This week, House Oversight Committee Chairman and Baltimore-area Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings abruptly passed away. Condolences immediately began to pour in from across the U.S. political world, including from former President Barack Obama. In a statement posted to Twitter, the former president called Cummings a “friend” whose passing he and former First Lady Michelle Obama are “heartbroken” over. He also praised Cummings’s work to work to put out of control government officials in check when need be. In the time before his death, the Congressman’s work along those lines mainly targeted Donald Trump’s belligerent behavior.
Obama shared:
‘Michelle and I are heartbroken over the passing of our friend, Elijah Cummings. As Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, he showed us all not only the importance of checks and balances, but also the necessity of good people stewarding it… Chairman Cummings remained steadfast in his pursuit of truth, justice, and reconciliation.’
Obama went on to share that Cummings’s leadership was a “tribute to his native Baltimore” and wished that the late Congressman’s example will inspire people to “pick up the baton and carry it forward in a manner worthy of his service.”
The perspective contrasts dramatically with that exemplified by the actual behavior of the current president. Over and over again, Trump lashed out against Cummings, complaining that Baltimore was supposedly rodent-infested or whatever and that the situation was supposedly Cummings’s fault. Trump went so far that with no evidence whatsoever, he suggested that Cummings had been part of a scheme to redirect federal money meant for the city for his personal benefit.
Following the Congressman’s passing, Trump seemed to hope we’d just forget all of that. In the middle of rambling about “witch hunts!” for the approximately five hundred thousandth time as if people care who didn’t already, Trump spoke on Twitter of the “strength, passion and wisdom of this highly respected political leader” and said the Congressman’s “work and voice on so many fronts will be very hard, if not impossible, to replace.” In short — it seems likely that Trump did not personally write that.
Check out Twitter’s response to Obama…
