NEW YORK–(ENEWSPF)–January 15, 2017
On the heels of an ill-advised social media attack on civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, Donald Trump is suddenly very, very busy and his Martin Luther King Day plans have changed:
President-elect Donald Trump is no longer expected to visit the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture in observance of Martin Luther King Day, senior level transition sources tell ABC News.
Senior sources initially said Trump would visit the museum, but ABC has learned that the visit was removed from his calendar due to scheduling issues and was not fully planned out.
Curious, eh? Maybe he didn’t want the bad optics of being boo’d right out of the museum by other visitors. Or perhaps museum officials rebuffed his last-minute photo op? It wouldn’t be the first time. During the campaign, the International Civil Rights Center and Museum refused his photo op:
“We made it known to Mr. Trump’s campaign that we were not going to grant a request of suspending our operations so he could somehow try to legitimize his ideological positions,” Swaine told The News & Observer. “The landmark is very important – it’s not just a political backdrop.”
The museum is in the former F.W. Woolworth building, the site of the 1960 lunch counter sit-in protest against segregated eating establishments. The facility seeks to commemorate the historic sit-in and to promote equality today.
Swaine said museum staff who spoke to a representative from Trump’s team said he did not request a tour of the museum and seemed instead to want only a photo-op for the nominee. Swaine said that months are spent training the museum’s tour guides, and that the museum does not allow “un-vetted” presenters to act as guides.
Source: http://dailykos.com
