The chairman of a Congress committee which investigated President Donald Trump has died aged 68.
Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings died early on Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore due to complications from long-standing health challenges, his office said.
Mr Cummings, who was the son of a farm labourer, was a formidable orator who passionately advocated for the poor in his district that encompassed a large portion of Baltimore.
As chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Mr Cummings led multiple investigations into Mr Trump’s governmental dealings.
The investigations angered the President, who criticised the congressman’s district in 2019 as a “rodent-infested mess” where “no human being would want to live”.
Mr Cummings responded that government officials must stop making “hateful, incendiary comments” that only serve to divide and distract the nation from its real problems.
Cummings was first elected to Congress in 1996. He rose to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. He made headlines earlier this year when he objected to Trump referring to Baltimore as "rat- and rodent-infested.
Cummings, who represented Baltimore's majority-Black 7th Congressional District, attacked Trump for his administration's treatment of illegal immigrants arriving at the border.
Cummings was part of the House Democrats push to impeach Trump.
"We are going to uphold the rule of law," Cummings said in May after the White House attempted to stonewall the Mueller Russian collusion investigation.
"I'm begging the American people to pay attention to what is going on," Cummings said in a statement earlier this year. "Because if you want to have a democracy intact for your children, and your children's children, and generations yet unborn we've got to guard this moment. This is our watch."
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