After a meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump, Mitt Romney said he is looking forward to Trump's administration.

Romney met with Trump at a golf course in New Jersey on Saturday.

The 2012 Republican presidential nominee was an outspoken critic of Trump during the election, calling him a "con man" and a "fraud." But the two have started to make amends since the election. Romney called Trump to congratulate him after his win.

POOL

Bedminster, New Jersey - 19 November 2016

++CONTINUOUS SHOT++

1. US President-elect Donald Trump and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney walking out and shaking hands after meeting

2. SOUNDBITE (Englishll) Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential candidate:

"We had a far-reaching conversation with regards to the various theatres in the world where there are interests of the United States of real significance. We discussed those areas and exchanged our views on those topics. Very thorough and in-depth discussion in the time we had. And, I appreciate the chance to speak with the president-elect, and look forward to the coming administration and the things they are doing. Thank you."

3. Romney walking to car, car driving off

FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: apus067254

After a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump, Mitt Romney said he is looking forward to Trump's administration.

Romney met with Trump at a golf course in New Jersey on Saturday.

The 2012 Republican presidential nominee was an outspoken critic of Trump during the election, calling him a "con man" and a "fraud." But the two have started to make amends since the election. Romney called Trump to congratulate him after his win.

POOL

Bedminster, New Jersey - 19 November 2016

++CONTINUOUS SHOT++

1. President-elect Donald Trump and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney walking out and shaking hands after meeting

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential candidate:

"We had a far-reaching conversation with regards to the various theatres in the world where there are interests of the United States of real significance. We discussed those areas and exchanged our views on those topics. Very thorough and in-depth discussion in the time we had. And, I appreciate the chance to speak with the President-elect, and look forward to the coming administration and the things they are doing. Thank you."

3. Romney walking to car, car driving off

After a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump, Mitt Romney said he is looking forward to Trump's administration.

Romney met with Trump at a golf course in New Jersey on Saturday.

The 2012 Republican presidential nominee was an outspoken critic of Trump during the election, calling him a "con man" and a "fraud." But the two have started to make amends since the election. Romney called Trump to congratulate him after his win.

POOL

Bedminster, New Jersey - 19 November 2016

++CONTINUOUS SHOT++

1. President-elect Donald Trump and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney walking out and shaking hands after meeting

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican presidential candidate:

"We had a far-reaching conversation with regards to the various theatres in the world where there are interests of the United States of real significance. We discussed those areas and exchanged our views on those topics. Very thorough and in-depth discussion in the time we had. And, I appreciate the chance to speak with the President-elect, and look forward to the coming administration and the things they are doing. Thank you."

3. Romney walking to car, car driving off

In a gesture of reconciliation with establishment Republicans, President-elect Donald Trump plans to meet with 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who lambasted Trump as a "con man" and a "fraud" in a stinging speech in March.

Trump responded by repeatedly referring to Romney as a "loser."

The two began mending fences after Trump's victory when Romney called with congratulations.

They are to meet this weekend, a transition official says.

Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway says they are still "working on" the meeting.

RNC communications director Sean Spicer wouldn't comment to the Fox News Channel on whether Trump was set to offer Romney a position in the administration now being formed.

But when asked what the pair was expected to discuss, the Republican strategist said only that "they're going to have a conversation."

US POOL

Salt Lake City - 3 March 2016

1. Pan, Mitt Romney walking on stage

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mitt Romney, Former Republican Presidential Nominee:

"Here's what I know, Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud, his promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's playing members of the American public for suckers, he gets a free ride to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat. His domestic policies would lead to recession, his foreign policies would make America and the world less safe, he has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president and his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill."

US POOL

Portland, Maine - 3 March 2016

3. Various of Trump at rally

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, Republican Presidential Candidate

"I backed Mitt Romney. I backed him. You can see how loyal he is. He was begging for my endorsement. I could have said, 'Mitt, drop to your knees'. He would have dropped to his knees. He was begging."

US POOL

Fountain Hills, Arizona - 19 March 2016

5. Donald Trump walking to podium

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate:

"You have these stiffs like a (2012 presidential candidate) Mitt Romney - the guy is a total stiff. Did he let us down? This guy is a loser. Did he let us down? I mean, here's a guy, goes up, he's so devastated, he forgot to campaign in the final month, he gave it to Obama, believe me, that election. I'm going to beat Hillary so badly, but let me just tell you, beating Obama four years ago was easier than beating Hillary Clinton now, believe me, and Mitt Romney choked, pure and simple, he choked, he choked like a dog and that's not going to happen."

