This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Donald Trump provoked fresh outrage on Saturday by lashing out at a revered civil rights activist who challenged the legitimacy of his election win.

Attempts to hold Trump to account only seem to make him stronger and stranger Read more

The criticism of US congressman John Lewis came on the day of a civil rights march in Washington aimed at Trump’s incoming presidency, two days before America observes the annual Martin Luther King Jr Day and six days before the country’s first black president leaves office.

Lewis, who was beaten by state troopers during the historic 1965 march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, is the first leading Democrat to publicly question Trump’s right to govern.

“I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press this week.

The 76-year-old congressman from Georgia, seen by some as the moral conscience of the nation, will boycott Trump’s inauguration, the first he has missed since becoming a member of Congress three decades ago.

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

Clinton received 2.9m more votes than Trump but lost the electoral college. When assailed, Trump is known to favour a playbook of hitting back harder, even against seemingly no-win targets such as Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a US soldier killed in Iraq; Alicia Machado, a Miss Universe winner; and Meryl Streep, the Oscar-winning actor.

On Saturday he decided that Lewis should be no different, using Twitter to say that he “should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk – no action or results. Sad!”

The comments – from a man backed by figures linked to the Ku Klux Klan and other racist far-right groups – drew a scathing response, even from the president-elect’s own party.

Ben Sasse, a Republican senator for Nebraska and frequent Trump critic, said on Twitter: “John Lewis and his ‘talk’ have changed the world.” Conservative commentator Bill Kristol posted: “It’s telling, I’m afraid, that Donald Trump treats Vladimir Putin with more respect than he does John Lewis.”

Evan McMullin, a former CIA officer who ran as an independent conservative in the presidential election, said: “While you avoided the draft, John Lewis risked his life for equality in America. You’ll never even dream of such selfless patriotism, Donald.”

Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) On this Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, let it be clear that John Lewis is an American patriot. Trump's attacks on him further confirm it. pic.twitter.com/WavPT36Atu

Howard Wolfson, a former deputy mayor of New York, commented: “John Lewis did more to make America great in one day on the Edmund Pettus Bridge than Donald Trump ever will.”

This week, Lewis also spoke out against Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, during a confirmation hearing. Sessions was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 over alleged racist remarks. This week, a letter from King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, opposing his nomination was rediscovered and published by the Washington Post.

“We need someone as attorney general who’s going to look out for all of us, and not just some of us,” said Lewis, a protégé of King.

Trump’s latest Twitter storm coincided with a civil rights march in Washington led by activists angry over his offensive remarks about Muslims, Mexicans and other minority groups. In poor weather, Rev Al Sharpton led around 2,000 protesters along the National Mall, ending at the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial, about two miles from the steps of the US Capitol, where Trump will be sworn in as president on Friday.

Addressing marchers, Cornell William Brooks, president and chief executive of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said: “We will march until hell freezes over, and when it does, we will march on the ice.”

The march kicked off a week of demonstrations scheduled before, during and after Trump’s inauguration.

Trump got 8% of the black vote in the presidential election, according to exit polls; Clinton received 88%.

The changing of the guard in Washington, however, is gathering momentum. Even before Trump takes office, Republicans won a gateway victory in Congress on Friday in their efforts to scrap Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law. With a 227-198 House vote, Congress gave final approval to a budget that will ease passage of a still-unwritten bill replacing the Affordable Care Act.

The budget “gives us the tools we need for a step-by-step approach to fix these problems and put Americans back in control of their health care”, House speaker Paul Ryan said after the vote.

John Lewis: 'I don’t think I’ve changed much. I still consider myself an activist' Read more

But internal divisions are emerging. At least seven Republicans have said they want to wait until a replacement is ready before they will vote to repeal Obamacare, wary that 20 million people who gained health insurance could suddenly lose it.

Trump could also face a bumpy ride from his own cabinet. This week several of his nominees underwent Senate confirmation hearings and expressed views that differed from his own on everything from Russian hacking to the Iran nuclear deal to immigration rights.

The president-elect brushed off the dissent, claiming he had told his picks to “say what you want to say”. He said: “I may be right, they may be right.”

Meanwhile, on Saturday Obama delivered his last weekly address at the White House with a call for active citizenship.

“Our success depends on our participation, regardless of which way the pendulum of power swings,” he said. “It falls on each of us to be guardians of our democracy; to embrace the joyous task we’ve been given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours. Because for all our outward differences, we all share the same proud title: citizen.”

He added: “It has been the honour of my life to serve you as president. Eight years later, I am even more optimistic about our country’s promise. And I look forward to working along your side, as a citizen, for all my days that remain.”