A top member of Donald Trump's presidential inaugural committee says he can't understand why some lawmakers may boycott the president-elect's swearing in on Jan. 20th.
"It saddens me to a degree," Boris Epshteyn, the committee's communications director, said Friday to Steve Malzberg on "America Talks Live."
"We are uniting this country, we are bringing it together. It was a tough political campaign, no question about it, but the American people have spoken and I'm not quite sure what there is to protest.
"It's pretty rich for these Democrats who are crying about any comment Mr. Trump made about making sure this election was proper and had integrity. Now they're saying, what, they're somehow not agreeing to it? What's the protest?"
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Still, said Epshteyn, a Republican strategist who served as senior advisor for Trump's campaign, it's their right to stay away.
"Good luck to these folks. They're Americans and have the right to protest in a civil and civilized manner," he told Malzberg.
"But again, it is disappointing that they don't want to be a part of the uniting process that we are leading here at the inaugural and that President-elect Trump is leading."
On Thursday, Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois told CNN he would not be at the event because Trump "continues to spew hatred, bigotry and prejudice even after he said he was going to bring us together." He and his wife, Soraida, will instead join protests being held in Washington, D.C. at the same time.
Epshteyn said that as president, Trump will not "play by the old set rules of the establishment" such as his surprise announcement this week that he had convinced Carrier, an air conditioner maker, to keep 1,000 Mexico-bound jobs in the United States.
"He talked to those people whose jobs have stayed with Carrier and talked to those folks for who this election has already made a difference in their life. That is so wonderful to see and it's just a small, small, small tip of the iceberg of what you'll see after Jan. 20," he said.
"It's such an exciting time, it's really a new day in this country, right? … He's going to be somebody who gets things done … The leadership going forward is going to make sure that Americans are united, Americans are employed, Americans are secure."
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