Tweet by Rubio mistakes Cummings for John Lewis

In a case of mistaken identity sure to stir the political pot, Sen. Marco Rubio meant to send out a message honoring Rep. John Lewis, who passed away Friday night.

But in an oops that quickly went viral, he used a photograph of himself with the Rep. Elijah Cummings, who passed away last October.

“It was an honor to know and be blessed with the opportunity to serve in Congress with John Lewis,” Rubio began his Tweet with Saturday, before continuing to describe the late Georgia Congressman and civil rights icon as a, “genuine and historic American hero.”

Later — having deleted the Tweet showing him with Cummings — Rubio made a correction, admitting that, “Earlier today I tweeted an incorrect photo,” before an embedded YouTube video of he and Lewis together and adding, “I was honored to appear together in Miami three years ago at an event captured in video below. My [sic] God grant him eternal rest.”

Unfortunately, Rubio’s Twitter account had also made the earlier mixup image his Twitter account avatar, which remained for about another hour, giving the enough time for the phrase “marco rubio wrong picture” to start trending.

Speaking of trending, it was the reverse situation when Cummings died Oct. 17, 2019 and social media confused the Maryland Representative with Lewis, who at the time was 79 years old. That morning when news of Cummings death came out, it was Lewis who was trending No. 1 on Twitter.

A few months before that, Fox News had to do a media mea culpa for also confusing the two, airing a clip of Lewis while talking about Cummings, even though in the video Lewis’ nameplate is clearly visible.

Network news’ record is hardly blameless. CBS News had to issue an apology on Jan. 31, 2019 about an hour after airing a report on Lewis battling pancreatic cancer because they used an image of Cummings, who at that point had been dead for over two months.

Here are just a few of the reactions to Marco’s mulligan:

“At least it wasn’t one of him and @SamuelLJacks o n ,” says @AndyPopeInTheW1

“When you care enough to give it not even the bare minimum of effort,” says @REFrankel

“Ah, Marco Rubio, once again rising to the soaring heights of barely able to tie his own shoelaces,” says @dimitri11192

“But still it begs the question if Rubio put this up and not a staffer, how come he can’t tell the difference between two men he’s worked with for almost 10 years?,” says AnyaAscendant