Marco Rubio has mistaken John Lewis for Elijah Cummings in his attempt to honor Lewis in the wake of his passing.
The Floridian Senator posted a love-filled tweet about the late congressman on Twitter. The tweet, however, has been deleted, as it was accompanied by an image of Rubio standing by Cummings.
“It was an honor to know & be blessed with the opportunity to serve in Congress with JohnLewis [sic] a genuine & historic American hero. May the Lord grant him eternal peace,” the Florida Republican tweeted.
People confusing Cummings for Lewis, and vice versa, is a reoccurring situation as both of the Black civil rights lawmakers have similar features. When Cummings, once a Democratic House member of Baltimore, died in 2019, people on social media posted images of Lewis.
According to Business Insider, professional media outlets such CBS News to Fox News have confused the two men. CBS News used a photo of Cummings on a news segment about Lewis’ cancer diagnosis on CBS Evening News.
The similarities between Cummings and Lewis were so striking that the late Georgia representative jokingly proposed growing a beard to distance himself from Cummings on April’s Fool Day.
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Rubio did own up to his mistake, while standing by his original comments. “John Lewis was a genuine American hero I was honored to appear together in Miami 3 years ago,” said Rubio.
Lewis’ untimely death has been plagued with misinformation.
As theGrio previously reported, there were false reports about John Lewis’ death which caused panic on social media last week.
Lewis, 80, had stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
He was a surviving leader of the Civil Rights Movement and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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