AP TELEVISION

St. Augustine, Florida - 13 August 2012

7. Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney at campaign event in Florida

8. Cutaway of crowd

9. Romney waving to crowd

AP TELEVISION

Wisconsin - 12 August 2012

10. Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan in front of campaign bus

11. Mitt Romney's campaign bus driving down street in Wisconsin

In a gesture of reconciliation with establishment Republicans, President-elect Donald Trump plans to meet with 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who lambasted Trump as a "con man" and a "fraud" in a stinging speech in March.

Trump responded by repeatedly referring to Romney as a "loser."

The two began mending fences after Trump's victory when Romney called with congratulations.

They are to meet this weekend, a transition official says.

Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway says they are still "working on" the meeting.

RNC communications director Sean Spicer wouldn't comment to the Fox News Channel on whether Trump was set to offer Romney a position in the administration now being formed.

But when asked what the pair was expected to discuss, the Republican strategist said only that "they're going to have a conversation."

US POOL

Salt Lake City - 3 March 2016

1. Pan, Mitt Romney walking on stage

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mitt Romney, Former Republican Presidential Nominee:

"Here's what I know, Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud, his promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's playing members of the American public for suckers, he gets a free ride for to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat. His domestic policies would lead to recession, his foreign policies would make America and the world less safe, he has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill. I'm convinced America has greatness ahead and this is a time for choosing, God bless us to choose a nominee who will make that vision a reality."

US POOL

Portland, Maine - 3 March 2016

3. Various of Trump at rally

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, Republican Presidential Candidate

"I backed Mitt Romney. I backed him. You can see how loyal he is. He was begging for my endorsement. I could have said, 'Mitt, drop to your knees.' He would have dropped to his knees. He was begging."

US POOL

Fountain Hills, Arizona - 19 March 2016

5. Donald Trump walking to podium

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate:

"You have these stiffs like a (2012 presidential candidate) Mitt Romney - the guy is a total stiff. Did he let us down? This guy is a loser. Did he let us down? I mean, here's a guy, goes up, he's so devastated, he forgot to campaign in the final month, he gave it to Obama, believe me, that election. I'm going to beat Hillary so badly, but let me just tell you, beating Obama four years ago was easier than beating Hillary Clinton now, believe me, and Mitt Romney choked, pure and simple, he choked like a dog and that's not going to happen."

AP TELEVISION

St. Augustine, Florida - 13 August 2012

7. Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney at campaign event in Florida

8. Cutaway of crowd

9. Romney waving to crowd

AP TELEVISION

Wisconsin - 12 August 2012

10. Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan in front of campaign bus

11. Mitt Romney's campaign bus driving down street in Wisconsin

STORYLINE

US President Donald Trump arrives in Britain on July 11th 2018 - and straight into a storm of protests.

Anti-Trump demonstrators have vowed to track him every step of the way.

One of the most eye-catching initiatives will be a giant inflatable balloon, or blimp, which has been named Trump Baby.

The blimp will be flown over Parliament Square Gardens in London's Westminster on July 13th.

Footage captured ahead of Trump's visit shows organisers inflating the blimp, which caricatures the American president as an angry, orange baby, complete with a snarling face and nappy, with a tiny hand clutching a mobile phone for tweeting.

Organisers say that they've sought to portray Trump as he's seen by his critics.

***

Thousands of demonstrators marched in central London on July 13th to protest against Donald Trump's first visit to the UK as US President.

A huge crowd gathered in Trafalgar Square, one of the British capital's most iconic landmarks.

***

As thousands of protesters in London marched against Donald Trump's first visit to the UK as US President, a small group of far-right supporters emerged from a pub and scuffled with police and demonstrators.

Some of the far right supporters were joined by Trump supporters.

Footage shows heated exchanges between pro- and anti-Trump supporters, with at least three people being arrested as minor scuffles broke out.

Police eventually escorted the far-right and Trump supporters away from the anti-Trump rally, allowing them to gather at the Red Lion pub near the UK Parliament.

Throughout the day, anti-Trump demonstrators in London were seen chanting slogans to vent their disapproval over the visit, blowing horns and waving banners.

Protests in Britain are expected to continue on July 14th.

***

A small rally supporting US President Donald Trump in London has been joined by thousands of supporters of prominent right-wing activist Tommy Robinson.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, founded an anti-Muslim group and was jailed for contempt of court after broadcasting outside a criminal trial in May.

