It’s not their party, but they’ll cry ’cause they want to.
Democratic officials, spoiled celebrities and pouting think-tankers — still sulking over their loss in the November election — are turning their backs on Donald Trump’s inauguration festivities.
The ad hoc boycott flouts the traditional standards of DC decorum as the nation celebrates the peaceful transfer of power.
“I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president,” Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Trump blasted back at the revered civil-rights figure on Saturday, tweeting that Lewis “should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results.”
But the results are also gnawing at 15 congressional Democrats — including four New Yorkers — who like Lewis have declared they will sit out Friday’s swearing-in ceremony.
More than 150 Dem donors and strategists, including pundit James Carville and Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards, are fleeing Washington for a Florida conference, where they’ll lick their wounds and plot their return to power.
And a long list of performers who had been rumored to entertain at the inauguration have denied their involvement or backed out, including Andrea Bocelli, Elton John, Charlotte Church and the Beach Boys.
Some musicians wanted to perform at inaugural events and balls but were ordered not to by their record labels, TMZ reported Saturday.
Jennifer Holliday who starred in Broadway’s “Dream Girls,” had announced on Friday that she would sing for the new president but reversed herself Saturday, backing down amid blowback from LGBT activists.
She continued bashing Trump even after announcing her pullout, slamming his morning tweet about Lewis.
Some political observers on Saturday said that it was “wholly inappropriate” for Democrats to sit out a national tradition based on politics — and that Lewis’ comments about Trump gave other members the “cover” they needed to skip the festivities.
“This is the office of the presidency. It is bigger than one person and should be respected by all of us,” said political consultant Susan Del Percio. “It’s unfortunate that some in the New York delegation are doing this just for the headlines.”
Political consultant Dan Gerstein said Congress members should “vigorously oppose” Trump but a boycott is “meaningless symbolism.”
“No one will care and no one will remember if a bunch of JV congressmen don’t show up,” he said. “The idea that a mass protest will de-legitimatize Trump simply isn’t going to happen. They’re just crowing to interest groups that they didn’t participate in this.”
Even former Democratic National Committee Chairman Ed Rendell said his party’s members should acknowledge that Trump is a “legitimate United States president.”
“He won under the rules,” he said in an MSNBC interview.
While only a handful of protesters showed up to President Obama’s inauguration in 2009, about 30 groups have secured permits to protest Trump’s swearing-in.
The largest event, with 200,000 people expected, is the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21.
On Saturday, about 2,000 people showed up in the capital — many bearing signs calling the incoming Trump administration a “fascist regime” — for Sharpton’s National Action Network march.
House Democrats who have turned down inauguration invitations include Bronx Rep. Jose Serrano, Brooklyn Rep. Nydia Velazquez, Manhattan Rep. Jerrold Nadler and Brooklyn Rep. Yvette Clark.
“It’s something we’ve been preparing for a while, but the president-elect’s comments about John Lewis were beyond the pale,” said Nadler spokesman Daniel Schwarz.
Velazquez spokesman Alex Haurek said, “Given the tone of the campaign, she didn’t think it appropriate to attend.”
Instead, Haurek added, she plans to participate in the Women’s March on Washington.
A representative for Brooklyn Congressman Hakeem Jeffries said the lawmaker was weighing whether he should attend inaugural events on Friday.
