Politics

Marco Rubio tweets photo of Elijah Cummings in John Lewis remembrance

Rubio deleted the tweet and acknowledged his mistake in a follow-up tweet.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio posted a picture of Elijah Cummings in a tweet remembering John Lewis.

By Christina Morales, New York Times Service

2 minutes to read

Like thousands of other Americans, Sen. Marco Rubio took to social media on Saturday to mourn the death of Rep. John Lewis, a venerated figure of the civil rights movement.

“It was an honor to know & be blessed with the opportunity to serve in Congress with John Lewis a genuine and historic American hero,” Rubio said in a tweet on Saturday afternoon. “May the Lord grant him eternal peace.”

Except the photo Rubio posted was not of Lewis, but of another congressman: Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, who died in October. Rubio also used the photo of himself with Cummings as his Twitter profile picture for a brief time.

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In a follow-up tweet, Rubio acknowledged having used an incorrect photo.

“John Lewis was a genuine American hero,” he added. “I was honored to appear together in Miami 3 years ago at an event captured in video below. May God grant him eternal rest.”

Twitter was quick to criticize Rubio, R-Fla., for confusing the congressmen.

Lewis died at 80 Friday. He announced in December that he had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. One of the original 13 Freedom Riders, he was a powerful force in the U.S. civil rights movement, helping organize the March on Washington and other demonstrations.

Cummings, D-Md., died in Oct. 17 at 68 in Baltimore. As the time of his death, he was serving his 13th term in the House of Representatives.

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With nationwide unrest since the killing of George Floyd, the treatment of Black Americans has been brought to the front of the country’s political consciousness. But Rubio’s post was not the first time the two congressmen have been confused for each other.

In late December, CBS News apologized for incorrectly showing a photo of Cummings when referring to Lewis. In June 2019, a Fox News anchor, Eric Shawn, apologized for confusing the congressmen, even with Lewis’ nameplate being in the news clip.

Lewis took the mix-ups in stride. Standing next to a portrait of Cummings on the House floor in October, Lewis paid tribute to his friend and talked about his service.

“Sometimes people would confuse us, and say, ‘Hello, Elijah,’ ‘Hello, John Lewis,’ to him,” he said. “And we would joke about it. We would laugh about it.”

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