Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., recently opened up about why she’s “glad” that President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration is set to take place on the same day of the federal holiday honoring her late father.
“I’m glad that if it was going to happen, it happened on the King holiday, because Dr. King is still speaking to us,” she told The Independent.
Bernice King, in her interview with The Independent, urged Americans not to “retreat or recoil” following Trump’s election win over Kamala Harris.
“We have to commit ourselves to continuing the mission of protecting freedom, justice and democracy in the spirit of my father,” she said.
King has gone after Trump World on a number of occasions in recent months.
In August, she knocked the president-elect for his “absolutely not true” claim that he drew a larger crowd at his Jan. 6, 2021, rally than the late civil rights icon did for his “I Have A Dream” speech on the National Mall in 1963.
“I really wish that people would stop using my father to support fallacy,” she wrote on X.
King later slammed a pro-MAGA account on X that shared what she described as a “vile, fake, irresponsible” deepfake video of her late father that was fashioned to show him appearing to endorse Trump.
King — who hoped to see the vice president make history and get sworn in on Jan. 20 — said the president-elect has pushed “hateful rhetoric,” hasn’t been “very kind-hearted” and has championed “not humane” policies.
She pointed to a line from the “I Have A Dream” speech that she’s returned to since Trump’s victory: “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”
“I know a lot of people are angry right now,” King said. “But we can’t let that rot in us.”