Donald Trump blasted for attacking civil rights icon, Congressman John Lewis

This AFP file photo taken on January 11, 2017 shows Representative John Lewis during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Incoming US President Donald Trump has sparked outrage by condemning Democratic Congressman John Lewis after the African American civil rights leader said he would boycott Trump’s inauguration because he doesn’t see the president-elect as legitimate. 

In a Twitter outburst on Saturday, Trump said Lewis, the Representative for Georgia's 5th congressional district, should spend more time trying to fix his "horrible" and "crime-infested" district than complaining about the election results.

“Congressman John Lewis 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,” Trump tweeted. “All talk, talk, talk - no action or results. Sad!”

Trump made the comments after Lewis said he would not attend Trump's inauguration next week as an act of disapproval. Lewis is a civil rights icon who was severely beaten by Alabama state troopers at the Selma bridge in 1965 during a civil rights protest.

"I don't see this [Republican] President-elect as a legitimate president," Lewis said Friday during an interview on NBC News’ Meet the Press.

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

“I think there was a conspiracy on the part of the Russians and others to help him get elected,” Lewis said. “That’s not right. That’s not fair. That’s not the open democratic process.”

But the reaction to Trump’s criticism was swift. Democrats, activists and even some Republicans joined the condemnation.

“John Lewis and his ‘talk’ have changed the world,” Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, tweeted with a link to a photo of Lewis on the Selma bridge.

Representative Kevin Yoder, a Republican from Kansas, said Lewis is a “hero & icon” although he disagrees with his questioning of the presidential election. “He deserves all of our respect,” Yoder tweeted. “He's earned it.”

Cornell Brooks, the president of NAACP, an African-American civil rights organization, demanded that Trump apologize and said that by disrespecting Lewis, Trump had "dishonored” the sacrifice that the congressman and other activists have made for civil rights in the US.