Document Reveals 'Squad' Member Has Signed a Big Money Book Deal
Missouri Democratic congresswoman and “squad” member Cori Bush appears to have signed a book deal worth up to $100,000, financial disclosure documents reveal.
Bush’s most recent financial disclosure, filed on Friday, revealed between $50,001 and $100,000 in income from a book deal with Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. The document also revealed the book’s tentative title, “The Cori Chronicles.”
The “comments section” of the financial disclosure noted the book advance was “reviewed and approved by House Committee on Ethics.”
In addition to her book contract, Bush paid herself more than $32,000 from her Cori Bush for Congress campaign and received an earned income of $12,000 from Rivera Consulting for “research consulting” over the period covering the beginning of 2019 to the end of 2020, the disclosure says.
Bush has been known as a strong advocate for defunding the police.
She issued a statement supporting a proposal by Democratic St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones to defund the police when it passed a Board of Estimate and Apportionment vote in April.
Our communities wouldn’t have needed to spark a national movement to save Black lives if America weren’t racist AF.
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) May 2, 2021
“Today’s decision to defund the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is historic. It marks a new future for our city,” Bush said in her statement.
“For decades, our city funneled more and more money into our police department under the guise of public safety, while massively underinvesting in the resources that will truly keep our communities safe,” she said.
“But even as more and more money has gone into policing, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department continues to be the deadliest police force in the nation, year after year — all while violence in our communities continues to skyrocket.”
Bush has also invested heavily in her own personal security, leading to an apparent contradiction between her own safety and the protection of other Americans.
“I’m going to make sure I have security because I know I have had attempts on my life and I have too much work to do, there are too many people that need help right now for me to allow that,” Bush told CBS News earlier in August.
“[S]o 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 are trying to save lives.”
“My security is to keep me safe from those racist attempts made against my life,” she added.
Bush was responding to people who said it was hypocritical of her to spend nearly $70,000 on private security while calling to defund the police.
Campaign records show Bush’s campaign paid RS&T Security Consulting $54,120 between April 15 and June 28 for “security services,” Fox News reported.
The campaign also paid $15,000 to Nathaniel Davis for “security services” during that same time.
Bush asked if her critics “would rather [her] die” than spend the money on private security.
“[T]hat could be the alternative, so either I spend $70,000 on private security over the last few months and I’m here standing now and able to speak, able to help save 11 million people from being evicted or I could possibly have a death attempt on my life,” Bush said.
“I have private security because my body is worth being on this planet right now.”
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