Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), a member of the Squad, could very likely lose her primary to DA Wesley Bell this Tuesday. On Monday, the eve of her primary, The New York Times put out an article on how "In Missouri, Cori Bush Fights for Survival Against an AIPAC-Backed Democrat." While the headline may treat Bell and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as boogeymen, Bush doesn't exactly do herself any favors.
A particularly notable part of the report speaks to Bush's thoughts on Hamas, the terrorist group which attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians. They also engaged in rape, torture, and kidnapping, with approximately 240 people taken hostage.
As this piece discusses:
Ms. Bush was one of two Democrats who voted in January against a resolution to bar members of Hamas and anyone who participated in the attacks against Israel on Oct. 7 from the United States.
Sitting at a breakfast spot in Ferguson, where she was greeted like a celebrity, Ms. Bush said the vote was an act of defiance in the face of efforts to intimidate her and other lawmakers who have expressed pro-Palestinian views.
“You can’t buy members of Congress, and you can’t scare them,” she said. “That’s why we take those votes.”
“We only operate under attack; if it’s me today, it’s Rashida Tlaib tomorrow,” she added, referring to the Democratic congresswoman from Michigan who is the only Palestinian American lawmaker in Congress. “We knew that coming in the door.”
Ms. Bush said that she was reluctant to classify Hamas as a terrorist group given how little she knows about it.
“Would they qualify to me as a terrorist organization? Yes. But do I know that? Absolutely not,” Ms. Bush said. “I have no communication with them. All I know is that we were considered terrorists, we were considered Black identity extremists and all we were doing was trying to get peace. I’m not trying to compare us, but that taught me to be careful about labeling if I don’t know.”
Later, a spokeswoman for Ms. Bush sought to walk back her comments. “The congresswoman knows Hamas is a terrorist organization,” the spokeswoman, Marina Chafa, said. The issue, she added, was that the term had been “weaponized by the far right consistently to justify violence and in this instance, the collective punishment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”
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It can't be emphasized enough how radical and non-sensical such claims from a sitting member of Congress are, not to mention ignorant. The clarification from the spokesperson came off as ridiculous, given that she had to launch into a rant about "the far right."
Even if Bush and her spokesperson were speaking to Hamas as a terrorist organization, why does it sound like she is looking to equate black people with radical Islamic terrorists?
"All I know is that we were considered terrorists, we were considered Black identity extremists and all we were doing was trying to get peace. I’m not trying to compare us, but that taught me to be careful about labeling if I don’t know," are comments from Bush worth revisiting, especially since it sounds like she is "trying to compare [them]."
Hamas is indeed a terrorist organization, and has been labeled as one by the U.S. Department of State since October 8, 1997.
As we have been covering since the October 7 attack, Bush and other members of the Squad have put their anti-Israel sentiments on display, including but not limited to calling for a ceasefire from the start.
The report mentions how Bush, along with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), were the only members who voted earlier this year against keeping Hamas terrorists and anyone else who participated in the October 7 attack from entering the United States. Fellow Squad member, Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), voted present. Bush has consistently voted against other pieces of legislation dealing with support for Israel and countering antisemitism.
When Israel faced an unprecedented attack from Iran in April, Bush's account had released a post as such news was coming in to rant against AIPAC. Although she took down her post, the post she was sharing from Justice Democrats remained, and she also ranted against Israel in a subsequent statement.
The congresswoman was also one of many Democratic members who boycotted the speech that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave for a joint session of Congress last month.
Bush has been plagued by other issues, such as the bad polling and fundraising numbers that have followed her for months, as well as a scandal involving the misuse of taxpayer funds to pay her security guard, who is also her husband, for which she is under investigation by the Department of Justice.
The New York Times also addresses how another pro-Israel group, Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI), and others supporting Bell have responded to Bush. The congresswoman, meanwhile, responds by accusing the pro-Israel group and her opponent of being Republicans, despite how AIPAC supports both Democrats and Republicans, and Bell is running as a Democrat:
Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster and the president of Democratic Majority for Israel, said Ms. Bush had been a target for years because of her stance on the country, but votes against popular Democratic initiatives made her more vulnerable this cycle.
“We’re taking advantage of that,” he said. And even if the Israel-Hamas war is not a central concern in St. Louis, Mr. Mellman said progressives like Ms. Bush “have chosen to make this issue central to them.”
“That’s a choice that they made,” he said. “It’s core to who they are.”
...
On Thursday evening, at a wine-and-oysters fund-raiser for Mr. Bell at a bar in the Soulard neighborhood, his wealthy backers argued the race was more about ousting a congresswoman who has not represented the district effectively.
“You stand with terrorism, but you can’t stand with your own president?” said Steven Engelhardt, a former top adviser to Mr. Clay who is backing Mr. Bell. “That’s her record; that’s not my opinion. That’s incompetence.”
John Rogers, an attorney who introduced Mr. Bell at the event, told the crowd: “We just have someone barking, complaining, no legislation gets passed, she’s isolated herself from our own party. It’s time for that to change.”
Mr. Bell said that Ms. Bush “doesn’t work with the Democratic caucus, she doesn’t work with the Black caucus, she doesn’t reach across the aisle and our district suffers as a result.”
Ms. Bush has refused to debate him.
“I’m not going to platform a Republican,” she said. “If he was not taking all of this Republican money for a Democratic district, then there would be a conversation.”
Bush would not be the first Squad member to lose her primary. In June, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) lost to Westchester County Exeutive George Latimer by double digits.
Bowman had similarly been plagued by his anti-Israel views, with Latimer also having the support of groups such as AIPAC and DMFI. As Bush has done and could quite possibly continue to do should she indeed do, Bowman ranted and raved against AIPAC for daring to support pro-Israel Republican candidates. He also played the victim by claiming he was targeted for being a black man and engaged in antisemitic troupes about Jews and money.
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