Scotland Yard had imposed restrictions on both rallies "due to concerns of serious public disorder and disruption."

It said a June rally by the "Free Tommy" group resulted in serious violence in London and led to nine arrests.

Police said two people were arrested at Saturday's rally for suspected public order offences.

***

US President Donald Trump was asked at the end of a Cabinet meeting on July 18th if Russia was still targeting the United States.

The president said, "no," contradicting recent warnings from his top intelligence chief.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said later on July 18th that Trump was saying "no" to answering more questions, although he did go on to answer an additional question.

Trump's comment came after National Intelligence Director Dan Coats said July 13th that warning lights about overall cyber threats to the US are "blinking red" - much like "blinking red" signals warned before the 9/11 attacks.

Trump did not elaborate on the threat posed by Russia, telling reporters that no American president has been as "tough" on Russia as he has been.

Russia has been the most aggressive foreign actor, but cyber threats also are coming from China, Iran and North Korea, as well as criminal networks and individual hackers, Coats said last week.

US intelligence agencies have said Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers, accusing them of hacking into the Clinton presidential campaign and the Democratic Party.

Russia has denied state involvement.

***

House Speaker Paul Ryan dismissed President Donald Trump's plan to revoke security clearances from top former national security officials as just a mild form of "trolling," rather than a serious attack on dissent.

The GOP leader shrugged off the White House plan Tuesday, saying, "I think he's trolling people, honestly."

Ryan said the issue of who is able to access security clearances falls within the purview of the executive branch, rather than Congress. He seemed intent on leaving it to the White House to decide. Ryan says, "It's not really in our purview."

He dismissed Trump's threat to revoke the clearances of top former national security officials as simply the president's way of needling his opponents.

"I think he's just trolling people," Ryan said.

The White House on July 23rd said it was looking into revoking clearances for top former officials who have "politicized" their public service and security clearances by making "baseless accusations" that the Trump administration had improper contact with Russia or was influenced by Russia.

Ryan also responded to a question about President Vladimir Putin's possible visit to Washington this fall, saying he "certainly will not be giving him an invitation to do a joint session (address to Congress.) That's something we reserve for allies."

Ryan also said lawmakers are making the case to President Donald Trump that tariffs are "not the way to go."

The Republican leader told reporters July 24th, "I've made it pretty clear I don't think tariffs are the right answer."

Ryan's remarks came a couple hours after Trump tweeted that "Tariffs are the greatest!" and threatened to impose additional penalties on U.S. trading partners.

***

Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and "fixer" Michael Cohen says that he made hush money payments to two women "at the direction" of Trump.

Deputy U.S. Attorney Robert Khuzami told reporters on August 21st after Cohen's guilty plea that he submitted invoices to the candidate's company to obtain reimbursement for the unlawful campaign contributions.

Cohen pleaded guilty to charges including campaign finance fraud stemming from hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal.

The 51-year-old Cohen said in federal court in New York on Tuesday that he made the payments in coordination with Trump, who wasn't named, to influence the election. Both women claimed Trump had affairs with them, which he denies.

The other charges Cohen pleaded guilty to involve bank fraud and income tax evasion.

As part of his plea agreement, Cohen agreed not to challenge any sentence from 46 to 63 months.

***

US President Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid an unannounced visit on September 21st to the federal courthouse in New York where he pleaded guilty a month ago.

Cohen left the building at around 1:30 pm and declined to say why he was there.

He also declined to comment on any discussions he'd had with special counsel Robert Mueller.

Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

On September 20th , Cohen confirmed in a tweet that he had met Mueller and provided "critical information".

Cohen is awaiting a December sentencing after pleading guilty to tax fraud, bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

During his plea, Cohen said Trump directed him to arrange payments to a porn star before the 2016 election.

