The View Defends Cori Bush’s Defund the Police, Mute on Private Security

October 4th, 2022 2:09 PM

Radical liberal Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO) exposed her hypocrisy last year when she backed the Democrats’ extreme Defund the Police movement while demanding more money for her private security team. Well, she was on Tuesday’s edition of The View, hawking her new book, where she received back up from the cast including faux “conservative” Alyssa Farah Griffin who refused to press her on the hypocrisy.

Farah Griffin had the first question and was more interested in playing nice to appease her liberal paymasters than being a critical voice. She chose to tee up Bush to defend the Democratic Party’s record on the economy and suggest poor polling was just a messaging problem.

“But Democrats have a bit of an uphill battle between inflation, grocery prices, consumer prices across the board. And we found out that just recently we have another quarter of negative economic growth, meaning we might be in a recession,” Farah Griffin prefaced. “Are Democrats doing enough to communicate to the public that they are best equipped to turn this around and deliver for Americans?”

This weak and embarrassing question only allowed Bush to spew talking points about messaging:

I think that we are, but there's so much more we can do. I think that we have to push harder. We have to make sure people know, “Hey, gas prices have continued to go down, you know, over the last few months.” We have to make sure that people know we're pushing -- we're pushing legislation.

(…)

So, but there's also as far as messaging, making sure that each and every one of us are talking about the work we're doing actually bringing dollars.

(…)

We have to make sure that people know that and I think Democrats individually are really pushing.

 

 

And Farah Griffin is supposed to be Meghan McCain’s replacement?! Kellyanne Conway was right when she confronted Farah Griffin on the show in May and said “we're supposed to think that you've seen the light and not just see your name in lights…”

The only mention of Bush’s staunch Defund the Police stance came from co-Host Sara Haines, who used her question to help defend it by noting the Congresswoman had “a couple of traumatic experiences with law enforcement.”

“Congresswoman, you've been unwavering in the support of the Defund the Police movement, but many Democrats have backed away from as the midterms approach,” Haines lamented. “What do you say to voters who are afraid to walk down the street right now and want to see more police presence and funding?”

While trying to conflate her “defund the police” policy with the slightly more popular “demilitarizing the police” policy, Bush argued against having SWAT teams. This caused self-proclaimed Republican Ana Navarro to ask: “So if you’re saying, let's demilitarized the police, what do you do when the kid shows up at the school to shoot kids with military-grade weapons?”

Navarro’s nonsense about “military-grade weapons” aside, Bush began by stammering and Sunny Hostin had to step in to save her. Hostin tried to point to the cowards of Uvalde as the standard for police responses to active shooters, suggesting “they had all of that and it did nothing.”

“Do we need all of the gear?” was what Bush’s argument basically boiled down to.

This defense of leaving the populous exposed to criminals was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Procter & Gamble and Kellogg’s. Their contact information is linked.

The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:

ABC’s The View
October 4, 2022
11:16:36 a.m. Eastern

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: Congresswoman, welcome. Congratulations on the book.

REP. CORI BUSH (D-MO): Thank you.

FARAH GRIFFIN: Midterms are just 34 days away. You seem to be kind of skating to re-election, it looks like you're polling at about 98 percent.

BUSH: Yes.

FARAH GRIFFIN: So it looks like things are going to be good for you. But Democrats have a bit of an uphill battle between inflation, grocery prices, consumer prices across the board. And we found out that just recently we have another quarter of negative economic growth, meaning we might be in a recession.

Are Democrats doing enough to communicate to the public that they are best equipped to turn this around and deliver for Americans?

BUSH: I think that – I think that we are, but there's so much more we can do. I think that we have to push harder. We have to make sure people know, “Hey, gas prices have continued to go down, you know, over the last few months.” We have to make sure that people know we're pushing -- we're pushing legislation – we're voting on legislation especially out of the House of Representatives, we're passing legislation but that legislation is also being obstructed by Republicans who are pushing back against $35 cap on insulin, pushing back against so many health – mental health services.

And so, things that would help to give relief to people, those things are being held up. So, but there's also as far as messaging, making sure that each and every one of us are talking about the work we're doing actually bringing dollars. We have community project funding. We brought dollars to organizations and communities that usually don’t get the investment. Millions of dollars for housing, for unemployment, for so many different areas. We have to make sure that people know that and I think Democrats individually are really pushing.

(…)

11:29:19 a.m. Eastern

SARA HAINES: Congresswoman you've been unwavering in the support of the Defund the Police movement, but many Democrats have backed away from as the midterms approach. And your story, which you write about in the book – You have a couple of traumatic experiences with law enforcement. Your story makes it clear we need police reform. Now, we also need social and mental health workers to de-escalate situations with more resources allocated, of course, in general to mental health.

What do you say to voters who are afraid to walk down the street right now and want to see more police presence and funding?

BUSH: So, you know, I think back to my own experience. I've had issues with violent crime myself, issues that happened – I've had issues year after year after year. I know family members and friends, my network who’ve had issues year after year after year. Throwing more money to police did not solve those problems because we still have – still have friends that were dying, still had so many issues happening in our communities the racial profiling and such.

So, the throwing the money at it didn't fix the problem. I'm saying let's demilitarize the police. I’m saying, let’s not use money for SWAT gear, let's not use money for – to buy the big MRAPs for our communities. Because let’s be clear, the MRAP is not for Russia in my community. Who is it for? It's for the people in that community.

So – But what we need, when in – when in a lot of places more than half the budget of a city can go towards the city and less than five-or-so percent goes to health and human services, I'm saying let's take the money instead of buying militarized weapons and putting those in our police force, let's take that money and let’s put it into our social safety net. Let’s make sure there's money for mental health services. In my community, black men, the number of overdosed deaths over six years has skyrocketed over 560 percent. We need to put the money there.

ANA NAVARRO: But can I ask a follow-up on that, though.

So, if you’re saying, let's demilitarized the police, what do you do when the kid shows up at the school to shoot kids with military-grade weapons?

BUSH: Yeah, well, what we're seeing is --

NAVARRO: What does the police do if they don’t have a SWAT team if they don't have the military equipment when it’s--

SUNNY HOSTIN: What did they do in when they had in Olveda [sic] where they had all of that and it and it did nothing?

NAVARRO: Uvalde?

HOSTIN: Uvalde, rather.

NAVARRO: What did they do? I mean they eventually –

[Crosstalk]

NAVARRO: But if they didn’t have it, it would be even less. But what's the answer, though? Because the kids are showing up with military-grade weapons.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Let her answer.

BUSH: Right, but I think the issue is we do need it every – do that in every single police department that says we need this, do we need this, do we need all of the gear?!

(…)