Two Republican senators mistakenly used photos of Elijah Cummings in tributes meant to honor a late black congressman, Rep. John Lewis, who passed away last week.
Senators Marco Rubio, from Florida, and Dan Sullivan, from Alaska, tweeted tributes to Lewis on Saturday. Lewis, D-Ga., Died Friday night after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old.
“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,” Rubio wrote Saturday. “May the Lord grant you eternal peace.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP PLAYS TRIBUTE TO JOHN LEWIS, A ‘CIVIL RIGHTS HERO’
In this Feb. 15, 2011 photo, President Barack Obama presents a 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom to U.S. Representative John Lewis, D-Ga., During a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Lewis, who led the fight against racial discrimination from the southern battlefields of the 1960s into the halls of Congress, died on Friday, July 17, 2020. (AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster, File)
“The courage and principled leadership of Congressman Lewis helped guide the United States through one of the most challenging periods in its history, calling on our country to fulfill its ideals with justice and equality for all people, regardless of their color and creed, “Sullivan wrote in his own Facebook message.
But both messages included photos of the late Rep. Cummings, who died in October. Cummings, also a civil rights activist, served in the Maryland House of Representatives for the Seventh Congressional District, which includes Baltimore, until his death at age 68.
In a follow-up tweet, Rubio acknowledged: “Earlier today I tweeted an incorrect photo.”
“John Lewis was a true American hero,” he said. “I had the honor of appearing together in Miami 3 years ago at an event captured in the video below. Me [sic] God grant you eternal rest. ”
Rubio shared a link to a video of him and Lewis together in Miami on Martin Luther King Day in 2017.
Sullivan revised his Facebook post to remove the same photo showing Cummings at the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, The Guardian reported. His updated post was linked to Lewis’s obituary in The Washington Post and removed the reference to the museum.
Cummings’ photo was taken in February 2014 by photojournalist Lauren Schneiderman of the Philadelphia Inquirer. It has since been removed from Schneiderman’s personal website, but screenshots showed it was mislabeled as representing Lewis, according to the New York Times.
Former chairman of the Nonviolent Student Coordination Committee (SNCC) and one of the keynote speakers at the historic March in Washington before the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis spent his life advocating for minority rights. He served in Congress for 33 years.
President Trump tweeted condolences on Friday for the late Lewis and called him a “civil rights hero.”
Lewis was not a Trump fan. He sparked a boycott of his inauguration in 2017 and said the president-elect was not a “legitimate president.” Lewis said the Russians destroyed Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and helped Trump win the election.
During his life, Lewis joked about being mistaken for Cummings in the past. In an official statement in April 2019, Lewis announced plans to grow his beard “after years of ‘bald’ press reports that have confused the two famous and shaved African-American members of Congress.”
“People stop me all the time and tell me they’re from Maryland,” said Lewis. “I am John Lewis from Georgia. Representative Cummings is a good friend of mine, but we are not the same person. I thought about getting a tattoo on the back of my head, just to clear things up. I tried to convince Elijah to get one too, but that was not so good. “
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“However, I guess being wrong has its advantages,” Lewis continued. Elijah is younger than me, so I guess being mistaken for him is a compliment. Maybe someday when I have a scheduling conflict, see if you wouldn’t mind going to a hearing for me. Do you think anyone would notice?
Marisa Schultz of Fox News contributed to this report.
