We’ve heard this squad tale before…Defund for Thee, Not for Me…
AOC (D-NY) has spent more than $35,000 on private security outside her borough; Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) has spent $7,500 on protection so far this year; Cori Bush (D-MO) paid personal security firms $70,000 from her campaign funds; Ilhan Omar (D-MN) spent a few thousand in 2021 while simultaneously denigrating police departments.
And these estimates are from over a year ago —they’ve surely gone up! Like in the case of Missouri Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) who has now spent $500,000 in campaign funds on private security in two years but is still advocating for defunding police departments.
Let’s take a look at the Federal Election Commission records…
Bush’s campaign paid out over $100,000 for “security services” in the third quarter of 2022; she paid more than $70,000 to Peace Security —a private security company based in St. Louis. And now, according to Fox News, Bush has directed more than $490,000 into private security for the 2022 election cycle as she remains one of the last Democrats to openly call for the defunding of the police.
Extremely hypocritical, no?
During a recent Good Morning America interview, Bush defended defund, arguing it isn’t dangerous for Democrats with midterms approaching, despite spikes in violent crime nationwide and poll after poll showing waning support for the movement.
“The thing about defund the police is we have to tell the entire narrative,” she said. “People hear ‘defund the police.’ But you know what they’ll say? Say ‘reallocate,’ say ‘divest,’ say ‘move.’ But it’s still the same thing.”
“We can’t get caught up on the words,” she added. “People spend more time focusing on the word ‘defund’ than they spend on caring and addressing the problem of police in this country.”
This, of course, is a nonsensical answer. She did more of this line of “thinking” during a CNN interview with Don Lemon earlier this month.
“As you know, there’s a pretty strong backlash to things like defund the police. I know you’ve been getting a lot of questions about this. For example, did defund the police — did progressives go too far in hurting Democratic chances in the far with — in the fall, with slogans like ‘defund the police?’” he posed.
“[T]here is no data that actually shows that saying ‘defund the police’ cost actual elections,” she began, later adding that she would “absolutely” double down on the policy position.
According to the FBI, Missouri, Ms. Bush’s state, nearly leads the nation with its violent crime rate. In Missouri, there were 26,200 violent crimes reported in 2021, or 425 for every 100,000 people, the sixth-highest violent crime rate among the 41 states with available data.
Sounds like folks in Missouri wouldn’t mind throwing some cash behind law enforcement.
