Powerful Dem congressman, rights advocate
Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, a sharecropper’s son who rose to become a civil rights champion and the chairman of one of the U.S. House committees leading an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, died Thursday of complications from longstanding health problems. He was 68.
Mr. Cummings was a formidable orator who advocated for the poor in his black-majority district, which encompasses a large portion of Baltimore and more well-to-do suburbs.
As chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Mr. Cummings led investigations of the president’s government dealings, including probes in 2019 relating to Mr. Trump’s family members serving in the White House.
Mr. Trump criticized the Democrat’s district as a “rodent-infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.” The comments came weeks after Mr. Trump drew condemnation following his calls for Democratic congresswomen of color to go back to their “broken and crime-infested countries.”
Mr. Cummings replied that officials must stop making “hateful, incendiary comments” that distract the nation from real problems, such as mass shootings and white supremacy.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump ordered flags at the White House, military bases and other federal buildings to be flown at half-staff through Friday to honor Mr. Cummings. He also tweeted his “condolences to the family and many friends of Congressman Elijah Cummings. I got to see firsthand the strength, passion and wisdom of this highly respected political leader.” The tweet made no reference to past feuds.
Former President Barack Obama, whose 2008 presidential bid counted Mr. Cummings as an early supporter, said he and his wife, Michelle, were “heartbroken” by the loss of their friend.
“As Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, he showed us all not only the importance of checks and balances within our democracy, but also the necessity of good people stewarding it,” Mr. Obama said in a statement, calling Mr. Cummings “steely yet compassionate, principled yet open to new perspectives.”
Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis said that with Mr. Cummings’ death, Americans “have lost a great leader at a time of crisis in our democracy.”
“When this nation needed him most, he became a moral voice ‘crying in the wilderness,’ and his words and actions called a reluctant nation to conscience,” the Georgia Democrat said in a statement.
Mr. Cummings’ career spanned decades in Maryland politics. He rose through the ranks of the Maryland House of Delegates before winning his congressional seat in a 1996 special election to replace Kweisi Mfume, who left to lead the NAACP.
A key figure in the Trump impeachment inquiry, Mr. Cummings had hoped to return to Congress within about a week after a medical procedure for which he didn’t offer details. He’d previously been treated for heart and knee issues.
Mr. Cummings’ office said he died early Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
His widow, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, chairwoman of Maryland’s Democratic Party, said in a statement: “He worked until his last breath because he believed our democracy was the highest and best expression of our collective humanity and that our nation’s diversity was our promise, not our problem.”