Rep. Cori Bush (D., Mo.) enriched her crackpot team of private security guards with campaign funds in the first three months of 2023, according to a Federal Election Commission filing Saturday.
Bush, a defund the police activist who equates policing to "bondage" and "slavery," doled out over $53,000 from her campaign for personal protection services in the first quarter, the filing shows. The bulk of the Missouri Democrat’s payments went to a right-wing private security firm that supports the Second Amendment. The remaining went to two individuals with a rather unconventional set of skills not often seen in the field of executive protection.
Nathaniel Davis III, who Bush paid $15,000 in the first quarter of 2023, claims to be an intergalactic master of psychic self-defense with 109 trillion years of experience. Davis says his abilities include the power to summon tornadoes at will and conduct blood rituals to make the teeth of his enemies fall out of their heads. Davis also has a penchant for spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, such as the claim that the Rothschild family secretly rules the world.
Davis has been by Bush’s side for nearly three years, earning a total of $152,000 from her campaign since 2020. Citing a "non-disclosure agreement," Davis refused to comment on his professional relationship with Bush in an interview with the Washington Free Beacon in March.
Davis also said he can’t be anti-Semitic because he’s a high priest of the Tribe of Issachar, one of the lost tribes of Israel. "That makes me Hebrew. How can I be anti-Semitic?" Davis asked the Free Beacon, adding "You’re literally dealing with the priesthood, literally."
Bush’s campaign doled out $12,500 to her other private bodyguard, Cortney Merritts, in the first quarter. What Merritts lacks in supernatural abilities he makes up for in personal devotion to the "Squad" member—the pair secretly tied the knot in February.
Merritts and Bush have been an item since long before the lawmaker joined Congress in 2021. A military veteran, Merritts has reaped a bountiful return on his relationship with Bush, earning over $74,000 from her campaign since January 2022.
Bush’s romantic ties to Merritts were the subject of a Federal Election Commission complaint filed in March alleging that the lawmaker "used campaign funds for personal use" by enriching her lover with donated funds.
Merritts also lacks a private security license in Bush’s home city of St. Louis. However, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Private Security Section told the Free Beacon that a license is not required for someone providing executive protection services in its jurisdiction.
Bush also paid Peace Security, a right-wing private security firm that unapologetically promotes the Second Amendment, over $26,000 for protection services in the first quarter. Bush's continued patronage of the firm contrasts with the pro-gun control agenda the lawmaker promotes in Congress.
Bush’s private security budget puts her at odds with her frequent calls to defund the police and has opened her up to charges of hypocrisy from her critics. But Bush pays no mind to her detractors, once telling them to "suck it up" because she can’t do her job safely without her private bodyguards.
"So if I end up spending $200,000, if I spend $10 more on it, you know what, I get to be here to do the work," Bush told CBS News in 2021. "So suck it up, and defunding the police has to happen. We need to defund the police and put that money into social safety nets, because we're trying to save lives."
Bush did not return a request for comment.ᐧ