Cummings was ‘a man of noble and good heart’
BALTIMORE >> Two former U.S. presidents and a throng of powerful U.S. leaders joined thousands of everyday people in Baltimore on Friday to bid farewell to Rep. Elijah Cummings, a towering African American presence in Washington who was praised for his integrity, his character and, in his final months, his unwavering challenges to President Donald Trump.
In one of the stirring eulogies that prompted mourners to rise with applause, former President Barack Obama called Cummings “a man of noble and good heart.” Former President Bill Clinton, gesturing toward the flag-draped coffin, professed his love for Cummings and his deep, booming voice.
“We should hear him now in the quiet times at night and in the morning when we need courage, when we get discouraged and we don’t know if we can believe anymore,” Clinton said.
But for all of the emotional remembrances of Cummings as a champion of working people and civil rights, the funeral, which came amid impending impeachment proceedings against Trump, also was an implicit rebuke of a president who had called the congressman a “racist” and had criticized his representation of Baltimore, Cummings’ hometown.
“You can’t run a free society if you hate everybody you disagree with,” Clinton told mourners.
Obama continued that theme.
“There’s nothing weak about kindness and compassion,” Obama said. “There’s nothing weak about looking out for others. There’s nothing weak about being honorable. You’re not a sucker to have integrity and to treat others with respect.”
In many ways, Friday’s service was reminiscent of the funeral last year for Sen. John McCain, a Republican who was held up as a counterweight to Trump.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton compared Cummings to his namesake Elijah, the biblical figure. “Like that Old Testament prophet, he stood against the corrupt leadership of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel,” she said, to a roar of applause from the congregation.
Indeed, Cummings, who died last week at age 68, “pushed back against the abuse of power,” she said, appearing to allude to the last great fight of Cummings’ life as chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, where, in recent months, he became a leading figure in the impeachment inquiry.
“He was unwavering in his defense of our democracy,” she said. “He had little tolerance for those who put party ahead of country or partisanship above truth.”
The service attracted a bipartisan coterie of Cummings’ admirers, who have long praised him as a committed Democrat who nonetheless hewed to an old-fashioned generosity of spirit toward his political opponents. Among the Republicans in attendance Friday were Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Mark Meadows of North Carolina, both staunch Trump loyalists.
With the firepower of a full choir, a performance by gospel star BeBe Winans and stirring, faiththemed speeches from former presidents, Friday’s service served as a reminder of the centrality of the African American experience to the soul of the contemporary Democratic Party.
“He was unwavering in his defense of our democracy. He had little tolerance for those who put party ahead of country or partisanship above truth.”
— Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state