The Times (and everyone else) reports the uproar over Trump’s disgusting scummy attack on John Lewis.

While some, including David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Obama, said they were uncomfortable with Mr. Lewis’s assertion, Mr. Trump’s outburst drew indignation from many people who pointed out the unseemliness of attacking a civil rights leader on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Mr. Lewis was one of the original Freedom Riders, beaten by police officers while marching from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama.

It’s not as if Trump’s scummy attack would be more acceptable if the date were more distant from MLK Day. It wouldn’t. It wouldn’t ever be more acceptable. Trump is a bloated pampered rich crook, while John Lewis is a lifelong civil rights activist who was nearly killed for his activism. Trump is a lying racist birther, while John Lewis is not.

Others ridiculed Mr. Trump’s characterization of Mr. Lewis’s district, which is majority African-American and encompasses three-quarters of Atlanta, as “horrible,” “falling apart” and “crime infested.” While Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District faces challenges typical of many urban areas, it also includes wealthy neighborhoods like Buckhead; the world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Also Atlanta has been booming for years. Trump was, as usual, simply lying. This time, as so often, the lies were born of racism.

Some pointed out that fighting with Mr. Lewis distracted attention from a Senate investigation, announced the day before, that will look at possible contacts between Mr. Trump’s campaign team and Russia. In addition, Mr. Trump’s poll numbers have slipped into uncharted depths for an incoming president, with a Gallup poll released on Friday finding that about half of Americans disapprove of Mr. Trump’s transition effort. Some also noted that Mr. Trump had questioned the legitimacy of Mr. Obama’s presidency with false claims about his birthplace.

With lies about his birthplace. Lies. Repeated, relentless lies. Donald Trump is a liar who tells lies. John Lewis is not.

Mr. Lewis, who is 76 and was first elected to Congress in 1987, is one of the few genuinely historic figures on Capitol Hill, revered by Democrats and Republicans alike. Allies of Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama and Mr. Trump’s nominee for attorney general, circulated pictures of him linking arms with Mr. Lewis at the 50th anniversary of the Selma march to fend off accusations that Mr. Sessions was a racist.

Nevertheless, Mr. Lewis testified against Mr. Sessions, declaring, “We need someone as attorney general who’s going to look out for all of us, and not just some of us.”

Axelrod doesn’t like it that Lewis said he doesn’t see Trump as legitimate. (Note the point of view; he didn’t say Trump is not legitimate, he said he doesn’t see him as legitimate. Honest people instinctively do that: make it clear when they’re voicing a judgement as opposed to a fact claim.) Meh. Trump is illegitimate in so many ways – the lies, the refusal to disclose his tax returns, the help from Putin and Assange, the lies, the insults, the pussy grabber, the lies – there are a lot of reasons to see him as less than legitimate.

And to conclude, Trump is scum.