Things got funny in the House of Representatives on Thursday, December 12, when two members of the hyper-progressive “Squad” who were voted out of Congress in 2024 gave their farewell speeches and just three members of Congress showed up to listen, all three of whom were other members of the “Squad.”
Adding hilarity to the situation was that the fact that only three such people showed up meant that only half of the Squad had shown up to wish the voted out members goodbye with their farewell speeches; the losers, Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Cori Bush (D-MO), lost their 2024 primaries and will be gone from Congress in January of 2025.
In any case, the two soon-to-be former members of the Squad spoke to an almost empty chamber of Congress on Thursday, with the chamber so devoid of people that their speeches echoed around it quite awkwardly. The only members who showed up to listen were fellow Squad members Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Missing were the other four members, Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Greg Casar (D-TX), Summer Lee (D-PA), and Delia Ramirez (D-IL).
Rep. Cori Bush, in her farewell speech, said, in part, “St. Louis, you sent me to Congress, because I reflect the struggles so many people in our community endure. And throughout my tenure in the People’s House, I’ve turned my pain into purpose. I’ve testified before the House Oversight Committee, sharing my abortion story for the first time. I knew that there are others out there, like me, who may never share their truth with their family members or friends, but are living through this new reality–horrified.”
She added, commenting on her far-left initiatives, “It’s led me to fight and put my own body on the line to protect medication abortion, to protect sexual and reproductive health, to stop the Comstock Act, to secure abortion justice, to finally, finally finalize the Equal Rights Amendment, which we’re pushing President Biden to do in the next 39 days. And on this point, I’m so proud to be one of two Black women to ever sponsor legislation to ratify the ERA in its 101 years long history, to have co-founded and co-chaired the first-ever Congressional Caucus on the Equal Rights Amendment. Black women have always been integral to the fight for equal rights and so often relegated to its footnotes. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and I have forever changed that.”
And, later on, hinting at why she lost her re-election campaign in the primary stage, she said, “Yet when it comes to Palestinian liberation, so many have chosen silence. Silence in the face of bombed hospitals and schools, displaced families, starvation and illness, entire bloodlines wiped out, and the cries of mothers and children. Silence in the face of apartheid. Silence in the face of the ethnic cleansing. Silence in the face of oppression and racial subjugation that mirrors the systems of Jim Crow, systemic racism and inequality that we fight against here in America. Silence.”
Concluding later on, she said, “While my time in Congress may be coming to an end for now, know this: I came into Congress with my voice. Congress did not give that to me. Congress can not take that away when I leave. It has been the honor of my life to be your Congresswoman Missouri’s First District. Mom and Dad, I know you’re proud. From St. Louis to Gaza and everywhere beyond and in between: Always remember, this Congresswoman loves you and will always have your back even if it means I lose something. So, until we rise again, St. Louis- I love you.”
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Adding to the awkwardness was that Rep. Jamaal Bowman, in his farewell speech, also hinted at the Israel-Palestine issue that got him primaried effectively and tossed from Congress this year. He, referencing the matter, made the usual call of “Free Palestine!”
Watch the farewell speech from Rep. Bush here: