Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett (D-V.I.) is honoring the life of the late Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings.
Plaskett served on the House Oversight & Reform Committee Cummings this year. She knew him well, saying she felt like a younger sister to him. Thursday night she tweeted an emotional tribute along with a photo of the two lawmakers during an Oversight hearing. She called Cummings a calming force in a chaotic Washington.
Cummings died Thursday morning in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. He was 68.
Together, Plaskett and Cummings were at the forefront of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. The Oversight Committee is one of the top committees handling that. Plaskett calls him a great mentor for younger members. She told USVI News about one of the times Cummings helped her.
“I’d say ‘Mr. Cummings, if (Republicans) were in charge or if they were in the majority, they would do the same thing’, and he’s like ‘that’s what they do, that’s not what we do, that’s not how I want this committee to be run,” Plaskett said. “And that’s really how he was.”
Cummings was a proud Democrat. But top Republicans are also honoring the life the longtime congressman and civil rights leader.
“There are a lot of members that nobody really gets to know or wants to know,” said U.S. Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) “Elijah was one of those members that you did want to get to know.”
“You may not agree with everything that he says or what he believed,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) “But you had to think that he was a fair person. He was concerned about that ‘we’re better than this’ and that you should seek the better side of whatever it is that we have to offer.”
New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney will now serve as acting Oversight Committee chair.
