Republican Senator Marco Rubio, posting a condolence tweet over the death of civil rights leader John Lewis and praising him as an "historic and American hero", supplied the wrong photo - the picture he tweeted showed the former with another civil rights advocate, Elijah Cummings, not the late John Lewis.
The post caused waves on Twitter, with netizens denouncing the tweet as "purposefully disrespectful". Rubio deleted the tweet and posted another with a correct photo, and admitted his mistake without apology.
Never forget that Republicans really believed at one time that Marco Rubio (here mistaking one civil rights hero for another) was the chosen one to lead the party into the future and assemble a new pluralistic coalition. pic.twitter.com/yKf7ptKNRo
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) July 18, 2020
Users mocked Rubio, bombing his thread with pictures of other famous black people, joking that "this is John Lewis".
That’s not John Lewis. This is John Lewis. pic.twitter.com/TYv8zi6RS3
— TakeThatStarbuxCups (@TTStarbuxCups) July 18, 2020
"Siri, are any of these John Lewis?"--Marco Rubio pic.twitter.com/3gJXjFECqz
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) July 18, 2020
It was an honor to know John Lewis pic.twitter.com/aIv0eB4Bvj
— will finchman (@FinchmanWill) July 18, 2020
Some deliberately "mistook" Rubio himself for other people.
Thank you for this correction, Senator Cruz.
— Jack©️ (@Jackasaurus3) July 18, 2020
People, stop criticizing Marco Rubio. I've liked him ever since I bought his first album (below). pic.twitter.com/SV41G1S4C5
— JRehling (@JRehling) July 18, 2020
Here's a picture of Marco Rubio .. pic.twitter.com/ISceb4Ylgv
— Cameron L. Mitchell (@CameronLMitchel) July 18, 2020
Others labeled Rubio a "total fraud", condemning him for failing to apologize for his mistake.
An incorrect photo? It was a photo of a completely different person and you can’t even apologize for that?
— David Weissman (@davidmweissman) July 18, 2020
Why do you insist on being such a complete and total fraud?
— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) July 18, 2020
Why?
It’s just so... exhausting.
Marco Rubio just keeps reminding us that he's one part villain, two parts stupid.
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) July 18, 2020
US Democratic Representative John Lewis died on 17 July due to cancer, and flags were ordered to be lowered in honor of the prominent civil rights advocate. Lewis is known to have been integral to the success of the 1963 Washington March for Jobs and Freedom, a member of the Big Six group, alongside Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young. The march's purpose was and remains to ensure and protect equal civil and economic rights for African Americans.
