I’ve become annoyed at Donald Trump’s tweets serving as the focus of national discussion, but these two tweets give me a chance to criticize Democrat Rep. John Lewis’s absurd declaration that Trump is not the legitimate president:

Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to……

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2017

mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk – no action or results. Sad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2017

Trump indiscriminately criticizes anyone who criticizes him, and I’m not going to address his predictable comments about Lewis or his district. He’s just lashing out like the emotional five-year-old he is.

But Lewis’s statement was utterly out of bounds.

Regular readers of mine know that I am a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin. I don’t think Republicans should shrug off the allegations that Russia tried to interfere with our election. Even Trump finally agreed that Russia was behind the hacking, after being briefed by U.S. intelligence. The Putinleaks were a series of one-sided leaks that were designed to pick the pro-Kremlin candidate.

But —

BUT there’s no conclusive proof that the Putinleaks swung the election, and most level-headed observers believe they didn’t.

Democracy is a horrible system, dependent on voters who are uninformed and irrational. But it does something very important: it achieves a peaceful transition of power. If people try to interfere with the integrity of the system, as Democrats have many times (JFK, LBJ, etc.), the other side should scream bloody murder. But if you don’t have a provable case that the election was rigged, you should acquiesce to the result for the good of the country. Even if you don’t like it.

Saying Donald Trump is not the legitimate president is not just irresponsible. It is dangerous. John Lewis should be utterly reviled by all right-thinking people for this statement.

I don’t know how the politics of this plays out; I’m not really much of an expert on how the public will react to issues. Allahpundit at Hot Air notes that The Guardian is spinning it with this headline: “Donald Trump starts MLK weekend by attacking civil rights hero John Lewis.” Well, I don’t include the editors of The Guardian within the ambit of my definition of “right-thinking people.”

After all the handwringing by Democrats and Big Media (but I repeat myself) over Donald Trump declaring in a debate that he wasn’t going to pre-accept the legitimacy of an election that hadn’t even happened yet, it’s rich indeed (if ultimately predictable) to see Democrats trying to undermine Trump before he even takes office, based on inconclusive evidence.

They should cut it out, pronto.

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