Julian Zelizer blasts Pence for comparing Donald Trump to MLK

A historian slammed Vice President Mike Pence on Monday for comparing President Donald Trump to celebrated civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. 

Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, appeared on CNN Monday to discuss the vice president's recent attempt to align Trump's efforts amid the partial government shutdown with King's historic work for civil rights. Zelizer said Trump's policies are staunchly opposed to what King represented. 

“Look, the policies of this administration, from the border wall to voting rights restrictions, are antithetical to absolutely everything Martin Luther King fought for,” Zelizer explained. “Having Vice President Pence invoke Martin Luther King for this deal [regarding border security], or anything else, really flies in the face of his memory.”

Pence appeared on CBS News’s  Face the Nation Sunday to discuss the ongoing partial government shutdown, which has become the longest in U.S. history. Repeating the Trump administration’s hard-line stance in his demand for funding for a wall on the southern border with Mexico, Pence argued that the president was acting in the spirit of MLK.