Speaking at a service for Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, who died last week, Obama never mentioned the president by name but seemed to draw a contrast between his successor and the congressman whom Trump denigrated during the summer.
Obama said that Cummings showed that being strong meant being kind and that being honorable was no flaw.
“There’s nothing weak about kindness and compassion,” Obama told a packed hall at New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore, which Cummings, D-Md., represented in the House for the past 25 years. “There’s nothing weak about looking out for others. There’s nothing weak about being honorable. You’re not a sucker to have integrity and to treat others with respect.”
Warming to his topic, Obama pointed to a sign behind him referring to “the Honorable” Cummings.
“That’s a title that we confer to all kinds of people who get elected to public office,” he said as the largely African American and Democratic audience responded with knowing applause and laughter. “We’re supposed to introduce them as honorable. But Elijah Cummings was honorable before he was elected to office. There’s a difference. There’s a difference if you were honorable and treated others honorably outside the limelight.”
As chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Cummings, 68, had become a major thorn in Trump’s side and was one of the leaders of the drive to impeach the president for abuse of power. Over the summer, Trump lashed out at Cummings, calling him “racist” and “a brutal bully” who had done “a very poor job” representing a district that he described as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
Obama was part of an all-star lineup of speakers and guests at the Friday’s service, including former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
But much of the attention was focused on the 44th president, who has largely avoided weighing in lately on his successor even as Trump lately has repeatedly accused Obama of illegally spying on him while in office and blamed the former president for various policy setbacks.
Obama made no reference to any of that but did call on his audience to step up as Cummings did. “People will look back at this moment,” he said, “and ask the question: What did you do?”
This article originally appeared in
.