Dems Who Skip the President-Elect's Inauguration; Elizabeth Warren's Message to the President-Elect
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. We begin tonight with the growing list of Democratic congressmen and women who say they will skip the president-elect's inauguration six days from now. A list that seems to be expanding by the hour. The latest count 16 members from the House from states all across the country, including Georgia congressman John Lewis. And congressman John Congers of Michigan. Like some California Congresswoman Barbara Lee made the decision days ago. But for others like California Ted Lieu (ph) was based on something that played out in the last 24 hours, the president-elect responding to this comment made by civil rights icon and Congressman John Lewis.</s>REP. JOHN LEWIS (D), GEORGIA: I don't see the president-elect as a legitimate president.</s>CHUCK TODD, MSNBC HOST, MEET THE PRESS: You do not consider him as a legitimate president. Why is that?</s>LEWIS: I think the Russian's participated in helping this man get elected and they have destroyed the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.</s>HARLOW: His key line, I don't see this president as a legitimate president. Trump's response came on twitter. Congressman John Lewis should spend more time fixing and helping his district which is in horrible shape and falling apart, not to mention crime invested rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk, no action or results. Sad. Let's talk about all of that and the day's headlines with my panel. Joining me now Ben Ferguson, CNN political commentator and host of the "Ben Ferguson" show and Bakari Sellers, also a CNN political commentator and a former member of South Carolina House of Representative. Gentlemen, thank you for being here. Bakari, let me begin with you. Good evening. Let me begin with you, Baraka in and this growing list of Democratic congressmen and women who will not go to the inauguration. This as a time when our country needs unity more than it was in quite a long time. Is that the right move?</s>BAKARI SELLERS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think these men and women are showing leadership. And civil disobedience and boycotting is as American as apple pie. And they have every right to show that some of disobedience. I think when there is question is who am I going to support, is it John Lewis or Donald Trump, and in this case I'm going to land on the side of the civil rights hero. There are many of us. First of all, there's 73 million people who didn't vote for Donald Trump. But there are many of us who believe that he stands for something that this country does not stand for. And while I think the question of whether or not he is legitimate when it comes to this race and the involvement of the Russians or anyone else, it's still an outstanding and lingering question that has to be answered. I do believe that these members of Congress who are protesting, who are showing civil disobedience have every right to and I stand with them.</s>HARLOW: The legitimacy of him being the next president is not something that's been questioned by, say the sitting president, Barack Obama. And Ben, the president-elect does have every right to respond to someone questioning his legitimacy, something he did to the current president for years with the birther movement. But the way he has done it, the way he responded, attacking a civil rights icon, punching back in the way he did saying all talk no action when you just look at these images. I mean, this is a man who almost died fighting for our freedom in '65 in Selma. Do you approve of the way he responded?</s>BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I have a lot of respect for this congressman. I have met him several times, seen him speak several times in person. But I think he is dead wrong on this one. I think he is a civil rights leader and should understand that you have sometimes you don't get exactly what you want and you have to be respectful of the other side when they have a free and fair election. I think he should understand how important it is to have a free and fair election. But in reality what he's saying is I didn't get my way, I wanted Hillary Clinton, and so therefore I'm not going to show up. What does that teach young people in this country?</s>HARLOW: What about -- I'm asking you though, Ben, about Trump's response, right? What he said, all talk and no action, counter punching instead of saying perhaps, look, I'm disappointed you feel that way. I'm disappointed you're not going to be there on Friday. But let's sit down and talk. Would that have been a better response from the man who's going to lead this country in six days?</s>FERGUSON: I don't think so in this situation because --.</s>HARLOW: Why?</s>FERGUSON: I'm going to answer. I think you have to look at the connotation of what was said by a sitting congressman and how irresponsible it was for him as a leader to say that someone is not a legitimate president. Let's not forget about one thing here. What got Hillary Clinton to lose the election, referring to what he was saying about Hillary Clinton who basically should have won this thing or it was stolen from her. Her campaign and her staff are the ones that wrote the emails that made the American people say they didn't trust her. She had a problem with her own words that came out through those emails. So if he is mad about losing the election, blame Hillary Clinton and her staff for what were in her emails that people did not like. He won this election. They lost. And if they want to stay home, it's their right. It's just not leadership. And for a party that claims they are all about leadership right now, they are not showing any at all when they attack Donald Trump saying he is too tough on people and he doesn't show leadership. What are you doing right now? I mean, you could literally say you are doing exactly what you hate about Donald Trump, which is also hypocrisy.</s>HARLOW: Bakari, to those who would draw somewhat of an equivalency too. There is a lot of things that differentiate them. But to Donald Trump, questioning the legitimacy of our current president, Barack Obama, questioning, you know, where he was born, completely unfounded with John Lewis saying I don't accept the legitimacy of this incoming president. What do you say to critics who say, you know, aren't you doing something similar to what you criticized?