem senators request classified briefing on Khashoggi Farm bill negotiators should take advantage of the moment The Hill's 12:30 Report — Trump says he is cutting foreign aid over caravan | Lawmakers point fingers at Saudi crown prince | DNC chair downplays 'blue wave' talk MORE (D-Ill.), but Trump later took to Twitter to say he "never" made such comments. 
 
 Martin Luther King III joined the chorus of critics who say Trump's recent remarks indicate he is racist. 
 
 “When a president insists that our nation needs more citizens from white states like Norway, I don’t even think we need to spend any time even talking about what it says and what it is,” he said, according to the report.
– Donald Trump's feud with civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis of Georgia was making political headlines on Martin Luther King Day. (The background on the feud is here.) Coverage: The New York Times explores how it further frays Trump's ties with an African-American community already wary of him. "I don't think we have ever had a president so publicly condescending to what black politics means," says a Duke professor. A GOP county commissioner in Georgia's Gwinnett County, Tommy Hunter, is facing calls to resign after he wrote online that Lewis is a "racist pig." See the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In a speech marking MLK Day, Lewis did not mention Trump, instead telling personal stories of his own civil rights battles and preaching non-violence. "The way of love is a better way," he said, per NBC News. Michelle Obama tweeted her support of Lewis today. Martin Luther King III met with Trump Monday, and while he praised Lewis, he also sought to tamp down the controversy. “Things get said on both sides in the heat of emotion. And at some point in this nation, we’ve got to move forward.” See the Los Angeles Times. So far, nearly 28 Democratic members of Congress vow to skip the inauguration, reports the BBC. A blogger at the liberal Daily Kos says Lewis went too far in saying Trump was not a "legitimate president." Democrats must admit it or face charges of hypocrisy, reads the post here. Mike Pence is "so disappointed" in Lewis, he tells Fox News. Trump slammed Lewis' Atlanta district as crime-ridden and "falling apart," and those who live there were surprised to hear it and eager to rebut the charge. See the Wall Street Journal. Columnist Paul Krugman defends Lewis' original slam of Trump as "an act of patriotism." Read it in the New York Times. Columnist David Weigel writes that Democrats, including Lewis, appear to have learned that "explosive rhetoric" of the sort mastered by Trump is the new normal. Welcome to the "New Rudeness," he writes at the Washington Post.