PLAYBOOK LIVE Lewis on House gun-control sit-in: 'If they want to punish us, bring it on'

Rep. John Lewis said Wednesday night that he’s unafraid of any punishment after Democrats occupied the House of Representatives floor this summer to call for a vote on tougher gun control measures.

“My feeling is, I’ve been punished before. If they want to punish us, bring it on,” Lewis (D-Ga.) said. “If we violated the rules, the tradition of the House, the order of the House, punish us. We’re ready to be punished and then we’ll see what happens.”

Lewis, who was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, said at a POLITICO Playbook cocktail event that he’s received significant public support since leading Democrats in a sit-in on the House floor. He called on his colleagues not to fear the National Rifle Association and to put gun control legislation up for a vote.

With the National Museum of African-American History and Culture scheduled to open this weekend, Lewis recalled attending sit-ins in Nashville as a young man, where he said he had hot coffee poured on his head and lit cigarettes extinguished in his hair. He said touring the museum was like “walking through history. I did everything possible not to cry.”

He called upon the current generation of activists to study the civil rights movement, both by touring the soon-to-open museum and reading about the movement. Of the protests that have followed the shooting deaths of two black men in the past week by police, Lewis said “it is sad and shocking to see what is happening” and “it must stop.”

“I think we have to find a way to engage in more police-community policing,” he said. “Maybe the young people, community people, and police officers should have nonviolent training. We have to teach people to respect the dignity and the worth of every human being.”

Lewis praised President Barack Obama’s ability to lead America and said “he’s appealing to, in my estimation, the very best of us.” Another president, the congressman said, might have led the country in a different direction and “when he leaves office, we’re going to miss him.”

“One thing I love about him, he’s cool,” Lewis said of the president. “From time to time he may have what I call a sense of righteous indignation, but he’s still cool. And whoever follows him, I hope they have the capacity and ability to speak truth to power, and in doing so, be cool.”

The congressman also took time to rebut one of the candidates running to replace Obama, Republican Donald Trump, who has lately appealed to black voters by suggesting that the struggling schools and high crime rates in inner cities are the fault of the Democrats who overwhelmingly control them. Trump has suggested that African-Americans have nothing to lose by voting for him, a point that Lewis disagreed with. He said “many, many African-Americans are doing very well. I’m talking about doing very well, really,” and offered to take Trump on a tour of Atlanta and other large African-American communities.

Asked if he would accept a role in the administration of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Lewis said he had no desire to work for any president because “I like my freedom.” But he said he and other Congressional Black Caucus would join with colleagues from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus in campaigning for Clinton across the country between now and Election Day.

“We get out of Washington in a few days,” he said. “We will be crisscrossing America. She’s going to be OK. She’s going to be alright and we’re going to be alright.”