Many congressional Democrats don’t plan to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, but this time around, they’re not calling it a boycott.
Anti-Trump sentiments still abound in the House Democratic Caucus, but their ill will toward Mr. Trump has been tempered by his resounding political comeback.
At Mr. Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, more than 60 Democratic lawmakers boycotted the event because, they said, Mr. Trump was an illegitimate and dangerous president.
Eight years later, while plenty of House Democrats are skipping Mr. Trump’s swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol, many blame a scheduling conflict.
“I think it’s just kind of a general conflict of logistics,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York explained to The Washington Times about her planned inauguration no-show.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri does not know if he can make the inauguration, saying the day conflicts with Martin Luther King Day’s events at his church. He told The Times that if he decides he cannot make it, it would not be part of a boycott.
However, some Democratic lawmakers said they were participating in events celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. as a form of political expression against Mr. Trump.
Jasmine Crockett of Texas said she couldn’t bring herself to watch Mr. Trump take the presidential oath in Washington on MLK Day.
“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,” she said.
She said she would attend the inauguration if Mr. Trump was a “traditional Republican.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts also didn’t use the B-word when explaining why she wouldn’t be in Washington on Inauguration Day. She said she would “spend the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in my district at community events that feed our collective soul.”
Indeed, the Democrats on Capitol Hill expressed deep opposition to Mr. Trump, but they weren’t calling him an “illegitimate” president after he swept the battleground states in November and won the popular vote against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Some Democratic lawmakers explained their planned absence from the swearing-in on Monday by citing their experience on Jan. 6, 2021, when pro-Trump protesters breached the Capitol to stop the certification of President Biden’s election win.
Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee said Mr. Trump’s intention to pardon Jan. 6 rioters was his reason not to attend the inauguration.
“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,” Mr. Cohen said, “some to the point of death, I cannot be a part of that spectacle.”
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.