Leave Martin Luther King Jr. Alone

Martin Luther King Day is when people from all around this “great” nation gather together to honor a civil rights leader who organized for racial equality and economic justice, and when politicians disrespect and contort the legacy of a brilliant man and radical leader to serve their own agenda.

This year, the most notable figure to participate in this hallowed political tradition was White House senior advisor Kellyanne Conway:

I tried not to quote the whole video, but it’s all so awful I couldn’t even choose a part to highlight:

“Well I can tell you the President… agrees with many of the things that Dr. Martin Luther King stood for, and agreed with for many years, including unity, and equality. And he’s not the one trying to tear the country apart through an impeachment process and a lack of substance that really is very shameful at this point.”

Oh my, you might ask yourself, is she trying to make a question about Martin Luther King Jr. into a defense of Trump? Yes, yes she is.

And it’s not over yet.

“I’ve held my opinion on it for a very long time, but when you see the articles of impeachment that came out, I don’t think it was within Dr. King’s vision to have Americans dragged through a process where the president is not going to be removed from office, is not being charged with bribery, extortion, high crimes, or misdemeanors.”

Excuse me?

“And I think anybody who cares about “and justice for all” on today or any day of the year will appreciate the fact that the president now will have a full throttle defense on the facts, and everybody should have that.”

I am not sure if Kellyanne Conway believes that MLK wrote the pledge of allegiance (spoiler alert: he did not), or if she’s trying to allude to King’s well-known quote “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” but either way I’d like out of this timeline.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! Please respect his legacy by keeping his name out of your mouth.

Oh, and if you want a good laugh, check out the FBI’s tweet about MLK. (In case you didn’t know, the FBI once sent King a letter apparently urging him to commit suicide.)