Rubio mistakenly tweets tribute to Lewis with picture of late Elijah Cummings.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) prompted pushback Saturday after tweeting a photo of himself and the late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) in a tribute to the late John Lewis (D-Ga.), who died this week.
Rubio on Saturday shared a photo of himself and Cummings, tweeting that it was “an honor to know & be blessed with the opportunity to serve in Congress with JohnLewis a genuine & historic American hero.”
Rubio also changed his profile picture on Twitter to himself and a photo of Cummings Saturday, according to multiple reports. He has since changed the photo to one of himself and Lewis.
The Florida lawmaker later tweeted “Earlier today I tweeted an incorrect photo.”
“John Lewis was a genuine American hero,” Rubio tweeted, adding “I was honored to appear together in Miami 3 years ago at an event captured in video below.”
“My God grant him eternal rest,” Rubio continued.
Earlier today I tweeted an incorrect photo
John Lewis was a genuine American hero
I was honored to appear together in Miami 3 years ago at an event captured in video below
My God grant him eternal resthttps://t.co/aEm4MxKxBP pic.twitter.com/0UpWSG3vNQ
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 18, 2020
The photo of Rubio and Cummings was up for approximately 20 minutes, according to ABC News. Reporters and other Twitter users were quick to correct the GOP lawmaker.
This tweet has been deleted. The senator also made it his profile photo. (That’s Elijah Cummings, not John Lewis.) pic.twitter.com/ygvPCUs6su
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 18, 2020
This is a photo of Elijah Cummings, not John Lewis. pic.twitter.com/uumfIb7yW5
— Matt Viser (@mviser) July 18, 2020
Except that’s Elijah Cummings pic.twitter.com/UelkmWYyac
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) July 18, 2020
Rep. Elijah Cummings used to say being mistaken frequently for John Lewis was an honor and the pair used to laugh about it.
Today it happened again: pic.twitter.com/cWJtV51ygK
— K Tully-McManus (@ktullymcmanus) July 18, 2020
Cummings died in October 2019 at the age of 68.
Lewis in 2019 made an April Fools’ Day announcement saying that he planned to grow a beard to avoid being mistaken for Cummings.
“Just this weekend, I went to church in Maryland. Someone came up to me and said, ‘Hi, Mr. Cummings! I vote for you all the time,’’’ Lewis said in a statement. “I just said thank you. What else could I say? That’s when I decided, I should just grow a beard.”
The longtime civil rights leader died Friday. He spent 17 terms in Congress representing an Atlanta-area district.
