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Dems fundraising off of Trump comments attacking Lewis

by Rebecca Savransky - 01/15/17 12:43 PM ET

Democrats are fundraising off of comments made by President-elect Donald Trump attacking Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).

In an email sent Saturday night with the subject line “what Donald Trump said,” the Georgia Democrat wrote that the president-elect attacked him on Twitter and said he was “all talk” and “no action.”

“I’ve been beaten bloody, tear-gassed, fighting for what’s right for America. I’ve marched at Selma with Dr. King. Sometimes that’s what it takes to move our country in the right direction,” Lewis said in the email.

“We refuse to stop now. We’re not done fighting for progress. We’re ready for the next four years.”

{mosads}Lewis then asked people to chip in to help the Democrats “stand up to injustice.”

He went on to say the majority of Americans thinks the country is headed in the wrong direction. He said he remembers when segregation was “the law of the land that ordered our society in the Deep South.”

Changing that required “massive, well-organized, non-violent dissent and criticism of this great nation and its laws,” he wrote.

“We had to sit in. We had to stand in. We had to march. And that’s why more than 50 years ago, a group of unarmed citizens, black and white, gathered on March 7, 1965, in an orderly peaceful non-violent fashion to walk from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama,” he wrote.

“Often, the only way we could demonstrate that a law on the books violated a higher law was by challenging that law. By putting our bodies on the line and showing the world the unholy price we had to pay for dignity and respect.”

“We need leaders who will stand up and speak up and speak out for Americans, not someone who will work against us. Not someone who will move us backwards.”

Trump on Saturday targeted Lewis after the Democrat questioned the president-elect’s legitimacy.

“I believe in forgiveness. I believe in trying to work with people. It will be hard. It’s going to be very difficult. I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president,” Lewis said in an interview with NBC on Friday.

“I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton,” he added.

Trump hit back, accusing Lewis of not doing enough for his district and delivering “no action or result.”

Trump’s comments sparked a backlash from many Democrats.

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