In the final days on the campaign trail of her embattled primary race, Rep. Cori Bush (D., Mo.) refused to call Hamas a "terrorist" organization and said she wanted to be "careful about labeling" since she was called a terrorist while protesting.
During a Ferguson campaign event, the St. Louis "Squad" member said she didn’t know enough about Hamas to label it a "terrorist" organization. She also conflated herself with Hamas, claiming she and other radical activists protesting Michael Brown’s death in 2014 were "considered terrorists," too, the New York Times reported.
"Would they qualify to me as a terrorist organization? Yes. But do I know that? Absolutely not," Bush said. "I have no communication with them. All I know is that we were considered terrorists, we were considered Black identity extremists and all we were doing was trying to get peace. I’m not trying to compare us, but that taught me to be careful about labeling if I don’t know."
Hamas has been designated by the State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997.
"Have they hurt people? Absolutely. Has the Israeli military hurt people? Absolutely," Bush said.
Bush's spokeswoman Marina Chafa later backtracked and said the Missouri Democrat does acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist organization. She concluded, however, that the term has been "weaponized by the far right consistently to justify violence and in this instance, the collective punishment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza."
Bush did not return a Washington Free Beacon request for comment.
The Missouri Democrat’s primary campaign against pro-Israel St. Louis prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell has centered around her anti-Israel rhetoric. The two face off at the ballot box Tuesday.
Democratic Reps. Summer Lee (Pa.) and Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.) also faced high-profile primary races due to their inflammatory rhetoric against Israel. Lee kept her seat, but Bowman lost in a landslide. Bush, mirroring Bowman’s unsuccessful campaign strategy, has leaned into her anti-Semitic partners and continued to push anti-Israel rhetoric.
The Missouri Democrat said she doesn’t think the Israel-Hamas war is a priority for voters in her district. Instead she cited abortion rights and reparations as top issues. Bell, who is backed by St. Louis Jewish leadership, led Bush by 23 percentage points in a July poll.
"They’ve seen me put my body on the line for not just the Black community but for families being separated at the border, the Muslim ban, for abortion rights," Bush said.
Since Hamas's Oct. 7 attack, Bush has repeatedly embraced allies who excuse Hamas. She has conflated Israel with Iran, condemned Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's actions as "maniacal, genocidal acts," and boycotted his address to Congress.
Bush’s anti-Israel rhetoric incensed a coalition of Jewish organizations and leaders who threw their support behind Bell. They accused her of "fanning the flames of antisemitism" and showing "little outrage against the horrendous attacks."
In February, Bush and Bowman attended a $13,200-per-ticket fundraiser in Los Angeles that featured a slew of Hamas apologists.
Melina Abdullah, for example, serves as executive director of BLM Grassroots, which said that "resistance must not be condemned" and praised the attack as "a desperate act of self-defense." Another host, Jodie Evans, cofounded Code Pink, a left-wing group that argued on Oct. 7 that Hamas had "every right to resist" Israel's "apartheid regime."
In July, meanwhile, Bush touted support from anti-Israel group Progressive Jews of St. Louis, whose first post reacting to Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel blamed the Jewish state and did not mention Hamas. The group also excused "violent resistance" against Israel.
"Progressive Jews of St. Louis (ProJoSTL) continues to stand in solidarity with Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation," Progressive Jews of St. Louis wrote in an Oct. 9 post. "We also understand the attacks on Israel are not unprovoked. For 16 years, Gaza has operated as an open-air prison under Israel's siege. For 75 years, Palestinians have endured the trauma of occupation and apartheid."
A special adviser and longtime friend of Bush, David Ragland, has argued that Israel is inflicting the same suffering Jews endured during the Holocaust.
"Israel continues to inflict Palestinians & the world w/ the genocidal violence they experienced from the hands of Europeans before & during WW2[.] Healing is needed, not attacking a more vulnerable group," Ragland wrote. "Imma [sic] need us to learn from our history!"
In 2019, he called for the ousting of any politicians who support "Israel's war criminal activities" because they are "beyond complicit" and "co-conspirators."
Bush also boasted in July that she steered nearly $1 million in taxpayer money to a youth nonprofit led by Farrakhan Shegog, an anti-Semitic activist who said that those living in Israel are not "real Jews" and that the nation is ruled by "the ones who crucified Jesus."
The "Squad" member remains under investigation for enriching her husband, Cortney Merritts, who was paid over $150,000 in campaign funds for providing "security services."