Marco Rubio mistakenly tweets a picture of Elijah Cummings alongside tribute to John Lewis

(Image credit: Al-Drago-Pool/Getty Images)

published 18 July 2020

Tributes to Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) streamed in from both sides of the political aisle Saturday morning, after the civil rights icon died Friday night at the age of 80 following a battle with cancer. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) was one of the lawmakers who tweeted about his colleague, writing that it was an "honor" to serve in Congress with Lewis whom he described as a "genuine and historic American hero."

But beneath the Tweet, Rubio included a picture of himself speaking not with Lewis, but former Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who died last year. The tweet has since been deleted, although the image remained Rubio's profile photo on his Twitter page for some time after before he changed that, as well. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.