The Florida Republican senator makes the image of Elijah Cummings his Twitter profile picture \u2013 then deletes it 20 minutes later.<\/b>
\nLike many of his colleagues, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted a tribute to John Lewis on Saturday and included a photo of himself with the civil rights icon who died Friday. He even made the image his Twitter profile picture.
There was just one problem. The photo was of Rubio and the late congressman Elijah Cummings, who died in December.
\u201cIt was an honor to know & be blessed with the opportunity to serve in Congress with John Lewis a genuine & historic American hero,\u201d Rubio tweeted with the photo of himself and Cummings.
The response on Twitter was a mix of anger and ridicule, with many users posting photos of various white Republican congressmen and labeling them Rubio. Others chided Rubio for the offensive act of mixing up two people of color, especially given that he had interacted with both of them in person.
Yet, Rubio wasn\u2019t the first to mix up the two men. It happened so often that Lewis even mentioned it in a tribute to Cummings on the House floor after his death.
\u201cSometimes people would confuse us and say, \u2018Hello, Elijah\u2019 to me or \u2018Hello, John Lewis\u2019 to him,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cAnd we would joke about it, we would laugh about it.\u201d
Both Fox News and CBS have used photos of one when speaking about the other in their broadcasts.
In June 2019, Fox News aired a clip of Lewis and identified him as Cummings. Then, shortly after Cummings passed away in December, CBS aired a segment about Lewis\u2019s cancer battle and used a photo of Cummings.
Both networks apologized.
About 20 minutes after Rubio posted the Cummings photo, he deleted it and replaced it with a video of himself and Lewis at a Martin Luther King Day event in 2017.
\u201cEarlier today I tweeted an incorrect photo,\u201d Rubio wrote. \u201cJohn Lewis was a genuine American hero. I was honored to appear together in Miami 3 years ago at an event captured in video below.\u201d He added may \u201cGod grant him eternal rest.\u201d
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