Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO) spent thousands of campaign dollars on private security as she continues her calls to defund police department across the country despite the rise in violent crime in many cities.
Fox News reported Federal Election Commission filings show Bush spent $70,489 on security services between January 1 and March 31. The payments include $50,489 to Peace Security, $15,000 to Cortney Merrits and $5,000 to Nathaniel Davis. For the entire election cycle, Bush has spent over $300,000 on private security.
While many Democrats have backed off on calls to defund police departments in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder and the subsequent BLM riots, Bush has doubled down even though her own Democratic colleagues have asked her to stop.
"I always tell [fellow Democrats], 'If you all had fixed this before I got here, I wouldn’t have to say these things,'" Bush told Axios in February.
"'Defund the police' is not the problem," she added. "We dangled the carrot in front of people’s faces and said we can get it done and that Democrats deliver, when we haven’t totally delivered."
With all due respect, Mr. President. You didn’t mention saving Black lives once in this speech.
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) March 2, 2022
All our country has done is given more funding to police. The result? 2021 set a record for fatal police shootings.
Defund the police. Invest in our communities. https://t.co/t0n0EpHMwd
We're going to defund the police and refund our social services.
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) October 19, 2020
Don’t like this idea? Well, we don’t like dead Black & Brown bodies & broken families at the hands of those sworn to protect us.
The police have failed at fixing themselves—so we're going to do it.
Bush has defended the use of private security, which included the use of sheriffs deputies, because she has had threats against her life but still maintained police departments need to have funds be taken away from them.