WASHINGTON – Senator Marco Rubio on Saturday purported to honor Rep. John Lewis hours after his death, but instead mistakenly used a photo of Rep. Elijah Cummings, who died in October.
“It was an honor to meet and be blessed with the opportunity to serve in Congress with John Lewis, a genuine and historic American hero. May the Lord grant you eternal peace, “Rubio, R-Fla., Wrote on Twitter, attaching a photo of himself in a conversation with Cummings.
Lewis, an icon of the civil rights movement, died Friday of age 80 of pancreatic cancer.
Rubio also briefly made the image of himself and Cummings in their Twitter profile picture.
Since then, Rubio’s tweet has been removed and his profile picture has been changed, but not before users were able to catch his mistake and share it online.
“Earlier today I tweeted an incorrect photo,” Rubio posted shortly after deleting the photo of Cummings, a Maryland Democrat who died last year at age 68 after a history of health problems.
“John Lewis was a true American hero,” he wrote. “I had the honor of appearing together in Miami 3 years ago at an event captured in the video below … God, grant him eternal rest,” Rubio continued, this time including a photo of himself and Lewis, who also took their photo. Profile. .
Rubio’s mistake sparked outrage among some politicians who apologized for mixing two black lawmakers.
“‘What an honor to know …’ Unreal. I’m glad @marcorubio has removed this embarrassing post, but it owes an apology to both the Lewis family and the Cummings family, “Rep Bobby Rush, D-Ill tweeted.
Rep. Adriano Espaillat, DN.Y., called Rubio’s tweet a “disgrace” and said that “as your state’s lead senator, you and your staff should know the difference between late Congressman Elijah Cummings and Congressman John Lewis . #DISGRACEFUL … correct it and do it right! “
The son of a sharecropper, Lewis served in Congress for more than three decades representing the Atlanta area.
Lewis was a supporter of the nonviolent protest whose skull was fractured by Alabama state soldiers during Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965. He was the last surviving speaker from the 1963 March on Washington.
