An Ousted ‘Squad’ Member, Cori Bush, Rails Against Pro-Israel Lobbying Group, Threatening To ‘Tear Your Kingdom Down’

Bush was unseated by a St. Louis County prosecutor, Wesley Bell.

AP/Mariam Zuhaib
Representative Cori Bush speaks at a news conference to call for a cease-fire in Israel and Gaza, on Capitol Hill, October 20. AP/Mariam Zuhaib

Congresswoman Cori Bush, after losing her primary race in Missouri, unleashed a hostile tirade against the pro-Israel lobbying group that funneled support to her opponent in the race. 

“All they did was radicalize me, so now they need to be afraid,” the Democratic House lawmaker said Tuesday night. “They about to see this other Cori, this other side.” 

At one point she addressed the lobbying group directly, saying, “Aipac, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down.”

The Democratic lawmaker fell to a progressive St. Louis County prosecutor, Wesley Bell, who received more than $8 million from a super PAC affiliated with the pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. 

Political commentators as well as members of the Jewish community were quick to call out her threatening rhetoric. 

“Cori Bush’s concession speech was terrifying and seems to suggest something sinister,” a conservative podcaster, Joey Mannarino, wrote in a post on X. “She said she’s now radicalized, her strings are off and she’s coming to tear the kingdom down. This is some pretty dangerous rhetoric.”

A Jewish advocacy group, StopAntisemism, shared the video of Ms. Bush’s impassioned speech, criticizing the lawmaker for being “sore loser” and “lashing out at Jews over her embarrassing defeat.” 

“Up next – Ilhan Omar on August 13?” the group added, referencing another far-left “Squad” member who is up for re-election. Ms. Omar has been criticized for committing several antisemitic offenses, including referring to some Jewish students at Columbia University as “pro-genocide.” 

With her loss, Ms. Bush joins the likes of a fellow “Squad” member, Jamaal Bowman, who was ousted from Congress during this election cycle. 

While some politicians and “Squad” supporters have accused Aipac of unfairly swinging the election by offering major financial support, others have pointed to their lackluster political tenures as leading to their ousters.  

Sharing a New York Times headline that insinuated that Mr. Bowman was “overtaken by flood of pro-Israel money,” a human rights lawyer, Arsen Ostrovsky, responded in a post on X: “No. Bowman fell because he was an extremist, had bad policies and was widely disliked in his own district.”  

The Times later edited the to headline to: “Bowman Falls to Latimer in a Loss for Progressive Democrats.”


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