01:46:09

00:00:00

Protesters to fly Trump Baby balloon over parliament during his UK visit

4162931

ASSOCIATED PRESS

London - 10 July 2018

1. Giant balloon called "Trump Baby"

2. Close-ups of snarling face

00:08:00

Thousands in central London anti-Trump protest

4163387

ASSOCIATED PRESS

London - 13 July 2018

3. Tilt down on protest crowd at Trafalgar Square

4. Protesters in Trafalgar Square

5. Protester carrying sign reading (English) "Donald Duck Off"

00:20:07

Heated exchanges between anti-Trump and far right protesters, arrests

4163396

ASSOCIATED PRESS

London - 13 July 2018

6. Police leading the arrested far-right supporter away

7. Anti-Trump protesters chanting UPSOUND (English) "Donald Trump, go away, racist, sexist, anti-gay"

8. Far-right protesters chanting (English) "USA"

00:39:03

Right-wing and pro-Trump protests held in London

4163510

ASSOCIATED PRESS

London - 14 July 2018

9. Female Muslim bus driver sitting in her bus unable to drive

10. Protester making a rude hand gesture at female Muslim bus driver

00:45:24

Trump: There's never been a president as tough on Russia

4164104

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington DC - 18 July 2018

++TRUMP PAUSES AS REPORTERS ASK QUESTIONS++

11. Trump: " and there's been no president ever as tough as I have been on Russia.

00:51:02

Ryan likens Trump's threat to revoke critics' security clearances to trolling

4164941

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington - 24 July 2018

12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Rep. Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House: (responding to question on Trump's possible plan to revoke security clearances)

"I think he's trolling people, honestly. This is something that's in the purview of the executive branch. I think some of these people have already lost their clearances. Some people keep their clearances. That's something that the executive branch deals with. That's not really in our purview. ... I think he's just trolling people."

01:10:02

First Lady Melania Trump's parents sworn in as US citizens

4167226

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York - 9 August 2018

13. Viktor and Amalija Knavs walk out of a federal building in New York City after being sworn in as U.S. citizens

14. Viktor and Amalija Knavs with their lawyer Michael Wildes and Department of Homeland Security law enforcement officers

15. Viktor and Amalija Knavs walking into court

01:23:13

Trump's former 'fixer' Michael Cohen pleads guilty to campaign finance fraud

4168869

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York - 21 August 2018

16. Various of Michael Cohen leaving court and getting into car

01:38:21

Trump ex lawyer Michael Cohen visits New York court

4173668

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York - 21 September 2018

17. Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen exits courthouse, enters vehicle

John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement whose bloody beating by Alabama state troopers in 1965 helped galvanize opposition to racial segregation, and who went on to a long and celebrated career in Congress, died. He was 80.

Lewis’s announcement in late December 2019 that he had been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer - “I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now,” he said - inspired tributes from both sides of the aisle, and an unstated accord that the likely passing of this Atlanta Democrat would represent the end of an era.

Lewis was the youngest and last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists, a group led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that had the greatest impact on the movement. He was best known for leading some 600 protesters in the Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

At age 25 - walking at the head of the march with his hands tucked in the pockets of his tan overcoat - Lewis was knocked to the ground and beaten by police. His skull was fractured, and nationally televised images of the brutality forced the country’s attention on racial oppression in the South.

Within days, King led more marches in the state, and President Lyndon Johnson soon was pressing Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. The bill became law later that year, removing barriers that had barred Blacks from voting.

Lewis joined King and four other civil rights leaders in organizing the 1963 March on Washington. He spoke to the vast crowd just before King delivered his epochal “I Have a Dream” speech.

A 23-year-old firebrand, Lewis toned down his intended remarks at the insistence of others, dropping a reference to a “scorched earth” march through the South and scaling back criticisms of President John Kennedy. It was a potent speech nonetheless, in which he vowed: “By the forces of our demands, our determination and our numbers, we shall splinter the segregated South into a thousand pieces and put them together in an image of God and democracy.”

It was almost immediately, and forever, overshadowed by the words of King, the man who had inspired him to activism.

Lewis was born on Feb. 21, 1940, outside the town of Troy, in Pike County, Alabama. He grew up on his family’s farm and attended segregated public schools.

As a boy, he wanted to be a minister, and practiced his oratory on the family chickens. Denied a library card because of the color of his skin, he became an avid reader, and could cite obscure historical dates and details even in his later years. He was a teenager when he first heard King preaching on the radio. They met when Lewis was seeking support to become the first Black student at Alabama’s segregated Troy State University.

He ultimately attended the American Baptist Theological Seminary and Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. He began organizing sit-in demonstrations at whites-only lunch counters and volunteering as a Freedom Rider, enduring beatings and arrests while traveling around the South to challenge segregation.

Lewis helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was named its chairman in 1963, making him one of the Big Six at a tender age. The others, in addition to King, were Whitney Young of the National Urban League; A. Philip Randolph of the Negro American Labor Council; James L. Farmer Jr., of the Congress of Racial Equality; and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP. All six met at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York to plan and announce the March on Washington.

