Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, the wife of the late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), said during a eulogy at her husband’s funeral in Baltimore on Friday that the recent attacks against his city had been personally painful for him, in an apparent reference to President Trump.
While she did not name Trump as the source of the attacks, it was clear that she was referring to his tweets over the summer calling the Baltimore-area district Cummings represented a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested” place, while blasting the Oversight and Reform Committee chairman as a “brutal bully.”
“I want you all to know that it was not easy. What Congressman Chairman Cummings did was not easy. And it got infinitely more difficult in the last months of his life, when he sustained personal attacks and attacks on his beloved city,” Rockeymoore Cummings said in an impassioned eulogy during the service at New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore. “And while he carried himself with grace and dignity in all public forums, it hurt him.”{mosads}
“Because one thing you do not know about Congressman Cummings, he was a man of soul and spirit. He felt very deeply. He was very empathetic. It was one of his greatest gifts. And it was one of the sources of his ability to be a public servant and a man of the people,” she said.
Trump last week offered condolences after Cummings’s death.
“I got to see first hand the strength, passion and wisdom of this highly respected political leader. His work and voice on so many fronts will be very hard, if not impossible, to replace!” Trump tweeted.
Rockeymoore Cummings also mentioned former secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, recalling how her husband “spent many an hour” defending her “against spurious claims.”
Cummings was the top Democrat on the select committee investigating the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that uncovered Clinton’s use of a private email server.
“And now he had to go on to actually work to fight for the soul of our democracy against very real corruption,” Rockeymoore Cummings said.
Top Democrats traveled to Baltimore to eulogize Cummings at his funeral, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Clinton, and former Presidents Obama and Clinton.
Cummings on Thursday was the first African American lawmaker to lie in state at the Capitol.
Multiple Trump administration officials came to pay their respects as Cummings laid in state outside the House chamber, including Vice President Pence and Attorney General William Barr. Trump did not make an appearance at either the ceremony at the Capitol on Thursday or at the funeral in Baltimore on Friday.
Rockeymoore Cummings serves as chair of the Maryland Democratic Party and launched a bid for Maryland governor in the 2018 cycle before withdrawing due to her husband’s health problems.
Rockeymoore Cummings revealed that her husband “absolutely was in pain” in the last months of his life, after years of suffering heart and knee problems. And shortly before his death, she said, “He kept saying ‘I’m tired. I’m ready to go.’ “
Two days before his death at the age of 68 on Oct. 17, Rockeymoore Cummings said that the medical team at Johns Hopkins Hospital suggesting giving him “sunshine therapy.” They wheeled Cummings on his hospital bed up to the rooftop, where helicopters land for emergency situations.
“It was a beautiful day with light everywhere. The sun was shining and it was just absolutely glorious,” Rockeymoore Cummings recalled.
Then her husband surveyed the view of Baltimore from the rooftop.
“He looked out over the Inner Harbor, Harbor East. He looked toward South Baltimore, his beloved South Baltimore, where he grew up in his early years. He looked toward the downtown and looked toward the west side, and he said, ‘Boy, have I come a long way.’ “
“He absolutely came a long way,” Rockeymoore Cummings said.