</s>SELLERS: Well, I think that John Lewis, I mean, he couched his statement by saying that he didn't believe it was a free and fair election. But while Ben is riding his horse of privilege is his high horse about this United States congressman --.</s>FERGUSON: Horse of privilege?</s>SELLERS: Not so that I would have any extra right. I would simply have equal rights and civil rights. I want to remind him about Bill Posey, who as a congressman from Florida --</s>FERGUSON: Bakari, you stretched.</s>SELLERS: Who actually sponsored a birther bill in the United States Congress. I want to remind him about Joe Wilson who actually screamed</s>DUI -- FERGUSON: And I can bet that would happen.</s>SELLERS: One actually said the first lad lady of the United States had a fat butting with all who hurled insults at the president of the United States.</s>FERGUSON: Bakari, I can go the same list with Democrats, but that's not what we are talking about here. And if you want to have a litmus of all of these other things, I mean, when do you stop it and show leadership? You hate the people who have done it but now you're doing it.</s>SELLERS: It's a question John Lewis's leadership is absurd and neglects history.</s>FERGUSON: No it's not.</s>SELLERS: John Lewis knows exactly what he is doing. And what we are going to do is that if there's a question or whether I join him or Donald Trump, I'm going to side with John Lewis every day of the week.</s>HARLOW: So Baraki, to that point, do you agree with Representative Lewis? Do you agree that Donald Trump in his words is not a legitimate president?</s>SELLERS: I question the legitimacy of Donald Trump's candidacy and his presidency since November 8th.</s>FERGUSON: Wow.</s>HARLOW: I think Donald Trump won this race.</s>FERGUSON: It's sad.</s>SELLERS: I don't want to despair to any of those people who voted for Donald Trump. And I think that they there are going to be questions answered about the Russians or anybody else --.</s>HARLOW: So on that point, Bakari. On that point -- I just want Bakari to answer. On that point, Bakari, speaking for the American people of all parties, right, where does that leave the American public? Where do we go from here? Because this election is done, it is over, Donald Trump will be the sitting president in six days. So how can there be unity going forward?</s>SELLERS: Well, I mean, I think that's an amazing question, Poppy. And it's an amazing question that one should actually ask Donald Trump. I think that we are having this discussion because of the Donald Trump's response, and Donald Trump's ignorance --</s>FERGUSON: We are having it because the congressman said that Donald Trump is not a legitimate president.</s>SELLERS: I want to actually get a thought out about you interrupting.</s>FERGUSON: You've gotten plenty.</s>SELLERS: I think that it's amazing we're having this discussion about someone who has the history, who has the pedigree, who doesn't have to read about civil rights in the books because it actually smelled gun fire and smoke, who actually felt the water host against their back.</s>HARLOW: Ben, let's Bakari finish. You'll have plenty of time. I promise.</s>SELLERS: I appreciate the discussion that we are having. But if we want to have a conversation that requires us to listen. And one thing that we have to start to do is begin to love our neighbors even when they don't love us. But that doesn't mean I'm going to let someone who disparages just people who have fought for rights this far and this hard and who almost died so I can sit here today. I'm not going to let someone sit there and go unchallenged on January 20th. I'm going to challenge him every day of his presidency until he says that he wants to bring this country together and value those American values we hold true.</s>HARLOW: Ben?</s>FERGUSON: The hypocrisy that is coming from you Bakari is truly shocking to me. You claim that you have - that you want to bring the country together but then you support someone who says he is not a legitimate president. You claim that you want to bring the country together. But then you say you support people who will not show up for the inauguration when Americans should come together. You claim that John Lewis is such a credible person because of civil rights, which he is. But then you give him a free pass on the same hypocrisy that he is screaming right now by saying that I do not believe the president is legitimate. And for you to say that you respect the voters who voted for Donald Trump while saying this, that's just a lie. Obviously you do not at all respect the will of the people or the voters in this election and neither does John Lewis when you say this, when you don't get your way. Freedom is not saying if I don't get my way, I refuse to respect someone else when they win a free and fair election. That's is not freedom. And it that is what John Lewis fought for so hard which is freedom he should respect it even when his side loses. And his side lost. And now he is trying to undermine freedom in this country and so are you by saying that. [19:10230]</s>HARLOW: I got 30 seconds. Bakari, final thought.</s>SELLERS: No. I think it's amazing to have the audacity of the level of privilege to lecture John Lewis about freedom.</s>FERGUSON: Why do you keep saying privilege?</s>SELLERS: Can I talk? Ben.</s>FERGUSON: You're basically saying racism because I'm white.</s>SELLERS: I mean, that's kind of how this works. So my only point is that I think that we need to learn from the struggles of people like John Lewis. I think if the president of the United States had an issue, had an issue with what John Lewis tweeted, then I think a leader picks up the phone who want that conversation. And certainly, it has that conversation.</s>SELLERS: I believe in John Lewis. I mean, I wouldn't be here on CNN if it wasn't for people like John Lewis. John Lewis has led it this far and I'm going to ride John Lewis until we actually get to say Ben Ferguson that we are free.</s>HARLOW: Bakari Sellers, Ben Ferguson, thank you. Thank you both. This is incredibly important to talk about. I appreciate both of your opinions tonight.</s>FERGUSON: Thanks.</s>HARLOW: Coming up, the president-elect says that he will make the best deals for this country. What does he do, though, when China responds with the words nonnegotiable? What happens to the art of the deal then? The comment putting the president-elect at odds with Beijing tonight.