The huge demonstration galvanized the movement, but success didn’t come quickly. After extensive training in nonviolent protest, Lewis and the Rev. Hosea Williams led demonstrators on a planned march of more than 50 miles from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama’s capital, on March 7, 1965. A phalanx of police blocked their exit from the Selma bridge.

Authorities shoved, then swung their truncheons, fired tear gas and charged on horseback, sending many to the hospital and horrifying much of the nation. King returned with thousands, completing the march to Montgomery before the end of the month.

Lewis turned to politics in 1981, when he was elected to the Atlanta City Council.

He won his seat in Congress in 1986 and spent much of his career in the minority. After Democrats won control of the House in 2006, Lewis became his party’s senior deputy whip, a behind-the-scenes leadership post in which he helped keep the party unified.

In an early setback for Barack Obama’s 2008 Democratic primary campaign, Lewis endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton for the nomination. Lewis switched when it became clear Obama had overwhelming Black support. Obama later honored Lewis with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and they marched hand in hand in Selma on the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday attack.

Lewis also worked for 15 years to gain approval for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Humble and unfailingly friendly, Lewis was revered on Capitol Hill -- but as one of the most liberal members of Congress, he often lost policy battles, from his effort to stop the Iraq War to his defense of young immigrants.

He met bipartisan success in Congress in 2006 when he led efforts to renew the Voting Rights Act, but the Supreme Court later invalidated much of the law, and it became once again what it was in his youth, a work in progress. Later, when the presidency of Donald Trump challenged his civil rights legacy, Lewis made no effort to hide his pain.

Lewis refused to attend Trump’s inauguration, saying he didn’t consider him a “legitimate president” because Russians had conspired to get him elected. When Trump later complained about immigrants from “s---hole countries,” Lewis declared, “I think he is a racist ... we have to try to stand up and speak up and not try to sweep it under the rug.”

Lewis said he’d been arrested 40 times in the 1960s, five more as a congressman. At 78, he told a rally he’d do it again to help reunite immigrant families separated by the Trump administration.

“There cannot be any peace in America until these young children are returned to their parents and set all of our people free,” Lewis said in June, recalling the “good trouble” he got into protesting segregation as a young man.

“If we fail to do it, history will not be kind to us,” he shouted. “I will go to the border. I’ll get arrested again. If necessary, I’m prepared to go to jail.”

In a speech the day of the House impeachment vote of Trump, Lewis explained the importance of that vote.

“When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something, to do something. Our children and their children will ask us ‘what did you do? what did you say?” While the vote would be hard for some, he said: “We have a mission and a mandate to be on the right side of history.”

Lewis’ wife of four decades, Lillian Miles, died in 2012. They had one son, John Miles Lewis.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington DC - 16 May 2006

1. STILL of Rep. John Lewis being arrested after a news conference at the Sudanese Embassy regarding Darfur

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington DC - 13 November 2006

2. STILL of Rep. Lewis taking part in the ground breaking ceremony for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Selma, Alabama - 4 March 2007

3. STILL of Brown Chapel AME Church pastor James Jackson, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, Rep. Lewis and Rev. Clete Kiley holding hands and singing at the end of a church service

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington DC - 15 February 2011

4. STILL of President Barack Obama presenting a 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rep. Lewis

POOL

Selma, Alabama - 7 March 2015

5. STILL of President Barack Obama embracing Rep. Lewis after Lewis introduced the president with an emotional speech

6. Lewis and President Barack Obama walk across Edmund Pettus Bridge on 50th anniversary of march

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. John Lewis, (D) Georgia:

"We were beaten, tear-gassed, some of us was left bloody right here on this bridge. 17 of us were hospitalized that day. But we never became bitter or hostile. We kept believing that the truth we stood for would have the final say."

++MUTE++

8. Wide of people crossing bridge

POOL

Washington DC - 22 June 2016

++QUALITY AS INCOMING++

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. John Lewis, (D) Georgia:

"For months, even for years, through several sessions of Congress, I wondered: what would bring this body to take action? What would finally make Congress do what is right, what is just, what the people of this country have been demanding and what is long overdue? We have lost hundreds and thousands of innocent people to gun violence."

10. UPSOUND (English) Rep. Lewis stands with other Democrats on House floor:

"And what has this body done? Mr. Speaker, nothing. Not one thing. We have turned deaf ears, turned deaf ears to the blood of the innocent and the concern of our nation. We are blind to a crisis. Mr. Speaker, where is the heart of this body? Where is our soul?"

11. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. John Lewis, (D) Georgia:

"We're calling on the leadership of the House to bring common sense gun control legislation to the House floor. Give us a vote! Let us vote! We came here to do our job. We came here to work!"

12. Various of House Democrats participating in sit-in

John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement whose bloody beating by Alabama state troopers in 1965 helped galvanize opposition to racial segregation, and who went on to a long and celebrated career in Congress, died. He was 80.

Lewis’s announcement in late December 2019 that he had been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer - “I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now,” he said - inspired tributes from both sides of the aisle, and an unstated accord that the likely passing of this Atlanta Democrat would represent the end of an era.

Lewis was the youngest and last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists, a group led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that had the greatest impact on the movement. He was best known for leading some 600 protesters in the Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

At age 25 - walking at the head of the march with his hands tucked in the pockets of his tan overcoat - Lewis was knocked to the ground and beaten by police. His skull was fractured, and nationally televised images of the brutality forced the country’s attention on racial oppression in the South.

Within days, King led more marches in the state, and President Lyndon Johnson soon was pressing Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. The bill became law later that year, removing barriers that had barred Blacks from voting.

Lewis joined King and four other civil rights leaders in organizing the 1963 March on Washington. He spoke to the vast crowd just before King delivered his epochal “I Have a Dream” speech.

A 23-year-old firebrand, Lewis toned down his intended remarks at the insistence of others, dropping a reference to a “scorched earth” march through the South and scaling back criticisms of President John Kennedy. It was a potent speech nonetheless, in which he vowed: “By the forces of our demands, our determination and our numbers, we shall splinter the segregated South into a thousand pieces and put them together in an image of God and democracy.”

It was almost immediately, and forever, overshadowed by the words of King, the man who had inspired him to activism.

Lewis was born on Feb. 21, 1940, outside the town of Troy, in Pike County, Alabama. He grew up on his family’s farm and attended segregated public schools.

As a boy, he wanted to be a minister, and practiced his oratory on the family chickens. Denied a library card because of the color of his skin, he became an avid reader, and could cite obscure historical dates and details even in his later years. He was a teenager when he first heard King preaching on the radio. They met when Lewis was seeking support to become the first Black student at Alabama’s segregated Troy State University.

He ultimately attended the American Baptist Theological Seminary and Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. He began organizing sit-in demonstrations at whites-only lunch counters and volunteering as a Freedom Rider, enduring beatings and arrests while traveling around the South to challenge segregation.

Lewis helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was named its chairman in 1963, making him one of the Big Six at a tender age. The others, in addition to King, were Whitney Young of the National Urban League; A. Philip Randolph of the Negro American Labor Council; James L. Farmer Jr., of the Congress of Racial Equality; and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP. All six met at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York to plan and announce the March on Washington.

The huge demonstration galvanized the movement, but success didn’t come quickly. After extensive training in nonviolent protest, Lewis and the Rev. Hosea Williams led demonstrators on a planned march of more than 50 miles from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama’s capital, on March 7, 1965. A phalanx of police blocked their exit from the Selma bridge.

Authorities shoved, then swung their truncheons, fired tear gas and charged on horseback, sending many to the hospital and horrifying much of the nation. King returned with thousands, completing the march to Montgomery before the end of the month.

Lewis turned to politics in 1981, when he was elected to the Atlanta City Council.

He won his seat in Congress in 1986 and spent much of his career in the minority. After Democrats won control of the House in 2006, Lewis became his party’s senior deputy whip, a behind-the-scenes leadership post in which he helped keep the party unified.

In an early setback for Barack Obama’s 2008 Democratic primary campaign, Lewis endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton for the nomination. Lewis switched when it became clear Obama had overwhelming Black support. Obama later honored Lewis with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and they marched hand in hand in Selma on the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday attack.

Lewis also worked for 15 years to gain approval for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Humble and unfailingly friendly, Lewis was revered on Capitol Hill -- but as one of the most liberal members of Congress, he often lost policy battles, from his effort to stop the Iraq War to his defense of young immigrants.

He met bipartisan success in Congress in 2006 when he led efforts to renew the Voting Rights Act, but the Supreme Court later invalidated much of the law, and it became once again what it was in his youth, a work in progress. Later, when the presidency of Donald Trump challenged his civil rights legacy, Lewis made no effort to hide his pain.

Lewis refused to attend Trump’s inauguration, saying he didn’t consider him a “legitimate president” because Russians had conspired to get him elected. When Trump later complained about immigrants from “s---hole countries,” Lewis declared, “I think he is a racist ... we have to try to stand up and speak up and not try to sweep it under the rug.”

