Tag: Rep. Cummings

GOP senators mistake photo of Elijah Cummings for John Lewis in tribute

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska mixed up the two Black lawmakers on Saturday in an attempt to honor Lewis, who died Friday night.

WASHINGTON — In attempting to honor the late Rep. John Lewis after his death, two Republican senators mistakenly used a photo of Rep. Elijah Cummings, who died in October.

“It was an honor to know & be blessed with the opportunity to serve in Congress with JohnLewis a genuine & historic American hero. May the Lord grant him eternal peace,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wrote on Twitter, attaching a picture of himself in a conversation with Cummings.

Lewis, an icon of the civil rights movement, died Friday at 80 from pancreatic cancer. Continue reading.

Trump gloats over reports of Cummings’ Baltimore home being robbed

AlterNet logoThis week, President Donald Trump has been rallying his far-right base by defaming Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings (chairman of the House Oversight Committee) and insulting the predominantly African-American East Coast City. And the president is gloating over police reports that Cummings’ home in Baltimore had been the target of a burglary.

Friday morning on Twitter, Trump posted, “Really bad news! The Baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed. Too bad!”

Instead of sounding sympathetic, Trump sounded delighted.

View the complete August 2 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

Baltimore Sun to Trump: Better to have a few rats than to be one

Axios logoThe Baltimore Sun denounced President Trump Saturday for his Twitter attacks on Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and the majority-black Baltimore-area district he represents — which Trump called a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”

The big picture: In an article titled “Better to have a few rats than to be one,” the editorial board of the Maryland paper, one of the oldest newspapers in the U.S., wrote that it’s heartening to see public figures such as “native daughter” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Baltimore Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young defend the city.

  • The board said it wished to remind Trump that “the White House has far more power to effect change in this city, for good or ill, than any single member of Congress” —including Cummings. It left its most scathing rebuke toward the end of the article.

“[W]e would tell the most dishonest man to ever occupy the Oval Office, the mocker of war heroes, the gleeful grabber of women’s private parts, the serial bankrupter of businesses, the useful idiot of Vladimir Putin and the guy who insisted there are ‘good people’ among murderous neo-Nazis that he’s still not fooling most Americans into believing he’s even slightly competent in his current post.”

View the complete July 28 article by Rebecca Falconer on the Axios website here.

White House rejects Dem request to interview ex-Trump aide

The White House on Friday rejected a Democratic congressional request to interview a former White House lawyer about hundreds of thousands of dollars in hush money payments made by President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen.

White House counsel Pat Cipollone told House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) in a letter obtained by The Hill that the White House has been “cooperative and responsive” to the panel’s requests for documents.

But Cipollone said that because the Oversight panel wants to interview Trump’s former deputy assistant and deputy counsel Stefan Passantino about things he discussed or advised during his White House tenure, the request needs to be sent to Cipollone’s office — not directly to Passantino.

View the complete March 8 article by Scott Wong and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.