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Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., and other members of the far-left “Squad” collectively spent over $325,000 on private security in 2021 despite promoting the “defund the police” movement during the George Floyd unrest of 2020, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records reviewed by Fox News Digital.
Bush’s campaign spent over $65,000 on private security during the fourth financial quarter and approximately $200,000 total in 2021 on private security firms like Peace Security and Whole Armor Executive Protection, eclipsing the totals for the other “Squad” members’ private security bills for 2021.
The Missouri Democrat, who was sworn into office a little over a year ago, has been a staunch supporter of defunding the police and told CBS News last August that “defunding the police has to happen” and that the money needs to be put into “social safety nets because we’re trying to save lives.” When asked by CBS about the hypocrisy of spending tens of thousands of dollars on private security while calling for defending the police, Bush got defensive and replied, “You would rather me die? Is that what you want to see? You want to see me die?”
REP. CORI BUSH’S CAR HIT BY GUNFIRE IN ST. LOUIS
Cori Bush, then a congressional candidate, leads a protest against police brutality on June 12, 2020, in University City, Missouri. (Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images)
While Bush by far spent the most money on private security in 2021 compared to the other “Squad” Democrats, a few of the others still spent tens of thousands of dollars. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., spent about $9,800 during the fourth quarter and short of $75,000 total in 2021, making her the second-biggest spender in the “Squad” for private security.
“Defunding police means defunding police,” Ocasio-Cortez said in late June 2020 – about a month after George Floyd’s death. “It does not mean budget tricks or funny math. It does not mean moving school police officers from the NYPD budget to the Department of Education’s budget so the exact same police remain in schools.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who supported dismantling the Minneapolis Police Department and called it “rotton to the root,” spent over $30,000 on private security in 2021. In a June 2020 tweet, Omar defended the defund the police movement and said it was about “re-imagining the current police system to build an entity that does not violate us.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar attends a bill enrollment ceremony for the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act in the Capitol on June 17, 2021. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc via Getty Images)
STACEY ABRAMS GROUP PAID OVER $1.2 MILLION TO PRIVATE SECURITY FIRM LAST YEAR
Other pro-defund the police “Squad” Democrats who doled out money for private security include Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., who spent around $14,000 in 2021, Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., who spent $7,872 in 2021, and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who spent less than $3,000 in 2021.
Pressley, like her colleagues in the “Squad,” has been vocal about defunding the police and said in June 2020 that it is “about true reparations” and “investment in communities.” During a CNN interview last summer, she said she stands by her support of defunding police, saying, “I support a radical re-imagining of community safety and public safety, which means reallocating and not further investing in a carceral state.”
Jamaal Bowman campaigns for Congress at a polling place in Mt. Vernon, New York, on June 23, 2020. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
Bowman, who requested and received a special police detail at his Yonkers home after the Jan. 6 chaos last year, has tweeted out support of defunding the police multiple times on his Twitter account and said in 2019, “It’s time to disarm the police.”
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While the “Squad” spent six figures on private security in 2021, the total amount is only a drop in the bucket compared to what failed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’ group spent on private security last year. The Fair Fight PAC paid Executive Protection Agencies (EPA Security), an Atlanta-based private security firm, over $550,000 between July 2021 and November 2021 and over $1.2 million over the course of 2021.
Fox News Digital reached out to all the “Squad” members, but they did not immediately respond.
Fox News’ Joe Schoffstall and Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.