Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) once again lost a primary race, defeated by Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO), and to say she didn’t take the loss well would be an understatement. Following her disastrous performance, Bush delivered a bizarre, rambling concession speech that has many on social media thinking she’s on the verge of some sort of breakdown.
“And you were deceived by those ads. If somebody has to smear someone else with $5 million worth of lies, you all, then that means that they have no story. They have no vision. They have no value for you,” Bush said from the stage at her viewing party on the night of the election. “Never have. Never have. And so again, you call him to the carpet, call his office, go to his office. This is your representative.”
“Yeah, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, comes to you. Remember that. So go to the office and go see about him. We violent? No, because that ain’t who we are. We’re peacemakers. That’s why we stand for Palestine,” the strange speech continued. “That’s why we stand against you. That’s why we stand up for Congo, and we stand up for Cuba, and we stand up for Detroit and Mississippi. That’s why because we are the peacemakers.”
“But in order to be real peacemakers, we gotta be willing to have some courage to go out and use it. So we gotta go use it. Make him work for St. Louis,” Bush concluded. The comment section on social media platform X where a clip of the speech was shared was cooking as usual, with one commenter saying, “Poor thing! She may actually need to find a real job now!”
Someone else pointed out that Bush didn’t lose in a nail-biter, but by a rather significant margin. “She lost by double digits,” another user wrote. Another person noted that the failed former congresswoman contradicted herself in the speech. “Being for Palestine (not a real country) and against antisemitism is contradictory,” the person wrote.
“Have you noticed that they always tell you to go and do something go to somebody’s office? Do this do that? They’re putting people’s addresses out there they’re so violent. Republicans are just over here stating facts,” a person commented. The comment about ads Bush made at the start of her speech is a reference to how her opponent overwhelmed her on the airwaves.
According to a report from NBC News, Bell’s campaign, along with some of his outside allies, outspent Bush by a massive 27-1 ratio. United Democracy Project, a super PAC connected to American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel advocacy group, spent a total of $2 million to support Bell. The majority of the ads were negative, attacking Bush for being critical of former Vice President Kamala Harris.
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Bush had previously slammed the Biden-Harris administration for backing Israel, though she did go on to endorse Harris in the 2024 presidential election. While casting his ballot on Tuesday, Bell ripped Bush for focusing so heavily on Israel and talking “over and over … about an issue that is not impacting folks right here in St. Louis.” He added, “And while we take those issues seriously, you know, the M in Missouri doesn’t stand for Middle East. It stands for Missouri.”
Featured Image: By Photo News 247, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92900980