Lewis said he’d been arrested 40 times in the 1960s, five more as a congressman. At 78, he told a rally he’d do it again to help reunite immigrant families separated by the Trump administration.

“There cannot be any peace in America until these young children are returned to their parents and set all of our people free,” Lewis said in June, recalling the “good trouble” he got into protesting segregation as a young man.

“If we fail to do it, history will not be kind to us,” he shouted. “I will go to the border. I’ll get arrested again. If necessary, I’m prepared to go to jail.”

In a speech the day of the House impeachment vote of Trump, Lewis explained the importance of that vote.

“When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something, to do something. Our children and their children will ask us ‘what did you do? what did you say?” While the vote would be hard for some, he said: “We have a mission and a mandate to be on the right side of history.”

Lewis’ wife of four decades, Lillian Miles, died in 2012. They had one son, John Miles Lewis.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington DC - 16 May 2006

1. STILL of Rep. John Lewis being arrested after a news conference at the Sudanese Embassy regarding Darfur

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington DC - 13 November 2006

2. STILL of Rep. Lewis taking part in the ground breaking ceremony for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Selma, Alabama - 4 March 2007

3. STILL of Brown Chapel AME Church pastor James Jackson, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, Rep. Lewis and Rev. Clete Kiley holding hands and singing at the end of a church service

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington DC - 15 February 2011

4. STILL of President Barack Obama presenting a 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rep. Lewis

POOL

Selma, Alabama - 7 March 2015

5. STILL of President Barack Obama embracing Rep. Lewis after Lewis introduced the president with an emotional speech

6. Lewis and President Barack Obama walk across Edmund Pettus Bridge on 50th anniversary of march

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. John Lewis, (D) Georgia:

"We were beaten, tear-gassed, some of us was left bloody right here on this bridge. 17 of us were hospitalized that day. But we never became bitter or hostile. We kept believing that the truth we stood for would have the final say."

++MUTE++

8. Wide of people crossing bridge

POOL

Washington DC - 22 June 2016

++QUALITY AS INCOMING++

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. John Lewis, (D) Georgia:

"For months, even for years, through several sessions of Congress, I wondered: what would bring this body to take action? What would finally make Congress do what is right, what is just, what the people of this country have been demanding and what is long overdue? We have lost hundreds and thousands of innocent people to gun violence."

10. UPSOUND (English) Rep. Lewis stands with other Democrats on House floor:

"And what has this body done? Mr. Speaker, nothing. Not one thing. We have turned deaf ears, turned deaf ears to the blood of the innocent and the concern of our nation. We are blind to a crisis. Mr. Speaker, where is the heart of this body? Where is our soul?"

11. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. John Lewis, (D) Georgia:

"We're calling on the leadership of the House to bring common sense gun control legislation to the House floor. Give us a vote! Let us vote! We came here to do our job. We came here to work!"

12. Various of House Democrats participating in sit-in

RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

AP CLIENTS ONLY

SHOTLIST:

AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Las Vegas, Nevada - 13 October, 2015

1. Sign outside hotel promoting debate

2. People at computers inside hotel

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Hillary Rodham Clinton, (D) Presidential Candidate

(on stage speaking after debate)

"I know how hard so many of you are working for me. Thank you for your leadership, my campaign thanks each and every one of you. We're gonna win!"

4. Wide, Hillary on stage, crowd chanting "Hillary!"

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Hillary Rodham Clinton, (D) Presidential Candidate

(on stage speaking after debate)

"We're so grateful to see you all. I'm thrilled to be here. Who's coming to the rally tomorrow?"

6. Various People outside with Hillary signs

7. Various Senator Bernie Sanders in media interview after debate

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Senator Bernie Sanders, (D) Presidential Candidate

"This debate, unlike the Republican debate, actually addressed many of the real issues facing the American people. Now I think, I wish we had more opportunity to talk about income and wealth inequality. The continuing fact that while the middle class continues to disappear, almost all of the income and wealth goes to the top one percent. I wish we had more time to talk about tax policy, and demanding that the wealthiest people in this country and the largest corporations start paying their fair share of taxes. But I thought it was an informative debate. And I hope that the American people see the difference between people who are trying to address the real issues rather than call people names."

9. Sanders signs

STORYLINE:

Front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton and her main rival Sen. Bernie Sanders clashed over U.S. involvement in the Middle East, gun control and economic policy in the first Democratic presidential debate, outlining competing visions for a party seeking to keep the White House for a third straight term.

