Cummings, one of three chairmen leading the impeachment inquiry, had been battling health problems of late, but had was an outsize presence in the process even when he was working the phones from home.
He was also the top Dem on the Benghazi committee and seen as a potential future speaker until his health started slipping.
But he was always blunt, no-nonsense and willing to speak to reporters in the speaker’s lobby even when he was at the center of multiple political storms.
But he was always blunt, no-nonsense and willing to speak to reporters in the speaker’s lobby even when he was at the center of multiple political storms.
Cummings was a reluctant impeachment backer but embraced it last month as Ukraine scandal unfolded:
“When the history books are written about this tumultuous era, I want them to show that I was among those in the House of Representatives who stood up to lawlessness and tyranny.”
“When the history books are written about this tumultuous era, I want them to show that I was among those in the House of Representatives who stood up to lawlessness and tyranny.”
PELOSI statement on Cummings: 
The House is deeply (and properly) in mourning at the moment, but it will soon give way to the major practical implications of losing Cummings -- a giant of their oversight regime.
Whoever replaces him atop the Oversight Committee will have an outsize role in impeachment.
Whoever replaces him atop the Oversight Committee will have an outsize role in impeachment.
