Don’t all deceased congressmen look alike?
In an excruciating charade, Florida Senator Marco Rubio tweeted a tribute to the late Rep. John Lewis on Saturday, and combined it with a photo of himself with the late Rep. Elijah Cummings.
“It was an honor to meet and be blessed to serve in Congress with John Lewis, a genuine and historic American hero,” Rubio wrote.
“This is Elijah Cummings,” replied Astead Herndon, a reporter for the New York Times.
Minutes later, the position was eliminated, and the red-faced Republican offered his mea culpas.
“Earlier today I tweeted an incorrect photo,” admitted Rubio, this time with a video of him and Lewis at a Martin Luther King Day event in 2017. “John Lewis was a true American hero.”
Lewis and Cummings, a Maryland congressman who died in 2019, were frequently confused during the 12 terms they served together in the United States House of Representatives. Both were older, bald African American men.
“We’d laugh at that, and I was a little glad as he was taller and younger,” Lewis wrote in a Time magazine tribute to Cummings last year.
.
