Cummings pallbearer skips McConnell handshake at memorial

A pallbearer at Rep. Elijah Cummings’s (D-Md.) memorial on Thursday shook hands with all top congressional leaders except Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 

{mosads}Video captured the pallbearer, who has been identified in reports as Bobby Rankin, skipping McConnell while greeting a line of other senior lawmakers that included both Republicans and Democrats. 

Cummings was a fierce opponent at times of President Trump and Republican policies, but it is not clear what prompted the moment. Rankin has not spoken about it.

No hand shake for Leader McConnell.

(h/t @cspanAngie) pic.twitter.com/XyEwIHDDVJ

— Jeremy Art (@cspanJeremy) October 24, 2019

Cummings, who died on Oct. 17, was the first African American to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall on Thursday. McConnell spoke at the Thursday ceremony honoring Cummings.

“By day, the congressman was here in the Capitol working and leading in these hallways of power,” McConnell said. “But every night, he rode the train back home and walked the neighborhoods, bullhorn in hand, encouraging unity and peace.”

Cummings’s funeral is Friday in Baltimore. Former Presidents Obama and Clinton are both slated to speak at the funeral for the former House Oversight and Reform Committee chairman.