Politics Martin Luther King III, After Meeting with Donald Trump: 'We've Got to Move Forward' By Sandra Sobieraj Westfall Sandra Sobieraj Westfall Sandra Sobieraj Westfall is the White House and National Political Correspondent for PEOPLE. She also writes for and occasionally senior edits the magazine's Crime section and the brand's Let's Talk About It mental health series. Westfall joined PEOPLE in 2003 as Washington Bureau Chief and specializes in bringing readers inside the personal experience of political life. She twice won the White House Correspondents' Association Merriman-Smith Award for excellence in presidential reporting under deadline pressure (for her inside-the-room election night exclusives on the "snippy" phone call between Al Gore and George W. Bush in 2000; and the hear-a-pin-drop silent moment in 2008 when Barack Obama, holding his mother-in-law's hand, took in the news that he would be America's first Black president). Prior to joining PEOPLE, Westfall was a White House Correspondent for The Associated Press after beginning her career in Congress, where she wrote legislation on women's health, mental health, and domestic violence. A native of Rochester, New York, she received her Bachelor's degree in politics (with a certificate in Latin American studies) from Princeton University, and a Master's degree in journalism from Stanford University. People Editorial Guidelines Updated on January 16, 2017 05:35 PM Share Tweet Pin Email Martin Luther King III met on Monday with president-elect Donald Trump and tried to cool tensions over the weekend trading of insults between Trump and Rep. John Lewis, the civil-rights leader who marched and fought alongside King’s late father, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Things get said on both sides in the heat of emotion,” said King on the national holiday celebrating his slain father and the civil rights movement he led. “At some point, this nation— we’ve got to move forward. People are literally probably dying. We need to be talking about how do we feed people? How do we clothe people? How do we create the best education system? That’s what we need to be focused on.” Drew Angerer/Getty King spoke to reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower after meeting privately with Trump. The president-elect escorted King to the lobby after their meeting but returned to the elevator without saying a word to the journalists calling out questions to him. Drew Angerer/Getty The meeting comes after Trump was widely criticized over the weekend for insulting Lewis on Twitter, calling the Georgia Democrat “All talk, talk, talk—no action or results.” Trump’s tweets were in response to Lewis telling NBC News that he was boycotting Trump’s inauguration and does not view the Republican reality-TV star as a “legitimate president.” RELATED VIDEO: Watch: Natasha Stoynoff Breaks Silence, Accuses Donald Trump of Sexual Assault Comedian Rob Schneider, meanwhile, also poked Lewis with a tweet on Monday that suggested Lewis’ “illegitimate” comment was unbecoming of Dr. King’s example. “Rep. Lewis. You are a great person. But Dr. King didn’t give in to his anger or his hurt. That is how he accomplished & won Civil Rights.” “Rep. Lewis. You are a great person,” Schneider wrote. “But Dr. King didn’t give in to his anger or his hurt. That is how he accomplished & won Civil Rights.” Lewis is a former “freedom rider” who marched with Dr. King during the peaceful 1965 voting rights protest on Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama —where he was beaten by a state trooper who fractured his skull, as depicted in the 2014 Oscar-nominated film Selma. Asked by a reporter on Monday if Trump’s attack on Lewis as “all talk” didn’t “cut to your core,” King mostly avoided the bait, responding in a measured tone: “John Lewis has demonstrated that he’s action.” “In the heat of emotion, a lot of things get said on both sides. At some point, I am—as John Lewis and many others are—a bridge builder,” King added. “…What I’m trying to do is always bring people together.”