The pallbearer at late Rep. Elijah Cummings’s, D-Md., funeral who refused to shake Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s, R-Ky., hand did so because the senator didn't help his late brother get his veteran's benefits.
Bobby Rankin, who was a pallbearer at Cummings’s funeral, was caught on camera ignoring McConnell’s hand as he moved down a line of congressional leaders. Rankin told The Washington Post on Monday that he refused to shake the senator’s hand because of his brother, a veteran who died last year from cancer that he contracted after exposure to contaminated water while serving in the Marines.
Rankin said that before he died, Cummings “reached across party lines” to McConnell to seek help in getting Rankin’s brother his benefits from the military. He did not specify why his brother hadn’t received his benefits, or McConnell’s involvement in the matter.
“When I saw Mitch McConnell, all I saw was my brother’s face,” he told the Post.
“I could not put my hands in the man’s hand who refused to help somebody who served his country,” Rankin added. “I couldn’t do it, because I was thinking about my brother.”
He also said that he hadn’t seen the video until the Post’s reporter called him.
Rankin said that he first met Cummings over 20 years ago, and that they quickly became friends.
“When I carry him to his grave, if I could say something to him, I would say something I said to him many, many times before,” he told The Post. “What a mighty, mighty man he is.”
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