Democrats are so vulnerable on crime that even members of the “Squad” are trying to soften their tone on the “defund the police” movement.
During an interview with Good Morning America on Tuesday, Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) tried to defend the movement by claiming that critics get “caught up in the words.” But the problem isn’t semantic.
“The thing about defund the police is we have to tell the entire narrative,” Bush 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.”
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The next day, on Comedy Central, Bush took a different tack. She claims she is “not anti-police” and that the focus of the “defund the police” movement is simply to make people safe.
“My purpose is to change what we allow, change what public safety is,” she said while recounting the Ferguson, Missouri, protests of 2014. “It should be actual safety for all, not for some.” The left-wing Twitter account The Recount said that Bush was addressing the “misconception that she wants to defund the police.”
“I’m not anti-police … My purpose is to change what we allow, change what public safety is. It should be actual safety for all, not for some.”
— Rep. @CoriBush (D-MO) clarifies the misconception that she wants to defund the police. pic.twitter.com/W1eBkPPZCU
— The Recount (@therecount) October 5, 2022
But it is not a “misconception” that Bush wants to defund the police. She has said as much repeatedly. She has also said that “reallocate” and “divest” mean the same thing as “defund,” so she is really just telling political allies to defund the police while misleading people about it. Her claims on Comedy Central are incoherent as well. “Actual safety for all” apparently does not apply to people who can’t afford private security. Bush famously spent $230,000 in 2021 on private security because she is more important than you — “so suck it up,” in her own words.
“Actual safety for all” also didn’t apply to the black woman whom Ma’Khia Bryant attempted to stab to death. Bush complained that the officer who shot Bryant and saved the woman’s life was a killer. She has compared American police officers to Cuba’s communist government enforcers, and she said that police “serve white supremacy.”
Now, she wants you to think she is “not anti-police.”
The police use qualified immunity to protect and serve white supremacy. Abolish it.
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) March 30, 2021
That more aggressive tone was fun in 2021, but with a month left until Democrats have to face voters, Bush is suddenly trying to dial it back. She has retreated from her open calls to defund police to vague claims about safety and pretending she supports the police.
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Do not be fooled — she wants to hamstring police departments at a time when several cities clearly don’t have a grip on violent crime. Bush wants fewer police in black communities and all other communities, even though polls consistently show that black people want more police in their neighborhoods and crime is one of their biggest concerns.
It is too little, too late for Bush to save the defund movement or cover up the Democratic Party’s ties to it. No matter how she tries to disguise it, her contempt for police and for ordinary people who can’t afford to protect themselves with private security is clear. The Democratic Party’s embrace of her and her movement isn’t going to be washed away, no matter what Bush tries to pretend she means.
