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Rep. Meeks Undecided on Trump Inauguration Attendance

‘If I go, it’s not there to celebrate’

Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, conducts a news conference at the DNC where members of the CBC PAC endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, February 11, 2016. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, conducts a news conference at the DNC where members of the CBC PAC endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, February 11, 2016. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

More than 40 Democratic lawmakers plan to boycott the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. But Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., hasn’t made a decision.

“I am not decided yet.” Meeks said Tuesday morning in an interview on CNN’s “New Day”.

As he’s tried to work toward a decision, Meeks talked with some of his constituents over the long MLK holiday weekend.

“If I go, it’s not there to celebrate. It’s there because I understand the office of the presidency of the United States of America,” Meeks said. “And I want to make sure that, if I go, that I’m in the face of this president to know that he cannot get around me and other members of Congress.”

The state of New York, despite being Trump’s birthplace, went overwhelming for its former senator Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Election. Five other representatives from the state have already declined to attend the inauguration.

“It is good that we’re having the peaceful transfer of power, but I would not hang out in a celebration with an individual who says it’s okay to grab women by their private parts,” Meeks said.

Meeks also cited Trump’s controversial comments about Mexicans and his role in the birther movement as reasons for his tough view on the president-elect.

“That tells me who he is as a person. And so I don’t like him as a person. But now, I do have to deal with him because the Electoral College has determined that he will be the 45th president of the United States,” Meeks said.  “That is why I’m considering going and I want to be in his face with a legitimate agenda for the people that I represent and for all Americans.”

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