Rep. Mark Meadows said he is “heartbroken” after his friend, fellow congressman Elijah Cummings, died early Thursday at the age of 68.
“There was no stronger advocate and no better friend than Elijah Cummings. I am heartbroken for his wonderful family and staff — please pray for them. I will miss him dearly,” Meadows said in a tweet.
Cummings was a liberal powerhouse from Maryland, while Meadows, 60, is a conservative who hails from North Carolina. The two men had little in common, but they shared a uniquely strong friendship on Capitol Hill.
“He’s a good friend. We disagree on 95% of the issues, but, OK, we’re able to talk,” Cummings said of Meadows in and interview with the Washington Post earlier this year. “He’s cordial, we’re able to negotiate the things that we are able to agree on. And I like him.”
[Read: Elijah Cummings wife: ‘Worked until his last breath’]
That bond was put on display at critical moments this year.
During a dramatic House Oversight Committee hearing in February, in which President Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen was providing testimony, Cummings came to the defense of Meadows, who was accused of a “racist act” by Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib when he brought up Lynne Patton, a black woman who is a longtime friend of Trump and employee at HUD, to argue that Trump was not racist.
Meadows, who is white, demanded Tlaib’s remarks be removed from the record. Chairman Cummings, who is black, called Meadows “one of my best friends” and suggested Tlaib did not intend to call Meadows a racist. Tlaib agreed with Cummings and apologized to Meadows. The next day they hugged it out.
Months later, Meadows spoke out in defense of Cummings and Trump as they engaged in a war of words in which the president criticized Cummings’ Baltimore district as being “rat infested” and having out of control crime. Trump also called Cummings a “racist” and said the Democrat should be more focused on helping the people in his district rather than investigating him and his administration.
Meadows called for civility. “I am friends with both men, President Trump and Chairman Cummings. I know both men well. Neither man is a racist. Period. Both love America,” Meadows said. “I think if we put aside partisanship with investigations we can find bipartisan solutions that will benefit not only Chairman Cummings’ district but the country as a whole.”
In an era in which partisan vitriol often seeps into politics, Cummings’ friendship with Meadows served as a model for breaking that divide. “We need to get away from party and deal with each other as human beings,” he told the Washington Post.