Yet in a moment of political unity - and levity - Sanders leapt to Clinton's defence in Tuesday night's debate on the issue of her controversial email practices as secretary of state.

"The American people are sick and tired are hearing about your damn emails," Sanders exclaimed as the crowd in Las Vegas roared with applause. A smiling Clinton reached over to shake his hand and said, "Thank you, Bernie."

While the five candidates onstage took issue with each other, they also repeatedly sounded traditional Democratic themes - such as fighting income inequality - that are sure to carry over to the general election campaign against the Republicans. They also sought to cast the Republicans as a party focused on sowing division and denigrating minorities and women.

The debate was unlikely to shake up a race in which Clinton leads Sanders by double digits in national polls and remains the overwhelming favourite to win the Democratic nomination due to her financial and organizational advantages. But the Vermont senator has surprisingly emerged as her toughest competition, particularly in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire which kick off the primary process.

Throughout most of the two-hour debate Clinton played the role of aggressor, an unexpected shift for a candidate who had barely mentioned her Democratic rivals since launching her campaign six months ago.

After Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, derided "a casino capitalist process by which so few have so much," Clinton said it would be a "big mistake" for the U.S. to turn its back on the system that built the American middle class. Asked whether she thought Sanders, who has a mixed record on gun control legislation, had been tough enough on the issue, she said simply," No, I do not."

While Sanders is drawing big crowds on the campaign trail, he's largely unknown to many Americans. Tuesday's debate offered him a high-profile opportunity to cast himself as an electable alternative to Clinton and appeal for support beyond his liberal base.

Sanders has sought in particular to distinguish himself from Clinton over foreign policy, an issue where she is often more hawkish than others in the Democratic Party. The former secretary of state reiterated her call for more robust U.S. action to stop the Syrian civil war and defended her judgment on international issues, despite having voted for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Sanders called the Iraq war "the worst foreign policy blunder in the history of our country" and said he would not support sending American combat troops back to the Middle East to fight terrorism.

"Nobody does, Senator Sanders," Clinton interjected.

The only woman on stage, Clinton also highlighted the prospect of becoming the nation's first female president multiple times. When asked how her administration would differ from President Barack Obama's, she said with a smile, "Being the first woman president would be quite a change."

Clinton's confident performance was likely to ease anxiety among supporters who have questioned her campaign's handling of the email controversy. One question still to be answered: how her showing will affect Vice-President Joe Biden's decision about making a late entry into the Democratic race. Biden, who is expected to announce his decision within days, watched the debate at his residence in Washington.

The Democratic contest has largely been overshadowed by the Republican primary, where more than a dozen candidates are fighting to overtake billionaire Donald Trump. The real estate mogul made his presence known Tuesday night, sending a torrent of Twitter commentary on the Democrats' performances.

"Sorry, there is no STAR on the stage tonight!" he wrote.

While the Republican primary has been roiled by the emotional debate over immigration, the Democratic candidates were largely united in their call for providing a path to legal status for the millions of people currently in the U.S. illegally. The party is counting on general election support from Hispanics, a group that overwhelmingly voted for Obama in 2012

Joining Clinton and Sanders on stage in Las Vegas was a trio of low-polling candidates looking for a breakthrough moment: former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley; Jim Webb, a former Navy secretary and U.S. senator from Virginia, and former senator and governor Lincoln Chafee, the Republican-turned independent-turned Democrat from Rhode Island.

For Clinton, the debate was a much-needed opportunity to focus on policy in addition to the controversy over her exclusive use of personal email and a private Internet server during her tenure in the Obama administration. The email issue has shadowed her rollout of numerous policy positions and has hurt her standing with voters.

Clinton said her email use "wasn't the best choice" and cast the issue as a politically motivated effort by Republicans to drive down her poll numbers. She highlighted comments from a Republican House leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who bragged about how a House committee investigating Clinton's role in the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, had hurt her politically.

"I am still standing," she said.

The former secretary of state has also faced criticism that she's shifted her positions on trade, gay marriage and other issues to match the mood of voters - a charge she vigorously denied Tuesday.

"Like most human beings, I do absorb new information, I do look at what's happening in the world," Clinton said. Pressed specifically on her newly announced opposition to a Pacific Rim trade deal she touted while serving in the Obama administration, Clinton said she had hoped to support it but ultimately decided it did not meet her standards.

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