elijah cummings was our north star. he just was a leading tower of integrity and intellect and character. he was truly the master of the house, as many of us said when we eulogized him in the statutary hall of the house of representatives. how appropriate that he would be sent off from congress in such an important way. i don't remember that any house member ever was lying in state in the house and so many thousands of visitors coming to say goodbye to elijah cummings. mr. chairman, he was in a room, statuary hall, where so many patriots and heroes were memorialized and elijah too. people from both sides of the aisle, people from both sides of the capitol. it was beautiful, a beautiful thing. and then we all had the honor of celebrating elijah's life at new psalmist baptist church, i'm glad i could make the cut because i could tell them some things that were happening here and the reverence in which he was held. this beautiful, saintly man. others have spoken about him saying we're better than this. he was always about

full, fair, and accurate census, continuing the legacy of my predecessor, the great chairman elijah cummings, and the oversight committee has conducted rigorous oversight. we fought hard to fight the president from undermining the census through an illegal citizenship question and we won. the committee and many of us filed a brief that went all the way to the supreme court, and weak won there -- and we won there. we have learned there have been missteps in recruiting, signing up of community partners, and developing critical technology for the nation's first online census. the bureau needs to correct these problems now to ensure a full and accurate count. the oversight committee is especially concerned with -- that certain communities maybe undercounted, such as black americans, latinos, african-americans, who have all been undercounted in previous censuses. that means this communities have missed out on representation and on crucial federal funding. here are some of the things that the census bureau has done. we have had four oversight hearings on readiness, and we have released a list of o

the congressman cummings fees, late congressman elijah cummings and i were good friends. hail from the same place, baltimore. the city we love. and congressman cummings called me right away right after the inauguration saying hey, president trump wants to meet with me. he met with him at the inauguration luncheon on the hill. is it they wanted to talk about prescription drug prices. the problem is, this new administration could not figure out how to make it happen. there were a lot of twists and turns and bumps and bruises along the way. and he wasn't hiding. they just didn't know how to make it happen properly. so right after that, they figured it out. they had a meeting and talk about prescription drug prices. i go into the meeting. late congressman cummings at the time details the conversation in the meeting. there was even a misquote from the president about something that congressman cummings said. now getting back to friends of mine, for full disclosure , and this may have been the misinterpretation of the president. i am related to a former congressman, congressman

maintained close relationships with key congressional democrats such as the late representative elijah cummingshe same, it doesn't matter who the gatekeeper is, does that specific dynamic change anything that of the four acting chief of staffs that meadows does seem to have some relationship with congressional democrats. does that change anything legislatively? >> we'll see how long it lasts. that's my main question, how long can that last when you are sort of thrashing yourself to this president and i just don't know. >> i'm so curious to know what the first phone call between chief of staff mark meadows and speaker of the house nancy pelosi sounds like. what are the things we can actually do before we get done here, or is it hang on tight, good luck. >> one of the things about the chief of staff position is that you are acting presumably at the behest of the president. that's the only thing that makes you effective, that you are the person that is enacting, that you are speaking on the president's behalf and so on. who knows what this president will say. you're moving left and the president i

his best friend is the late elijah cummings. he worked across the aisle.opposed the president when the president wanted to take on the affordable care act and get rid of it. then he became the president's most fierce defender during the impeachment. mark meadows comes with a tremendous amount of currency on capitol hill and a lot of respect and i think that should president trump win re-election for the next four years, he will be positioned perfectly to try and get something to work with pelosi, who may or may not still be in power and chuck schumer, to move the country forward. >> that's one thing i saw on social media with this announcement. usually you see on social media everyone is reacting to picks. people on both sides of the aisle, democrat and republican, to your point were praising this pick. one of those people was representative jim jordan, who tweeted mark meadows is smart, loyal, a true patriot, a good man and my best friend, couldn't have picked anyone better for the job. with politics being so divisive, i think it's refreshing for people t

that piece of elijah cummings and i were very good friends. we hail from the same place in baltimore and congressman cummings called me right away right after inauguration to say president trump wants to meet with me. he met with him at thes inauguration marches and said they want to talk about prescription drug i prices. the problem is the new administration could not figure out how to make it happen there were twists and turns and bumps and bruises. he wasn't hiding they just didn't know how to make it happen. so right after that they figured it out and talked about prescription drug prices and i ha go into details of the conversation of the meeting there is even a list from the president from what congressman cummings said now going back for full disclosure, this may have been a misinterpretation of the president i'm related to former congressman townes from new york he is my cousin on my mother side. i would call him to confirm things and he was a how did you get that? he was shocked i was not hicalling him for information i would just call

i think that probably john lewis and clyburn and the late great elijah cummings is the one that transcends even age lines in terms of respect in the political culture of the black community. the other thing you have to keep in mind is that people felt -- i heard it over and over again, i heard it in selma where joe biden and i spoke on sunday at brown chapel, people said joe biden stood by barack obama. he stood by our guy, we're going to stand by him. and there is an identity there in our community where we feel we've been counted out just because you count a guy out it doesn't mean the fight is over. and the cultural identity, i keep saying a lot of the latte liberals are disconnected from the base of the democratic party which is the african-american voters which is they care about how their kids are going to go to school, they care about bread and butter issues, this he care about criminal justice and a lot of the latte liberals are so intellectual as we say in church they are so heavily bound in no earthly good. >> rev, you and i have been talking about this through the entire electio

overcome odds because in from baltimore, and i think about my pastor, pastor walter scott thomas, elijah cummings pastor, he said, you know, they have an automatic word. failure. an automatic. it is about survival in baltimore. i am trying. i survived and i am here. i am trying not to be the story. now i am trying to survive in washington. trying to survive in life. because of the twists and turns that i've taken recently, i am now the story. you know what, being the story sometimes i think has saved my life. if i don't tell that story, people will believe the negative and false narrative. you have to tell so people can see the truth. >> if you read your books, tell me if you think i am mistaken, but if you read your books in order, beginning with "the presidency in black and white," "at mama's knee" and then "under fire," your personal opinion is. coming out more and more in your booksbo. >> right. we talked about the presidency and baltimore. we talk about the issue of reparation. repairing a wrong. it was like the beginning of my time in washington and still 23 years later we are hearing presi

he and elijah cummings were the two guys in the congress that everybody related to. deserves a lot of credit tonight. >> it was two days after the nevada caucuses. i mean, it was two days after sanders, as steve kornacki keeps saying -- >> it was two days after the whole world was saying bernie sanders is going to roll this all the way through. and clyburn stood in front of the storm and said, hold it a minute, i'm with this guy. and i think it took a lot of courage. we did a breakfast that morning. a minister's breakfast and when clyburn walked in there, he told me on his way i'm announcing my endorsement and it was a morning that people would say, why would he do that right after nevada? but that's the kind of guy he is. that's why he's earned that kind of trust. >> can we talk for a second about mike bloomberg? heading in super tuesday, he was the big black box. nobody knows how he is going to affect this race. nobody's ever run exactly in this way. nobody's ever run with quite that big a truckload of money clearing the way for him. but so far, we have got results

participated in the dedication ceremony of the oversight and reform committee hearing room as the elijah e. cummings' room, in honor of the late chair passed away in october. >> go