Marco Rubio officially 'canceled' for posting Elijah Cummings' pic instead of John Lewis: ‘Clearly an idiot’
After the death of civil rights leader John Lewis, many took to social media to offer their own heartfelt tributes to him. However, when the Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio chose to do so, he committed a major error - tweeting a picture of himself with another deceased civil rights activist - Elijah Cummings. Twitter reactions range from mocking to outraged.
Senator Rubio's original tweet read, "It was an honor to know & be blessed with the opportunity to serve in Congress with John Lewis a genuine & historic American hero," while featuring a picture of him standing next to Elijah Cummings - he even changed his Twitter profile picture to that image. Fans were quick to spot the error.
"Geez, he couldn't even get "maybe if I show myself next to a great American, people will think I'm great" right. Spineless Marco...trying to making it about him and still ****ing it up,' writes one user. "With all the sadness in the world today thank you Marco for creating hurricane of viral comedy on Twitter. I just search Marco Rubio when I need a good belly laugh. I love the old video where he says who'd vote for a conman like Trump," writes another. "Of all the Republican responses to John Lewis's death, Marco Rubio not being able to tell Black people apart was the most honest," says a third.
"Marco Rubio had a chance but hes shown he is clearly an idiot so now hes been cancelled. + You're an embarrassment to humanity @marcorubio," a user commented, while another wrote, "You've been canceled for a LONG time already. Time to resign and complete that journey."
"How do you post an incorrect photo of you and a man you’ve met a bunch and had pictures taken with? I don’t mistake my mom for the pope and post pictures of him even though they both wear slippers. Be more like John Lewis and others like him. You can do better," writes this user.
The gaffe has caused Twitter to start its own trend - posting random pictures and misidentifying them as Marco Rubio. "Honoured to know marco rubio and share this photo of him," is the caption of one tweet sharing a picture of Ronald McDonald, one of several such tweets.
Marco Rubio has since taken down the original tweet, and replaced it with one where he is actually standing with John Lewis, writing, "Earlier today I tweeted an incorrect photo. John Lewis was a genuine American hero. I was honored to appear together in Miami 3 years ago at an event captured in video below. My God grant him eternal rest." He included a link to the event he mentions.
A look through the replies, however, is enough to see that for Twitter, the apology is not enough to make up for Rubio's mistake, as evidenced by this one tweet: "Marco Rubio tweeted about John Lewis and posted a photo of Elijah Cummings bc to him all Black men are the same. He doesn’t even know what John Lewis looks like—that’s how little he cares about John Lewis. Marco needs to go! Vote them all out!"