So John Lewis wasn’t honest when he said by skipping the inauguration of Donald Trump it was the first time in his 36 years he would miss an inauguration.

Here is the particular passage from the original CNN story:

Lewis — an ally of Martin Luther King Jr. who was brutally beaten by police in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 while marching for civil rights — also said he planned to skip Trump’s inauguration next week, which he said would be the first ceremony he would not attend since coming to Washington. He was elected to Congress in 1986.

He said it. Naturally, the media just took his word for it and didn’t bother to check. Look at the results of this Google search. Look how many media outlets just parroted Lewis’s claim it was the first time he skipped an inauguration.

He skipped the inauguration of George W. Bush in 2001 and did you know why? Because he didn’t think President Bush was the legitimate President. The Washington Post reported at the time; John Lewis “thought it would be hypocritical to attend Bush’s swearing-in because he doesn’t believe Bush is the truly elected President.”

Now we can all sit back and be lectured on how Lewis “earned the right” to do “what he wants” because of his involvement in the civil rights movement. That means skipping two Republican inaugurations because he thinks they’re not legitimate and lying about one of them.