Civil rights icon led probe of Trump
Powerful House leader rose from humble start
U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, a civil rights champion who over the last quarter century became one of the most influential Democrats in Congress and a key figure in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, died on Thursday. He was 68.
A powerful speaker with a formidable presence, Cummings had clashed with Trump on subjects ranging from congressional oversight of the White House to his attacks on Cummings’ Baltimore, which the president called “rat-infested.”
Cummings responded in a speech early in August at the National Press Club, saying that high-level government officials should “stop invoking fear, using racist language and encouraging reprehensible behaviour.”
Cummings died of “complications concerning long-standing health challenges,” his office said in a statement. He had been absent recently from Congress, to which he was first elected in 1996.
The barrel-chested Cummings was the son of African-American sharecroppers. He rose to lead the powerful House Oversight and Reform Committee, one of three congressional panels leading an impeachment inquiry that was launched on Sept. 24, after Trump asked Ukraine to investigate 2020 Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden. The panel has been involved in fights with the Trump administration over subpoenas challenged by the president.
In a time of particularly bitter divide in Washington, top Democrats and Republicans alike voiced praise for Cummings on Thursday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said flags would be lowered to half-staff at the Capitol to mark his death.
“In the House, Elijah was our North Star. He was a leader of towering character and integrity, whose stirring voice and steadfast values pushed the Congress and country to rise always to a higher purpose,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.
Cummings was a trial lawyer before being elected to office. He spent 14 years in the state legislature, becoming the first African-American to be named state House Speaker Pro Tempore.
“Today we have lost a giant,” U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn said.