Jeff Pillets

The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record

Noon Friday was one of those historical moments everyone will remember: where they were the moment President Donald J. Trump was sworn in.

For more than 60 Democratic members of Congress, that moment was spent far from the Capitol steps, boycotting the inauguration of the 45th president and instead staking out what they said was a higher ground of church vigils, street rallies and panel discussions.

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey led some 500 people in prayer at Trenton's Shiloh Baptist Church, where people wearing Obama caps wept openly even as some watched Trump's inauguration speech on their cellphones.

Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, who called his boycott a "nonviolent oppositional tool,” spent the day holed up in his District of Columbia office offering aid and comfort to constituents.

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Other dissenters made the rounds in their home districts as they prepped for weekend protest rallies and strategized with supporters but had trouble keeping their focus off politics or the eye-popping history unfolding in the nation's capital.

California Rep. Paul Ruiz, who this week suggested Trump was not “a real president,” used his day away from the Capitol to get ready for the seventh annual Veteran's Expo in Beaumont, Calif., where vets from Desert Storm to Afghanistan will be honored Saturday.

Rep. William Lacy Clay of Missouri addressed public-school students in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton and posted Twitter photos of Barack Obama under the tag #44Always.

In Pennsylvania, Rep. Dwight Evans took to Twitter to publish photos of himself with health-care workers at the Philadelphia Free Library's Inauguration Day Civic Engagement Fair. Evans also sent out footage of inspiring inauguration speeches from John Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and others, and in a barrage of tweets reminded his followers that Trump’s promised repeal of Obamacare could lead to unemployment and worse.

"Repealing the Affordable Care Act means 137,000 lost jobs ... and people dying,'' said Evans, forwarding a message from his state's Democratic caucus.

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The decision to skip the inauguration did not come easy for many lawmakers who said they sought to weigh their respect for the Constitution and Office of the President with their aversion to Donald Trump. He received 304 electoral votes last month to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's 227 even though Clinton had 65.8 million total votes to Trump's 63 million.

Neither received a majority of the popular vote.

Republicans and several leading Democrats said the inaugural snub is ill advised, a disrespectful jab at the office and a constitutional ceremony that should rise above politics.

"I don't think it's good for democracy," former Obama adviser David Axelrod said.

Many other Democratic members of Congress, especially some in key leadership posts and others in red or purplish electoral districts where support for the new president is high, rejected a boycott.

For some who did not attend, the decision was made easier because of Trump's attack on Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. The civil-rights icon has said that the real-estate magnate's ethical conflicts, coupled with Russian efforts to hack the election for the Republicans, make Trump an "illegitimate" president.

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Some lawmakers who remained undecided until recent days joined other boycotters in using their free Inauguration Day as a time to simply stay at home and ponder the future of the nation.

After many years attending the pageantry at the Capitol, they had few plans.

Only last week, Rep. Filemon Vela of Texas became the fourth Democrat from his state to snub Trump’s swearing-in. Aides said he had nothing scheduled Friday.

Vela, a member of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s inner circle, said he had every intention of attending until a group of immigrant students visiting Washington from his district were targeted with insults.

The students, Vela said in a news release “were subjected to comments of ‘beaners,’ 'burritos,' and ‘wetbacks’ ” from other visitors.

“One student was even spit on,” said Vela, who made headlines during the campaign when he said Trump could “shove” the wall he planned to build along the Rio Grande. “Then, Donald Trump made his final Cabinet selection ensuring that there would be no Hispanic representation in the Cabinet for the first time in 36 years.”

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Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi planned to spend Inauguration Day in reflection, his office said, thinking about how he can save Social Security and health care for 161,000 Mississippians who have gained coverage through Obamacare. Thompson also found time Friday to tweet out "a user-friendly guide to tenant's rights.''

Among the many Democrats who struggled with the idea of a boycott, Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida found a personal way out of Trump's party — through her goddaughter's Saturday wedding.

"I struggled for months to make the choice between the ceremony and a family wedding also scheduled to take place this weekend," said Wilson, who watched the inauguration from her district office outside Miami with a group of graduates from an education program she founded for young minority men.

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As the men watched Trump, she said feelings for the outgoing president mixed with concern for the future.

"They feel for obvious reasons an emotional connection to Mr. Obama, but the next few years could profoundly impact their lives, and it is important for them to be equally engaged," Wilson said.

Contributing: Alexandra Glorioso, Naples (Fla.) Daily News; Sam R. Hall, The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger; John C. Moritz, Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times; Vik Jolly, Sherry Barkas and Jesse Marx, The (Palm Springs, Calif.) Desert Sun; Teresa Boeckel, York (Pa.) Daily Record; Nathaniel Cary, The Greenville (S.C.) News; and Morgan Watkins, The (Louisville) Courier-Journal. Follow Jeff Pillets on Twitter: @JPillets