Trump Avoids Praising John Lewis in Interview

As three former presidents gathered in Atlanta last week to offer stirring tributes to John Lewis, President Trump was absent. In an interview that aired Monday night, Trump had few kind words of his own for the former Democratic congressman and civil rights leader, who died July 17.

Asked by interviewer Jonathan Swan how history would remember Lewis’s contributions to the nation, Trump demurred.

“I don’t know. I don’t know John Lewis,” Trump said in the “Axios on HBO” interview. “He chose not to come to my inauguration.”

President Trump dismissed the legacy of the late Rep. John Lewis in an interview with “Axios on HBO,” saying only that Lewis made a “big mistake” by not coming to his inauguration.

The big picture: Trump's comments were a glaring contrast with the praise Republicans and Democrats showered upon Lewis this week, and a default to personal grudges during a week of mourning for a civil rights hero.

Driving the news: In the interview with Axios’ Jonathan Swan, Trump said, “I really don't know” how history will remember the Democratic...