“In good conscience, I cannot and will not sit there and listen at him as he gives the State of the Union address,” said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.). | Getty ‘I think he is a racist,’ John Lewis says of Trump

Rep. John Lewis on Sunday said he believes President Donald Trump is a racist in the wake of racially charged remarks the president reportedly made last week about people coming to the United States from “shithole” countries.

"I think he is a racist," Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and icon of the civil rights movement, said on ABC’s “This Week.”


Lewis was asked by moderator George Stephanopoulos how he reconciled remarks Trump made Friday commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day with his “shithole” comment, reported to have been made during an immigration meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers Thursday.

"I don't think there's any way that you can square what the president said with the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and what he said about Dr. King," Lewis said. "It's just impossible. There's not any way you can do that. It's unreal. It's unbelievable. It makes me sad. It [makes] me cry."

"We have come so far. We made so much progress,” Lewis said of the country. “And I think this man, this president, is taking us back to another place."

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Lewis reiterated that he won’t attend Trump’s State of the Union address later this month.

“In good conscience, I cannot and will not sit there and listen at him as he gives the State of the Union address,” he said.