Rep. Elijah Cummings dies at 68
by Tom Sullivan
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform
Rep. Elijah Cummings, son of sharecroppers, proud resident of inner-city Baltimore, has died in Baltimore. First elected to Congress in 1996, Cummings rose to chair the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. He was 68.
Cummings did not return to work this week after a medical procedure. His office attributed his death at a Johns Hopkins Hospital hospice care facility to “complications concerning longstanding health challenges.” In recent months, Cummings used a wheelchair and a walker.
Cummings led one of the three House committees charged with pursuing the impeachment inquiry of the president.
AP reports:
In a statement, his widow, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, chairwoman of Maryland’s Democratic Party, said “Congressman Cummings was an honorable man who proudly served his district and the nation with dignity, integrity, compassion and humility. He worked until his last breath because he believed our democracy was the highest and best expression of our collective humanity and that our nation’s diversity was our promise, not our problem.”
In dramatic closing remarks after Michael Cohen’s testimony before his committee in February, Cummings empathized with Cohen’s pain in going to prison and the pain it brought his family. He invited Cohen to ask himself not “Why did it happen to me?” but “Why did it happen for me?” Cummings offered hope that Cohen’s troubles would make this country better and Michael Cohen a better man.
“We are better than this! … As a country, we are so much better than this,” Cummings insisted.
“The one meeting I had with President Trump, I said to him, ‘The greatest gift that you and I, Mr. President, can give to our children is making sure that we give them a democracy that is intact.'”
“When we’re dancing with the angels,” Cummings continued, “the question will be asked: In 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact? Did we stand on the sidelines and say nothing?”
Cummings called out critics for saying this was the committee’s first hearing. The committee had already addressed prescription drugs, voting rights and corruption in government.
“Come on now! We can do co more than one thing. And we have got to get back to normal.”
I remember normal. Vaguely.