Rep. Dingell’s farewell message to America includes dig at Trump
DEARBORN, Mich. — On the day of his death, longtime Rep. John Dingell dictated a farewell message to America and used some of his final words to criticize President Donald Trump.
Dingell dictated the message to his wife and congressional successor Debbie Dingell Thursday in their suburban Detroit home. The Washington Post published the opinion piece on Friday.
“One of the advantages to knowing that your demise is imminent, and that reports of it will not be greatly exaggerated, is that you have a few moments to compose some parting thoughts,” Dingell said Thursday. “In our modern political age, the presidential bully pulpit seems dedicated to sowing division and denigrating, often in the most irrelevant and infantile personal terms, the political opposition.”
Dingell, who died Thursday at age 92, didn’t mention Trump by name in the article.
Dingell represented parts of southeast Michigan for nearly 60 years before retiring in 2014 as the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history.
Friday, Trump ordered flags at the White House and other federal facilities lowered to half-staff in Dingell’s memory. The president also used Twitter to extend sympathies to Debbie Dingell and other family members.
“Longest serving Congressman in country’s history which, if people understand politics, means he was very smart,” Trump tweeted. “A great reputation and highly respected man.”
Dingell’s opinion article was similar to a letter penned by former Arizona Sen. John McCain before his death in August from brain cancer.
In McCain’s letter, the late Arizona Republican appeared to repudiate Trump’s politics one last time, saying, “We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe.”
Much of Dingell’s letter to the Post focused on the country and improvements made over the decades to Medicare, the environment, the Great Lakes and efforts to end racial discrimination.