Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, the Democrat at the forefront of the legal battle to block President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center, slammed the president’s efforts, telling MS NOW he was “throwing a tantrum” in response to recent court rulings.

Beatty sat down with the co-hosts of “The Weeknight” hours after the latest hearing in the case. The Ohio Democrat, who serves as an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, filed a lawsuit last year arguing that the decision to rename the building was illegal because doing so would require an act of Congress.

Beatty told MS NOW that she called in to the meeting at which the renaming was discussed but said her microphone was “muted” during the voting process. “They had determined this well before the board voted,” she said, adding that the president’s “handpicked” board would do “everything he wants [it] to do.”

In June a judge ordered the president’s name be removed from the center. Trump, however, has challenged that ruling in court, arguing that the building’s massive renovation cannot be completed without his fundraising efforts and that he therefore deserves recognition.

The Ohio Democrat slammed Trump for making the Kennedy Center a “partisan issue,” noting that the cultural venue is “very special to so many people.”

“He doesn’t care about the jobs, the people who have worked there for years,” Beatty said. “He didn’t care about any of that. This is strictly because he lost in court. His name did come down, and he’s upset about it. So now he’ll tear it down.”

While Beatty said the court has thus far found in her favor, she admitted she was still “nervous” that Trump would move forward with his plans anyway. She also expressed concern about what the board’s proposed renovations could mean for the future of the Kennedy Center. “He was simply going to renovate the East Wing, and we saw what happened to that,” she said. “He tore it down.”

You can watch Beatty’s full interview in the clip at the top of the page.

The post Democrat challenging Trump’s Kennedy Center takeover says he is throwing a ‘tantrum’ appeared first on MS NOW.

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From MS Now.