A pallbearer at Rep. Elijah Cummings' memorial service appeared to skip over Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a handshake line with lawmakers.
- Video from Rep. Elijah Cummings' memorial service on Thursday shows a pallbearer passing over Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a handshake line.
- Video clips of the incident went viral on Twitter, with a number of users laughing at McConnell's apparently shocked expression.
- On Thursday, Cummings became the first black lawmaker to lie in state at the US Capitol, and a number of his former colleagues eulogized him.
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A pallbearer at Rep. Elijah Cummings in the US Capitol skipped over Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a handshake line on Thursday.
Several video clips posted on Twitter went viral, showing C-SPAN's footage of the handshake line, in which speakers and pallbearers shook hands with a number of lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, McConnell, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
At one point, a pallbearer can be seen grasping McCarthy's hand, then Schumer's, then swiftly moving past McConnell, before stopping in front of Pelosi and shaking her hand.
McConnell, whose hand had been reaching for the pallbearer's, dropped his arm and appeared stricken in the seconds after the pallbearer passed him by.
The Kentucky Republican turned and looked at Schumer, in what appeared to be disbelief.
C-Span
Cummings, who represented Maryland's 7th Congressional district, died last Thursday. He was 68 years old.
He became the first black lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol, and was eulogized by a number of his former colleagues on Thursday - including McConnell.
In his remarks, McConnell praised Cummings' work quelling violence in Baltimore during protests in 2015 over the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died in police custody.
"Let's go home. Let's all go home," McConnell recalled Cummings saying. "Now our distinguished colleague truly has gone home."
- Read more:
- Lawmakers and activists pay tribute to powerful Rep. Elijah Cummings, who suddenly died Thursday at 68
- The incredible life of Elijah Cummings: How a sharecropper's son rose to become one of the fiercest Democrats who took on Trump
- The late Elijah Cummings, a key player in the Trump impeachment inquiry, was signing subpoenas from his hospital bed
- Trump ally Mark Meadows rejects the president's claims that Elijah Cummings is racist and says he works hard for Baltimore