A growing number of US Democratic lawmakers have declared their intent to boycott the inauguration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump in a sharp break with tradition.
More than a dozen Democrats in the US House of Representatives have so far issued public announcements stating that they would not attend the January 20 ceremony after an extremely divisive election campaign, according to media reports.
It is a departure from lawmakers of both parties putting aside their personal feelings to watch the new president take the oath of office. While the majority of Democrats still plan to attend the event, the fact that even a handful are making a point of boycotting shows the depth of antipathy toward the president-elect.
The boycott movement began with Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez who announced on a CNN program in December that he would not go to the inauguration because Trump continued “to spew hatred, bigotry and prejudice.”
Instead, Gutierrez…