Dem dilemma: Stand with John Lewis?

Several Democrats — a number nearing 20 by the most recent count — have announced they will not attend Trump’s inauguration. That doesn’t necessarily mean they would explicitly say Trump is illegitimate. But some certainly would. Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee, for example, said early on that she is with Lewis. Another liberal, New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, tweeted, “I stand with @repjohnlewis.”

Others, like California Rep. Ted Lieu, said they stood with Lewis but were not entirely clear on the question of Trump’s legitimacy. In an extensive statement Saturday, Lieu said Trump has insulted too many people, is too close to Vladimir Putin, and has unconstitutional business conflicts of interest. Nevertheless, Lieu said, “I do not dispute that Trump won the Electoral College.”

So does that make Trump illegitimate, or not? Lieu did not say.

Judging by the Democrats’ reaction, it’s one thing to denounce Trump’s statements, to link him to Russia, and to suggest he will be a disastrous leader. It’s another to claim that Trump is not a legitimate president. For some Democrats, the illegitimacy charge would move them a bit too close to a kind of birtherism that they spent years denouncing. (Remember that Republican leaders stayed away from birtherism, although some GOP members of Congress embraced, or at least flirted, with it.)