The widow of congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Md) said she believes the ruthless attacks by President Donald Trump and his supporters against her family definitely took a toll on the late lawmaker’s health.
Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, who’s running for her husband’s former congressional seat, appeared on “The View” to discuss her efforts to build on Rep. Cummings’ legacy since his death. She also spoke about the dicey relationship between her husband and Trump, arguing the POTUS’ vitriol had emboldened his supporters to bombard the family with death threats.
“It was our reality,” she said Monday. “Absolutely, and all of his minions out there — nasty tweets, death threats, you name it, we were going through it.”
Trump, 73, took to Twitter and sparked a firestorm last year when he blasted Cummings as a leader, smearing his mostly Black Baltimore district as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” where no one would want to live.
“If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place,” the president added.
Cummings would die just five months later following complications related to longstanding health issues, his office said. The congressman was 68 years old.
Rockeymoore Cummings, 48, said Trump’s repeated attacks hurt her husband “very deeply.”
“Absolutely, and it hurt him at his worst moment,” she explained. “Elijah was already battling health issues, so to have the president come out and do this at that time, you know, it really depressed him and it stressed him, and I think it undermined his health.”
The revelation gleaned a sympathetic response from “View” co-host Meghan McCain, whose father, Sen. John McCain, passed away in 2018 after a battle with brain cancer.
“That is horrific,” McCain said. “That is horrific. I’m sorry, that is just — that is hard to hear. I’m sorry.”
The late senator was also the subject of several attacks by Trump, who suggested McCain wasn’t a real war hero because he was captured as a POW during the Vietnam War.
Watch more in the video below.
