NYT's Paul Krugman falsely claims Democrats never called Trump 'illegitimate' president
Clinton, Lewis among prominent Democrats who called Trump illegitimate
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has a short memory.
The liberal scribe wrote Monday that no Democrats ever deemed President Trump illegitimate, in contrast to Republicans whom he said would never accept a President Joe Biden.
"[He’ll] be the first modern U.S. president trying to govern in the face of an opposition that refuses to accept his legitimacy," Krugman wrote. "And no, Democrats never said Donald Trump was illegitimate, just that he was incompetent and dangerous."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Yet Krugman wrote on Jan. 16, 2017 that the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., planned to skip Trump's inauguration because he regarded him as an "illegitimate president."
Lewis was not alone. Dozens of House Democrats followed his example in 2017 and did not attend the inauguration, and a 2017 poll found 68% of Democratic voters did not accept Trump as legitimately elected, citing Russian election meddling.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Trump's 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton called him "illegitimate" in 2019 and claimed he had stolen the race from her, as did former President Jimmy Carter.
Krugman himself repeatedly questioned Trump's legitimacy over the past four years, noted in a Twitter thread by Tablet's Noam Blum.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Krugman had another memory lapse last year when he took Trump to task for giving golfer Tiger Woods the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Krugman tweeted he remembered a time when the honor was bestowed on people "for showing courage and making sacrifices on behalf of the nation," not "hitting golf balls for money."
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However, President Obama gave the honor to many celebrities, including NBA legend Michael Jordan, actor Tom Hanks, and rock star Bruce Springsteen.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Krugman also had to apologize in June after floating a conspiracy theory that Trump had influenced the Bureau of Labor Statistics to cook surprisingly low unemployment numbers.