2 House Democrats boycott inauguration over Trump comments

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two House Democrats are planning to boycott President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration to protest insulting comments Trump made during the campaign about women, minorities and other groups.

Reps. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Luis Gutierrez of Illinois said they are skipping the Jan. 20 ceremony at the Capitol as a matter of conscience.

“I could not look at my wife, my daughters or my grandson in the eye if I sat there and attended as if everything that candidate Donald Trump had said about women, Latinos, African-Americans, Muslims … is OK or erased from my memory,” Gutierrez said in a statement Thursday.

Clark said she respects the presidency and supports the peaceful transfer of power but that families in her district “are fearful that the anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and divisive promises that drove the Trump campaign will become the policies affecting the health and safety of every American.”

Clark and Gutierrez both said they had hoped that Trump would use the transition period to unify the country but believe that has not happened.

“After discussions with hundreds of my constituents, I do not feel that I can contribute to the normalization of the president-elect’s divisive rhetoric by participating in the inauguration,” Clark said.

Gutierrez said he will attend the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21 to protest Trump’s election.