WASHINGTON – Kweisi Mfume rejoined the House on Tuesday replacing the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, representing a Baltimore-area district that President Donald Trump insulted last year as “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” In a sign of the times, Mfume raised his right hand to take the oath of office from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as he held a protective mask, which he had just removed, in his left hand.
Mfume, 71, took the oath a week after he was easily elected to complete Cummings' two-year term. Cummings, who was 68, died last October during his 12th term in office.
Mfume served in the House from 1987 until 1996, when he left to become chair of the NAACP. He led the civil rights organization until 2004.