Amid the chaos in DC, Elijah Cummings' funeral provided a vital 'stop and think' moment for politicians

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The great and the good came out for Elijah Cummings' funeral today, where the former Maryland representative was laid to rest after having become the first black lawmaker to lie in state at the Capitol.

Former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren all took turns to speak. The day before, an emotional speech had been given by Republican representative Mark Meadows, who paused tearfully during a eulogy in which he referred to Cummings as a "dear friend" he shared "intimate secrets" with, and "a man we all will miss". The Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also eulogized Cummings on Thursday, remembering his part in helping to mediate protests after the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died in police custody in 2015.

It was a moment of bipartisanship in a country which stands divided -- and it was unapologetically political. Elijah Cummings' wife Dr Maya Rockeymoore-Cummings, dressed in white, reminded those gathered that the last few months of her husband's life had been made "infinitely more difficult" because of "personal attacks". She was quite plainly referring to the online commentary of President Donald Trump, who tweeted during the summer that "Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men and women of Border Patrol about conditions at the southern border when his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous. His district is considered the worst in the USA", following up with the accusation that Baltimore was a "disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess".

Cummings had plenty of reason to be angry with Republicans, and his family and friends had plenty of reason to be angry on his behalf. He may well have embraced his Republican counterparts and overlooked their support for Donald Trump, but it seemed one pallbearer couldn't quite bring himself to do the same at the memorial yesterday, as he seemingly refused to shake the hand of Mitch McConnell, passing him over in a handshake line and instead going straight to Nancy Pelosi. McConnell's perturbed face began circulating on social media almost immediately, accompanied by celebratory tweets.

Hillary Clinton's speech was similarly damning (if one is allowed use the word for a ceremony held in a church.) Using the classic hand gestures of her 2016 campaign -- OK-sign-pointing and hand-to-heart pauses -- she said, to applause, "Like the Old Testament prophet, [Elijah] stood against corrupt leadership". Women in the audience smiled and nodded, and one snapped a picture of the former presidential candidate on her smartphone. It's no secret that Cummings was heavily involved in the ongoing impeachment inquiry.

Bill Clinton, his voice slightly croaky and his age more obvious than last time we saw him in public, pointed to the casket and said, in that free-wheeling, ebullient way he always does, "I love this man. I loved every minute I spent with him." He continued, more sombre: "We should hear him now in the quiet times at night and in the morning when we need courage."

Outside of the heartfelt speeches made by family members, the most emotional moment of the day came courtesy of Barack Obama.

After months of watching press conferences about "losers", "suckers" and candidates with silly nicknames delivered beside a helicopter in the White House's rose garden, watching Obama's serious, thoughtful oratory was almost painfully nostalgic. "You're not a sucker to have integrity and to treat others with respect," he said, during a speech which focused on the importance and the strength in kindness. It struck the right balance between personal and political, and shied away from that Hillary-esque tendency to go right for the jugular. Not that it felt Hillary's (barely) veiled reference was inappropriate: everyone in the room had come expecting an event, and the rally for empathic politics that unfolded was more than happily received.

By all accounts, Elijah Cummings was a compassionate man with a steadfast determination to deliver for his constituents, slow to anger and quick to offer the olive branch. His reaction to Trump's tweeted rant in the summer pointed to a man with those qualities: he carefully and seriously told reporters that he'd found the remarks "hurtful", and he publicly invited the president to Baltimore to see the city for himself, promising he would "ride with him for hours" if he liked. The president, of course, never took him up on his offer, though he managed to construct a tweet free from vitriol when news of the representative's death came through ("My warmest condolences to the family and many friends of Congressman Elijah Cummings. I got to see firsthand the strength, passion and wisdom of this highly respected political leader. His work and voice on so many fronts will be very hard, if not impossible, to replace!")

Toward the end of the service, the pastor of the New Psalmist Baptist Church, which Cummings attended for four decades, delivered an energetic speech which called out the political elite who had gathered in the front pews to honor their friend alongside the people of Baltimore ("All of us need a regrounding of your grounding. Some of us in this room need a regrounding of your grounding.") He spoke of political betrayals when Cummings first ran for Congress, which led to him ringing his pastor in tears: "I told him, 'You're gonna win this.' He said, 'How do you know?' I said, 'Because my daddy says so'... Take you from south Baltimore and put you in Congress, don't you tell me what God can't do!" A standing ovation followed.

Cummings' coffin, which stood on a simple stand at the front of church, draped in an American flag which was placed there by a military honour guard early in the day, provided the meeting place for a surprising diversity of Americans. The crowd in the rows of pews was multiracial, multi-gendered and varied in age.

The evening before, Mark Meadows had ended his personal eulogy about his "unexpected friend" with the words: "Perhaps this place and this country would be best served with a few more unexpected friendships. I know I've been blessed by one."

In many ways, this felt like a "stop and think" moment for US politicians; especially the Republicans who had worked amicably with Cummings pre-Trump, yet had seen him throw his support behind Trump's impeachment. For many, a "strong" or a "great" America is one which lacks gentleness or compassion, one which recasts kindness as weakness or inadequacy, and sees working across the aisle as capitulating.

Trump's 2020 campaign slogan is "Keep America Great", and Elijah Cummings' colleagues came together to ask whether that's a version of greatness anyone really wants to preserve. Let's hope the Republicans in attendance were able to pause today and think that over as well -- even Mitch McConnell.